Yi In-im (李仁任, 1312 – June 1388) was a powerful minister (kwonsin) of the late Goryeo period. His family seat was Seongju (星州), and his pen name (ho) was Seungam (勝巖).
He was one of the greatest political rivals of Yi Seong-gye. For a time he was under the patronage of Shin Don; he repelled the Red Turban invasions and Choe Yu of the Yuan dynasty, and he served as regent for King U and rose to Chief Councillor of the Privy Chancellery, but he was dismissed from power by Choe Yeong and Yi Seong-gye. His posthumous name was Hwangmu (荒繆).
He was the paternal uncle of Yi Je, a son-in-law of Yi Seong-gye.
Life
It is only recorded that he was born in Seongsan-myeon, Goryeong County, Gyeongsang Province, Goryeo (present-day Seongsan-myeon, Goryeong County, North Gyeongsang Province), as the grandson of Grand Academician Yi Jo-nyeon. His grandfather was Yi Jo-nyeon, Lord Seongsan, and his father was Yi Po, Marquis Seongsan. The Seongju clan's Yi Po had sons Yi In-bok, Yi In-im, Yi In-mi, Yi In-rip, Yi In-dal, and Yi In-min. Yi In-im was born in Seongsan-myeon, Goryeong County, Gyeongsang Province, Seongju County, as the second son of Yi Po. He was the younger brother of Yi In-bok and the second older brother of Yi In-mi, and he was also the fifth-degree paternal great-uncle of Do Eun Yi Sung-in, who withdrew after the fall of Goryeo. He entered government through a hereditary privilege (eumbo) and became Assistant Director of the Office of Protocol (典客寺丞). After serving as Director of Legal Affairs (典法摠郞), he was promoted to Left Assistant Secretary (佐副承宣) early in the reign of King Gongmin. In 1359 (the 8th year of King Gongmin), he was appointed Commissioner of Pyeongyang (西京存撫使) and took up his post in Pyeongyang; that same year, together with his uncle Yi Seung-gyeong, he defended against the invasion of the Red Turban rebels, and he was named a First-Class Meritorious Subject.1
In 1364 (the 13th year of King Gongmin), when Choe Yu and others invaded Goryeo under the leadership of Prince Deokheung, he repelled them as Commissioner of the Northwestern Region (西北面 巡問使) and Magistrate of Pyeongyang (平壤尹). In 1368 (the 17th year of King Gongmin), as Commander of the Northwestern Region (西北面都統使), he attacked the Yuan dynasty's Dongnyeong Prefecture and achieved merit. He was for a time under the patronage of Shin Don, but after Shin Don was killed he was pushed into a sinecure.
Appointed Chief Councillor and expulsion of the new literati
In 1374 (the 23rd year of King Gongmin), he was soon appointed Chief Councillor (수문하시중), and was enfeoffed as Lord Gwangpyeong (廣平府院君). That same year, when King Gongmin was assassinated, he executed Hong Nyun, Choe Man-saeng, and their faction, who had killed the king, and against the wishes of Queen Dowager Myeongdeok (Queen Gongwon), who wanted the royal succession to continue within the royal family, he enthroned Monoyo, the king's only son, as King U and seized power. After taking control of the government, as leader of the great families he upheld a pro-Yuan policy, expelled the new Confucian literati who advocated a pro-Ming policy and the officials of the reform faction, and he personally acted as regent of King U for ten years.
Afterward, he placed his trusted followers, such as Ji Yun, Im Gyeon-mi, and Yeom Heung-bang, in key posts and allowed them to commit abuses, including the seizure of land. He also accused the Chief Councillor Gyeong Heung-heung of not taking part in the Council of State and had him exiled. Later, growing old, he asked King U for permission to retire, but King U did not accept it, and instead he was appointed Senior Grand Preceptor of the Privy Council (領門下府事), Grand Preceptor (領三司事), Senior Censor of the Yeongjungbang, and Magistrate of Gaeseong. In 1386 (the 12th year of King U) he became Left Chief Councillor, and the following year he retired due to illness and old age.
Expulsion after the Withdrawal from Wihwado
After he retired, his faction, including Im Gyeon-mi and Yeom Heung-bang, committed even more vicious abuses and corruption, leading to the collapse of the Goryeo court. Eventually, in 1388, Choe Yeong, Yi Seong-gye, and others, outraged by these abuses, expelled his clique. Im Gyeon-mi, Yeom Heung-bang, Do Gil-bu, Yi Seong-rim, and Ban Bok-hae were beheaded together with their families, relatives, close followers, and vicious servants (악노), while Yi In-im was placed in exile in Gyeongsan-bu on Choe Yeong's recommendation and soon died of illness. His posthumous name was Hwangmu.
