Tangpyeong policy (蕩平策) was a policy pursued by Yeongjo of Joseon to prevent factionalism and maintain a balance of power among the factions. This policy was continued during the reign of his successor, Jeongjo.
Name
The term "tangpyeong" derives from a passage in the Hongfan chapter (洪範條) of the Book of Documents (書經), in the section on the Imperial Ultimate (皇極說), the fifth of its nine categories: 無偏無黨王道蕩蕩 無黨無偏王道平平 ("Without partiality, without faction, the royal way is broad and open; without faction, without partiality, the royal way is level and even"). The earliest mention of tangpyeong occurred during the reign of Sukjong, and was first advocated by Park Se-chae. Afterward, it did not bear fruit during the reign of Gyeongjong, and true tangpyeong policy began with Yeongjo. Yeongjo made efforts such as arranging reconciliation between figures of the Noron and Soron factions, but achieved little effect; the policy only bore results during the reign of Jeongjo. Jeongjo named his bedchamber "Tangtang-pyeongpyeong-sil" (蕩蕩平平室) and hung a plaque bearing that name.
Tangpyeong policy of Yeongjo
After Sukjong, Gyeongjong ascended the throne with the support of the Soron faction but died after four years, and Sukjong's fourth son, Yeongjo, governed for 52 years, during which the Joseon dynasty flourished in a period of revival. This period coincided with the flourishing reigns of the Kangxi and Qianlong emperors of the Qing dynasty, and as relations between Joseon and Qing stabilized, Joseon could devote itself to domestic governance.
In the early part of his reign, Yeongjo strongly expressed his commitment to tangpyeong by issuing a tangpyeong proclamation and erecting the Tangpyeong Monument, aiming to strengthen royal authority and stabilize politics. In reality, however, his partisan measures caused political turmoil, and in the midst of it the Rebellion of Yi In-jwa occurred.
Afterward, he employed tangpyeong-oriented figures and ran the government centered on them. First, he denied the existence of the Sarim and drastically reorganized private academies, concentrating power in the tangpyeong faction. Moreover, he reduced the authority of the Personnel Board's junior officials (Ijo jeollang) and abolished their right to recommend their successors and the right to select officials of the Three Offices, seeking to prevent partisan appointments in advance. As a result, the king gained initiative in governing, and the political significance of the factions weakened.
In 1728 (the 4th year of Yeongjo's reign), early in his reign, Yeongjo faced a challenge from Yi In-jwa, a figure of the Soron faction. Yi In-jwa gathered forces of the Soron and Namin factions, small and medium merchants, and slaves, and launched a large-scale rebellion in areas including Cheongju, but it was suppressed. In 1762 (the 38th year of Yeongjo's reign), following the demands of the Noron, Yeongjo confined the crown prince (Sado), who was linked to the Soron, in a rice chest and caused him to die, a tragedy. Consequently, conflict arose between the Byeokpa (僻派), who supported this action, and the Sipa (時派), who sympathized with the prince; still, compared with the reign of Sukjong, political bloodshed was relatively limited.
Political tangpyeong policy
Yeongjo adopted a different method from before to strengthen royal authority. The king claimed to be a sage ruler of antiquity like Yao and Shun, establishing a transcendent image of monarchy, and on this basis employed the so-called "tangpyeong policy" (蕩平策). Originally, the tangpyeong policy aimed at abolishing factionalism, but this was difficult to realize immediately. Therefore, without judging the rights and wrongs of factions, he focused on appointing moderate and compromising figures from any faction to make them submit to royal authority. This is also called "wanron tangpyeong" (緩論蕩平). The tangpyeong policy was a reflection on the many side effects produced by the "bureau change" (환국) method of strengthening royal authority under Sukjong, and its idea was to establish royal authority through non-partisan political management.
On the other hand, to remove the roots of factionalism, Yeongjo did not recognize the so-called "public opinion" (公論) of the rural scholarly forest-dwellers who stood behind the factions, and drastically reorganized the private academies that were their bases. He also abolished the system by which the Ijo nangwan and Hallim officials, who within the court claimed to be the spokesmen of "public opinion," recommended their own successors (self-recommendation). Instead, to reflect the opinion of the common people directly in politics, he revived the Sinmungo (drum of petition) system and frequently went outside the palace to hear the people's opinions directly. When commoners met the king directly during his processions to appeal their grievances, this was called sangeon (上言) or gyeokjaeng (擊錚), but Yeongjo knew that this was wrong.
Ideological tangpyeong policy
Yeongjo also aimed at tangpyeong in ideological policy. While placing the Neo-Confucianism of Zhu Xi at the center, he accepted the ancient learning (古學) of the Namin scholars that supported the strengthening of royal authority, which was a legalist-type learning found in works such as the Zhou Li and the Zhenguan Zhengyao. This was in line with the great tangpyeong argument of O Gwang-un, leader of the Cheongnam faction and Yeongjo's tutor in the early years, known by the name Yaksan. In a memorial submitted in 1729, O Gwang-un stated: "The fundamental principle of tangpyeong lies in Your Majesty establishing the highest goal with a single heart. All policies and actions carried out from this are utmost public and free of self-interest, and because they are correct, there is no bias." He argued for appointing persons referred to as "famous figures" among the partisans regardless of whether they were from the Nam, Seo, No, or So factions. In other words, he embraced the progressive ideas of the various factions at the time and used them for strengthening royal authority and national revival.
