Chapter 61
I'm not against being promoted, either.
Who among all the people who work for a living—no, among everyone in this world who has a job—would dislike a promotion?
Well, that's not entirely true; in modern society there are indeed people who refuse promotions because they value work-life balance or because the added duties and responsibilities are too much.
Still, there is one thing I can say for certain.
In Joseon, almost no one who passed the civil service exam did so without making advancement in life their goal. Of course, the degree of their desperation varied from person to person.
As for me, I'm not so obsessed with climbing the ladder that I'd cling to it, but I absolutely have no intention of refusing if they offer me a promotion.
"Are you saying you have no desire to rise in the world? If you want it, I will specially promote you—even if it means breaking court procedure and precedent, or enduring a flood of memorials from the opposing ministers."
If it were Cudgel King Yi Bang-won, he'd force it through no matter what the ministers said.
Even that bastard Seonjo, on the eve of the Imjin War, appointed Admiral Yi Sun-sin—who, by Joseon standards, had never given or taken a bribe and was even judged to have 'poor social skills' and dismissed several times—as the Left Naval Commander of Jeolla.
When the ministers said it made no sense to promote him that much all at once, he even pulled a ridiculous stunt and promoted him once every seven days.
So if it was Yi Bang-won, there was no way he couldn't do it.
"Your humble servant has only done my utmost to repay Your Majesty's grace. In truth, the reason the Bangwon Law was able to benefit the poor people was because His Majesty the Retired King trusted this humble servant completely. All I did was help with Your Majesty's great undertaking a little. So how could I possibly ask His Majesty the Retired King to promote me?"
For a typical junior sixth-rank official, it takes about six years to advance to the upper junior sixth rank. Yet I was able to climb this high in just three.
Even rising three years faster than everyone else is already an enormous privilege.
But if I want to rise in the world, what happens if I get another special promotion this time?
It wouldn't be a problem while Yi Bang-won and Sejong are still alive...
But such a precedent is clearly very likely to be abused by later generations.
"Your humble servant certainly does not dislike rising in the world. However, if His Majesty the Retired King promotes me again out of affection for me, wouldn't that beautiful precedent be abused later on?"
Yi Bang-won tilted his head for a moment.
Then, as if he had suddenly realized something, he gave a warm smile.
"I have no intention of testing you. Your loyalty was already clearly seen by me, by His Majesty, and by all the people of Joseon when you submitted that direct memorial at Gwanghwamun. Moreover, you have committed not even the slightest fault or corruption until now. I trust you more deeply than I trust Jinsan Buwongun Ha Ryun."
Jinsan Buwongun Ha Ryun, Taejong's right-hand man and the strategist he trusted most.
The others went around boasting that they were meritorious subjects or royal in-laws, and ended up with their heads smashed in, dead or trapped in exile. Ha Ryun was the one person Yi Bang-won trusted to the very end.
"So state plainly what you want."
"I would like talented merchants to be widely appointed and given charge of state affairs."
"Hahaha. You really are a person after all. To go that far for the sake of your favorite concubine's father."
Although Yi Bang-won said it like that, he didn't seem offended at all.
For a moment, it felt like he was wearing the kind of smile a 'professor' makes when kidnapping slaves...
Well, what I said could, depending on how you look at it, also be taken as a request to get my father-in-law an official post.
I should clear up the misunderstanding quickly.
Otherwise Sejong the Great might say, 'Our Daebung has a weakness now! You there, make Kim Daebung Chief State Councillor for life at once!'
What I'm doing isn't a job request driven by greed; it's a proposal for the country. I can't exactly serve for life like Hwang Hui, who, blinded by greed, stuffed himself with bribes.
"The core of the Bangwon Law is agriculture and commerce. Almost all yangban officials, though the size of the land they hold may differ, are landowners of one kind or another. So even if they have never farmed themselves, they know very well how to manage those who do."
It does seem a little absurd that the yangban know agriculture so well...
But if I shift perspective a little, it makes perfect sense.
Just as it would make no sense for a landlord not to know his own property or the taxes and regulations that go with it...
it would make no sense for the yangban, who are essentially Joseon's landowners, not to know farming.
Agricultural books like Nongsa Jikseol, compiled in Sejong's era, were also put together by combining the knowledge the yangban had and the wisdom of elderly farmers.
"However, among the officials who come to court, there isn't a single one—including myself—who understands how commerce actually works or what its real nature is."
If court officials understood commerce, those shameless monks wouldn't have been able to secretly fleece the officials dispatched as county magistrates.
If they got caught gouging prices, depending on the crime they could be beaten with dozens of lashes, or at worst become headless ghosts dragged off to Buddhist hell for the sin of sucking the life out of the common people.
"You're right."
"Even if you send officials to every county to supervise the market fairs, there are limits to what they can do. And as commerce grows larger and larger, the merchants' abuses will only grow worse than before. How are we supposed to handle that?"
