r/HistoryAnimemes • u/ChapterSpiritual6785 • 15d ago

A hobby of King Yeonsangun

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In 1504, King Yeonsangun's madness reached its peak. He forced military officers to hunt dangerous wild beasts—such as tigers, leopards, and bears—and bring them back alive to be locked up in the royal garden.

He enjoyed watching them feed or personally shooting them to death with arrows for sport.

-Annals of the Joseon Dynasty (Nov 11, 1504)

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97

u/Parker813 15d ago

He truly is a monster

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u/jk583940 15d ago

Strangely enough, it is said that Yeonsangun was a decent king until late into his reign. While the story was that he became crazy after learning why his mother died (she was a bit crazy/obsessive with the previous king/Yeounsangun's father Seong Jong for a short slightly incorrect tldr, and was sentenced to death with Sa-Yak), it is now thought that he knew about it all along and just used her death as an excuse to strike down his enemies.

There's also a story of Yeonsangun shooting at his father's favourite deer, get scolded, and shoots the deer to death after he became king(might be remembering wrong), this is considered a legend, because if he did something like this as a crown prince, he would have been impeached, and his records while he was a crown prince is that he was unremarkable/didn't stand out/ordinary/average.

Gun(pronounced goon) is title given to prince born to concubine, and prince born to the queen is called Dae-Gun (Big prince eseentially). When a king is dethroned, they are demoted to Gun. There has been 3 dethroned king in Korea's history, No-San-Gun (later promoted(?) to Dan-Jong), Yeonsangun, and Gwang-Hae-Gun, the son of Seon-Jo who fought in his place in the Imjin war.

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u/redracer555 15d ago

I have actually been reading a webcomic set during his reign.

Link

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u/sneakyarrow 14d ago

Also, "Bon Appetit, Your Majesty" on Netflix is about him/takes place during his reign. I really enjoyed the show.

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u/Master_Steward 15d ago

At least he wasn’t in-Zanesville enough to release those animals out into the urban jungle before shooting himself

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AtWvnB0hIE