Longevity of Kings and their Causes of Death during Yi Dynasty -Based on Review of Historic Royal Archives-

조선조 역대왕의 수명과 그 사인

Improvements in various health indices have been ushered in, along with soaring economic growth in the last few decades in Korea. Life span of Koreans at present stands at somewhere around age of seventies. It seems of worth to elucidate some facets of health profile of historic Koreans during Yi dynasty encompassing about five hundreds years between the 14th and 19th century. Datas on health of historic Koreans are meager with exception for sovereigns for whom royal archives have been preserved intact through centuries. Though the health environments for monarchs are, no doubt, incomparable to that of the grassroot levels during the same period, health profile of monarchs would facilitate to assess health indices for historic Koreans during Yi dynasty. Arithmetic average of life span of 25 consecutive Kings(omitted the last two Kings under Japanese control) is 44.6 years of age 81 year old for King Yongjo and 16 year old for King Danjong, representing two extremes. The principal causes of death are septicemia, subsequent to infections of soft tissue and ether organs(8 in number, one-thirds of all). Secondly, both epidemic disease and vascular accidents caused deaths of three Kings each. Two kings succumbed to diabets and one suicide. The causes for the remainder, eight kings are hardly ciarified. The monarchs who contributed in establishment of new Yi dynasty with highspirited and disciplined survied beyond their fifties and sixties. In contrast, those who reigned during mid - era of the dynasty at its culmination succumbed to death in their young adulthood, most likely due to their indulgence in court life.