Together with Kim Chil, they plotted a coup to coincide with the visit of a Ming Dynasty envoy.
He tried to force them to repent their deeds and acknowledge his legitimacy with combination of torture, offers of pardon, and even poetry.
Seong Sam-mun, Pak Paeng-nyeon, and Yi Gae all answered with poems that reaffirmed their loyalty to Danjong.
After the Sarim faction came to dominate Joseon politics, national opinion came to revere the Six martyred ministers as model subjects, and numerous shrines and seowon were erected in their memory.
The story of the Six is also often dramatized in literature and TV series, the latest being a historical drama produced in North Korea.