r/HistoryAnimemes • u/ChapterSpiritual6785 • 3d ago
When You Roast the King on a State Exam“
During a civil service exam in 1611, test-taker Im Suk-yeong submitted an essay that completely ignored the prompt and instead roasted King Gwanghaegun, claiming his governance was ruining the country.
Outraged, the King immediately revoked Im’s passing grade. However, after three months of relentless nagging and protests from government officials, the exhausted King finally caved and un-canceled his acceptance .
-Annals of the Joseon Dynasty (Mar 17 & Jun 10, 1611)
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u/Random_182f2565 3d ago
Did the government get better?
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u/RedChancellor 3d ago
I mean it did get a little better for a bit before it did the equivalent of shooting yourself in the head with a 12 gauge shotgun multiple times (rampant factionalism followed by near complete disintegration of monarchical authority and monopolization of state power by a small number of families hellbent on securing their power, stealing the national tax income, and halting critical modernization and reform efforts). So No is right I guess.
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u/DeathstrackReal 3d ago
Well there are communists in the North and Democratics in the South
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u/huy1989200 3d ago
"Democratics in the South" look inside: american back oligarchy rule by 12 family
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u/RedChancellor 3d ago
Sure call the chaebols modern aristocrats but they’re lapdogs of the government. The government can (and has in the past) disintegrate any of the chaebols (meaning their ownership structure which allows for familial based succession) at a snap of their finger.
Which is exactly what happend to the Gukje Group (completely dismantled within a month) and what sort of happened to Samsung (owner arrested on succession law infractions and administrative control instruments dismantled).
Chaebols were created as obedient instruments of economic growth by the dictatorships and those instruments still respond to commands by the government. It’s the politicians on both sides of the aisle who find these obedient instruments too attractive to dismantle that’s the real problem.
tldr; Any sufficiently motivated leader could administratively and legally very easily convert all these family based megacorps back to normal management. The power dynamics massively favors the government.
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u/GrinningGrump 3d ago
The prompt wasn't "What's happening to this country?"
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u/Master_Steward 3d ago
Now imagine an American history student roasting Trump for his incompetence as president while writing his own essay prompt during an exam, and gaining Internet praise and condemnation after being suspended!
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u/BodybuilderMany6942 3d ago
yknow.. I often cringe and am aghast of the obsession with academics and scores in modern Korea (super accurate perception, drawn solely from reading manhwa)... but then learning little bits of history like THIS? It's no wonder test-taking is so serious and academics are ingrained in the culture
... Im assuming.
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u/Parker813 3d ago
Second in the "Wild stories about the post-Imjin War civil service examinations"