In the fifteenth year of his reign, 1674, he was taken ill. The death of his mother worked upon his spirits and aggravated his disease, and death ensued. He needs no encomiums except the bare list of the great things that were done during his reign. They will go down to posterity as his lasting monument. His genius coupled with that of his great adviser, Song Si-ryŭl, ranged through every phase of political and social life, revenue, finance, political economy, agriculture, mining, official rectitude, civil service, social ethics, sanitation, education, internal improvement, the army, popular superstition, slavery, penalties, foreign relations, border police, famine relief, consanguineous marriage, publication; these and many other important topics demanded and secured from him careful attention. He put down party strife with a heavy hand, and only once or twice during the whole period of his reign does it raise its malignant head. His son succeeded to the throne, known by his posthumous title Suk-jŏng Tă-wang. Party spirit had not been dead but only in abeyance during his father’s strong reign. It now broke out again. Memorials poured in upon the young king urging the evil practices of Song Si-ryŭl, and the young king thought there must be some truth in them because of their very numbers. He became the center of a very storm of charge and counter-charge, of attack and defense. Being but fourteen years old and of a naturally vacillating temperament, he was first the tool of one party and then of another. His whole reign, which covered a period of forty-six years, was one maelstrom of party strife and was fruitful of more startling than useful events. His leading characteristic was capriciousness. Again and again he turned from one party to another, each turn being accompanied by numberless deaths. But we must not anticipate. It will be noticed that when his reign began in 1675 the Nam-in party was in power with Hŭ Jŭk at its head. The strife over Song Si-ryŭl had resulted in his banishment to Wŭn-san. He was the Bismarck of Korea in that when his master died the aged councillor found in the son the same gratitude that the Iron Chancellor did. It would be an endless as well as a fruitless task to describe the party fights that took place. It will be enough to say that the reign was one long fight from beginning to end. During the early part of the reign, in 1677, a complete census of the country was made. It was probably the conclusion of work begun by the former king. It was found that in the whole country there were 1,234,512 houses, containing 4,703,505 people. Some excitement was caused when it was found that Chinese histories were claiming that Prince Kwang-hă was a good man, and that In-jo Tă-wang had revolted against him. After a sharp party fight the king decided to send an envoy and request the emperor to have the mistake corrected.