Born As The Daughter Of A Lowly Concubine [EN]: Chapter 76

‘No. What about bringing children from Siyoungwon to help?’

There were quite a few children at Siyoungwon who had unintentionally received a rigorous education under the care of Court Lady Min and the other maids. They had been forcibly taught to read and write, so assigning them simple tasks wouldn’t be difficult.

Even now, some children with good handwriting were earning money by doing transcription work for used bookstores.

Now, four years after Siyoungwon was established, it was running more smoothly than initially expected.

They were taught basic skills and employed in various fields like embroidery, farming, cooking, and hospitality, based on their aptitudes. Once they saved enough money, they were encouraged to become independent.

Of course, some children liked Siyoungwon so much that they didn’t want to leave, even when they were old enough.

If they enjoyed being around a lot of people, there wasn’t much I could do.

Then I’d have no choice but to charge rent.

For those who didn’t want to leave even after a grace period following their employment, I decided to charge rent slightly below the market price.

Alternatively, some who wanted to stay near Siyoungwon pooled their money to buy or rent houses nearby and settled down.

However, it was a bit disappointing that there weren’t many jobs where children who had learned to read could use their knowledge. Of course, some bright children found jobs in merchant groups, and some joined my business.

Moreover, while commoner children fared better, even if those from the lower classes learned to read, there were fewer job opportunities available to them, especially for women.

‘Should I suggest fostering female medical personnel [yeoui, female doctors] on this occasion…?’

I had to push for things like this whenever the opportunity arose.

Especially since the lack of female doctors was genuinely inconvenient.

In fact, the royal physicians at the Royal Clinic, who hadn’t even properly recognized the significant problem that my body wasn’t growing for several years, were now in a somewhat precarious position.

‘If I try to reform something now, there’s no justification to stop me.’

I decided to lay the groundwork first.

And first of all, regarding what I had said in front of the King and the old doctors, I decided to proceed with an initial investigation, relying on the administrative power spread across Joseon.

I instructed each local government office to include statistics on doctors in their respective areas.

It might be difficult to investigate doctors hiding deep in the mountains, but it wasn’t impossible to check on doctors who were somewhat well-known.

And from the records of patients and medical books those doctors possessed, I decided to select information on rare diseases or treatments.

Of course, some doctors might resist, but now it was the era of monarchy, so it was difficult to refuse a royal order. Besides, those with a sense of duty as doctors, regardless of the era, wouldn’t refuse.

‘Since I’m checking anyway, it’s a waste to only check my rare case.’

So, I decided to start compiling statistics on medical books and treatments in each region and compiling new medical texts.

In the process, data on rare diseases would surely be included.

If a rare medical book was discovered, it could be transcribed and submitted, then verified and distributed by the royal physicians.

In addition, I was currently trying to win over the Crown Prince as the first step in this project.

“Actually, it will take at least 10 years to complete the organization and creation of medical books.”

“But you decided to do it.”

“My illness is my illness. It would be nice to cure other people’s illnesses as an opportunity. Medicine cannot develop if there are many doctors who try to monopolize it.”

In particular, in the case of medicine transmitted through the apprentice system, people were reluctant to pass it on to others, so the knowledge was sometimes lost.

In fact, doctors with outstanding abilities often had no problem making a living, and they were very uncooperative because they didn’t easily try to teach their skills to others.

‘Jang Deok, a female doctor from Jeju Island who appeared in a famous drama under the same name, was good at dental and dermatological treatments. She was called to the palace to treat the king, but she was not properly recognized due to the interference of other royal physicians. Later, she passed on her skills to a female servant, but it was said that the servant did not reach Jang Deok’s level.’

If someone with medical skills isn’t properly recognized, it ends only as a means for personal success. So there is no development.

The medical skills possessed by an individual must be documented and recorded, and the skills must be passed on to future students.

And if you teach it forcibly, the easiest thing to do is to use government slaves.

“What if we educate them as doctors and, after they work as doctors for a certain period, completely exempt them and their descendants from slavery? It’s not a bad condition.”

“Exemption from slavery, huh.”

“It’s for government slaves, and if there’s a good reason, the officials won’t have any reason to object. And even if they are private slaves, the country will pay for the cost of training them as doctors if the owner agrees, but instead, we will attach the condition that they will be exempted from slavery after working for a certain period in a national institution.”

“Is it important to have a system in place that allows even nominal exemption from slavery?”

As expected, he’s smart.

“Even if they actually become doctors, they may end up becoming exclusive doctors for their owners, but in any case, the number of slaves and the lower class can be reduced as a result.”

“Yes. It is not desirable for the number of slaves to increase.”

Of course, not all slaves wanted to be freed from slavery, as was common for the times. In particular, government slaves were generally better off than private slaves, so they sometimes preferred it.

But not the female government slaves [gwanbi].

Considering the treatment of female servants, like the lives of female entertainers [gwan-gi] and female government slaves, if they could become female doctors and be protected, many would actively come forward.

In fact, the system of doctors was already well-established, so there was a high possibility of backlash if I tried to do something.

On the other hand, social perceptions of female doctors were ambiguous.

Female doctors were generally of low status and often assisted male doctors.

As such, it was quite unusual in this era for the original female lead to want to become a female doctor.

‘Hmm… If you think about nurses in modern times, it’s not strange. It’s easy to get a job, but the work is hard, dirty, and the treatment is strangely bad, so it’s the same.’

So what I was trying to foster was actually a female doctor [yeoui] rather than a medical woman [uinyeo, a type of female physician who served in the palace].

