Black Corporation: Joseon

Chapter 251

As the reorganization plan was finalized, Street of the Six Ministries moved busily. The government purchased nearby civilian houses, demolished them, and began constructing new government office buildings.

When the buildings were completed at the end of such construction, officials loaded books, scrolls, and bundles of letters onto carts and carried out the relocation.

“Check the list of documents to be moved!”

“Nothing left out?”

“Hey! These are documents that should be left behind!”

“Yes! Yes! I’ll organize them!”

“Oh! Oh! It’s collapsing!”

“I told you to stack them properly!”

Amidst all sorts of shouts and reprimands, mid and low-level officials had to move the luggage while sweating profusely.

“Move them properly! Make a mistake and see what happens! I’ll have you stuck in the Records Office for life!”

“Eek!”

***

The relocation that had been proceeding with a huge commotion paused for a moment.

“Take a lunch break and reassemble!”

“Yes!”

The officials who had stopped work for a moment scattered in groups of three or five. While a considerable number of the scattered officials moved to the communal dining hall, others opened their pockets, collected money, and called servants.

“Malbok! Bunnam!”

The servants who were called parked their carts and came running.

“Yes, my lord!”

“Did you call for me?”

“You go and buy dried rice cake soup according to the headcount and bring it back, and you buy three or four crocks of takju (cloudy rice wine). No, tell them to deliver it.”

“Yes, my lord!”

The servants who received the order put the coins in their pockets and quickly disappeared.

One of the officials watching them grumbled to his colleagues.

“If those bastards could read, we could get work done more conveniently…”

One of the colleagues smirked at the complaint.

“What? You think it’s possible for them too since the commoner schools are going well?”

The official who first brought up the topic silently nodded at his colleague’s question.

***

As the operation of commoner schools that opened last fall continued for about 4 months, reports on the academic achievement of children attending the schools came up from all over the country.

– In 3 months, they perfectly acquired an average of 500 Chinese characters, and children with fast progress finished the Thousand Character Classic and entered the Elementary Learning.

In the case of mathematics, they achieved the ability to calculate basic addition and subtraction.

Sejong and the ministers who confirmed these reports were encouraged by the positive results.

“If this situation continues, the people can escape from ignorance!”

Therefore, the idea of teaching writing to nobi (slaves) came up.

***

The conversation that started as a casual joke gradually turned into a serious discussion.

The official who brought up the idea of educating the slaves presented grounds for his argument.

“Aren’t they human too anyway? Then if we teach them, they can learn.”

To that, the official who mentioned the commoner schools shook his head.

“It’s difficult. Did you forget the reason those schools produced those results? Didn’t they do that by teaching the children from morning until sunset?”

***

The classes at commoner schools were limited to the agricultural off-season. As a result, classes started in the morning and continued until around sunset. Lunch was provided at the school, using dried military rations as Hyang had planned. It was a porridge that was so thick it was chewy, but the children liked it. The reason was that it contained a large amount of meat as it followed the same standard as the rations supplied to the military. Of course, starting with dried rice cake soup, the meat consumption of ordinary people had increased, but meat was always welcome.

Moreover, it was not simply providing dried rations. The cooks hired by the commoner schools showcased their skills and made soups and side dishes to eat with the rations. Soybean paste soup with dried radish greens was a staple, and there were always types of soups made with seaweed or kelp and salted vegetables. Occasionally, fruits donated by the wealthy of the village where the school was located were served as special treats, and the children’s nutritional status actually improved.

***

The official who presented the class hours of commoner schools as a counterargument continued.

“Even if the slaves want to learn, do you think they’ll have time to learn?”

“…”

At those words, the official who first presented the opinion was at a loss for an answer. Seeing that, the official who had expressed opposition pressed on.

“They say knowing the Thousand Character Classic is roughly enough, but that’s not actually the case, is it? The situation is that you need to know at least 3,000 characters to be considered somewhat literate.”

At that, another official chimed in.