Meanwhile, on the basis of strengthened royal authority, Yeongjo carried out various reforms for stabilizing people's livelihoods and promoting industry. First, to ease the military service burden on the people, he implemented the Equal Service Law (均役法) in 1750 (the 26th year of Yeongjo's reign); he returned the military power controlled by partisans to the Military Affairs Board (병조); he reformed national finances according to the Takji regulations (度支定制); he compiled the Muwonrok (無寃錄) to ease punishment systems; and he strictly enforced the three-review system (三覆法) for death-sentenced prisoners.
During Yeongjo's reign, great efforts were made to reclaim farmland and expand defensive facilities along the Duman River and Yalu River areas, and he strengthened coastal defense policies (海防政策) for island regions such as Ganghwa Island and Deokjeok Island. Accordingly, he built an outer fortress on Ganghwa Island (1744) and a middle fortress in Pyongyang (1733), and along with these fortification projects produced various national defense maps.
Also, to strengthen the defense of the capital, he reorganized the capital defense system centered on wealthy Hanyang citizens (gongin), and in 1751 promulgated it as the Suseong yureum (守城綸音). This marked a change in the concept of national defense in accordance with the development of commerce and industry in Hanyang. In the 36th year of Yeongjo's reign (1760), he dredged the Cheonggye Stream in Hanyang to redevelop the city, and in order to display the prestige of Hanyang as a royal capital and commercial city, he produced many maps of Hanyang.
To deepen understanding of the country and improve the efficiency of national administration, the compilation of nationwide geographical gazetteers and maps was also actively pursued. The Dongguk yeoji seungnam, compiled in the 16th century, no longer reflected the changed geographical knowledge, and attempts to revise it began during Sukjong's reign. In 1765, Yeongjo actively promoted this work and completed the extensive Yeoji doseo (輿地圖書); then he had Sin Gyeong-jun, a geography expert, compile the Dongguk munheon bigo (東國文獻備考) and the Yeojigo (輿地考) in 1770.
Maps allow the country's appearance to be seen at a glance alongside gazetteers, and in 1770 (the 46th year of Yeongjo's reign), Yeongjo had Sin Gyeong-jun compile an 8-volume colored atlas called the Dongguk yeoji-do. This work includes a general map of Joseon, maps of each province, and maps of all the counties (邑) of the country, and improved the precision of the maps by dividing lines into grids. In addition, he obtained the maps of the outstanding cartographers of the time, Jeong Sang-gi and his son Jeong Hang-ryeong, and had copies made and deposited in the Hongmungwan, achieving great accomplishments in the history of Korean cartography. The beautiful colored atlas Haedong jido (海東地圖) (8 volumes), currently held in the Gyujanggak of Hanyang University, was also produced in the 1750s. This atlas contains more than 370 maps, including all the counties and garrisons of the country, the Great Wall of China, a general map of China, and a map of the Ryukyu Islands.
Yeongjo, who revered learning and was full of ambition to reorganize national institutions and systems in line with the times, also accomplished many compilation projects, laying the groundwork for a cultural revival. The Sokdaejeon (續大典), Sokoryeui (續五禮儀), Sokbyeongjang doseol (續兵將圖說), and the Dongguk munheon bigo are representative achievements. Also, during this period he widened the path for slaves to become commoners and opened government service paths for secondary sons (seoeol), so that the national strength and cultural level of the Joseon dynasty greatly increased and the development and stability of its socioeconomy advanced.
Tangpyeong policy of Jeongjo
Jeongjo, who ascended the throne after Yeongjo, was the son of Crown Prince Sado, who died tragically, and he inherited Yeongjo's tangpyeong politics. To this end, like his grandfather Yeongjo, while accepting Neo-Confucianism as the orthodox learning, he broadly embraced various studies needed for strengthening royal authority, including the ancient learning of the Namin, the Northern learning (北學) of the Hanyang Noron, and even Buddhism and Han-Tang Confucianism. However, unlike Yeongjo's "wanron tangpyeong," he changed the policy to an active "junron tangpyeong" (峻論蕩平) that clearly distinguished the rights and wrongs of the factions. This was because he perceived that it would be difficult to strengthen his own royal authority without restraining the Noron Byeokpa, who had driven his father, Crown Prince Sado, to his death.
Strengthening royal authority
Based on the scholarly confidence he had built since his time as crown prince, Jeongjo pursued a policy of cultivating and retraining his officials from the standpoint of a "teacher." This stemmed from his idea of personally training officials who would follow his policies. He actively displayed his image as a scholar-king, leaving behind a vast 100-volume work called the Hongjae jeonseo (弘齋全書).
