A Day in the Life of a Joseon King: The True Weight of the Gonryongpo

Behind the Splendor, a Grueling 18-Hour Workday. Follow the True Daily Life of a Joseon King We Never Knew.

• Review the king’s punishing 18-hour daily schedule.
• Understand the significance of study, rituals, and state affairs in the king’s life.
• Glimpse the human struggles hidden beneath the magnificent gonryongpo.

What image comes to mind when you think of a ‘Joseon king’? Probably a figure enjoying the finest royal meals in a splendid palace, surrounded by countless attendants and wielding absolute power. However, the daily life of a Joseon king was far from such fantasies. His real life was not a luxurious vacation but a relentless 18-hour grind.

The story begins at 5 a.m., before dawn, when the king wakes alone while the world still sleeps. Based on meticulous records like the “Annals of the Joseon Dynasty” and the “Seungjeongwon Ilgi,” we vividly reconstruct the human anguish and responsibility of a man who had to bear the weight of the gonryongpo on his body and the realities of history.

A Breathless 18 Hours: The Daily Schedule of a Joseon King

The king’s time was strictly separated from the people’s and moved only according to the state’s clock. This schedule reveals the essential isolation and heavy burden of the king’s position.

Life as a Scholar Monarch: Gyeongyeon and State Affairs

The largest portion of a Joseon king’s day was devoted to study. The king was not merely a ruler but the nation’s highest intellectual.

The King’s Classroom, Gyeongyeon (經筵)

The king attended Gyeongyeon, study sessions held three times daily (morning, noon, evening) with the era’s top scholars to study and debate the classics. This was not simple learning but a fierce political arena where the king’s governing philosophy was tested daily. Officials debated state issues based on history and classics, and the king had to defend his decisions logically to prove his ruling ability. Intellectual weakness could quickly undermine his authority.

The gonryongpo was a symbol of authority and a ‘uniform’ bearing the endless burden of scholarship and debate.

Workaholic Monarch, King Jeongjo’s All-Night Discussions

The most dramatic example of this scholarly nature was Joseon’s 22nd king, Jeongjo. Finding the three daily Gyeongyeon sessions insufficient, he enjoyed all-night debates with young scholars at his private think tank, the Gyujanggak.

Surprisingly, his intellectual passion was fueled by tobacco. Jeongjo was a known smoker who called tobacco “Namnyeongcho (Southern Spirit Herb)” and considered it essential for state affairs and scholarship. In his collected works, “Hongjae Jeonseo,” he confessed, “When stuck in reading or troubled, I could not ease my mind without the power of this herb.”

However, such an intense life came at a cost. The extreme stress, overwork, and smoking deteriorated Jeongjo’s health, paradoxically burning his body as he led reforms.

Symbolic Rule: Rituals for the People

Joseon was an agrarian-based nation where agriculture was the foundation. The king and queen personally embodied this belief by presiding over important state rituals.

The King’s Plowing: The Origin of Chingyeongrye and Seolleongtang

Every spring, the king performed Chingyeongrye (Plowing Ceremony) at Seonnongdan outside Dongdaemun, offering sacrifices to the god of agriculture and then personally plowing the field. Though symbolic, this was a crucial political performance showing the king’s commitment to agriculture to all subjects.

After the ritual, the king shared a soup made by boiling the sacrificial ox, called “Seonnongtang,” which became the origin of Seolleongtang.

The Queen’s Silk Thread: The Politics of Chinjamrye

If the king had Chingyeongrye, the queen had Chinjamrye (Silkworm Ceremony) to encourage silk production by raising silkworms. While farming was men’s work, fabric production was an important female labor. In 1767, King Yeongjo revived Chinjamrye after 300 years to strengthen the authority of his young consort, Queen Jeongsun.

This ritual was more than symbolism; it was a sophisticated political act to solidify the young queen’s authority and soothe public sentiment after the loss of Crown Prince Sado.

Human Struggles Beneath the Gonryongpo

The magnificent gonryongpo sometimes concealed a suffering human body. Kings were absolute rulers but also vulnerable humans plagued by extreme stress and illness.

Sejong and Yeongjo: Opposite Approaches to Health

Two great Joseon kings, Sejong and Yeongjo, showed completely opposite health management styles, reflecting their political situations and personalities.

Sejong’s illnesses were the harsh struggles of a scholar king, while Yeongjo’s discipline was obsessive self-management for political survival.

The Weight of the Crown: Legitimacy Complex

The king’s stress was not only from excessive duties. The issue of legitimacy—proving one’s rightful place—shook the lives of several kings. Joseon’s first king from a collateral line, Seonjo, suffered lifelong legitimacy anxiety. This insecurity surfaced as leadership limits during the Imjin War and tragic distrust of his son, Gwanghaegun.

Also, Injo, who came to power through a coup, devoted all political effort to posthumously honor his biological father, Jeongwon-gun, as king. This was a desperate political act to prove the legitimacy of his reign. The weight of the gonryongpo sometimes pressed down on the king’s shoulders as an invisible burden of bloodline and legitimacy.

Conclusion

The king’s long day draws to a close. But even after the evening study session and greetings, the king remained alone past 11 p.m., wrestling with piles of petitions. The daily life of a Joseon king was not the life of a glamorous ruler but one filled with overwhelming duties.

• Grueling workload: The king’s day was an 18-hour labor of study, state affairs, and rituals from dawn to late night.
• Symbolic leadership: Through rituals like Chingyeongrye and Chinjamrye, the king embodied the agrarian ideology of the nation.
• Human struggles: Beneath the gonryongpo was a man suffering from overwork, illness, and legitimacy anxieties.

Thus, the king’s life was devoted not to personal happiness but to the single goal of national well-being. Thanks to records left centuries ago, we can glimpse the sweat and tears hidden beneath the splendid robes.