Sejong's Enlightenment (3)

King Sejong smiled at me.

It looked exactly like the smile a professor wears when entertaining nefarious thoughts about one of his students.

Frightened, I wanted to cry out, ‘No. I don't want to. Please don't!’ But...

I restrained myself because I could not say such a thing to the King.

“What Kim Sain said was excellent, but there are a few things that concern me, so I wish to ask you about them separately.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“You said that as commerce expanded, workshops would become more numerous and the number of artisans would increase, while the growing number of merchant guilds would also increase the number of people working as laborers. You said that the more commerce developed, the more jobs there would be, so everyone among the people except those unwilling to work would be able to find employment. Thus, those who found work would gain a constant income (a steady livelihood) and escape hunger and poverty... But no matter how much I thought about it, there was one thing I could not understand.”

“What is it?”

“Among the yangban landowners, there are men who demand that tenant farmers pay as much as six tenths (60 percent), or even seven tenths, of their harvest as rent. Some also force tenant farmers to perform all sorts of odd jobs as though they were household servants, and do not hesitate to beat them when displeased. There are cruel men who pay no attention even when resentment fills the entire county. On the other hand, I have heard that there are other yangban landowners who take five tenths as rent but neither force their tenant farmers to perform odd jobs nor beat them. I hear that one major reason they behave this way is that they fear their ‘reputation in the county’ might suffer.”

As I listened to Sejong, I suddenly broke out in gooseflesh...