Consternation upon the accession of Prince Yŭn-san.... his character.... avenges his mother’s disgrace.... reign of terror.... concubines of former King killed.... sporting proclivities.... noble women dishonored.... carnival of crime.... plot against the King.... prisons opened.... King banished.... royal proclamation.... a sad parting.... abuses corrected.... revolt of Japanese residents in the south.... diplomatic relations with Japan severed.... reforms.... money for army made from Buddhist image.... literature.... mistake in a Chinese history.... puritan simplicity.... color of clothes.... military activity.... Japanese pirates captured.... the first compass.... caste.... a Korean-Chinese dictionary.... an extreme Confucianist.... a dangerous regency.... evil advisers.... good men murdered.... Japanese return to the southern ports ... omens ... a Buddhist regent.... conscription.... invasions north and south.... signal victory over the Japanese.... rebellion. It was in 1494 that Korea had the misfortune to come under the baneful rule of Prince Yŭn-san. As we have seen, he was the son of the discarded Queen. He inherited her evil disposition and he had sworn to her that he would avenge the stigma that had been cast upon her name. He was twenty years old when the load of empire was placed upon his unworthy shoulders. No sooner had his accession been ratified by the Emperor than the Prime Minister resigned his position and hastened away to his country home. When asked his reason for such precipitation he replied, “Look at the pupil of his eye; with such a King it is difficult to keep the head on the shoulders. So I have come to the country.” Many tales are told illustrative of his character. Some time before the last King’s death, while he was walking in the palace grounds with his son, a tame deer had come and rubbed its nose on his arm. The youth in wanton cruelty had brutally kicked the animal and was sharply reprimanded for it by his father. Now that he had become King he sent for the harmless beast and drove a spear through it with his own hand. Beholding this vindictive act, and rightly gauging the evil mind that lay behind it, a high official, Pak Yŏng, immediately left the court and retired to the country. The next act of this King was to behead his old tutor, Cho Chi-sŭ, whom he had learned to hate when a boy, because the faithful instructor had tried to curb his wild excesses.