The Commercial City of Hanyang (7)

Continually preaching and emphasizing the importance of hygiene to the people would have little effect.

That was because telling them they had to follow hygiene rules for their health and throw away spoiled food instead of eating it was not only boring but also unprofitable.

So, to show them that "If you don't follow the rules, you'll get hurt!" I punished those running restaurants in Hanyang who ignored hygiene standards and sold spoiled food.

I had them brought under escort to Hanseongbu and made them spend several days experiencing prison, while the more serious offenders were beaten with canes.

"This alone isn't enough..."

Even if the government diligently cracked down, it would have little effect if the people still took no interest in food hygiene.

They would pretend to comply when inspectors came, but behind the scenes they would wonder why they had to go to such lengths.

But since I could not give a hygiene lecture to every person, I had to find a way to explain it entertainingly so that everyone could understand it clearly.

"I hear you are the person best versed in music in Joseon. Is that right, Assistant Director of Music?"

"Are you the famous Jibu—no, Lord Kim Seoyun?"

"Yes. My parents also gave me the sobriquet Jukheon, so from now on, do not call me Jibu; call me Jukheon. I know people do not call me Jibu with bad intentions. But apparently, there is even a ridiculous rumor among the common people that I appear wherever Goryeo ghosts appear and chop off their heads with an ax... So being called Jibu makes me feel a little uncomfortable."

Park Yeon tilted his head at my words, then soon nodded in agreement.

"Yes, Lord Jukheon."

Everyone I meet for the first time calls me Jibu Kim Daebung.

In Joseon, the word Jibu had become a symbol of a subject who risked his life to submit remonstrances, so its meaning itself was extremely positive...

The problem was that, interpreted literally, it meant "a man holding an ax."

In other words, it could be misunderstood to mean, "He kills the bastard possessed by a Goryeo ghost with an ax."

'I am a man who loves peace.'

This was all because Yi Bang-won had come down with currency fever and gone on a rampage shouting, "Aaargh! We have no solution, but we must implement currency!"

"Why has Lord Kim Seoyun, who is so busy with state affairs, come to the Office of Customs and Rituals?"

"I came because I need the Assistant Director of Music's help in enlightening the people."

Park Yeon shook his head at my words.

"Music is not a means of enlightening people; it is a tool for perfecting ritual propriety."

Strictly speaking, Park Yeon was closer to being a musician than a Confucian scholar.

Thus, before Sejong ascended the throne, he had held various prestigious posts, including in the Crown Prince's Lecture Office, but afterward he spent roughly twenty years holding only music-related positions.

Considering that Joseon commonly sent officials spinning through all sorts of departments, I had to conclude that Sejong had recognized him as an extraordinarily capable musician.

"All music is necessary to uphold ritual propriety correctly. Therefore, I do not look favorably on things like hyangak, which the people sing privately."

In actual history, King Sejong sought to restore both aak, the court music based on the rites of the Zhou dynasty, and hyangak, the music of the Korean Peninsula handed down through the generations since the Silla period.

He tried to restore both of them.

He was so deeply interested in music that he personally created jeongganbo, known as the standard musical notation of modern gugak, and, after listening to the sounds of instruments Park Yeon had restored or created, was even capable of identifying and pointing out "minor differences in pitch."

By contrast, Park Yeon kept opposing the use of hyangak, saying that Joseon's traditional music did not follow the ritual propriety of the Central Plains.

"Of course, I think your idea of using music to enlighten the people is desirable for a Confucian... But if I may state my own view, music is a tool for ritual, not something to be used for enlightenment."

"I am not saying that Assistant Director Park's view is wrong. I simply see things a little differently."

Park Yeon was so devoted to music that he had once even managed to overrule Sejong's insistence that Joseon's traditional music had to be used.

If I told someone like that that he was wrong and I was right, it would lead only to a quarrel, with no progress at all.

The Art of War said that avoiding a fight as much as possible was the advantageous course, so it would be best to acknowledge that his words were not wrong and avoid wounding his pride somehow.

"Confucius said, ‘A gentleman should respond flexibly when dealing with various matters.’ The same should largely apply to music as well."

Jesus, Buddha, and Confucius were all remarkably open-minded and enlightened people by the standards of their respective eras.

That was why people who gained profound insight from their teachings kept appearing one after another, allowing teachings from thousands of years ago to survive to this day.

Confucius in particular is often badly misunderstood because of the heinous Song Si-yeol, who, when King Hyeonjong died and the Seoin faction faced the threat of impeachment, took the king's funeral hostage to quash the impeachment motion against the Seoin...

