Chapter 50
Chapter 50
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 50
Chapter Title: What I Truly Desire (3)
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A month had already passed since I'd consummated my marriage with Winter on our first night.
Up until now, I'd approached my official duties with the mindset that I'd resign as soon as I finished the task at hand.
When I passed the audience examination of the great exams, I thought I'd serve just a few years in office. When I became the magistrate of Jinhae County, I figured I'd wrap things up after my term ended.
It had always been the same during the memorial on branch offices and even with the commutation law...
Looking back now, I wouldn't have any major regrets if I ended my official career like this...
"But there would still be lingering regrets, wouldn't there?"
Once the commutation law was implemented, the lives of the common people would become markedly more prosperous than before.
The current tax system, which imposed an effective rate of 30-40% on the poor and less than 10% on the rich, would be thoroughly overturned.
The wealthy would pay 16% in taxes, while the effective rate for the poor would drop below 10%.
Adjusting taxes wouldn't suddenly boost the poor's income.
But consider someone earning 2 million won a month, who had half taken away as rent and then paid taxes, leaving barely 200,000 won at the end of the month... From now on, after paying taxes, they'd have 600,000 to 700,000 won left?
To the impoverished commoner, it would feel like their monthly income had tripled overnight.
Thanks to the commutation law, Joseon's poor would live in a brighter future.
The people of Jinhae County had thrown a celebration when I visited the market, saying things like:
"I'll use the money from selling wild greens and straw sandals at the market to feed my children three meals a day."
"Even if I'm hungry now, next year I'll buy a plot of land and farm my own fields."
"These days, I finish my tenant farming at dawn, then head to the mountains to gather herbs. It's so exciting just thinking about what to do with the money from selling them."
And now, a commutation law that would have an even greater impact on the people than opening markets—what would that be like?
Without anyone ordering it or forcing them, the people would gather and shout "Long live the king!" of their own accord.
"With this, I've pretty much done what I set out to do."
But this time, the sight of those farmers toiling on my way home kept nagging at me.
The image of them threshing grain with inefficient tools like wooden blocks called gae-sang and flails.
If I had Jang Yeong-sil make a pedal-powered thresher, they could finish the work much more easily and quickly.
That would make farming less laborious, improving their quality of life.
And if I promoted the rapid distribution of the farm tools I proposed to Jang Yeong-sil, while expanding repair facilities nationwide?
Joseon could finally practice paddy rice farming properly.
With transplanting methods, Jeolla, Chungcheong, and Gyeongsang Provinces could do double cropping, doubling food production.
Other regions might not manage double crops, but higher rice yields would vastly improve the food situation.
Surplus labor would emerge, spurring industrial and commercial development.
"No one else can do it but me..."
If I retired to my hometown and lived leisurely, I'd keep circling back to this thought. I'd live with constant regret.
Better to roll a bit longer, then.
Besides, I had to be the coolest man in front of Winter...
Having sorted out my feelings, I immediately submitted a memorial requesting reinstatement.
I didn't know how much longer I'd serve Joseon, but if it got too tough, I could submit a resignation like this and retire... just like before.
I hadn't committed any grave crime, so no way King Sejong the Great would work me like he does Prime Minister Hwang Hui, right?
"Oh, and when the Great Equalization Law goes into effect, I should note the malicious practices corrupt magistrates might pull and send it along."
The Great Equalization Law was highly beneficial, but the world was full of scoundrels who'd exploit its loopholes for evil.
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Taxes only mattered if collected properly and sent to the center without leakage.
Sinking grain ships on purpose, using oversized measuring boxes, falsifying records, hiding land for the rich, and so on...
Such tax evasion couldn't be tolerated.
"...Might as well do it right if I'm doing it."
**
Yi Bang-won believed it firmly.
The man called Kim Dae-bung, attendant scholar of the Hall of Worthies, was a loyal subject afflicted from birth with a disease that made him unable to live unless he devoted himself to the ancestral temple and state altar.
