Chapter 221
Someone once said.
Revenge is empty.
They say that if you truly want revenge, the best course is to forgive your enemy and find peace in your heart.
But I think that saying is wrong.
Taking revenge won't bring back what I lost, but at least it will thoroughly vent the resentment caused by being unable to take revenge.
That alone makes revenge worthwhile, I think.
It completely eliminates the possibility of me dying from pent-up anger.
“Chief State Councillor, did you complete your visit to your ancestral graves and return safely?”
When Hwang Hui saw me appear at Uijeongbu, his complexion darkened, and he swallowed dryly.
To an outsider, it would look exactly like a debtor had run into a predatory loan shark who had come to collect a debt.
No, does he think I came here to do something to him...?
I merely wanted to create an opportunity for everyone to devote themselves to the happiness of Joseon's people and the welfare of the state.
“I was saddened that I could not properly complete the three-year mourning rites after my mother passed away, but after making time to live by her grave for even a short while, I was able to lighten the burden weighing on my heart.”
“I'm relieved to hear that your heart feels much lighter, my lord.”
In Joseon, when people hear the term ‘three-year mourning,’ they often imagine living in a thatched hut beside the grave and eating only coarse food, like Yuan Shao in Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
Frankly speaking, almost no one would observe all those rites while carrying out three-year mourning.
In Joseon, performing three-year mourning for one's parents was considered the natural duty of a yangban scholar-official, but since no one was assigned to monitor whether they properly observed it or not...
They would eat coarse food, but also have meat and rice from time to time while taking reasonable care of their health.
If someone became chronically ill and died while performing three-year mourning, how could that be filial? It would be unfilial.
If their deceased parents knew about it, it would be like driving a nail straight into their hearts.
Of course, an exception would be made for three-year mourning that attracted a great deal of attention, such as mourning for a king.
And living by the grave after the three-year mourning period had ended...
‘It was merely an excuse to take a break, in practice.’
I had not seen it myself, but according to the testimony of several officials, Hwang Hui's complexion looked much better than before when he returned from mourning his parents' deaths.
That's right. That man had foisted the post of dangsanggwan on me and gone off to enjoy a long vacation.
“Since Your Excellency entrusted this foolish subordinate with the heavy responsibility of a dangsanggwan, I have devised several policies in hopes of living up to your expectations even a little. Could you review them?”
“Of course I can do that much. Hand them over.”
At my signal, a government slave brought over a collection of policy proposals compiled in book form.
The bundle of proposals was, with only a little exaggeration, as thick as an encyclopedia, and a stream of cold sweat ran down Hwang Hui's forehead when he saw it.
“What on earth is this?”
“I have written down the various problems I encountered while serving as the person in charge of the papermaking factory, along with ways to solve them.”
“Do you know why His Majesty sent you to serve as the Jojiseo Manufacturing Commissioner (temporary overall director)?”
“Wasn't I sent to carefully examine whether there were any difficulties in mass-producing paper and books while building Jojiseo's new papermaking factory? So I examined what was lacking and worked hard to devise ways to solve it.”
The reason King Sejong had made me Manufacturing Commissioner of Jojiseo was so that I could leave the practical work to Jeong Bun and take it easy.
But taking it easy was terribly difficult.
I was bored stiff and so restless that I thought I would die.
“Upon careful examination, I found that Jojiseo consumes a great deal of paper mulberry. His late Majesty King Taejo once ordered that many paper mulberry trees be planted, but the supply was insufficient, causing trouble on several occasions.”
Now, because I had them use not only paper mulberry but every kind of tree, and even pull up grass to make paper, the amount of paper mulberry consumed had actually decreased compared with when only paper mulberry was used.
However, the consumption of other trees had increased by several times more than the decrease in paper mulberry consumption...
At this rate, Joseon's forests would be reduced to bare mountains—not because of the need for firewood, but because of the need for paper.
Failing to foresee a problem would be one thing, but once a problem had been foreseen, devising countermeasures and failing to prepare would be dereliction of duty.
"At present, since many trees have been planted on the mountains throughout the Eight Provinces of Joseon, it may seem as though there is no problem, but if this continues, all the trees will be depleted and the mountains will become bare before long."
