윤의제 尹義濟

Official, governor of Chungcheong, central to the incident over the Veritable Records of Injo

Life & career

Yun Ui-je (尹義濟, 1640-1680) was the son of the Southerner scholar Yun Hyu; his courtesy name was Jeongbaek and his seat is Namwon. According to Wikipedia he entered office by hereditary privilege and, while a personnel secretary, passed the saengwon examination in 1675 and the civil examination in the same year. Passing through key posts in the three offices as historian, remonstrator and compiler, he is said to have been a sharpshooter against the Westerners.

In 1677, as a junior historian-censor (geomnyeol), he went to the Jeoksangsan archive to air the books and happened to read the Veritable Records of Injo. He reported to his father that it said Hyojong had used bribery to become crown prince. Yun Hyu wanted to bring it to light but was dissuaded by Southerner leaders. Yun Ui-je became governor of Chungcheong in 1680, but when his father was put to death in the great purge of that year he was impeached by the Westerner-controlled three offices, exiled to a remote place and died there of illness.

When the Southerners returned to power in 1689, his younger brother Yun Ha-je pushed a memorial to examine the passage, and the record examined was found with some twenty characters cut out, but the matter ended without resolution. He was rehabilitated in 1691, stripped again in 1694 and restored in 1795 under Jeongjo. Having no son, he adopted Yun Sang-jeong, son of his brother Yun Eun-je.

The Veritable Records incident

The dispute turned on how to regard a censor opening a Veritable Record and divulging its contents, and how to verify the passage concerning Hyojong. Wikipedia says that in the 1689 inquiry the relevant part of the Records of Injo was found cut out but who did it was never established. The truth could not be confirmed here.

Grave

Not confirmed.

Descendants

He had no son and adopted Yun Sang-jeong, son of his brother Yun Eun-je.

Other 남원 윤씨 figures