The so-called “Hwe-Ni Controversy” was a political debate, which was one of the most dominantly discussed topics in the Party Position Manuals that were compiled by both the “Elder” No’ron/老論 and the “Junior” So’ron/少論 faction members. There were many Party Position Manuals which dealt with this “Controversy,” and in most cases such manuals tended to present key reference materials in a newly organized fashion. In this article, two texts, named 『Gab’eul-rok(甲乙錄)』 and 『Sa’baek-rok(俟百錄)』, which both presented the “Hwe-Ni Controversy” alongside the political history of King Sukjong’s era, will be examined. And they will also be compared with each other, in order to determine their documentation’s political meaning, which had some things to do with the “No’ron vs. So’ron” conflicts.
The “Hwe-Ni Controversy” which continued during King Sukjong’s reign, was a conflict between people who supported the “Tang’pyeong” policy, which pursued to recruit officials from opposite parties in a balanced fashion, and who were against the very idea. It was also a fight between progressive and conservative politicians. Song Shi-yeol and the No’ron faction members were intent upon thwarting the Tang’pyeong policy from being implemented, and raised this “Hwe-Ni” controversy as a tool to do just that. They continuously attacked the So’ron faction, and in the end triumphantly embraced the King’s Byeongshin-year order which negated the logics previously suggested by Yun Seon-geo and Yun Jeung. This shows us that King Sukjong’s Tang’pyeong policy, which had continued since the Gabsul-year Political Return(“Hwan’guk”), was at an impasse and the conservatives had beaten the progressives.
Although 『Gab’eul-rok』 and 『Sabaek-rok』 were both critical of the Tang’pyeong policy of the King Yeongjo’s days, they were also respectively compiled by So’ron and No’ron faction members, so their overall stances of the concept of Tang’pyeong itself were quite different from each other. The former, compiled by the more adamant members of the So’ron faction, intended to emphasize the fact that the Tang’pyeong policy of Yeongjo had strayed away from the true spirit of Tang’pyeong, while the latter, compiled by the No’ron faction members, who were clearly against the concept of Tang’pyeong itself, intended to nullify the merits and intentions of Yeongjo’s Tang’pyeong policy in general.