Before drinking the poison, Jo wrote a poem declaring his loyalty, asked his people not to make coffin too heavy, and apologized to the owner and servant of the house for not paying his debt and instead showing them terrible sight and desecrating their house. He then bowed four times toward the north in the direction of palace. (It was customary to pay respect to the king in gratitude for granting poison, which was not an official method of execution and was considered more honorable form of death, instead of beheading or hanging.) When he drank poison, he did not die immediately and soldiers tried to strangle him. Jo rebuked them saying that the king intended to spare his neck by sending the poison and requested for another bowl of poison. He died at the age of 37. Later when there was a severe drought in the country, the populace blamed that it was heaven's punishment for killing an innocent seonbi. Many of remaining Sarim scholars left the central government in protest and retreated to rural provinces. Most of Jo's reforms were revoked with his fall.