Money Has No Emotions
Is the martial path meant for men alone?
Speaking personally, the right answer must be no.
It is not that I was swayed by the arguments of those thinkers known as egalitarians — a school said to exist only in the barest handful within the murim of Jianghu. This was simply the conclusion drawn from a rational, reasonable process of thought.
I do concede that men are born with greater physical strength than women. But martial prowess is not the same thing as raw muscle. For martial artists of the second rate and below, innate strength may well decide victory or defeat; yet the moment one so much as touches the First-Class Realm, the factors that decide a life-and-death struggle become the deployment of technique, the grasp of subtlety, and the proper circulation of inner energy rather than brute force.
Especially upon reaching the Peak Realm and entering the stage known as Sword Qi Wounding, where inner energy takes form and one can kill with no more strength than it takes to lift a pair of chopsticks — that exquisite art is precisely what martial arts is. The claim that women, lacking muscle, are unsuited to it ought to lose all credibility.
But none of this must make us forget that every premise above rests on a single fact: that the person in question has actually trained in the martial arts.
Which is to say, none of it applies in the slightest to my mother, Baek Yeo-hae.
For though she was born the daughter of a martial clan, my mother never learned a single martial technique.
And yet, as everyone knows, it is equally self-evident that Baek Yeo-hae commands a formidable standing and power within this household. I know, too, that her power does not stem merely from her position as the clan's mistress. In other words, my mother built her place in this family on a strength entirely apart from martial force.
In the hall of the Dancheon Clan's head.
"I hear that Sister-in-law has summoned Myeong." Bang Yeo-baek said, his voice carrying a faint thread of worry.
By nature, Bang Yeo-baek was a man who drew his bonds and boundaries cleanly and knew how to keep proper form. It was common knowledge that, whatever his dislike of the woman Baek Yeo-hae, he had always addressed her with full courtesy as "Matriarch." For such a man to call her "Sister-in-law" meant that this hour belonged not to Clan Head Dancheon Gang and Escort Captain Bang Yeo-baek, but to Dancheon Gang the elder cousin and Bang Yeo-baek the younger.
"I know."
"……"
Silence, too, is a form of expression. Especially between men like Dancheon Gang and Bang Yeo-baek, who had spent long years at each other's side, silence often yielded more meaning than words ever could.
"Do you still dislike Yeo-hae?" Dancheon Gang asked his younger brother.
"No, of course not. How could I dare." Bang Yeo-baek hastily denied it, but Dancheon Gang smiled, as though he had read exactly what lay beneath.
"No man is perfect in every way. Yeo-hae made a mistake some time ago, but even that came of her heart for Hak. It would be right to let it go now."
"……Yes."
Bang Yeo-baek answered, though a sullen air still clung to him. To put it precisely, he had hidden his sulkiness — he had simply failed to escape Dancheon Gang's discerning eye.
"Yeo-baek."
"Yes."
"The Dancheon Sword Clan of today grows stronger by the day. If this keeps up, we may yet rise past the Five Great Clans and take our first steps toward the seat of the Number One Clan Under Heaven."
"Indeed we do."
Bang Yeo-baek was, after all, the Escort Captain — a main pillar of the Dancheon Sword Clan. He would be one of the men who felt the clan's rise most keenly.
"And why do you suppose that is?"
"It must be your doing, Clan Head."
Bang Yeo-baek's loyalty ran deep, that was true, but his temperament was not made for treachery — he could no more wag his tongue like a court sycophant than fly. In other words, those words were his unvarnished sincerity, more than enough to please Dancheon Gang.
"I thank you for the kind words, but they are not the truth. First and foremost, it is thanks to that rascal Myeong and his exploits."
"That, too, is true."
Dancheon Gang had always held to neutrality in judging his sons. Put another way, he refused to distort anything — and so he did not deny the achievements Dancheon Myeong had made.
"But still."
"Please speak."
"I believe the greatest credit belongs to Yeo-hae."
"……"
Bang Yeo-baek fell silent again. This time it was no silent protest; he seemed genuinely not to have grasped what had just been said.
"Yeo-baek."
"Yes."
"Bear this in mind. A great clan's prestige is not built on martial arts alone. Think it over carefully, and you will come to see what Yeo-hae has done for this family."
