My exact same reaction

But I think in Secret Door his character is going to be quite opposite of the one in TWDR. Here he will be playing a selfish and ruthless king right?...:(

Immortal Yi Sun Sin was so good that I watched all 106 hours of it. It is what made Kim Myung Min into a household name.

FYI - the memoirs are of four separate accounts addressed to different people, so you can read them separately or together.

I read it for graduate school and was absolutely floored by the memoirs.

If she is to be believed, the father and son suffered from some form of mental illness.

"But the beginning of the decline of Josun Dynasty began much earlier. You would have to go at least as far back to King Seonjo, who saw his kingdom ravaged by the barbarians from the North, had to bow to their chief and offer his Crown Prince to them as hostage."
Don't you mean King Injo?

Joseon Dynasty was a mess, in part due to the ossification of Neo-Confucianism.

I don't know. I'd put the start of the demise far earlier. Around Yeonsangun and Jungjong, when factional strife spiraled out of control.

By Seonjo's time (Yi Sun Sin's era), it was already a wreck. If only Gwanghaegun had NOT been deposed. Or if Jeongjo had not died early. If only the in-law politics had not taken center stage at the entire country's expense.

So many what-ifs.

"But the seeds of self-destruction sown by it still live on."

Can I ask what you mean by this?

Um, I'm not denying that Yeonjo was 100% in the right for basically executing his own son, but we have to remember that it's not a simple case of him being a bad father. If it's true that Sado raped and killed people as he was accused of (which I think so, after reading the Memoirs of Lady Hyegyeong), then serious actions deserve serious consequences. I mean, think about it. Yeongjo's son, the heir apparent of the nation, is a murderous psychopath, which doesn't bode well for the future. In this case, Yeongjo clearly decided that his country was more important than whatever paternal feelings he had for his son.

Yeongjo did initially face political opposition with his ascension to the the throne because of his lowborn mother, but he was certainly not regarded as an usurper after he consolidated his power. In fact, during his later reign, he wielded a lot of power against his ministers, more so than most Joseon kings, to the point where ministers would revere him as a sage king. In fact, Yeongjo ruled for over fifty years and had a reign of peace of prosperity. Historically, he's considered a very successful king, with the only dark spot being the whole drama with Sado.

The Joseon dynasty was NOT in decline during either Yeongjo or Jeongjo's reigns. Again, it's widely acknowledged that their reigns were periods of peace of prosperity. You mention the "barbarian invasions" of Seonjo's time where he was forced to bow and give up his crown prince as a hostage. While it's true that Seonjo was faced with Japanese invasions, you seem to be mixing him up with Injo, who was was attacked by the newly established Qing Dynasty (who were considered "northern barbarians" by the Joseon folk at the time for overthrowing the "civilized" Ming). The Manchu invasions caused a lot of suffering and destruction in Joseon, but by Yeongjo and Jeongjo's reigns, the country had rebounded, prospered, and even had good relations with Qing.

In fact, I would say that the downfall of the Joseon dynasty actually started with Jeongjo's son, King Sunjo, who was a child ruler dominated by his in-laws, the powerful Andong Kim family that would dominate for generations, coupled with the rise of Imperial Japan and colonial ambitions from the West.

I feel like some people gather their history by watching random sageuks. While they're fun and all, we have to remember that they're far from accurate and writers like to exaggerate or change around events to make for fun television.

The later memoirs are absolutely gripping in their psychological immediacy. She writes about psychological subjectivity the way late 19th and 20th century Western authors have, even though she was writing at the turn of the 18th century into the 19th in a society that didn't much value subjectivity.