A striking feature of this king’s reign was the promulgation and enforcement of the principle of the prohibition of the manufacture and use of spirituous liquors. We venture to affirm that this king was the first in history, if not the only one, to boldly assert and rigidly enforce the principle of total abstinence from the use of wines and liquors. His three commands were (1) Party strife must cease. (2) Luxury must be curtailed. (3) The making, selling or drinking of fermented wines or distilled liquors is a capital offense. But this and other reforms were about to be eclipsed by the great upheaval of 1727, after the relation of which we will return to them. The Norons made such desperate attempts to induce the king to continue the persecution of the Soron party that he underwent a revulsion of feeling and for a short time punished the Norons by calling back into power many of the opposition. It may be that this short respite awoke the slumbering ambition of the Soron party so that when they found it was but partial and temporary their chagrin drove them into sedition. There appeared at Nam-wŭn in Chŭl-la Province an insulting circular asserting that the king had killed his brother and that the whole Noron party were traitors. It called upon all good men to oppose the government in every way possible. The governor sent a copy to the king who simply said “Burn it up.” But he greatly miscalculated the amount of sentiment that lay behind that circular, and his enemies took advantage of his unsuspiciousness to work up a wide-spread and powerful conspiracy against the government. It was headed by Kim Yŭng-hă.