“Nah~ 3,000 characters aren’t necessary. If you know about 1,500 characters, you can understand what the official bulletins posted on the walls are saying, right?”

“3,000 characters or 1,500 characters, it’s six of one, half a dozen of the other. Anyway, it’s impossible to teach the slaves writing and make use of it. It would be better to find ways to encourage the studies of those learning at commoner schools and middle schools instead.”

“That’s the right answer. Even if they know up to 1,500 characters, it’s still insufficient for official documents, right? Official documents contain at least 10,000 characters.”

At those words, all the officials nodded. As soon as he finished speaking, the official who had opposed from the beginning continued.

“There’s also the issue of idu (characters writing).”

“Ah…”

As ‘idu’ was mentioned, all the officials who had been listening to the conversation around them greatly nodded.

***

For letters or contracts exchanged between close acquaintances, most could be resolved with the aforementioned 1,500 characters or so.

However, that was not the case for formal official documents or memorials submitted to the king. Therefore, on the desks of officials, there were always official document writing textbooks and dictionaries like Yupian along with writing instruments. Even officials who had thoroughly studied the Four Books and Five Classics, or in severe cases the Thirteen Classics, and had passed the state examination and were confident in their writing had to break out in a cold sweat without textbooks and dictionaries.

***

This problem became even more unsolvable when it came to idu (including hyangchal, gugyeol, etc.).

Gugyeol, which was used as a substitute for Korean particles, consisted of about 20-30 characters, so it was not a significant problem. However, the situation became complicated starting with hyangchal. It was because one had to consider whether the hyangchal notation written in a sentence represented meaning or pronunciation.

Of course, there were customary methods to distinguish between meaning and pronunciation, but those methods did not always fit.

To make matters worse, as Joseon’s trade range expanded and Joseon’s territories increased, the concerns of officials deepened.

Ming, the suzerain state of Chinese characters, could be set aside, but Japan was also in the same Chinese character usage sphere, so if the Chinese characters they used were written as is, the situation was resolved. Although Joseon’s pronunciation and Japan’s pronunciation were different, if written in sentences, conversation was possible even without interpretation.

However, the situation was different for the Jurchen people who had recently entered in large numbers. In severe cases, all records had to be made, including the name bestowed by Joseon, the one received from Ming, and the transliteration of the name called among the Jurchen people themselves, in order to prevent errors from occurring. Fortunately, there was a way for the Jurchen tribes to write their names or unique words in Chinese characters. Errors could be reduced by using their Chinese character notation.

For Muslims and Westerners, it was even more complicated.

To record their names like ‘Pietro,’ ‘Raphael,’ ‘Mansur,’ or place names like ‘Aden’ or ‘Alexandria,’ officials had to go beyond simple recording and into the realm of creation.

If an official was good at writing, they made a transliteration notation that could be inferred to some extent, but in most cases, the best they could do was bring Chinese characters with the closest pronunciation to the original and attach them.

The most representative example was transcribing ‘Alexandria’ as ‘Araegusanduria’ (亞來口山豆里亞).

When the officials who first checked the report submitted by Oh Ha-seok called him without reading it.

“What is it?”

“What kind of sentence is this?”

“This is a place name. It’s a city called ‘Alexandria.'”

At Oh Ha-seok’s answer, the officials sorting documents all frowned.

“What kind of city name…”

“For us, it would be like taking the name of a famous king from the old Three Han States era and attaching a word meaning city to it.”

“The name of a king?”

“They say it’s Alexander.”

“Alex… Ugh…”

In the end, the officials had no choice but to use ‘Araegusanduria’ (亞來口山豆里亞) as is.

Of course, a few officials who didn’t know how to give up sought out Hyang with a glimmer of hope.

Upon receiving the report, Hyang asked on the spot.

“Do you have time to worry about that too? You have a lot of free time, don’t you?”

“No! We’ll just use it as is!”

The startled officials had to run away with their tails between their legs.

