Choe Yun-on (崔閏溫, 1390 – ?) was a Joseon civil official who served as Junior Secretary of the Ministry of Justice (형조좌랑).
His family seat was Tongcheon (通川), his courtesy name was Yeo-on (汝溫), and his pen name was Geunjae (謹齋).
Life
In the 1st year of King Gongyang of Goryeo (1390), he was born in Sarogok, Changwon, as the third son of Choe Un-hae, Vice Minister of the Chamber of Councilors (참판승추부사) and Marquis Yangjang. His eldest brother, Choe Yun-deok, served as Chief State Councillor during the reign of Sejong, led a campaign to conquer Tsushima, subdued the Jurchen leader Yi Man-ju, and established the Four Commanderies. In his youth, he studied under his maternal first cousin Kwon Geun, a renowned scholar and civil official of the early Joseon period. He married a daughter of Park Go, Prince Yeonheung and Lord of Juksan.
During the reign of Taejong of Joseon, he passed the civil service examination in his early twenties and entered public service. He then served as a Censor of the Office of the Inspector-General (사헌부감찰). In 1419 (the 1st year of Sejong), together with his friend Kim Jong-seo and others, he was appointed Traveling Censor (행대감찰) for Jeolla Province, where he oversaw famine relief work and inspected officials for neglect of duty.
In 1421 (the 3rd year of Sejong), he became Junior Secretary of the Ministry of Justice (형조좌랑). After holding several other posts, he became Senior Censor of the Office of the Inspector-General (사헌부집의). In 1431 (the 13th year of Sejong), while serving as Junior Vice Magistrate of Hamheung (함흥부 소윤),1 he was received in audience by the king, who entrusted him with relief for the starving people.
After several more posts, he rose to Senior Royal Secretary (우승지) of the Royal Secretariat, a senior official of the Jeongsamp rank (정3품 당상관). In 1440 (the 22nd year of Sejong), when his mother, Lady Andong Kwon, died, he observed three years of mourning vigil beside her grave. Afterward, in 1442 (the 24th year of Sejong), he returned to office and was appointed Magistrate of Seongcheon Prefecture (성천도호부사),2 where he was received in audience by the king, who entrusted him with the welfare of the people.
In 1445 (the 27th year of Sejong), his eldest brother, Choe Yun-deok, died. In 1447 (the 29th year of Sejong), as Acting Guardian of the Guards (행호군),3 he reported to the king on the construction of mountain fortresses in Seongcheon, based on his experience serving as Magistrate there.
He subsequently served as Military Commissioner of Chungcheong Province (충청도 병마절제사), a post later renamed Military Governor (병마절도사).
After the death of Sejong, during the reign of King Munjong, he served as Chief Secretary of the Jeonnong Office (판전농시사). When King Danjong ascended the throne and the Gyeyu Purge occurred, an attempt by Grand Prince Suyang to seize power, his friend Kim Jong-seo and his sons were killed, along with many senior officials of the Hungu faction. He hastily left the capital and took temporary refuge in Mungyeong, then settled in Daesan-ri, Okcheon-myeon, Haenam County.4
It is said that he first introduced Neo-Confucianism to the Honam region. After the Danjong tragedy, King Sejo repeatedly urged him to take office, but he refused and instead trained younger scholars. Although the entire Tongcheon Choe clan, including the sons and grandsons of his eldest brother Choe Yun-deok, suffered a calamity close to annihilation during Sejo's rise to the throne, such records have survived, and this is thought to be because his brother-in-law, Park Won-hyeong, was honored as a meritorious subject under Sejo and later rose to Chief State Councillor.
Incomplete Records and His Relationship with Kim Jong-seo
Because the reigns of Sejong, Munjong, and Danjong were all short and the Veritable Records of King Sejong was vast, compilation began in 1452 (the 2nd year of Munjong), with more than sixty men divided into six sections, each responsible for six to seven years of entries. By 1454 (the 2nd year of Danjong), a manuscript version of the Veritable Records was completed. However, among the compilers, Hwangbo In and Kim Jong-seo were killed in the Gyeyu Purge of 1453, and the final review of the manuscript was carried out by Jeong In-ji. Afterward, compiler Park Paeng-nyeon and others joined the attempt to restore Danjong, and it is judged that the sections of the Records compiled by those who had supported the restoration were revised again. At that time, the Tongcheon Choe clan, which had effectively become a family of traitors due to its involvement with Yi Gae of the Six Martyred Ministers incident, saw many of its records deleted and omitted.
Despite the existence of the Veritable Records of King Seonjo, after the Injo Restoration the Revised Veritable Records of King Seonjo was compiled again, interpreting a single event in entirely opposing ways. This can be considered similar to the way the restoration faction secured its own legitimacy.
Incompleteness of the Records
Kim Jong-seo and his sons were killed. (Kim Jong-seo was struck by a sudden iron mace, and his sons covered him, and although they died, Kim Jong-seo fortunately survived and fled to the family home of his daughter-in-law, but was eventually discovered and killed.) On the following day, the officials listed in the "Death List" (살생부), compiled by Grand Prince Suyang's faction on the grounds that they, like Kim Jong-seo, had wielded power arbitrarily, were killed at the entrance to the court as they arrived for morning audience. Those officials who were outside the capital were also summoned or arrested and killed. Considering this, it seems that Choe Yun-on had either withdrawn from office for a time during this period or had fortunately not been listed on this Death List. (In the eyes of Grand Prince Suyang's faction, Choe Yun-on was a member of the Hungu officials who, during Sejong's reign, enjoyed the trust of the king, held key posts at court, and wielded power arbitrarily. Under Sejong he served as Censor of the Office of the Inspector-General, Traveling Censor of Jeolla Province, Junior Secretary of the Ministry of Justice, Junior Vice Magistrate of Hamheung, Senior Censor of the Office of the Inspector-General, Senior Royal Secretary, Magistrate of Seongcheon Prefecture, and Military Governor of Chungcheong Province, and under King Munjong he served as Chief Secretary of the Jeonnong Office. He held many important posts and was a friend of Chief State Councillor Kim Jong-seo, a powerful figure at court.)