"Ah……"
Only after Dancheon Gang's patient explanation did Bang Yeo-baek appear to understand the point, more or less.
"That is the kind of woman Yeo-hae is. Her methods may run differently from yours, but her devotion to this family is no different from your own."
"I will bear it in mind."
Dancheon Gang's head nodded of its own accord. It was satisfaction in himself, for keeping a man like Bang Yeo-baek at his side.
"Now that the delusion clouding your eyes has been swept away, you will see that Yeo-hae is a fine matriarch. Her summoning of Myeong, too, must surely be for the family's sake."
"Yes."
"And one more thing."
"Please speak."
"You might try getting on a little more warmly with Yeo-hae yourself. If the escort corps' budget ends up cut one day, there will be nothing I can do for you."
"Hup."
The Dancheon escort corps' required budget was swelling by the day, befitting the clan's rapidly rising standing of late — so Bang Yeo-baek could hardly bring himself to deny it.
I have discoursed on power before. Martial power, money power, factional power, and informational power — those are the four. In the world of Jianghu, the foremost of them is, whatever anyone may say, martial strength. Then what power stands closest behind it?
But confine the board to the inside of a single family, and the story changes. They are kin beneath one roof, so the value of factional power shrinks with its scale, and within the narrow world of a clan, informational power struggles to flex its full muscle. In short, limited to the narrow world of a sect or a clan, money power must rightly be seen as the strength that comes next after martial power. Is it not for exactly such reasons that the Finance Pavilions of so many sects wield such influence?
The women of the great clans were wise. Lacking martial strength, they succeeded in seizing money power for themselves. Thus was born the unofficial organ known in the great clans as the Internal Affairs Department.
And in the Dancheon Clan, the head of that Internal Affairs Department is none other than my mother, Baek Yeo-hae. Which is to say — perhaps the clan's true second-in-command is not Uncle Yeo-baek, but my mother.
"I would ask that you not misunderstand."
Having brought up the name Yang Su-rin, my mother Baek Yeo-hae urged this upon me again and again. Her expression looked as coldly detached as ever, but her eyes wavered, and the corners of her mouth had stiffened ever so slightly. The eye I had honed in my days as Myeong-gae was far too seasoned to be wrong.
In truth, that affair had come to nothing thanks to my quick handling — but perhaps my mother Baek Yeo-hae, who had once schemed alongside Yang Su-rin, was feeling her own feet go numb with guilt. Or no — setting all else aside, it would be hard to call proper the conduct of a mother who summons her son at the crack of dawn and brings up the name of his former fiancée.
And yet……
"I don't misunderstand."
Even so, I felt no displeasure — because my mother's manner, so repeatedly mindful of my feelings, was welcome to me. Did that not also mean she respected me as her own son?
"Would you explain it to me?"
My mother Baek Yeo-hae was no fool, so it was right to judge that there must be circumstances behind this.
"Whew—"
The explanation my mother unwound carried the weight of her life's joys and sorrows.
The Internal Affairs Department is not a formal organ of a great clan like the Council of Elders or the Escort Corps, but it ought to be judged an institution whose importance rivals theirs. For it bears overall charge of a clan's finances and its daily upkeep.
Just how important is it? No need to look far — think by the standard of the Dancheon Clan, and the answer will present itself.
The first pillar of the Dancheon Clan: its clan head, Dancheon Gang. He is a man who wields the sword and pursues the martial way. Ever maintaining his stern dignity, he devotes his strength to the household's peace and the widening of its outward reach. Trained in the clan's inherited arts from childhood and honed through ceaseless tempering, he may be called a transcendent martial artist who has left the average of his generation far behind.
The second pillar, and the clan head's closest confidant: Escort Captain Bang Yeo-baek. The same applies here. The details may differ, but he, too, is a martial artist who has swung nothing but a sword his whole life.
The third pillar: the Dancheon Clan's Council of Elders. This, too, is the same as above. What interest could those old men have — men who swung nothing but a sword all their lives, somehow survived, and managed to reach old age — beyond the martial arts?
To draw the conclusion: all three pillars of the renowned sword clan that is the Dancheon Clan know nothing but martial arts. To put it another way, they are martial arts idiots.
