Politics1793

Jeongjo’s Jangyongyeong Guard

Jeongjo created the Jangyongyeong royal guard with an inner garrison in the capital and an outer one at Hwaseong in Suwon; through the chogye munsin system he retrained young officials.

Night drill at Seojangdae, Hwaseong, commanded by King Jeongjo in 1795
Kim Deuksin & al. 김득신 · Public domain · Source

After founding the Gyujanggak (1776), Jeongjo had promising officials under thirty-seven retrained there (chogye munsin, 1781). The Jangyongwi guard of 1785 became the Jangyongyeong in 1793, a royal army to counter the other garrisons controlled by the factions.

Jeongjo appointed Park Je-ga, Yu Deuk-gong and Yi Deok-mu, sons of concubines, as Gyujanggak editors, and had magistrates run the village codes themselves to curb the local gentry. He issued the Daejeon tongpyeon code (1785), freed trade by the 1791 reform, and built Hwaseong. The guard was disbanded in 1802 after his death.

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States and rulers at the time: Joseon — Jeongjo
Places: Hanyang, Hwaseong Fortress

People

Jeongjo1752 – 1800
leader · Twenty-second king of Joseon, founder of the Gyujanggak library and builder of Hwaseong Fortress

Before and after

Earlier: 1791 Sinhae Tonggong
Later: 1794 Hwaseong Fortress built

Themes that include this event

Factional Politics in Joseon1498 – 1863
From the literati purges to in-law government — how Sarim factions moved from coexistence and checks to purges and one-faction rule, then through Tangpyeong to the dominance of a few clans
Military Systems Through the AgesAD 685 – 1907
From the Nine Oath Banners to the Two Armies and Six Guards, the Five Commands and garrison system, the Five Army Camps and the Board of Marshals — armies rebuilt at every crisis
Suwon1601 – 1919
From Jeongjo’s new city of Hwaseong to the tragedy of Jeam-ri — where a king’s filial devotion and reform politics were built into stone walls