Reputation as a capable minister of Goryeo and a treacherous minister of Joseon
The humiliation of having his house demolished and turned into a pond as a traitor
However, the story that he was a treacherous minister who ruined the late Goryeo period may have been fabricated by the Joseon dynasty. Because the Joseon dynasty had fabricated the claim that King U was a false king, Yi In-im, who had installed a false king, could not help but be negatively distorted as well. Together with the "Jongye byeonmu" incident described below, this led the Joseon dynasty to make him a target of its resentment, and he remained a treacherous minister. This is what Ko Hye-ryeong reveals in the most famous paper on Yi In-im, titled "A Study of the Yi In-im Regime." Yi Saek, who lived in the same era as Yi In-im and saw him at court daily, left several writings praising him as a capable minister in his collection Mogeunjip. Moreover, even the Joseon court tried to restore the status of Yi In-im and Jo Min-su under Yi Seong-gye, and the fact that the custom of demolishing a traitor's house and turning it into a pond was later abandoned, with the pond being filled in with soil, also shows this.2
Positive evaluations in the late Joseon period and academia
Also, in the domestic paper "A Study of the Yi In-im Regime," Ko Hye-ryeong points out that Yi In-im was not involved in illegality, abuse of power, corruption, or exploitation. The abuses and corruption of Im Gyeon-mi, Yeom Heung-bang, Do Gil-bu, and others under him were severe, and in the great purge of the "corrupt great families" led by King U, Choe Yeong, and Yi Seong-gye in 1388, all of them, including their families, relatives, close followers, and vicious servants, were executed, whereas Yi In-im, his family, and his relatives survived and later served in the Joseon dynasty as officials. This is also well expressed in the question that An Jeong-bok, one of the greatest historians of the Joseon period who, together with Yi Gyeong-ik of the unofficial history collection Yeonryeo Silgisul, systematized the entire history of Korea except the Joseon dynasty, posed to his teacher, the representative Silhak scholar Yi Ik, in his collected writings Sunamjip, asking "What kind of person was Yi In-im, really?" In other words, this paper questions the treacherous-minister depiction of Yi In-im found in the Goryeosa, Goryeosa Jeolyo, and Dongguk Tonggam.
In addition, Ko Hye-ryeong's paper argues that the Yi In-im regime did not enjoy absolute power throughout King U's reign, as is commonly believed; that it maintained power through a coalition with Choe Yeong; and that because it failed to build an independent power base, it collapsed in the great purge of the corrupt great families in 1388.
Posthumous events
In the Daemyeong Hoejeon, a Ming dynasty law code and historical work, when compiling the genealogy of the Joseon dynasty, Yi In-im was recorded as the father of Yi Seong-gye (whose actual father was Yi Ja-chun, a prominent figure of the Ssangseong Chonggwanbu), which caused a diplomatic dispute between Joseon and the Ming dynasty.
In 1518 (the 13th year of King Jungjong), in the year of Mu-in, Chwachanchan Yi Gye-maeng (李繼孟, 1458 (4th year of King Sejo) – 1523 (18th year of King Jungjong)) was sent as a envoy to request correction, and it was confirmed that the Daemyeong Hoetong contained the erroneous record that Yi In-im and Dan (旦, the personal name of Yi Seong-gye) had assassinated the four kings of Goryeo (Gongmin, U, Chang, and Gongyang). This diplomatic dispute led to the Jongye byeonmu (宗系辨誣, "clarification of the royal lineage"). Several envoys were sent during the reign of Jungjong, including Nam Gon, who went to Ming and demanded correction, but these efforts were not realized. In 1584 (the 17th year of King Seonjo), Hwang Jeong-uk and others, sent as envoys to request the correction of the royal lineage, reached an agreement for revision, and in 1588 Yu Hong returned with the revised Daemyeong Hoejeon (大明會典), bringing the matter to a close. Thus, the revision was finally achieved only during the reign of the Wanli Emperor of the Ming dynasty.
Family relations
- Grandfather: Yi Jo-nyeon (李兆年), Lord Seongsan (星山君)
- Father: Yi Po (李褒), Marquis Seongsan (星山侯)
- Mother: Lady Seol of Gyeongju (慶州 薛氏 夫人)
- Elder brother: Yi In-bok (李仁復), Lord Anheung (安興府院君)
- Younger brother: Yi In-mi (李仁美)
- Younger brother: Yi In-rip (李仁立)
- Younger brother: Yi In-dal (李仁達)
- Younger brother: Yi In-min (李仁敏), Lord Seongsan (星山府院君)
- Wife: Lady Park (夫人 朴氏)
- Son: Yi Hwan (李瓛)
- Son: Yi Min (李珉)
- Adopted son: King U (maternal grand-nephew)
- Adopted granddaughter-in-law: Consort Geunbi Yi (maternal grandniece)
- Adopted grandson: Ban Bok-hae (Ban Bok-hae served Yi In-im as his foster grandfather and lord)
- Adopted grandson: King Chang (maternal grand-nephew, only son of King U)
- Eldest daughter: Lady Yeonan Yi, married to Yi Jang-rim, Vice Minister of Military Affairs (병조전서)
- Second daughter: Lady Andong Gwon, married to Gwon Jip-gyeong, Royal Secretariat Chief (지신사)
- Third daughter: Lady Jinju Kang, married to Kang Seo, Left State Councillor (좌의정)
Works in which Yi In-im appears
- Gaeguk (KBS, 1983–1983, actor: Yu Byeong-han)
- Chudong-gung Mama (MBC, 1983–1983, actor: Choi Bul-am)
- Shin Don (MBC, 2005–2006, actor: Bae Do-hwan)
- Daepungsu (SBS, 2012–2013, actor: Jo Min-ki)
- Jeong Do-jeon (KBS, 2014–2014, actor: Park Young-gyu)
- Yuryong-i Naresa (SBS, 2015–2016, actor: Choi Jong-won) – a character adapted as "Yi In-gyeom"
References
- This article contains content based on the Global World Encyclopedia distributed under the GFDL or CC-SA license by Daum Communications (now Kakao).
Footnotes