creakingstairs 4 hours ago

This is the definition of a nerd snipe for me.

I’ve been binging a Korean YouTuber called Hyangachi(향아치)who goes into Joseon dynasty history in a very approachable way for younger generation and I’ve been researching observability dashboard for my side projects. I didn’t even think about combining the two.

Joseon dynasty was obsessed with preserving history. Not even the king could interfere with it. In fact, a king fell from his horse during a hunt, then told them to not write it down. But we know this happened because they wrote down the order :D

The historians also have known about the importance of resiliency and made back up copies too!

  • WastedCucumber 3 hours ago

    Thanks for that hilarious history tidbit. The actual record makes it even better. From the wiki page for Taejong of Joseon:

    The king himself rode a horse and shot arrows at a deer. However, the horse stumbled, causing him to fall off, but he was not injured. Looking around, he said, "Do not let the historians know about this."

    • nico 2 hours ago

      I just made the connection to why they had a scene like that in a Korean show on Netflix, cool

      • hbarka 2 hours ago

        I think it's this one: Rookie Historian Goo Hae-Ryung. It's on Netflix, the Korean series about a Joseon-era scribe for the royal house.

  • poppypetalmask 36 minutes ago

    Yes, that horse story is perfect. One of the things I love about the Sillok is that even the king wasn’t above the record. Kings were educated to think their conduct would be judged by history, and then you get this very human little entry where the king basically says “don’t log this,” and the system logs that too.

joonehur 2 hours ago

The data comes from the Veritable Records of the Joseon Dynasty. https://sillok.history.go.kr/intro/english.do I'm browsing it. Wow, there's so much detail, like:

己酉二月, 世宗講武于平康, 世祖射鹿, 七發皆貫其項。

기유년 2월에 세종이 평강(平康)에서 강무(講武)를 하였는데, 세조가 사슴을 쏜 7발(發)이 모두 그 목을 관통하였다.

"In the second lunar month of the giyu year, King Sejong held a military drill (gangmu) at Pyeonggang. Sejo shot seven arrows at a deer, and all of them pierced its neck." https://sillok.history.go.kr/id/kga_000002

Many K-drama and movies are inspired by these records.

sperandeo 3 hours ago

Treating historical records like system logs is a framing I hadn't considered. interesting

roetlich 4 hours ago

Great, now we need this with current data for modern governments

  • harimau777 1 hour ago

    While pardoning thanksgiving turkeys, president was bitten by one of the turkeys. Very bad omen.