Nevertheless, his record in the Veritable Records is sparse, and it seems that the entire Tongcheon Choe clan's involvement in the Gyeyu Purge and the Danjong tragedy was the reason he moved south to Haenam. 5 Four nephews and grandsons of his eldest brother, Choe Yun-deok, posthumously known as Lord Jeongnyeol, suffered a calamity close to annihilation during the Danjong tragedy, and his second brother Choe Yun-bok's grandson, Choe Ro, was hanged during the Gyeyu Purge, so the entire Tongcheon Choe clan suffered disaster.
When the Gyeyu Purge broke out, he fled to Haenam, and in his later years it is said that he left no record of himself.67
Looking at the relatives who suffered during Sejo's rise to power, all four sons of his eldest brother, Lord Jeongnyeol Choe Yun-deok, were implicated in the turmoil and their graves have been lost. According to the genealogy, two of these four brothers had no descendants. Of the grandsons of Lord Jeongnyeol, only five are currently confirmed, and only two of those grandsons have confirmed graves.
During the Gyeyu Purge, Choe Ro (honored alongside his sister in the Shrine of Loyal Subjects of Danjong), a descendant of his second brother Choe Yun-bok, was implicated and hanged. In the Geumseong Grand Prince incident, Choe Yeong-son (honored in the Shrine of Loyal Subjects of Danjong), the fourth son of Lord Jeongnyeol Choe Yun-deok, was demoted to military service merely because he was said to be skilled in martial arts, and was eventually hanged.
In the Six Martyred Ministers incident, Yi Gae was implicated, and Choe Suk-son, the eldest son of Choe Yun-deok, and his eldest grandson Choe Maeng-han, and Choe Gye-han, the son of Choe Gwang-son (the third son), were exiled to remote places. Suk-son died shortly afterward from the aftereffects of interrogation.
His younger brother Choe Yun-rye has no records other than that he was a jinsa (passed the lower civil service examination). There is not even any record that he held office or married anyone.
Relationship with Kim Jong-seo
It is said that the falling-out with his friend Kim Jong-seo arose because he diminished the achievements of his eldest brother Choe Yun-deok and listed only his offices in the manner of an ordinary official, which strained their friendship.8 It is also said that he grew weary of Kim Jong-seo's excessive and arbitrary use of power at court, abandoned his office, withdrew to Haenam, and left a dying injunction that his descendants should not intermarry with Kim Jong-seo's descendants.9 However, his relocation to Haenam was in fact due to the entire Tongcheon Choe clan being implicated in the Gyeyu Purge and the Danjong restoration plot during Sejo's rise to power and suffering calamity. Therefore, this anecdote does not fit the facts, and it seems to be a later mistaken account arising from explanations of how he came to withdraw to Haenam.
At the time of the Gyeyu Purge, the lineages that withdrew to Haenam included Wonju Yi, Suncheon Kim, and Tongcheon Choe, all of which were associated with people who had been caught up in the Gyeyu Purge.10 The Tongcheon Choe who moved south at this time were the Geunje Lord branch, headed by Choe Yun-on, while the Jeongnyeol Lord Choe Yun-deok branch, whose eldest son Choe Suk-son was sent as an envoy to Ming, and whose Choe Gwang-son and his son Choe Gye-han were recorded as Third-Class and Second-Class Merit Subjects of the Wonjong era, remained in important positions in central politics until the Six Martyred Ministers incident. However, his fourth son Choe Yeong-son took office at the Office of Palace Stables (사복시) after the Gyeyu Purge but was hanged before the Six Martyred Ministers incident due to the Geumseong Grand Prince affair.
It appears that a misinterpretation arose from an injunction left by Choe Yun-on, who had moved south with Suncheon Kim, the clan of Kim Jong-seo. Choe Yun-on was a close friend of Kim Jong-seo, and Suncheon Kim, who moved south with him, was Kim Jong-seo's clan seat. Because both families had already become families of traitors, one through the Gyeyu Purge and the other through the Six Martyred Ministers incident, he is said to have left an injunction to take special care in marriage arrangements so that no blame would fall on them in society.
Family Tree
- Sixth-generation ancestor: Choe Tak (Minister of Rites, Supreme General, under King Injong)
- Grandfather: Choe Rok (Meritorious Subject of Great Loyalty, Goryeo)
- Father: Choe Un-hae (Meritorious Subject of Loyal Service, Goryeo; Original Meritorious Subject of the Founding, Joseon)
- Mother: Lady Andong Kwon
- Self: Choe Yun-on
- Spouse: Lady Juksan Park (brother-in-law: Park Won-hyeong, Chief State Councillor under King Sejo)
- Siblings: Choe Yun-deok, Choe Yun-bok, Choe Yun-rye
- Sons: Choe Gyo, Choe Yeong, Choe Eon
- Great-great-grandson: Choe San-jeong
Footnotes