Chapter 80
**CHAPTER: Innovation and Revolution (20)**
March 1, 1571.
Two months ago, King Yi Yeon had appointed No Su-sin as the Minister of Personnel, even though he was still in mourning for his father. The recommendation had come from Lee Jun-gyeong, but more than that, it was the frequent praise for his integrity and scholarship that sealed the decision.
“How is your health, sir?”“I suffered for a while from the burdens of mourning, but I am well now.”“That is good news.”
No Su-sin had spent nineteen years in exile on Jindo Island, then in Goesan, Chungcheong-do, for his involvement in the Yangjae-ri Wall Incident, where he exposed the corruption of Queen Mother Munjeong and the corrupt eunuch Lee Gi. Even after the king ascended the throne, he remained in exile. Throughout those years he had studied Yangmingism.
That was why the king had summoned him privately.
“Our Joseon now favors Yangming Learning over Zhu Xi Learning. The former is a practical study that benefits royal authority more directly.”
“What do you mean, Your Majesty?”“What do you think of the current state of our country?”
“Everyone says it is a time of great peace and prosperity.”“But we are still at war with the Japanese.”“Still, the people do not seem to care much.”
At first, of course, they had not been indifferent. When they met, the first topic was always the war. When they had spare coins, they bought war bonds. But the reports were always the same: almost no casualties, and nothing beyond the occupation of the Kansei and Kyushu regions by the Japanese. Gradually, the word “war” disappeared from their mouths. In its place, they became obsessed with the new industrial complexes being built outside Hanyang. Rumors of an entirely different world had spread, and ordinary people were now running around the construction sites to find out how to gain residence there. Enterprising scoundrels soon appeared to cheat them. And of course, behind every such fraud lurked a corrupt official. Yet even so, the people still spoke of “great peace” and praised the king. After all, the worst of the famines had passed, and there was no longer any fear of starvation.
“That is true, but corrupt officials still abound.”
The king had arrested them immediately and sent them to the mines, yet new offenders kept appearing. No matter how many he punished, the corruption continued.
“That is inevitable, Your Majesty.”“Why do you say that?”“Few people rise to high learning without eventually acting justly. They judge others by appearances and are rarely free of greed.”
“Precisely. That is the problem. Which brings me to my request.”“Speak freely.”“I wish to appoint you as Minister of Personnel. Please exercise the power of appointment with perfect fairness.”
The position had been vacant since Park Chung-won, who had been impeached by Grand Censor Baek In-geol for abusing his authority over personnel, had resigned and retired to his hometown.
“I am deeply grateful, but I fear I am not yet worthy of such a heavy burden.”“To become Minister of Personnel is to stand on the threshold of Prime Minister. Yet you refuse?”“I do not think that is my place to serve. You have not become overly attached to any single school of thought. For that reason I ask you to accept.”
“Your Majesty, I have been thinking it strange. May I ask the reason?”“The right to self-replacement, the right to petition the throne through officials, and the right to nominate candidates through officials—these three powers currently held by the Ministry of Personnel—will all be abolished. We will establish a Personnel Committee and entrust it with the entire process. I have always said that the appointment of talent is the foundation of everything. Yet it has not been done well.”
“Ah… If that is the case, I shall accept the post at once.”
There was a term for high-ranking posts that demanded absolute integrity: “Qingyao Zhi.” But the greatest corruption had always arisen from the Ministry of Personnel itself, which is why the strife between factions had begun there. So the king had appointed Sim Ui-gyeom as the head of the Inspector General’s Office, a direct royal institution. He knew that factionalism had started there and had repeatedly warned that anyone who continued to form cliques would face severe punishment. Yet the signs remained. Young bureaucrats who had just entered office began to cling to one another for protection, sparking new arguments. Memorials against one another multiplied. Thus the king decided to reform the power of appointment first, before the situation could explode from within.
Fortunately, No Su-sin accepted the appointment without hesitation. During his long exile he had learned a great deal.
“I read of something called a ‘system’ in a Western book.”
The king had not quoted the book often, out of caution. But now he needed a word to replace “system,” and none came to mind.
“What does ‘system’ mean, Your Majesty?”“It means that everything is carried out according to established rules, just as a machine runs.”“Ah, so you wish the same for personnel?”“Exactly. Therefore you must first set clear rules for the process of appointment.”“I understand, Your Majesty.”“The reason I have mentioned the system is simple: I intend to conquer the world.”
Stephen had spoken of it, and the king had believed it was not difficult. He had developed a smokeless powder shaped like noodles whose explosive power far surpassed anything they had seen before. The manufacturing and storage of mercury fulminate were too difficult and dangerous, so he had replaced it with lead azide, Pb(N3)2. Originally he had intended to add potassium chlorate to make a safer, more stable fulminate. But while preparing sodium nitrite to preserve chicken and processed meat for long periods, he had changed his mind. Mercury fulminate and its derivatives slowly crystallized over time, becoming resistant to shock—a phenomenon called dead pressure. Lead azide did not suffer from this. So the king had simply mixed the already-made lead nitrate and sodium azide to produce lead azide. Sodium azide was already used as an explosive for car airbags, and it also served as a preservative, insecticide, and disinfectant. With those preparations complete, the king had assumed conquering the world would be easy.
Yet the world refused to move according to plan. The revolutionary arrows—Hyuksin-jeon, Hyukmyeong-jeon, and Dae-hyuksin-jeon—had been prepared, but the Japanese daimyo had not reacted as expected. They could not simply burn the ports as they had done in Kyushu. The result was obvious. So the king had decided to revise his entire strategy. Instead of eliminating every Japanese daimyo, he would incorporate them into the Joseon Eastern Army and push them aside. But compensation was the problem. Blood demanded payment, or the people would grow restless again.
