The Suffering of the Songdang School during the Purge of 1545 and the Characteristics of the Literati Purges

In the late 15th century, the Chosŏn society saw the increase in intellectuals who accepted Neo-Confucianism as the ultimate ideology. The royal family and their meritorious relatives made great efforts to stop this trend through the 1498 Muo sahwa , 1504 Kapcha sahwa , and 1519 Kimyo sahwa. As Neo-Confucianism declined in the 1520s and 1530s after the Kimyo sahwa, Pak Yŏng (朴英) founded the Songdang school (松堂學派) and carried on the academic tradition of Neo-Confucianism. The sarim (士林) group armed with Neo-Confucianism made great strides in the 1530s and 1540s, but suffered serious political setback in the fierce offensive of Queen Munjŏng, the ruling camp of Soyun (小尹), after King Myŏngjong ascended to the throne.<br/> According to the Ŭlsa chŏnmunnok (乙巳傳聞錄), 74.4% among the 82 victims of the Purge of 1545 were sarim, and 24.6% were largely classified as Songdang school faction. During the Ŭlsa sahwa , sarim intellectuals suffered the most damage, and Songdang school was at the heart of the incident. These facts suggest a possibility that the Ŭlsa sahwa must have escalated from a factional conflict between Soyun and Taeyun (大尹) into an ideological struggle between meritorious relatives of the royal family and sarim . In this context, the Ŭlsa sahwa can be said to have been an ideological and political conflict in the same line of the three previous purges.