King's secret letters: traits of a good leader

By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, Jan. 6 (Yonhap) -- When a cache of secret letters by King Jeongjo,
considered one of the most visionary and effective monarchs of Korea's Joseon
Dynasty, was discovered last year, the local academic community was shocked and
delighted at how revealing they were about royal politicking and the otherwise
shrouded personality of the king himself.
The king who died 210 years ago was not quite the reserved, relaxed sage depicted
in television dramas and novels. The workaholic and avid reader had a hot temper
and commanded a vocabulary thundering with expletives, but he also strove to
communicate with humor and showed he cared in small ways.
The juicy revelations of King Jeongjo, who was born in 1752 and achieved a
cultural and industrial renaissance during his 24 years on throne, are now
captured in "Secret Letters of King Jeongjo" by Ahn Dae-hoe, a professor of
Korean literature in classical Chinese at Sung Kyun Kwan University. Besides
their historic value, the personal letters bring to life the revered king in a
more human form and with the qualities that made him a good leader.
"I felt he is sweet. He is hot-tempered, throws a wobbly when he's angry. And
then in the next letter, he says, 'I'm sorry. That was my temper. Be
understanding,'" Ahn said in a press conference earlier this week.
Ahn was one of the scholars who discovered the stack of the 297 royal letters
from an unidentified individual who, allegedly on unresolved debt issues, had
acquired them from descendants of the letters' sole recipient, Sim Hwan-ji
(1730-1802).
To Koreans, King Jeongjo is one of the two most recounted and revered monarchs of
the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) along with King Sejong the Great, who invented the
Korean alphabet, hangeul, in the early years of the kingdom. Jeongjo fiercely
advanced reform, deftly balanced power factions and spearheaded agricultural and
industrial development to improve the people's livelihoods.
He was also a moderate on the budding influx of Catholic missionaries from the
West, a rare policy in the Confucian era that was rolled back by his successors
amid the advance of neighboring powers.
Some understand Jeongjo's strong leadership as a reflection of his tortured
childhood experience. His father Sado Seja, then the crown prince, was deposed by
his own father, King Yeongjo, and was later confined to a rice chest, where he
starved to death at age 28. The filicide, one of the eeriest chapters of Korean
history, is now seen as an outcome of factional fighting that drove a wedge
between father and son.
Taking over the reins from his grandfather Yeongjo at age 24, Jeongjo mastered
the art of communication with an unruly officialdom to push through his reform
drive, Ahn says.
"It is very rare for a king to have such passion and exchange secret letters to
such a large extent. It remains a question whether in the political history in
the world there is one monarch who wrote letters so prolifically and made use of
them for governing," Ahn wrote in the book.
Ironically, the sole recipient of the newly discovered secret letters, Sim
Hwan-ji, was one of the king's major critics. The devoutly conservative prime
minister was a ferocious opponent of the reform-minded king, insisting on
maintaining close ties with China's waning Ming Dynasty instead of turning to the
emerging Manchu-led power Qing Dynasty.
Through personal letters, the book says, Jeongjo deftly commanded the art of
politicking, sometimes reproaching Sim's stubbornness and but always rewarding
with a personal bond. The king did not forget to send small gifts, like snacks
and drinks, to the older man when he moved to a new house or had domestic events,
often asking about his health and his family's well-being.
When Sim divulged their written conversation to a third party, an infuriated
Jeongjo wittily wrote, "I have no secrets with you, but you don't watch your
mouth. Then I can't help but keep my mouth shut when I see you. This is funny,
like the saying goes, 'Take this rice cake and don't spread this word.' Again, I
want you to keep this in your mind."
The king pilloried incompetent officials in letters to Sim, sometimes using
expletives. In one such case, Jeongjo called a dull official "a stripling who
still smells of mother's milk."
The workaholic king, who never relegated his tasks to others and sometimes stayed
up many nights, demanded merciless dedication to work from the officialdom, the
book says. And he preferred outspoken opponents to quiet pacifiers.
"All my life, I have had a deep aversion to the habit and manners of those people
who have no edges and are of no use like antiques," he said in one of the
letters.
In another letter, he says, "I just cannot waste time goofing around. When I have
no visitor or don't have state affairs to oversee, I read. I have always
something to do, even practicing archery."
Perhaps because they held contents that would not be normally discussed
officially, Jeongjo repeatedly ordered Sim to tear up his letters after reading
them. But somehow, the stiff-necked minister did not follow the directive.
The author rules out rumors that have long circulated among minor academic
circles alleging that Jeongjo was poisoned to death by Sim. The author says there
is no evidence to suggest so.
The author believes Jeongjo may not have been the prototype of an ancient sage,
but his big-hearted personality made him a good leader.
"When he gave gifts, he gave them to everyone. And he always sent them with small
messages. It's not easy for a CEO to write to everyone," Ahn said. "In his era,
people believed that they could be appointed to a post if they were competent."
"Secret Letters of King Jeongjo" is the second book in the "Korean Culture in
Keywords" series published by the Munhakdongne Publishing Group this week. The
publisher hopes to find partners abroad to publish editions in English and other
languages.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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