The Commercial City of Hanyang (8)

Ten days after asking Park Yeon to introduce me to a worthwhile Namsadang troupe, a kkokdusoe (the leader of a Namsadang troupe) came to my house to see me.

“Are you Gong-gil, the kkokdusoe whom Assistant Director of Music Park Yeon sent to me?”

“Yes, my lord. I am Gong-gil.”

“Did Assistant Director Park tell you why I asked you to come?”

Gong-gil shook his head at my question.

“Assistant Director Park only told me that the Seoyun of Hanseongbu wanted to see a performance by a Namsadang troupe like mine. He said nothing else.”

Just as baekjeong in Joseon were treated as potential serious criminals, Namsadang troupes were likewise regarded as near-social evils.

To be honest, even I thought those two groups really were potential social evils.

But in the case of the baekjeong, after the Great Fire of Hanyang, I set them on the path to rehabilitation, and over time the local residents gradually began to accept them.

The baekjeong of old were men who rode around on horseback, doing all sorts of strange things and never hesitating to commit violent crimes.

Namsadang troupes likewise traveled throughout all eight provinces of Joseon, getting up to all sorts of suspicious things.

‘Some of them even committed the serious crime of kidnapping children.’

It seemed Park Yeon had refrained from properly conveying the message because he feared that if he tipped off men like these that I intended to entrust them with state work, they would spread it everywhere.

“I asked to see you because I intend to entrust you with an important task for the state.”

“You intend to entrust a government task to a lowly person like me?”

“Do I look like someone who says one thing and then another?”

“Oh, no, my lord. Not anyone else, but the famous Lord Kim Seoyun—how could you say one thing and then another? I am merely surprised.”

He said that, but the kkokdusoe Gong-gil’s expression grew sour.

In Joseon, when commoners were made to perform government work, it was customary to make them work without offering any compensation...

He seemed to think they would be made to perform unpaid slave labor too.

I had absolutely no intention of doing that.

Making people work without pay was something only Ryu Jeong-hyeon, possessed by a Goryeo ghost, would do.

“If you do exactly as I instruct, I will make sure you can eat plenty of white rice and takbaegi for the next several months. I will also pay you a generous wage.”

“Is that really true?”

“My father-in-law is the greatest merchant in Joseon, and I am not poor myself. How could I exploit people without paying them anything? In return, however, you must work hard enough to earn what you receive.”

“Leave it to me, my lord.”

Money really was the best.

Seeing the smile bloom across the face that had been souring terribly until he heard I would pay him properly made me feel once again that it was true.

“I hear that among the performances you put on are deotboegi (masked dance) and deolmi (puppet theater). I understand that deotboegi involves wearing masks and presenting comical stories, while deolmi is performed using puppets. Is that correct?”

“Yes, that is correct.”

“I hear both deotboegi and deolmi make very sharp satirical jabs at yangban like me. That is why the yangban dislike you, is it not?”

When I lived in Yanggu, members of Namsadang troupes would occasionally come to the village as well.

The lines they delivered during their performances were enough to make any yangban who heard them absolutely furious.

There was one line I still remembered.

What you receive as gifts from the people on holidays is their blood and tears, yet you happily gobbled it down without even knowing, until your belly swelled like a mountain. I nearly built a house on top of it.

No, it was because your belly had grown as large as a mountain from all the mountain-like virtue you had accumulated.

I think it went something like that.

By caricaturing and mocking the yangban in this way, my father, as well as the other yangban, treated Namsadang performances as lowly and did not enjoy watching them.

Since I had a modern mindset, I did not believe the yangban should be treated as a sacred, untouchable class, so I put on shabby clothes to avoid notice and laughed as I watched their performances.

I also paid them generously when the performance ended.

"Surely you are not asking us to satirize the yangban..."

"I do not mind at all if you satirize the yangban. To put it bluntly, people say that even the king is cursed behind his back, do they not? However, some narrow-minded person might curse you for being disrespectful, and then you would be severely punished... I have no intention of asking that of you."

Ah, that did not mean I intended to ban masked dances satirizing the yangban.

On the contrary, I intended to encourage them actively.

Not only did I not consider the yangban literati an absolutely inviolable sacred class, but if masked dances satirizing corrupt and rotten yangban became widespread...

