Dangga Pungun Volume 2 - 5
“Why is this so damn fun?”
Scholar Hwang’s younger brother muttered under his breath, head bowed low as he clutched fistfuls of his own hair.
It was fun. The protagonist was magnificent, the young ladies utterly captivating. The plot charged forward with breathless intensity, and the love stories woven through it were beautiful enough to ache.
“Get a grip on yourself. I am a member of the Yichang Literary Society. Trashy popular novels like this are not supposed to be entertaining.”
The Yichang Literary Society was the city’s most prestigious reading and criticism circle, steeped in history and tradition. Its members gathered to savor the maxims of the ancient sages, classical novels, and poetry—making it the single most authoritative body on literature in all of Yichang.
Scholar Hwang’s brother shook his head violently, straining with every fiber of his being to reject Dangga Pungun. Even when faced with facts he simply could not deny, he still tried to deny them.
He had opened the book at dusk. Outside his window now, morning birds were singing.
And despite the tormented hands still buried in his hair, his sash hung loose, his face looked a shade more haggard than the night before, and a suspicious cluster of crumpled wads lay discarded in the wastebasket. Anyone could have seen at a glance just how thoroughly he had lost himself in Dangga Pungun.
“I must compose my mind. Purify it with the classics!”
He was merely under a temporary delusion. His eyes—the eyes of a proud Yichang Literary Society member—had simply clouded for a moment. He would cleanse this restless heart with the classics. In a panic he yanked his favorite classical volumes from the shelves.
Stiff, formal prose. Sentences packed dense as stone. Metaphor layered into every single character. One could not simply read a sentence; even a single word demanded that the reader grasp its full context and meaning, meditating upon the wisdom of the ancient sages.
The more one chewed upon it, the richer the flavor became, truly delici—
“This is not! Fun! …Hah! I—I just threw a book.”
Scholar Hwang’s brother stared in shock at the classical novel he had just hurled across the room, then scrambled to pick it up. He was overexcited, that was all. Of course it was interesting. The writing was simply so densely allusive that a disordered mind could not concentrate properly.
It was only this particular volume. Another book would surely prove more engaging. Somewhere among the packed shelves there had to be at least one work more entertaining than Dangga Pungun.
He searched the bookcase with desperate thoroughness, yet in the end found nothing of the sort. His gaze drifted helplessly back to the copy of Dangga Pungun lying on the desk.
What on earth was so fascinating about a novel in which an upright protagonist splendidly crushed villains and then shared the joys of cloud and rain with beautiful young ladies?
What was so magnificent about a hero who seemed frustratingly dense in ordinary moments, yet became sharper and more resolute than anyone alive the instant he moved to protect the weak?
What was so charming about the women who loved him? Snap out of it. He had to snap out of it.
No good. Even when he forced his mind clear, the image of Sichuan’s Greatest Beauty kept floating before his eyes.
That scene where Sichuan’s Greatest Beauty, her bosom filled with tender devotion for her beloved… truly, truly… He felt a sudden, violent rush of blood southward.
“Little brother. Are you awake?”
“H-Hyungnim!”
The younger brother’s voice cracked like a student caught mid-act with illicit material the moment his older brother’s voice sounded beyond the door.
“Come share a meal with me.”
“Of course. Ah! Th-this is…”
The blood that Sichuan’s Greatest Beauty had summoned still refused to recede; he could not straighten his waist properly.
“Is something the matter?”
“N-nothing at all. I’ll tidy the bedding and join you. Please go on ahead.”
“You never care about such things normally. Very well.”
Scholar Hwang sounded puzzled, but his footsteps retreated from the door. The moment the presence outside vanished, the younger brother exhaled a long sigh of relief and glared down at his uncooperative lower half.
Why? Why won’t you settle down?! Hyungnim is waiting. Th-that’s it! I’ll read a classic for a moment.
He pulled a novel of quiet contentment and rustic virtue from the shelf, opened it, and began chewing over its meanings. It was a work that had once moved him deeply—yet today it served only as a tool to force the blood back where it belonged.
“So. How was Dangga Pungun?”
Scholar Hwang sat at the breakfast table and fixed his younger brother—who had borrowed Volume Two the night before—with eyes bright with expectation.
“It was more readable than I expected.”
The younger brother answered with a carefully blank face.
“More readable than expected?”
“Certainly, for people who do not read as widely as I do, it seems to reach a level one might call entertaining.”
