Chapter 173
Chapter 173
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 173
Chapter Title: Commercial City Hanyang (7)
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Even if I kept preaching and emphasizing the importance of hygiene to the common folk, the effect would still be minimal.
Why? Because telling them to follow hygiene rules for their health, and to throw away spoiled food instead of eating it, isn't just boring—it's unprofitable.
So, to show them that "not following the rules gets you hurt," I punished those in Hanyang's restaurants who ignored hygiene and sold spoiled food.
I had them dragged to the Hanseong Magistracy, made them experience a few days in jail, and even gave the worst offenders a good caning.
"But this alone isn't enough..."
Even if the state cracks down diligently, if the people still don't care about food hygiene, we won't see much real change.
They'll pretend to comply during inspections, but behind closed doors, they'll wonder why they have to bother.
And I can't give hygiene lectures to every single person, so I need a fun way to explain it that really sinks in.
"I've heard you're the foremost expert on music in Joseon. Is that right, Director of the Music Bureau?"
"Are you that famous Jibu—no, Lord Kim Seo-yun?"
"That's me. And since my parents gave me the pen name Jukheon, call me that from now on instead of Jibu. I know people don't mean it badly when they call me Jibu. But out in the streets, there are even rumors flying that I show up wherever Goryeo ghosts appear and chop their heads off with an axe... Being called Jibu just feels off."
Park Yeon tilted his head at my words before nodding in agreement.
"Yes, Lord Jukheon."
Everyone I meet for the first time calls me Jibu Kim Dae-bung.
"Jibu" has become a symbol in Joseon for a "minister who risks his life to offer loyal counsel," so the meaning itself is excellent...
The problem is that taken literally, it means "man with an axe."
In other words, the nuance can come off wrong, like "the guy who swings an axe to kill Goryeo ghost-possessed fools."
'I'm a man who loves peace.'
This all happened because Yi Bang-won got currency fever and went mad crying, "Arrrgh, we have no countermeasures, but we must implement currency!"
"What brings the busy Junior Inspector Kim to the Office of Music?"
"I need the Director of the Music Bureau's help in educating the people."
Park Yeon shook his head at my words.
"Music is not a means to educate people; it's a tool to perfect ritual propriety."
Park Yeon is less a Confucian scholar and more, strictly speaking, a musician.
Before King Sejong's ascension, he held key posts like the Crown Prince's Academy, but after that, he spent nearly twenty years in music-related offices.
Considering how officials in Joseon were routinely rotated through every department, it meant Sejong recognized his exceptional talent as a "musician."
"All music is necessary to properly uphold ritual propriety. Thus, I do not look favorably on things like the folk tunes the commoners sing casually."
In actual history, King Sejong sought to restore aak—court music centered on Zhou dynasty rituals—and hyangak, the music of the Korean peninsula passed down since Silla.
How deeply interested was he in music? He personally created jeongganbo, the standard notation for modern Korean traditional music, and would point out even "subtle differences in pitch" when listening to instruments restored or invented by Park Yeon.
Meanwhile, Park Yeon had continually opposed hyangak implementation, arguing that Joseon's native music did not follow Chinese ritual propriety.
"Of course, I think it's admirable for a Confucian like Your Lordship to use music to educate the people... But to share my view, music is a tool for ritual, not for moral instruction."
"I'm not saying the Director's view is wrong. It's just that mine differs slightly."
Park Yeon is the kind of man who once even dissuaded Sejong from using Joseon's traditional hyangak.
Telling a guy like that "you're wrong and I'm right" would just lead to a fight with no progress.
As Sun Tzu's Art of War says, avoiding battle is the path to profit, so I should affirm his view without bruising his pride.
"Confucius said, 'The gentleman should be flexible in dealing with all matters.' This applies to music as well."
Jesus, Buddha, Confucius—they were all remarkably open and enlightened for their eras.
That's why their teachings drew followers in droves, and millennia-old wisdom endures to this day.
Especially when King Hyeonjong died, and Song Si-yeol took the king's funeral hostage to quash Westerners' impeachments—earning Confucius a lot of misunderstanding...
Confucius wanted to right the world's order through ritual propriety, but he never hesitated to compromise and adapt where needed.
In his time, even teaching was frowned upon unless you were highborn...
Yet among his disciples were thugs and paupers who could barely make ends meet.
Park Yeon knows Confucius's life well, so he can't easily refute me on this.
"What was the essence of Confucius's revival of ritual music? As the Spring and Autumn Warring States era saw benevolence and righteousness plummet, endless chaos with wars as common as meals. He sought to emulate the Zhou dynasty's rituals and order to usher in an age of great peace."
"That's true."
"So, if we give proper songs and plays to groups like the Namsadang troupes and re-in entertainers and let them perform, it could effectively convey the lessons the people must learn."
"Namsadang and re-in are like hwacheok—nothing but trouble for the state."
"His Highness punished only those hwacheok in Hanyang who set fires, along with their families, but he didn't ban their livelihoods. He even opened paths for them to become commoners. If even hwacheok could be reformed by His Highness, why not Namsadang and re-in?"
Namsadang troupes and re-in fall into the same lowborn category as slaves.
And as Park Yeon said, they cause plenty of problems.
Wandering from region to region with performances, they'd commonly kidnap children to fill their ranks...
Treated as vile, with erratic pay, almost no women wanted to marry them, leading some lunatics to "male prostitution."
Pretty words for what it was: rape of the same sex.
Of course, they were better than butchers—no arson or armed intimidation mobs.
"If the state doesn't manage them properly and just cracks down blindly, don't they hide in the shadows just to survive? That's what makes them so filthy."
Without viable paths, relentless crackdowns drive them underground and corrupt them further.
Early 20th-century America tried Prohibition, but Americans didn't stop drinking.
Banned, they invented workarounds and drank anyway.
There were "grape juice bricks" that dissolved in water—but leave it in the dark too long, and it "accidentally" turned into wine. People went nuts buying and "drinking" them...
Mafia smuggled booze like drugs, with deaths aplenty, no doubt.
"Joseon folk are full of fun, churning out all sorts of hyangak tunes, aren't they? If you can't ban it, guide it right."
"What exactly do you propose?"
"Like registering gisaeng on the gijeok rolls, make registries for Namsadang and re-in, manage them separately, and legalize performances. Inspect content too—draw lines against obscenity or violations of Confucian virtue."
Unless it's like drugs that ruin lives on touch, compromise with some dirt.
Ban smokes and booze outright? Society might improve a bit, but...
'The losses from prohibition outweigh the gains.'
"Their songs and tales grip the people with fun and leave deep impressions. Weave in lessons: wash properly for health; sell rotten food without hygiene, face punishment; unfilial traitors' words are always bad—strive for loyalty and filial piety. The people will see, repent, and pursue virtue naturally."
"Is that really possible?"
"Help me once, call it a loss if it fails."
"And if I say no..."
"Then I'll petition His Highness to enforce it."
Park Yeon argued against preserving hyangak, but Sejong preserved it for posterity anyway.
Yes. If King Sejong wills it, it happens.
"Not this too..."
"I'll help."
And so, I dumped the task on Park Yeon.
Now, if he finds a decent Namsadang troupe and brings them, I'll handle the rest of the convincing.
How great is that?