It goes without saying, but a renowned martial clan is not made of martial arts alone. If a clan begins with martial strength and ends with martial strength, it can never earn the name of a renowned house.
The prosperity of a renowned martial clan is achieved through many processes, but it generally follows a course like this. Fame is won through martial strength built upon ascendant martial arts, and around that core, factional power expands. Where martial strength and faction exist, money power follows. Money and faction are then turned to securing informational power as well. A clan equipped with faction, money, and information can procure or cultivate quality martial artists, fielding even greater martial strength. It builds a larger faction, and expands its information network……
When such a virtuous cycle continues without end, the name a clan arrives at, at some point, is precisely that of a renowned great clan.
But the mainstays of most great clans are martial arts idiots who know nothing beyond the martial arts. So what becomes of it all? Have I not said before that no creatures on earth are as unproductive as martial artists? By my reckoning, a great clan composed solely of martial artists would end up no different from a band of butchers.
Which means it was the Internal Affairs Department that carved a renowned great clan out from between the cracks of those martial arts idiots. For they are the only ones among the martial idiots who weigh profit against loss and build the family's long-term vision.
In truth, while the mistresses of great clans seized money power partly through their own hunger for it, it may also have been a necessity for the family's survival. But there is a fact that must be understood: the women who became mistresses of renowned great clans were once merely daughters of other great clans. They could strive in their own way and grow familiar with the ledgers, but not every woman could possess a genius for commerce like Yang Su-rin, the Young Mistress of the Yang Family Hall.
"The family's money has grown too great."
One-tenth of the appraised value of the elixirs obtained from Hwanragwon. The money my mother spoke of was precisely that sum. There was something strange about the sight of her speaking of such good news as though it were a lament.
"Mm."
That was because I happen to believe that having a great deal of money is simply a good thing.
In any case…… the Dancheon Clan's wealth had already grown far too vast to be called a "household's keep." It had reached the point where the Internal Affairs Department could no longer manage it alone.
"Do you know? Money, if left hoarded, rots. Its value falls — that is what I mean."
"……Pardon?"
It was harder to grasp than a Zen riddle from Mugeuk Jinin.
"What that means is……"
My mother Baek Yeo-hae explained the principles of the economics she had studied, but honestly, I did not understand all of it.
"Ah……"
That was because I, too, was a martial arts idiot by birth — and in the Beggars' Gang, that den of beggars, there had never been an opportunity to learn or study economics.
"……"
"Ahem."
As for my mother Baek Yeo-hae's gaze, which so plainly conveyed and here I thought you were a little different — I chose to play ignorant.
In any event…… she had recognized that a great sum flowing into the family was a chance to leap ahead — but at the same time, my mother Baek Yeo-hae knew it was a matter far beyond her own capacity, which had extended no further than keeping a household. But Baek Yeo-hae, head of the Internal Affairs Department, could not let this chance slip away, and so she scouted high and low for "a place to put the money to work." The one she found that way was none other than the Young Mistress of the Yang Family Hall — Yang Su-rin.
"I went to see the Young Mistress of the Yang Family Hall myself."
Setting personal feelings aside, she said, the fact that Yang Su-rin was the most capable merchant of the day could not be denied. In that she could set private sentiment behind her and act for the family's interest, I found myself thinking that my mother Baek Yeo-hae might be the truest great of them all.
"Well, fine. Money has no feelings, after all."
A capable merchant like Yang Su-rin would hardly have let such an opportunity pass.
"However, there is one condition."
"……A condition?"
"I want to speak with Young Master Dancheon Myeong. Arrange a meeting for us. That is my condition."
"That much, the Young Mistress could easily do herself?"
"Let us call it a woman's pride."
So it went, she said.
"Will you…… help me?"
I saw Baek Yeo-hae ask it with a sheepish look. Of course, that too was measured by Myeong-gae's eye — to anyone else, my mother Baek Yeo-hae's face would still have seemed swept by a cold wind.
This was the first time I had ever held so long a conversation with my mother Baek Yeo-hae, and so only now do I know for certain. My mother Baek Yeo-hae is a person utterly clumsy at expressing what she feels.
Perhaps even more so than my father, Dancheon Gang.
And yet, now I understand my mother Baek Yeo-hae's true heart.