He spoke exactly like a man delivering a lukewarm review of a merely passable time-killer of a film.
“Hmm. Is that so. Well, you are a Literary Society man; your standards may differ. I had rather hoped to hear you wax eloquent this morning about the charms of Hubei’s Greatest Courtesan, Du Eunghyang. A touch disappointing.”
“Hah! Hubei’s Greatest Courtesan? It is true that Du Eunghyang is a captivating woman, yet Joseon blood runs in her veins, does it not? Compare her to Sichuan’s Greatest Beauty. That single-blossom loveliness. That gentle heart that simply enfolds a man’s soul. Tr-truly…”
“Little brother?”
“Ah! It is nothing.”
“Haha. Looking closer, you do seem rather haggard. Yes. Everyone is like that the first time they fall into this book.”
Scholar Hwang regarded his brother with the expression of a man who knew exactly what had kept him up all night.
“I have not fallen into Dangga Pungun. Of course it is an entertaining book. Yet it is excessively sensual.”
He answered with a face full of indignation at his brother’s knowing look.
“There are sensual passages, that is true. But it is not a novel that consists of those alone; it simply possesses that charm among others. And you yourself fell under its spell, did you not?”
“Kh. You are right.”
“Haha. Then admit it and come with me to the Daseo Society.”
“I cannot admit it yet.”
“Cannot admit it? Did you not find it enjoyable?”
“It may simply feel that way because it is a new type of novel. Or because of my youthful vigor. Therefore I shall withhold judgment for now and visit my master.”
“Your master? The one who belongs to the same Literary Society as you?”
“Yes. I heard he returned late last night from Wuchang. I intend to take Dangga Pungun to him and receive a cold, impartial evaluation.”
“If it is fun, one simply says it is fun. You take the long way around, little brother. And if you are thinking of writing a scathing review for the gazette, this older brother will not be pleased.”
“That is Literary Society business. After I receive my master’s cold appraisal, I shall speak further.”
“Very well. I only hope he does not write a harsh critique.”
Scholar Hwang’s younger brother finished his meal and left the house.
Before visiting his master’s residence, Scholar Hwang’s younger brother decided to stop briefly at a bookstore.
“A proper protagonist has to be at least on Dang Jeong’s level.”
“When is Author Hopil going to release Volume Three?”
Even though he had not entered Daseogak itself, the air around him buzzed with talk of Dangga Pungun.
“The principal wife will be Du Eunghyang, right?”
“Obviously! As if some Sichuan woman could dare claim the principal seat of Dang Jeong!”
The principal wife is obviously Sichuan’s Greatest Beauty, Gu Sukjeong.
He almost opened his mouth, yet decided that arguing with complete strangers simply because their opinion differed from his was neither the conduct of an adult nor of a proper scholar. He swallowed the retort and picked up a few classical novels instead.
“That scene where Dang Jeong deploys the Hidden Weapon Space is truly magnificent. You must read it yourself.”
“I suppose I should give it a try.”
It is not the Hidden Weapon Space—it is the Poison Assassination Domain.
How could someone stand in a bookstore boldly recommending Dangga Pungun without even knowing the name of the protagonist’s martial art? No. Endure it. He must endure. He must not interrupt. The younger brother desperately reined in his heart.
“In Volume Two, you see, he scatters poison powder and launches poison-coated hidden weapons so that three different toxins stack upon one another—simply spectacular!”
“He only used two. Why three toxins?”
“Eh? Wait. Were there two poisons on the hidden weapons?”
“Ah.”
“It is because Hubei’s Greatest Courtesan, Du Eunghyang, had already slipped one poison into the wine beforehand.”
In the end he could not hold back.
“That’s right! That was it!”
The man who had been speaking clapped his hands the moment Scholar Hwang’s brother joined the conversation, striking a pose of sudden recollection.
“And it is not the Hidden Weapon Space—it is the Poison Assassination Domain.”
“Hahaha. Was it? I tend to speed-read, so I forget the exact terms.”
The man scratched his head sheepishly at the correction.
“One does not speed-read the famous scenes… Never mind.”
Scholar Hwang’s brother nearly snapped the words out, yet forced himself to swallow them.
“You react so passionately—are you by chance a member of the Daseo Society?”
“I am not. I belong to no such group as the Daseo Society.”
“Haha. Then you are a future Daseo Society man.”
“I have no intention of joining.”