Confucius wanted to set the world's order right by observing ritual propriety, but he never hesitated to change anything that needed to be compromised on or changed.

In Confucius's time, people were so reluctant to teach anyone who was not of high status that even giving someone "instruction" was frowned upon...

Some of Confucius's disciples were even thugs, while others were so poor that they could not properly put food on the table.

Park Yeon knew Confucius's life well too, so it would be difficult for him to immediately refute my argument using Confucius's teachings.

"What was the essence of Confucius's effort to revive rites and music? As the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods began, benevolence and righteousness had fallen to the ground, and troubled times of endless wars continued one after another. Was it not his wish to create an age of peace and prosperity by emulating the rites and order of the Zhou dynasty?"

"That is true."

"Therefore, if we provide people like Namsadang troupes and jaein with proper songs and plays and have them perform them, I believe it could be an excellent way to effectively convey lessons the people must learn."

"Namsadang troupes and jaein are people who cause nothing but trouble for the country, like the hwacheok."

"His Majesty punished only the arsonists among the hwacheok living in Hanyang and their families; he did not even prohibit the rest from pursuing their livelihoods. More than that, he opened a path for them to become commoners. If His Majesty enlightened even those hwacheok, how could he fail to enlighten Namsadang troupes and jaein?"

Namsadang performers and jaein were professions placed in the category of the lowborn, just like slaves.

And, as Park Yeon had said, they were also a group that caused quite a lot of trouble.

They wandered from region to region giving performances, and it was not uncommon for them to kidnap children when they felt their troupe was short of members...

They were treated as doing lowly work and had wildly unstable incomes, and since practically no woman wanted to marry them, there were even madmen among them who turned to "male love."

"Male love" was a pretty euphemistic name for rape committed against men.

Of course, they had one advantage over the baekjeong: unlike the baekjeong, they did not go around setting villages on fire or lead groups in armed demonstrations.

"The government has neither properly managed them nor done anything but suppress them indiscriminately, so have they not been forced to keep hiding in the shadows even to make a living? That is why they have become so degenerate."

Whatever the matter, if you do not open up a way for people to survive and only crack down on them blindly, they will merely hide in the shadows and grow corrupt.

In the United States in the early twentieth century, Prohibition was enacted, but that did not mean Americans stopped drinking.

When alcohol was prohibited, they devised all sorts of workarounds and continued to drink.

There were blocks that turned into grape juice when dissolved in water, but after discovering that leaving them for a long time in a place without sunlight had the unfortunate side effect of turning them into ‘wine,’ people bought and drank ‘grape juice blocks’ like mad...

Mafia gangs even smuggled alcohol as though it were narcotics, and cases of people dying in the process must have occurred fairly often.

"The people of Joseon are full of spirit and make and sing all sorts of hyangak, are they not? If it cannot be prohibited, I believe the right thing is to guide them in the proper direction."

"What, specifically, do you intend to do?"

"Just as gisaeng register their names in the gijeok (gisaeng registry), I think it would be better to create rosters of Namsadang troupes and jaein, manage them separately, and allow them to perform legally. We should also inspect the contents of their performances, set boundaries, and prohibit anything too obscene or contrary to Confucian duties."

Unless something is like narcotics, which ruin a person without fail the moment they touch it, one must be able to compromise with a certain amount of ugliness.

Put bluntly, if the government banned tobacco and alcohol outright, society might be a little better off...

'The harm would be far greater than the benefits gained by banning them.'

"The songs and stories they perform give the people interest and pleasure, leaving a deep impression. So if their performances conveyed the facts that people must wash themselves properly for the sake of their health, that those who ignore hygiene and sell rotten food must be punished, and that the ends of the unfilial and disloyal are always bad, telling people to strive for loyalty and filial piety... The people who saw them would realize their mistakes and naturally come to aspire to a proper life."

"Is that really possible?"

"Humor me and help me just this once."

"If I say I cannot..."

"Then I intend to have it implemented even if I must submit a memorial to His Majesty."

Park Yeon had argued that Joseon did not need to preserve hyangak, but Sejong ultimately preserved it and passed it down to later generations.

That's right. If His Majesty King Sejong decided to do something, it would happen without fail.

"Don't tell me this applies to this matter too..."

"I will help."

That was how I dumped the work on Park Yeon.

Now, once Park Yeon found and brought back a decent Namsadang troupe, all I had to do was handle the rest of the persuasion.

How wonderful was that?