Yi In-jwa

Yi In-jwa (李麟佐, 1695 ~ 1728) was a traitor (yeoksin) during the reign of King Yeongjo of Joseon. His birth name was Hyeonjwa (玄佐). He was born in 1695 in Cheongju, and was the 9th-generation descendant of Grand Prince Imyeong (臨瀛大君), the fourth son of King Sejong the Great, the fourth king of Joseon, and the grandson of Yi Un-jing, who served as a provincial governor.¹

Yi In-jwa was born in the year Eulhae (1695). [Gamnanrok (勘亂錄), vol. 2, Yeongjo 4, Musin, 3rd month, 25th day]

In 1728 (Yeongjo 4), Yi In-jwa (aged 34) had four sons: Jungmyeong (中明), Inmyeong (仁明), Munmyeong (文明), and Hwamyeong (化明). According to the Veritable Records of the Joseon Dynasty (Yeongjo 4, 7th month, 24th day; Yeongjo 21, 11th month, 17th day) and the Seungjeongwon Ilgi (Yeongjo 4, 4th month, 14th day), among others, they were between 7 and 12 years old, and so they were exiled as government slaves (gwannoe) to Hamgyeong Province.

If Yi Hyeon-jwa married at around age 20, then at the time of the Musin Rebellion of 1728 (Yeongjo 4), his eldest son would have been 12 years old.

Life

A radical Soron figure, he gained power through the Shinim Purge, but when King Yeongjo ascended the throne, the Soron faction fell and he was removed from office along with them. He then secretly gathered members of the Soron faction and, in 1728, rose in arms together with Jeong Hui-ryang. They captured Cheongju and reached Anseong, but were badly defeated by Commander-in-Chief O Myeong-hang and fled to Juksan. Under relentless pursuit, he hid in a mountain temple, but was seized by villagers including Sin Gil-man (申吉萬) and taken to Hanyang. On the 26th day of the 3rd month of the lunar calendar that year, during an interrogation conducted by the king himself, he confessed the full details of the conspiracy, and the next day he was executed by beheading in front of the Gunginsi for the crime of treasonous rebellion.

In 1873 (Gojong 10), a petition was submitted calling for the posthumous rehabilitation of Yi Hyeon-il, Yun Hyu, Han Hyo-sun, , , and others. In response, Choe Ik-hyeon (崔益鉉), styled Myeonam, and Kim Pyeong-muk (金平黙), styled Jungam, strongly opposed it, calling it absurd. However, as petitions continued to call for the rehabilitation of , , and , Choe Ik-hyeon and Kim Pyeong-muk persistently worked to block them.