"Even when the ironworks was built in Jaeryeong, I hear they had to cut down as many as 2,000 trees in the nearby mountains in just a few months."
"To prevent such a situation, saplings must continually be planted wherever trees are cut down. Only then will we be able to maintain the number of trees in the mountains."
If the trees disappeared from the mountains, the problem would not simply be that they became unsightly.
Firewood could somehow be replaced with the coal scattered throughout the Eight Provinces of Joseon.
But if the trees taking root in the mountains disappeared, landslides would occur frequently when the monsoon rains came...
The amount of groundwater stored underground, which served as the source of well water, would also decrease, and the amount of water flowing into the rivers would consequently decline.
Furthermore, since farming was absolutely impossible without water, agricultural productivity would fall as well.
'If things went badly, we would have a great famine.'
"In addition, we should plant plenty of grasses such as reeds along the riverbanks throughout the country."
"We could harvest them from time to time to use in papermaking, and the people could use them to make vessels such as baskets. There would be no reason not to."
"Beginning with the riverbanks where papermaking factories have been established, we should plant them throughout the country."
With Joseon's current technology, it was difficult to purify the wastewater produced by papermaking factories or ironworks.
The only thing I could do was dump the wastewater somewhere a little distant from water sources such as rivers and groundwater.
One way to supplement that, to some degree, was to plant plenty of reeds and other plants that helped purify the water around the factories.
"Also, to print books in large quantities, we need to make type, but right now, aren't we making printing plates by arranging the existing type according to the contents of each book? Yet this system is not very efficient."
"Why do you think so?"
"Even by a rough count, there are tens of thousands of kinds of Chinese characters, and to print a book using them, each character has to be found individually and arranged in order. The time and effort required for this task are far from insignificant."
Even if we tried to make a Hangeul type plate, gathering and arranging the consonants and vowels would be no easy task; but gathering tens of thousands of Chinese-character sorts and making a plate to print with would be an enormous burden.
Therefore, as newspaper companies use rotary presses, it would be better to make an entire page at once and use that.
Well, that would surely require no ordinary amount of work either...
Once a metal plate had been made, treating it like the woodblocks used for the Tripitaka, it could be used at least a thousand, perhaps even ten thousand, times.
In the end, this would cost less money and require less labor as well.
"Rather, it would be far more efficient to engrave the contents of the Four Books and Three Classics onto metal plates, like the Tripitaka at Haeinsa, and use them to print."
"The initial effort would be considerable, but once that process was complete, we could easily print thousands of volumes."
"Yes, my lord."
"If the effort required to print books were reduced, their prices would fall, allowing more people to learn the principles of Confucius and Mencius."
In the reality of Joseon, a single book cost as much as a commoner's annual income, and one could barely prepare for the civil service examinations without acquiring several such books.
In such circumstances, how could people struggling to live from one day to the next even think of studying?
Only if we lowered the prices of books written in Chinese characters would the claim that people did not study because Chinese characters were difficult, rather than because they had no books, hold water.
Even if we created Hunminjeongeum and made it easy for the people to read, could they study if book prices remained as high as they were now?
That was utter barking nonsense.
And just then, a third party suddenly cut into Hwang Hui's words and answered.
"If lower book prices mean that more people can learn the principles of Confucius and Mencius and study... That is a pleasant thought just to hear."
What? Ordinarily, when the king came, someone was supposed to announce it aloud by shouting, ‘His Majesty the King is coming,’ or beat a drum to let everyone know...
Why was he appearing so sneakily without making a sound?
Was he playing at being an assassin or something?
"The conversation between the Deputy Director and the Chief State Councillor was so interesting that I ordered the eunuchs and officials not to announce my arrival. If they learned that I had come, the conversation would end right there."
Sejong looked at me and flashed a grin.
“Chief State Councillor, you said that the people could not study because books were too expensive, did you not?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Book prices will fall in the future, then. Do you think the people will be able to study once that happens?”
“The people are those who struggle even to earn enough to eat each day. Therefore, even if book prices fall somewhat, very few will be able to begin studying immediately. However, if prices fall, somewhat more people than before will be able to experience the joy of learning.”
At that, Sejong nodded.
“I suppose that is so.”
Then Sejong issued an order to us.
“All the principles by which a person lives begin with Sohak. Therefore, make every effort to print Sohak.”