Gyeongjong (Korean: 경종; Hanja: 景宗; 20 November 1688 – 11 October 1724), personal name Yi Yun (이윤; 李昀), was the 20th monarch of the Joseon dynasty of Korea.
When Sukjong died in 1720, he supposedly told Yi Yi-myoung to name Yeoning-geum as Gyeongjong's heir, but suspicions arose between Soron, Noron enemies, from the absence of a historiographer or recorder.
As she dashed towards him to greet him, she inflicted a severe injury to the Crown Prince's lower abdomen that left him sterile and unable to produce an heir.
There was some speculation from Soron party members that his half-brother, Prince Yeoning, had something to do with his death due to the earlier attempt by the Noron faction to have him replace Gyeongjong on the throne, but several historiographers now conclude that he could have died of eating spoiled seafood, as described in Homer's book, The History of Korea.
[6] "But we may well doubt the truth of the rumour, for nothing that is told of that brother indicates that he would commit such an act, and in the second place a man who will eat shrimps in mid-summer, that have been brought thirty miles from the sea without ice might expect to die.