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Explanation from the artist:
Context : King Yeongjo was accused of assassinating his brother with crab and persimmons to become next king.
Major civil war took place because of this accusation. Just like liberator’s civil war.
Even in modern days, Koreans consider it ominous to eat crabs and persimmons together.
Literally Ides of March but crustacean.
So like…poison? Or did the king have some crazy double allergy?
Time for search engine rabbit hole
EDIT:
Gyeongjong suffered from ill health during his reign, and the Noron political faction pressured Gyeongjong to step down in favor of his half-brother, Prince Yeoning. In 1720, two months after his enthronement, his half brother, Prince Yeoning […] to handle state affairs, since the king’s weak health made impossible for him to manage politics.
It is said that, Gyeongjong’s mother, Lady Jang, was to blame for his illnesses. She was sentenced to death by poison, in 1701[…] she inflicted a severe injury to the Crown Prince’s [Gyeongjong] 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 […] “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.”
Seems like a (hepatitis?) type of food poisoning, per Wikipedia. Crazy history though.
How long would it have taken to travel thirty miles back in the day? A quick search seems to indicate this would be a full day’s journey at least.