“Many of the court ladies are from government slave backgrounds, except for the ones carefully selected for the Queen’s Quarters. There is discrimination depending on the origin among government slaves, but education is important anyway. If you deny enlightenment [gyohwa] from the beginning, aren’t you denying the ideology of Confucianism [yuhak]?”

The basic ruling ideology of Confucianism was to enlighten the people and lead them to the path of sages [seongin].

To this end, the king had to become a sage first, so he had to receive a rigorous education from his days as crown prince until after he ascended the throne.

‘But whether the person teaching is a saint seems to be another matter.’

There were more than one or two guys who only talked about human morality but didn’t act like humans.

In fact, the person (*Gwon Chae, an officer of the Hall of Worthies) who wrote the preface to the Illustrated Guide to the Three Bonds of Human Relations during the reign of King Sejong of Joseon was also suspected of his concubine having an affair, so he secretly abandoned her after imprisoning and abusing her with his wife for several months, but was caught.

At that time, the king tried to punish him, but the officials protected him, so only his wife was punished, and he was just dismissed.

‘Ha… They don’t apply the law like that.’

I want to strengthen the royal authority…….

Ah, this is not important now.

“So I was thinking, what if we give ranks to female doctors who pass the exam, like male medical officers or court ladies, and include them in the Outer Court [waemyeongbu: the general term for the wives of civil and military officials, including the royal family, excluding the Inner Court. They receive ranks according to their husband’s rank]?”

“In the Outer Court?”

“They won’t only work in the royal family, and the Inner Court [naemyeongbu: court ladies and concubines living in the palace] can’t marry.”

“Well, that’s right.”

“What good is it if we exempt them from slavery but don’t allow them to marry?”

“Is that so?”

“We need to increase the number of commoners to collect more taxes.”

“……No, what are you, a child, even thinking about such things?”

No, how important are taxes!

If the number of slaves increases and the number of commoners decreases, leading to a shortage of tax revenue [sesu], it is a shortcut to the ruin of the country!

“No, but is it necessary to give them ranks? Wouldn’t it be enough to just exempt them from slavery?”

“Female doctors don’t have official positions and mostly just assist doctors. Their status is also low. Then it’s difficult to protest even if they suffer any unfair treatment. You know roughly how government slaves are treated. Then the treatment of female doctors who are government slaves won’t be much different.”

“That’s… right.”

The Crown Prince’s face darkened as if he had realized something from my words.

“So they need a fence to protect them. A person in charge.”

“Wouldn’t it be okay if you did it?”

“Hmm… Princesses or Princess Consorts can do the actual management, but there must be a high-ranking person at the top.”

Besides, this was not bad news for the Queen.

Increasing the number of people to manage means that much more authority is created.

That’s also a doctor.

If the Queen wanted to use it politically, she could use it as much as she wanted.

In addition, if they are included in the Outer Court, a chief in charge of female doctors with ranks will be appointed separately, and since they will be managed through that chief, they do not have to put effort into management if they do not want to.

The king does not pay special attention to managing the medical officers of the Royal Clinic.

‘Besides, since Her Majesty the Queen is a person who needs to take care of her health, she may get much better if a capable female doctor [yeoui] takes care of Her Majesty the Queen.’

Perhaps that’s why. The Crown Prince seemed to have something in mind about the fact that male doctors couldn’t properly examine her because men and women should be separated.

In fact, even in the Joseon Dynasty that I knew, female government slaves had already been trained as female doctors since the time of King Taejong.

In the Joseon Dynasty, the distinction between men and women was so severe that it was difficult for male doctors to see women.

The country was training female doctors like that… The one who poured ashes on it was the famous tyrant Yeonsangun [Yeonsan-gun].

Female doctors, many of whom were from government slave backgrounds, were forcibly mobilized to banquets by Yeonsangun, and after the coup of Jungjong, the regime changed, but since those guys were the same in this regard anyway, they still called female doctors to drinking parties and treated them like female entertainers.

From the perspective of the officials, there was a female entertainer in the palace that they could easily call, so why would they be dissatisfied and fix it?

The medical officers in official positions did not have the guts to fight to prevent female doctors from being called to drinking parties, so they ignored such female doctors and did not fix it. In that way, female doctors were not recognized as professionals and were called Yakbang Gisaeng [a derogatory term for female doctors, implying they were merely entertainers], and were treated as female entertainers, such as being called to banquets even after that.

So there was no way for development.

‘Still, there are no such things here, so the treatment of female doctors is not as bad as it was then.’

However, no matter how capable they are, if they treat female doctors as doctors, male doctors who do not recognize the abilities of women will desperately oppose it, so it is not easy.

In the original work, the female lead struggled to be recognized for her abilities, and the parts where the guys who couldn’t recognize the female lead’s abilities and plotted and tried to harm her were caught by the female lead or the Crown Prince and received karmic retribution were quite popular, saying it was refreshing.

‘In particular, it was also fun that the mother of the royal physician, who was making a fuss saying that she couldn’t recognize the female lead, had a disease that no one could cure, but after the female lead cured her, she switched her attitude and turned to the female lead’s side….’

But just because there are many hardships and overcoming them doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good.

When she was young, her father was framed as a traitor and her family was ruined. She lost her parents early. She also lost her younger sibling. She ran away for fear of being dragged into government slavery. There was a stroke of luck, but she was treated like a servant and learned medicine hard in Sparta.

Isn’t this enough hardship in life already?

‘The female lead will come back as a doctor, so it wouldn’t be bad for me to pave the way in advance.’

Female lead’s hardship and overcoming part. I will shorten it.