Jeongjo desired a powerful political institution that could support his power and policies. That was the Gyujanggak, which he established within Changdeokgung at the beginning of his reign (1776). There, he collected tens of thousands of volumes of Korean and Chinese books, appointed young scholars as Haksa (學士), and granted them various privileges, including the functions of literary scholarship (文翰), secretarial functions, and the function of supervising the civil service examinations. In particular, to retrain lower-ranking officials (당하관), he implemented the Chogye munsin system, promoting officials based on examination results, thereby strongly instilling his scholarship and political line. The Gyujanggak became the birthplace of the cultural renaissance and reformist politics of the Jeongjo era.
Jeongjo felt keenly the need for a royal guard unit capable of suppressing opposing forces by arms in order to strengthen royal authority. The unit established for this purpose was the Jangyongyeong. Having taken control of the Gyujanggak, an elite group loyal to him, and the Jangyongyeong, a royal guard, Jeongjo presented himself as the "Master of the Thousand Streams Reflecting the Bright Moon" (萬川明月主人翁) and ruled as a transcendent monarch.
Realizing that the restoration of honor to his father, Crown Prince Sado, who had died tragically, was related to his own legitimacy, Jeongjo showed great filial piety toward his father. In 1796 (the 20th year of Jeongjo's reign), he moved his father's tomb from Yangju to Suwon (水原), naming it "Hyeollyung-won" (顯隆園), and built the new walled city of Hwaseong (華城, present-day Suwon) at the foot of Paldalsan north of Hyeollyung-won (20th year of Jeongjo, 1796). Referring to Western construction devices, he had Silhak scholars including Jeong Yak-yong produce the geojunggi (crane), a winch, and others, so that Hwaseong, built with the most advanced scientific construction methods of its time, had a haenggung (行宮) and the outer camp (外營) of the Jangyong Camp. He established a state-run farm called the Daeyu Dunjeon (大有屯田) to fund the defense of Hwaseong, and improved irrigation facilities such as the Mansukgeo (萬石渠) and Mannyeonje (萬年堤) reservoirs. Meanwhile, he attracted merchants and craftsmen and developed Hwaseong into a commercial city, an agricultural city, and a military city. Hwaseong was a model self-sufficient city symbolizing Jeongjo's reformist politics.
After building Hwaseong in the south, Jeongjo linked Songdo (Kaesong) in the north, Simdo (沁都, Ganghwa Island) in the west, and Gwangju (Namhansanseong) in the east, establishing a four-satellite-city system that protected Hanyang, and raised Hanyang's status to a city equal to Chang'an (長安), the ancient capital of China.
Jeongjo frequently traveled to Hwaseong under the pretext of visiting his father's tomb; his entourage numbered roughly 2,000 attendants and 800 horses, giving the processions great majesty. For the convenience of these processions, he built a new road (新作路, present-day Siheung Daero), mobilized more than 80 boats to construct a floating bridge (배다리, 주교) over the Han River, and during the processions he mingled closely with local Confucian scholars and ordinary residents, listening to their opinions. In particular, the procession of 1795 (the 19th year of Jeongjo's reign), when his father and mother (Lady Hyegyeong Hong) both turned sixty, was the largest in scale. In 1797 he compiled the Wonhaeng eulmyo jeongnyi uigwe (園幸乙卯整理儀軌), recording the schedule, expenses, participant lists, and the procession paintings related to this event, and distributed it to the participants; and he had court painters produce large folding screen paintings depicting the main events. Several of these screen paintings survive today and vividly show the politics and cultural level of the era. Jeongjo also compiled the Binheungnok (賓興錄), a register of Confucian scholars of each province, in order to embrace the local scholars of the Eight Provinces.
Livelihood and culture
Based on his strengthened royal authority, Jeongjo implemented various policies for stabilizing people's livelihoods and promoting cultural revival. Jeongjo, taking as his motto "continuing the will and transmitting the works" (繼志述事), sought to reform national administration by inheriting traditional culture while accepting the scientific technology of China and the West. Economically, to increase fiscal revenue and promote commerce and industry, he implemented the Tonggong policy (通共政策, 1791), abolishing the right of the licensed merchants (市廛) to control free merchants (금난전권, Geumnanjeon-gwon) in order to encourage free commerce, and encouraged the development of mines across the country. As a result, commerce and industry developed greatly, Hanyang's population concentrated, new villages (새마을, Sinchon) formed in various places outside the capital walls, many merchant ships came and went on the Han River, and the number of ports increased. Meanwhile, during Jeongjo's reign he entrusted the county-level hyangyak (village compacts), which had been managed by rural Sarim, to magistrates, restraining the rise of local yangban and strengthening the state's control over the people.
Notes
This article contains content based on the entry "Changes in the Institutional System" from the Global World Encyclopedia distributed under GFDL or CC-SA licenses by Daum Communication (now Kakao).
This article contains content based on the entry "Flourishing of Silhak" from the Global World Encyclopedia distributed under GFDL or CC-SA licenses by Daum Communication (now Kakao).
Notes