After careful thought, the king decided to grant them official posts. Of course, he could not give them empty titles; everyone would know immediately and would cause chaos. Therefore he would begin the reform where it mattered most—in the Ministry of Personnel itself. Only then could he offer the daimyo positions that would satisfy them.
* * *
The next day, at the Grand Assembly, the king laid out the plan.“The reason young bureaucrats are forming factions and submitting memorials is the shortage of appointments.”“Joseon has always aimed at a small government, yet we have more than four thousand officials on the rolls, while only a little over five hundred positions are available for them. Most who are not exceptionally talented remain stuck in the ninth grade. That is why quarrels are constant and impeachments keep pouring in.”“We cannot simply leave the matter untouched.”“Your Majesty, we cannot simply create new positions.”“No, we can.”“How?”“The Ming calls them ‘Bu.’ We call them ‘Cao,’ one level lower.”“I see.”“That is why the Ming cannot….”“Yoon Mun-hyung could not finish his sentence. The idea of looking up to the Ming as a senior country was now foreign to everyone.”
The king smiled and spoke for him.“That is because we once lacked strength and chose to lower our status. But we no longer need to do so. We are strong now.”“That is correct, Your Majesty.”“I, Jiang Shih-bil, say so.”“Your Majesty, Joseon is now a wealthy nation and possesses a powerful firearm army. Therefore we must change the name from ‘Six Ministries’ to ‘Six Boards.’”“Hmm…”
The king shook his head. If that were the case, he would not have asked the question at all.“Consider this: what would really change if we renamed the Six Ministries the Six Boards?”“No one could answer. Changing a name could not create new positions.”“Perhaps nothing. So I am not talking about renaming. I am talking about copying.”“Copying, Your Majesty?”“Right now we are in the middle of conquering the Japanese and incorporating their lands into Joseon territory. Yet we cannot even manage the lands we have already taken. Everyone knows the reason. We planned to build a Central Administrative Office for occupation and governance, but we made no progress. There had never been such a situation before, so no one knew where to begin.”“Therefore I plan to copy an administrative system that is already complete and ready to use. That way, whenever the need arises, we can immediately build a new organization from scratch.”“Your Majesty, does that mean you intend to follow the existing system exactly?”“Yes. We will keep the Six Ministries as they are and place a ‘Ministry’ above them to oversee everything.”“The ministers murmured. They understood only too late how much confusion this would cause.”
It made perfect sense to them. The Six Ministry system was flawless in their minds. Copying it to create new positions?“Your Majesty, does that mean you intend to found a new country?”“No. I mean exactly what I say. For example, I will establish an Internal Affairs Ministry and place the Six Ministries beneath it. When necessary, I will copy and use them as they are.”“Ah…”
Only now did the ministers understand what the king was proposing. The Six Ministries could not create new positions by renaming themselves, but an Internal Affairs Ministry standing above them could expand the bureaucracy at will.“Then the External Affairs Ministry will be responsible for conquering and managing the Japanese territories?”“Correct. But remember that a single External Affairs Ministry may contain several Boards, just as a single government office may have six divisions.”“What does that mean?”“Your Majesty rose to his feet, realizing words would not suffice. He stepped down from the dais and drew a map of Joseon on the blackboard. ‘Damn! We need to make a blackboard that can draw maps!’
There was already a large map in the assembly hall, but writing on it was impossible, so the king had drawn it every time. Now he understood the inconvenience.“Look carefully. There will be one Internal Affairs Ministry on Joseon’s own soil. But the External Affairs Ministry will be needed in several locations—here, there, and there. Under the External Affairs Ministry I will create one, two, three, and so on, assigning a Board to each region.”“Ah…”
The ministers gasped and smiled openly. The Ming had forced them to use “Bu,” and the idea of “Sheng” had not pleased them. But this was different. If they followed the king’s plan, even the Japanese territories alone could be divided into five Boards. Add three more for the Jurchen lands in the north and one more for the Liaodong region granted by the Ming, and the total reached nine. That meant that, once regions were divided, the number of official positions could be multiplied indefinitely—even using the same titles. Moreover, because they were placing the Ming’s Boards beneath their own, the ministers felt a strange surge of pride.
“But not everything can be the same. The rank system might collapse otherwise. Therefore, under the External Affairs Ministry, the Boards will be one grade lower than those in the Internal Affairs Ministry.”“So you intend to set up positions down to the tenth rank?”“Yes. That will preserve fairness.”“After consulting with his ministers, the king decided to create three Ministries: the Internal Affairs Ministry to govern Joseon itself, the External Affairs Ministry to manage the occupied territories, and the Defense Ministry to oversee the integrated forces—both the Home Guard and the Eastern Army.“Therefore I will grant identical official posts to the Japanese daimyo. That is the only way they will be satisfied.”“Your Majesty, what a revolutionary idea.”“Precisely. But for such a revolution to succeed, we must have objective, impartial appointments. Therefore I shall appoint No Su-sin to the vacant post of Minister of Personnel and place the entire power of appointment in his hands.”“All eyes turned to No Su-sin. They bowed slightly, as if to say, ‘Please do not let us down.’
Yet within days the first batch of appointments was announced. The ministers were stunned. Appointing Lee Jun-gyeong as head of the Internal Affairs Ministry was natural. Appointing Hong Seom as head of the External Affairs Ministry was understandable. But placing Yi Hwang as head of External Affairs Board One was not. He was known to have advocated the abolition of slavery, yet he had also incurred the king’s displeasure by raising the issue of property accumulation.