Otherwise, as Jinhae magistrate, there'd be no reason he wouldn't take bribes—except for the "gifts voluntarily offered by the people."
As attendant scholar, with the favor of all six ministers, there's no way he wouldn't have made any requests.
Even more, there's no way he'd impeach the chief state councillor—a potential obstacle to the commutation law—right after submitting his resignation.
To put it bluntly, Kim Dae-bung was like a man obsessed with beautiful women, but his passion was devoting himself to the ancestral temple and state altar.
And the king's duty was to let such loyal subjects devote themselves to Joseon as much as they desired.
"Do-ya."
Sejong replied.
"Yes, Father."
"Do you know what the king's duty is?"
"To bring comfort to all the myriad people, I believe."
"You're right. So, if there's a subject whose zeal to comfort the people burns so hot he can't bear it, what should be done? I think ignoring that earnest wish is neglecting the king's responsibilities."
The saintly king Sejong the Great—who drove all his subjects like graduate students in a harsh lab—replied.
"I share Your Majesty's thoughts. For a capable loyalist like Kim Dae-bung to be unable to fulfill his aspirations is no different from me slacking off when I could bring more comfort to the people."
The funniest thing about Kim Dae-bung was this: he saw himself not as a loyalist for the ages, but as a selfish idler-in-training, yet everyone around him viewed him as a paragon of loyalty.
Even Ryu Jeong-hyeon, who died with a flattened skull from flogging, called him a villain but never thought him driven by personal greed.
"Well said. And when Kim Dae-bung was impeached for absurd reasons, hurt in spirit, and perhaps resigned fearing he'd bring shame to you or me if he stayed in office—you advised his parents to gently persuade him not to abandon his true desires and return for the sake of the ancestral temple and state altar."
Not long after Kim Dae-bung's retirement, the memorial he submitted thoroughly satisfied Yi Bang-won and Sejong.
They'd provisionally accepted his resignation to let him rest at home, yet he'd thoughtfully detailed potential illegal acts during commutation law implementation and countermeasures—without even being asked.
"There may be cases where grain ships are deliberately sunk by claiming water at the bottom; unless the ship actually sank or had to jettison cargo, if losses exceed 5 pun (5%) of the grain tax transported, the captain and the magistrate of the ship's home district must be reprimanded."
This held two meanings.
Manage diligently to keep losses under 5%, but skim up to 5% from the back pocket—we'll turn a blind eye.
It set a principle while considering the plight of underpaid officials who might embezzle or evade otherwise.
With this consideration, ship captains and others would strive for safe, efficient voyages to pocket that 5% grain tax share.
Thus, this clause could function like a bonus system.
Sejong and Yi Bang-won saw through it instantly.
"And warning that corrupt officials might tamper with measures... That's a valid point."
Measuring boxes (dotbak) varied slightly by office in Joseon.
Later, under King Seongjong, secret royal inspectors carried a "standard measure" to check if local boxes were irregular.
A slightly larger box might seem trivial, but a standard Joseon dotbak held about 1.8kg of rice. If an office used one for 2.4kg to overcollect?
That's 30% extra tax, swallowed by the magistrate and clerks with no evidence left.
Hence, inspectors checked with the standard measure.
Kim Dae-bung recalled this and noted it in his memorial.
And most crucially, at the end:
"...Land survey law—this is truly excellent. Measuring every scrap of land without omission. Splendid."
For Yi Bang-won, a pure civil service exam graduate, the math in the land survey law was far too advanced.
He was decent at arithmetic, but new math for an aging literati?
Sejong, versed in all arts and sciences, grasped it immediately and excitedly tried explaining its brilliance to Yi Bang-won like a machine gun...
But Yi Bang-won suddenly felt unwell and retreated to his chambers.
Later, Finance Minister Hwang Hui and the other civil ministers received direct instruction on the new math concepts during a scholarly debate via the king.
Leaving the debate hall, the ministers cursed Kim Dae-bung in unison.
Time passed, and as full implementation of the commutation law loomed, Sejong secretly ordered Kim Dae-bung to enter the palace unbeknownst to others.