Breaking the Cartel (9)

One of Joseon’s renowned ministers, Jo Mal-saeng carried the Kim Doryeon incident around like a tag for the rest of his life.

Even when Jo Mal-saeng’s son passed the civil service examination fair and square, the Ministry of Rites delayed confirming his success for two years, saying, ‘We can’t accept this bastard because his father is a corrupt official who took bribes.’ The same thing happened again when he was appointed an inspector in the Office of the Inspector-General.

At the time, Jo Mal-saeng was not serving in a high office, but he held tremendous standing as a military expert. Thus, he submitted a memorial to Sejong insisting that he was innocent in the Kim Doryeon incident and requested a reinvestigation, but...

Sejong consistently gave him no answer. He did reinstate Jo Mal-saeng, whom he had protected throughout his life as one of Taejong’s close aides, but he never overlooked his corruption.

After Jo Mal-saeng died, Sejong gave him the posthumous name Mungang, meaning ‘a minister who committed a great crime but covered it with meritorious service,’ permanently memorializing his atrocities.

By Joseon standards, where one’s posthumous honor mattered more than anything else, it was honestly a rather cruel punishment...

In truth, however, it was not quite so cruel, because King Sejong’s judgment had been extraordinarily merciful.

Under Joseon law, Jo Mal-saeng deserved to be beheaded immediately, yet he had been made to work until the day he died, giving him a chance to recover his honor.

Yet Yi Bang-won was now pretending to be a retired old man and enjoying himself immensely, even taking three more concubines and living the harem life...

His power was no different from before, and he was still the sort of man who might pull out his iron club and swing it at any moment...