Yangban who lived and died by their honor might fear becoming the target of satire in their village, so they would take a little more care with their behavior.

However, if the Namsadang troupe currently performing with my support staged a masked dance satirizing the yangban, the yangban literati across the country would rise up and try to wipe out Namsadang performers, jaein, and everyone like them...

'Not yet.'

"Instead, I would like you to turn stories I write into deotboegi or deolmi performances. Can you do that?"

"If you pay us, there is nothing we cannot do, but what are they about?"

Even art can only be created when it makes money, in the end.

That was why premodern art had been driven by the filthy rich.

The rich wanted to hear proper music, so they would spend what would be hundreds of thousands of won today on ticket prices alone, and when that did not seem enough, a wealthy patron would spend hundreds of millions of won to maintain a symphony orchestra.

Thus, music and art suited to their tastes flourished and became fashionable.

"Restaurants have recently sprung up all over Hanyang, but some unscrupulous people are cooking in filthy kitchens and selling food that is spoiled or nearly rotten. How about a story in which a tavern proprietress who sold spoiled food to make money ends up accidentally killing someone and receives harsh punishment for her crime?"

Joseon has no television, no radio, and not even newspapers.

Therefore, even if a troupe held a performance lasting nearly twelve hours, anyone with the time would stay until the end and watch the whole thing.

The only dopamine people could normally enjoy was making idle small talk, eating delicious food, or engaging in vigorous nighttime exercise with their wives...

So they did not get tired even after watching a Namsadang performance lasting nearly twelve hours, complete with all sorts of flashy gestures, lively voices, and dazzling dances.

And after watching such a performance, they could brag about it to others and gain something to talk about as well...

If a masked dance were staged about a woman who received harsh punishment for selling rotten food, people would mock that woman while also spreading an understanding of food hygiene.

"Besides that, I would like you to include stories about a filial son receiving blessings and becoming prosperous, or a poor person becoming rich through hard work."

"That does not sound easy..."

"It won't be easy."

Creating something is generally not easy.

Even something as lighthearted as a masked dance is created by someone who endlessly agonizes over how to make the audience properly grasp the message they want to convey.

Moreover, deotboegi (masked dances) in this era often lasted more than two hours.

Two hours would be two episodes of a television drama, or roughly one movie's worth of plot when it came to a film...

Writing the script must be extremely difficult.

"Still, it is not impossible, is it?"

"That is true, but... this is not an easy task. We have to make a living too... We cannot devote ourselves entirely to fulfilling your request."

There was only one thing I needed to say to steer the conversation in a more comfortable direction.

'Really? But this is an order from me, the Seoyun of Hanseongbu. What are you going to do about it? You will meekly answer ‘Yes,’ won't you?'

However, forcing him to do it that way would not be right.

I had to make him want to do it of his own accord.

"You know that the state has established markets centered around various ferry crossings, including Yongsan, Gwangju, and Noryangjin, do you not? And you know there are open spaces there suitable for performances."

"Yes, I am aware of that."

"If you grant my request, I will let your troupe be the only one allowed to set up and perform there for the next six months."

Gong-gil swallowed hard when he heard my words.

"I will give you four seom of white rice every time you set up and perform."

"Is that really true?"

"How about moving locations and performing once every five days? Yongsan on the fifth, Gwangju on the tenth, and Noryangjin on the fifteenth, for example. That would give you six performances a month, and you could receive twenty-four seom of white rice from me alone. If you add what the people who come to watch pay... it looks like it could become a rather substantial sum."

Saliva dripped from Gong-gil's open mouth.

"We will do it without fail, my lord. This is what we do best."

"No wonder you are someone Assistant Director Park recommended. You certainly have fire in your belly."

"Thank you, my lord."

"However. You must go to Hanseongbu as soon as possible and register your troupe. Every member of your troupe must be entered in the troupe register (a document), without exception. Only then will you be free to perform wherever you wish, including Hanyang. The authorities will soon prevent any unregistered troupe from performing. And while you remain in Hanyang, do not cause any trouble."

To make the good points of Namsadang troupes widely known, I had to make it clear that they were harmless.

If that failed, everything would be ruined.

So, at least while they were staying in Hanyang this time, I wanted them to keep a low profile.

"Bear in mind that if you cause trouble, you will face severe consequences."