***

“Idu is definitely a problem.”

“Indeed.”

“We need some kind of alternative.”

“An alternative? You mean directly using their writing systems?”

The official who was asked shook his head.

“Isn’t that impossible? The countries we will trade with in the future will keep increasing, so isn’t it impossible to learn all their languages and writing systems?”

“Then what?”

“Isn’t the best solution to create a writing system that makes that possible?”

As soon as the official’s answer ended, the surroundings became quiet. After a brief silence, the officials around them simultaneously waved their hands.

“Nah~ Say something that makes sense!”

“You’re talking nonsense!”

“Are you dreaming in broad daylight?”

At the negative reactions around him, the official who spoke also asked with a bitter smile.

“It’s probably difficult, right?”

“Isn’t that obvious! From the old Three Han States era when Chinese characters first came in until now, for nearly a thousand years, do you think there haven’t been people who had such thoughts? But what are the results? There aren’t any, right?”

“That’s true…”

The official who had spoken also nodded at that point.

In the end, the most senior official among those chattering stepped forward and reached a conclusion.

“Creating a writing system is not an easy task. And creating a perfect writing system like the one you mentioned is even more difficult. If someone capable of that appears, they would go down in history for that alone.”

“I suppose so.”

“Indeed. Ah! The dried rice cake soup and takju have arrived! Hurry and eat, then get back to work!”

“Yes!”

With that, the officials ended the discussion and started their meal.

***

“These days, our father is being too suspicious.”

Hyang, who was organizing documents in the study of the Eastern Palace, muttered while looking in the direction of Geunjeongjon Hall with his arms crossed.

It was because recently, the number of times Sejong asked about writing was gradually increasing.

Although he casually threw questions as if he just thought of them in passing, the difficulty level of the questions was gradually increasing.

It was the same at the morning court.

“Ah, by the way. Crown Prince. I was reading a book by Westerners about city hygiene and…”

As the court ended and Hyang and the ministers were hastily gathering their writing tools and reports, Sejong suddenly spoke to Hyang.

“Yes, Father. Please ask.”

‘Anyway, Father is also non-standard. Way off at that.’

When he first encountered Latin books, Sejong needed Hasan’s help. However, before long, Sejong no longer needed Hasan’s help. That’s why Hyang evaluated him as “non-standard.”

‘But what book did Father bring these days?’

While Hyang was trying to remember, the question Sejong threw was absurd.

“The letters that make up the speaking form of words are usually about 5-6.”

‘You’re talking about vowels!’

Having grasped the meaning of Sejong’s words, Hyang immediately answered.

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Is it possible to express all pronunciations with such a small number?”

“Regarding that issue, Westerners express it by pairing the letters representing that form or mixing the pronunciations of other letters.”

“It’s a bit complicated.”

“Indeed.”

‘Therefore, the vowels of Hangul are basically based on the three elements of heaven, earth, and man… Oops!’

Hyang forcibly held back the words that were about to automatically come out.

‘Endure it! You’ll be beheaded if you’re not careful! You have to endure!’

Sejong, who was glancing at Hyang struggling to hold back the words that were automatically trying to come out, leaned back on the backrest.

“I see. Go and take care of your work.”

“Yes, Father.”

Sejong, who had sent Hyang and the ministers out, descended from the throne.

“I will take a brief nap at Gangnyeongjeon, so the historian should not follow.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

***

Sejong, who had returned to Gangnyeongjeon, entered the secret space and unfolded a paper.

“It would indeed be a problem if the number of medial vowels is too small.”

Sejong had already established the basic structure of initial consonants, medial vowels, and final consonants.

“But it’s not good to indicate each one with a different shape either…”

Pondering, Sejong observed the traces of Hyang scattered in the other room.

“Hmm…”

Sejong, who had been tracing the shapes with his finger, suddenly became stiff.

“Aha! Based on the three elements of heaven, earth, and man… I’ve solved it!”

***