Joseon - Part 4

-King Sejong created the Hall of Worthies, a royal research institute.
-Also created an intelligent, flexible tax system for peasants.
   -Good years were taxed heavily, shitty years were not.
   -Established a surplus of rice reserved for famine.
   -Advanced farming techniques and agriculture planning, and also spread info about this via the printing press.
   -Official Joseon census at the time stated that there were only 4 million people living in the Joseon kingdom at this time, but modern historians think it was probably more like 5-6 million due to slaves, vagrants, illegal immigrants, etc.
-King Sejong's reign was also notable because of the work by genius scientists Jang Yeong-sil, who made advances in astronomy, agriculture, and metallurgy.
   -Close to the king but low-born, he was disliked by the elitist dickhead courtiers of the Neo-Confucian literati.
      -They were even able to get him exiled when King Sejong was involved in a fall or something and blamed it on Jang Yeong-sil.
         -His death wasn't even recorded :(
   -He did other cool shit too: created a celestial globe, improved the printing press, created new metal alloys, and created Korea's first water clock (copied from China).  Also created sundials for people to tell time, and each hour corresponded with one of the 12 zodiac animals.
-1430s- Jurchen tribes were becoming too unruly.
   -After the Jin dynasty collapsed, the Jurchen had reverted back to a loose confederation of tribes.
   -Still nominally allied to the Ming dynasty, but this was highly unstable.
      -Jurchen raiders would raid Joseon lands in the winter, after the rivers froze.
   -Joseon had tried to get the tribes to settle down by offering incentives to come and farm.
      -Set up market villages in Hamgyeong Province to interact with them.
   -Joseon finally decided to send a tactical raid to punish them- this time with gunpowder, and a new weapon: the hwacha (ancient Korean rocket launcher!).
   -Also made a project to "Koreanize" Hamgyeong Province, since so many Chinese immigrants lived there.  Koreans from Gyeongsan Province were uprooted to go live there.
-1440s- Joseon had used Hanja before- Chinese script to represent the Korean language, but this was a mess.  Also, Chinese script was ridiculous and really difficult to read and write, so the peasantry was vastly illiterate.
-1443- Hangul was invented!  King Sejong's greatest triumph!
   -However, Hangul was met with both praise and opposition.  It actually wasn't even used by everyone until the late 19th century!
-King Sejong also published other books as well.
-1448- at this point, King Sejong was going blind and growing worse in health.  He also developed diabetes.
-1450- King Sejong dies, replaced by his eldest son, King Munjong.