Whatever it is, the bigger it gets, the more complicated it tends to become.
Of course, Joseon's study-obsessed officials would someday learn how to manage commerce.
But until then, the merchants would hide their taxes and commit all kinds of illegal acts.
We can't just stand by and let those merchant bastards avoid the taxes they owe and get away with all sorts of underhanded tricks.
"In former Goryeo, people were judged solely by pedigree, and unless they were sons of the powerful aristocratic families, no matter how capable they were, they were never raised to the rank of prime minister. As a result, they became stagnant water that rotted and decayed, and ultimately lost the Mandate of Heaven. Joseon, however, was able to achieve its current prosperity by widely selecting talented men of humble birth, such as Byeoljwa Jang Yeong-sil and Hanseong Prefect Park Jacheong, to run the country."
Even if provincial clerks couldn't, the clerks in the capital could, if they worked while studying, eventually rise to office too.
Even if not that, becoming a yu-hyang-pumgwan and then a proper yangban wasn't difficult either.
More than that, Joseon had no qualms about giving office to lowborn people if they were talented, just like Park Jacheong or Jang Yeong-sil.
"The scholar, farmer, artisan, and merchant classes are all Joseon's people. Why would we leave someone with talents Joseon needs sitting idle?"
"So you're not recommending merchants for the sake of some personal feeling."
"That is correct."
Right after I got involved, Joseon's understanding of and knowledge about the economy improved tremendously compared with before.
That was because the craze for crowning Ryu Jeonghyeon the 'top economic expert' for spouting nonsense like 'tax cuts are always good for the people' vanished completely.
Even so, there are still plenty of Joseon officials who don't understand the comparative advantage of commerce.
They don't grasp the idea that if Icheon grows high-quality rice, while Jeju, where rice farming doesn't work, focuses on citrus and the like, exchanging the two brings profit.
Much less would they know how to figure out and stop a bunch of people who do nothing but think about business, hide their taxes, and build up power so they can seize control of Joseon.
At this rate, in about 150 years we might end up like the Edo shogunate.
It was the era when merchants stood above the country because the shogun, daimyo, hatamoto, and samurai had all become debtors from failing to properly tax merchants.
"Good. I accept it. Is there anything else you want to say?"
"I beg your pardon, but what is His Majesty doing right now?"
"His Majesty is currently thinking about how to manage the abuses and benefits of the market fairs."
According to the Veritable Records of the Joseon Dynasty, Sejong the Great supposedly worked nearly 17 hours a day and 120 hours a week, except on the holidays when he had no choice but to rest.
In Joseon, this is loudly praised as a highly desirable way to live...
'That's nonsense.'
After I passed the civil service exam, there was a time when work got horribly tangled and I ended up working about 110 hours a week for a month, and one of my coworkers in his twenties collapsed from overwork and was hospitalized.
"Zhuge Liang ate little and worked too much, so his body weakened and he could not achieve his great undertaking at Wuzhangyuan. His Majesty, on the other hand, eats plenty, but because he overeats meat and rice, his body is getting increasingly corpulent."
Yi Bang-won's brows furrowed.
I'm talking about the possibility that the king could die, so honestly, even if I got my head smashed by a club here, I wouldn't have a word to say.
Still, if Sejong the Great is going to die sooner if things keep going like this, isn't it better for me to risk my own life if that means benefiting all the people?
I'm a public servant, and it is a public servant's duty to serve the people.
I have to make my frank remarks so that I have nothing to be ashamed of when I look up to the heavens.
"If the body becomes obese, it becomes easy to develop sogal, or diabetes, and the function of the heart and other organs weakens, so you could end up suffering a serious illness."
"......"
People in Joseon also knew that obesity was bad. They just didn't know how deadly and harmful it really was, or why, the way modern people do.
"Also, people should rest when it's time to rest and work when it's time to work in order to achieve the best efficiency. You too are human, Your Majesty, so if you throw yourself into work too much for the sake of the people and treat your body too harshly, there is a risk that you will damage your health."
You could say Sejong the Great died because of overeating and overwork.
Eight years before his death, he had already reached the point where diabetes complications left him almost blind.
And I understand the cause to be that he personally oversaw the project of annotating old books and worked himself to exhaustion doing so.
Yi Bang-won frowned, clenched his teeth hard, then let out a sigh.
"... You do have a point. What should be done?"
"Take His Majesty hunting with you often, and unless it's something truly urgent, he should leave the office on time. He should also keep moving diligently to strengthen his body."
At the mention of hunting, a smile appeared on Yi Bang-won's face.
"I do not doubt your loyalty. So I will sternly ask the royal physician whether His Majesty's condition is good or bad, and if what you say is right, I will make sure His Majesty gets plenty of exercise. And since you have suffered so much while handling the inspector's work, I will specially grant you a month of leave. Rest well and come back."