Six martyred ministers

Six martyred ministers
Hangul	사육신
Hanja	死六臣
Revised Romanization	Sayuksin
McCune–Reischauer	Sayuksin

The six martyred ministers or Sayuksin were six ministers of the Joseon Dynasty who were executed by King Sejo in 1456 for plotting to assassinate him and restore the former king Danjong to the throne.

The Six were Seong Sam-mun, Pak Paeng-nyeon, Ha Wi-ji, Yi Gae, Yu Eung-bu, and Yu Seong-won. Most were members of the Hall of Worthies, a royal research institute, who had been appointed by King Sejong. Both King Sejong and King Munjong had charged them with looking after King Danjong (grandson and son respectively), and they reacted with outrage to Sejo's usurpation of the throne in 1455. Together with Kim Jil, they plotted a coup to coincide with the visit of a Ming Dynasty envoy. When the banquet and subsequently the assassination plot were postponed, Kim Jil lost his heart and betrayed the plot to his father-in-law, who reported to Sejo. The Six except Yu Seong-won, who committed suicide with his wife, were seized and tortured.

Sejo felt deeply betrayed for he had valued the six scholar-officials very highly and promoted them to high positions in favor of his own supporters who helped him take the throne. He tried to force them to repent their deeds and acknowledge his legitimacy with combination of torture, offers of pardon, and even poetry. He sent Kim Jil to their cells to recite a poem that King Taejong of Joseon had used to test the great Goryeo scholar Jeong Mongju's loyalty to the Goryeo dynasty. Seong Sam-mun, Pak Paeng-nyeon, and Yi Gae all answered with poems that reaffirmed their loyalty to Danjong. (These famous death poems cemented their reputation in Korean history.)

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