“Fellows like you always say that—right before they become Daseo Society men.”
“I—I have no intention of joining! How could a proud member of the Literary Society possibly join the Daseo Society?!”
Scholar Hwang’s brother raised his voice in agitation.
“Why get angry over something like that?”
“Forgive me. I grew excited for a moment. I shall take my leave—I have business elsewhere.”
Feeling the stares of everyone around him, the younger brother backed away and fled the bookstore in haste.
“Tsk tsk. That fellow must really love Dangga Pungun.”
“Doesn’t he know that strong denial is just affirmation? Lately scholars like him are everywhere. Now I’m curious enough to read it myself.”
They watched Scholar Hwang’s retreating brother with pitying faces.
“Master. Are you going out?”
Upon arriving at his destination, Scholar Hwang’s younger brother found his master just stepping through the gate.
“It has been some time. I came out because there is something I wish to buy.”
“You did not simply send a servant?”
“Heh heh. Moving one’s body a little for such errands is the best way to shake off travel fatigue. But what brings you here?”
“Well… this disciple has a book whose impressions he would like to request.”
He could not bring himself to look his master in the eye and boldly ask for a critique of an erotic novel, so he averted his gaze as he spoke.
“A book, you say?”
Scholar Hwang’s brother fidgeted with the copy of Dangga Pungun tucked inside his robes.
His master would evaluate it properly. Unlike his own youthful self, clouded by lust and hot blood, the master would deliver a cold, scathing critique.
But was that truly the right thing to do?
His mind kept trying to reject the novel, yet his heart was already filled to overflowing with it. Did he truly need another person’s judgment before he could know that this novel was entertaining?
Dang Jeong, the prodigy of the Sichuan Dang Clan. Sichuan’s Greatest Beauty, Gu Sukjeong. Hubei’s Greatest Courtesan, Du Eunghyang. If his master condemned these characters and declared the novel dull, would that make the novel dull?
He was seized by turmoil.
“What is the matter?”
His master’s voice calling him out of his distress made him lift his head.
Yes. He was a proud member of the Yichang Literary Society. For a Literary Society man to read a novel he could not openly claim was nothing to be proud of.
He would receive the evaluation.
“This book, Master.”
He held out Volumes One and Two of Dangga Pungun.
“Heh heh. Why, it is Dangga Pungun.”
His master clearly recognized the work.
“You know this novel?”
“Of course I know it. The very reason I am stepping outside right now is to purchase Volume Two.”
“Pardon?”
“I heard Daseogak’s stock has run dry lately and the book is hard to obtain. Yet you managed to bring it to me. As expected of my disciple!”
The master looked upon him with proud eyes.
“Have you already read Volume One, Master?”
“As a man of the Yichang Literary Society, how could I not?”
“I thought you never read such popular novels.”
“Heh heh. Review the old and learn the new, and you may become a teacher. How could one who would be a teacher cling only to the old and refuse to turn his eyes to the new? All this time you were simply too rigid, so I merely refrained from reading it in front of you.”
“Y-you did, Master?”
Scholar Hwang’s younger brother stared at his teacher with his mouth hanging open.
“I resolved not to judge hastily on Volume One alone and have held my critique in check. Yet Volume Two is also receiving excellent praise. Today I shall read it and write my evaluation at once.”
“H-haha.”
Even his master acknowledged the novel. Strangely, he felt as though he himself were being acknowledged.
“Well then. Was Volume Two entertaining?”
Scholar Hwang’s younger brother looked at his master, who had picked up Volume Two and was asking for his impressions.
Dangga Pungun.
A novel acknowledged even by the man who could be called the representative of the Literary Society. His own eyes had not been wrong. His own impressions had been correct. There was no need to keep denying it.
In that case, there was only one thing left to say.
“It is the finest novel this disciple has read of late. No—the finest novel I have ever read.”
In the end, he chose to acknowledge his own heart.
Truly, the days were busy beyond measure.
I opened Daseogak’s doors each morning and sold tea and coffee until evening. In the spare moments I tidied the bookstore; at night I helped Hwarin with the printing work.
And after that I shaved sleep from my nights to plan Volume Three.
Then something arrived that poured even more fuel onto that already frantic life.
“Yunho! The Yichang gazette just published a review of Dangga Pungun!”
“Bring it here. Let’s see what they wrote.”
An article under the name of the Literary Society had appeared in the regional newspaper of Yichang.