There Is No Sejong In My Joseon [EN]: Chapter 285

[Looking around at his attendants, His Majesty said, “I will make a decision today. Do not ask me about each life or death, but strike down those who oppose it.”

Several soldiers surrounded the palace in layers, and the officials were all startled and prostrated themselves. Everyone was afraid, their faces changed, and no other words came out, so His Majesty finally promulgated the letters…]

Min In-saeng, who had been engrossed in recording the historical records, dropped his pencil at the loud sound of the typewriter.

“Who dares to do this in this sacred historical site!”

What he saw when he raised his head was a grand spectacle.

“······!”

He was so surprised that he even tore up the historical record he was writing.

There’s no need to feel particularly sorry.

After all, there was a separate historian in charge of today’s official record.

But the shock Min In-saeng received was significant.

Tumbling back to the Office of Annals like a zombie, he suddenly began to act strangely.

“Are you really going to do this?”

“Of course.”

“Scholar Min, aren’t you usually the one who hides in the shadows and records the historical records? Although the typewriter is fast, it is heavy and makes a lot of noise, so it may not be suitable for writing.”

“No, that’s not true. What is the inherent duty of a historian! To attend the king and record the words and actions of the monarch and his subjects, the affairs of state, and the rights and wrongs, without omitting a single detail (皆得直書) [meaning ‘to record everything truthfully’]!”

Min In-saeng slammed his knee as if he was frustrated.

‘He knows it.’

The fellow historians all thought to themselves.

Min In-saeng’s work is largely divided into two categories.

The normal work of officially attending and recording the words that are exchanged, as historians usually do.

And the unofficial work of hiding in the shadow of the king and recording important events that should be left in history.

In the case of unofficial work, Min In-saeng himself is proud of taking on this important task, but there was a significant flaw.

That is, no one specifically ordered him to do it.

Then, what is really important is to attend when the king is handling state affairs and record every word he says without missing a single one.

‘At this rate, our historians might have their work taken away by the typists one by one!’

Of course, recording historical records is also a strictly professional task.

Unlike typists who simply take notes of meeting content, it requires writing skills, extensive historical knowledge, and fair commentary.

However, his pride as a historian did not allow him to be defeated by those typists in even one area of shorthand.

“Even so, do you really have to go this far?”

“Of course! His Majesty said that the typists gained strength through this method, so I have no choice but to emulate them!”

What is the most important quality required of a typist?

It was power. The powerful force of fingers that can press the keyboard!

So, as a weak civil official, he had to first acquire that power.

“My passion is hotter than this sand! Haaap!”

Min In-saeng put in a shout and then slammed his palm down on the heated sand.

“Kkeuaaaap!”

Tears welled up in Min In-saeng’s eyes in less than a second.

The historians, who had been watching him roll around on the floor like a pill bug for a while, shook their heads and sprinkled cold water on him.

It seemed that Min In-saeng’s external training still had a long way to go.

===

‘I’ve already entrusted the typewriter improvement to them, so I just need to check on it properly in the middle.’

Thanks to Jang Yeong-sil’s strategy of improving people instead of machines, I was able to introduce the typewriter without being late.

In the process, I unintentionally created a sense of intimidation, but as long as the result is good, that’s all that matters.

However, we can’t keep mobilizing soldiers to use them as typists forever.

Jang Yeong-sil was put back on the generator side, and some artisans were tasked with improving the typewriter.

Jang Yeong-sil made a prototype and left, so the remaining people should be able to make it into something usable.

Someday, something will come out that even weak historians can handle.

‘I jokingly told you all to learn the iron palm technique.’

Logically, there’s no way you can get trained by doing that.

‘I wonder what the atmosphere in the court is like.’

The best way to find out about this is to ask my younger brother, who is working in the court.

“Chungnyeong, what is the reaction of the officials?”

Even if they couldn’t say it to my face, there might be a lot of complaints behind the scenes.

But what Do said, adjusting his glasses, was unexpected.

“It seems like it’s half and half among the officials. Half are grumbling, and half are not interested.”

Hey, I thought half and half meant 50% each for and against.

‘Still, it’s unexpected.’

I didn’t expect the mainstream opinion in the court to be strongly opposed, even though the situation of sitting on straw mats and shouting opposition in a loop, like in the dramas I used to watch, didn’t happen.

Was the drama just an exaggeration after all?

“Well, you’ve done so many strange things, Hyung-nim [older brother]. In the end, I’ve seen you do a lot of things that turned out to be beneficial.”

Do shrugged his shoulders and said.

“If they oppose it and you succeed in showing them, they’ll only look like fools, and if it’s going to fail anyway, there’s no need to raise their voices to oppose it now… That’s probably what they’re thinking.”

Well, even if you artificially create letters, it’s another matter whether the people will follow and use them.

They must be thinking that it might be automatically aborted, so there’s no reason to get on the wrong side.

But I can’t help but say that it’s too complacent a response.

That’s because reactions are slowly coming up from below.

===

The reason why the literati are familiar with Chinese characters is a kind of path dependency [the idea that decisions are influenced by past choices].

The only letters they had learned were Chinese characters, and anyone who had grown up to some extent was already proficient in communicating in Chinese characters.

Therefore, before arguing about what the emergence of Hangeul means ideologically, they inevitably felt an instinctive sense of rejection from that point.

But what about the people below them?

Soldiers, scribes, and local officials who do not need to cultivate their learning deeply.

Or the children of concubines from noble families who are half given up.

The turbulent times that had swept over this country had even forced scholars to put down their books, so it was difficult to expect them to have sufficient Confucian knowledge now.

It would have been different if it were 30 years after Hangeul was promulgated in the original history, but as of now, everyone had learned to read, but the level was truly different.

Nevertheless, the necessity to read and the leisure to learn existed, so naturally, they were the first to accept Hangeul.

“Grand Prince Chungnyeong created new letters and promulgated them, calling them Hangeul. Even the most foolish person can master it skillfully in ten days!”

“The court is urging us to learn, so let the clerks in our government office also learn it.”

It took less than half a month for those who were first put into Hangeul study to finish reading and writing.

It’s not because they were particularly talented or excellent, but because phonetic letters are originally easy to learn.

Also, because they were not yet familiar with the letters, they were close to reading aloud and thinking about the meaning again, so they immediately understood the meaning in a short time.

But this gave them great confidence.

“I guess it’s because I didn’t study······.”

“I couldn’t study because my family was poor. If my parents had made me study when I was young, I would have achieved great things by now!”

If they really thought so, they could have reached out to Confucianism, unfolded the Four Books and Three Classics, and devoted themselves to the civil service examination, but of course, they didn’t.

Monks were also interested in Hangeul.

As can be seen from the fact that Buddhist literature accounted for more than 60% of 15th-century Hangeul literature, Hangeul was originally used to popularize Buddhism in history.

“The deceased Great Master Muhak told us not to forget the teachings of Mahayana [a major branch of Buddhism]. The country is translating the Four Books and Three Classics into Hangeul, so how can our Buddhism remain silent?”

“Are you saying we should translate the Buddhist scriptures into Hangeul?”

“Before that, shouldn’t we teach the new letters to the believers? Even if we translate it, it would be meaningless if there is no one who can read it.”

The shamans who worshiped the Great King Gods in each region were also one of the groups who had no hesitation in using Hangeul.

As soon as they came into contact with Hangeul, they replaced the Chinese characters written on the amulets.

“Writing amulets is to communicate with the gods and pray for blessings. If we don’t write it with the divine words given by the Great King, what should we write it with?”

Soon, a shamanistic arrangement of Grand Prince Chungnyeong’s portrait was hung next to the Great King God, and crudely written amulets like [Long Live] and [Good Luck] began to circulate.

Hangeul, which was used by local officials and flowed out among monks and shamans, began to spread little by little to the people.

Everyone lives in similar circumstances, but if there is a consciousness shared by the people of this Confucian country, it is that the learned are the superior.

Just knowing the letters is enough to be respected by others and to be arrogant.

But if the person acting arrogant is Choi Jin-sa [a wealthy landowner] from the tiled house, it’s understandable, but if it’s Gaeddong [a commoner’s name, literally ‘dog poop’] from next door, who is no different from them, they can’t just live with it.

“What on earth is this new letter?”

“The monks are telling us to learn it.”

The people who had experienced national rural projects like the New Village Movement [a South Korean rural development program in the 1970s] were now comfortable learning something through the community.

The power of letters is strong.

The more people who use a letter, the stronger the pressure to learn that letter around them.

Also, there is no need to say more about its very low accessibility.

The reason why the Sadaebu [scholar-officials] are familiar with Chinese characters is because of the path dependency that they have learned it all their lives.

But for those who do not know the letters, that itself does not exist.

Already in the reign of the Retired King, the development of printing and papermaking had become so advanced that books could be obtained with money.

The material foundation has already been laid, and users are thirsty for letters that they can easily use.

In addition, the state is massively promoting Hangeul publication itself, so it did not take long for Hangeul to capture the market.

===

The scholars were also interested in the new letters that Grand Prince Chungnyeong had created and the King had promulgated.

“I heard a rumor that we will see this thing called Hangeul in the civil service examination now.”

“His Majesty is enthusiastically pushing it forward, so a question may come up asking us to discuss its significance. What should I write, heuu.”

The problem was that it was closer to the complaints of examinees than positive interest.

If it were just that, the stress of the exam might lead to anger at the court for adding a new headache, and then turn into hostility towards Hangeul.

But this is only the story for examinees.

Unlike the civil service examination, which was only rumored, what they immediately felt the existence of Hangeul was the existence of newly released books.

“A new volume of the Samgang Haengsil-do [Illustrations of the Three Bonds], came out this time, right?”

“Eit, how am I supposed to read something like this?”

The Samgang Haengsil-do, which came out in new letters, was the problem.

The king ordered it to be published in Hangeul, saying, ‘Let the people read it widely and cultivate the right virtues,’ and the scholars were hit by a stray bullet.

“If I want to read it, I have to learn Hangeul.”

“Eit, it’s not just the Samgang Haengsil-do. All the erotic books that come out from Namdaemun [a major market district in Seoul] are written in new letters because the commoners made them!”

“Hey, can’t you just look at the pictures?”

“How can I do that! I’m the type to pay close attention to the plot! I have no choice but to wait for a translator to appear.”

“Why don’t you learn Hangeul? It doesn’t take that long.”

“Heo, geez. I have no choice.”

First of all, since it was the letter that the king had his younger brother make, they could not publicly say that Hangeul was lowly – they were afraid of the Retired King’s iron hammer [his strong will and power].

Also, although they could regard it as lowly, there were not many who would not learn it at all.

Even they could see that it was spreading to the point where it would be inconvenient if they did not know it.

As a drama in later generations said, Hangeul was spreading like an epidemic.

And that was no exception for the women in the boudoir.

End

ⓒ Pitkong