He Became King Sejong’s Lifelong Prime Minister - Chapter 127

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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King Sejong’s Enlightenment (2)

“You say we must give up on saving all the poor – what is the reason for this statement?”

“The emergence of poor people in a nation is like famine occurring during bad harvests – it is something that cannot be predicted or prevented by human power.”

In this world, there are many people who become poor for all sorts of different reasons.

People who start businesses with big dreams but lose all their wealth in an instant when things don’t go as planned and become poor.

People who overconsume relative to their income and eventually go bankrupt when they can no longer handle it.

People who become obsessed with gambling or entertainment and squander all their money, and so on…

Besides these, there are people who fall into the swamp of poverty due to circumstances not of their own making, such as family illness.

No matter how diligently civil servants and the government keep their eyes open to watch and try to help with such unexpected situations, it’s impossible to help everyone.

Moreover, it’s even more impossible in Joseon, which lacks not only government budget and manpower but even a computer network system.

“For the same reason, it is impossible to save all the poor.”

Even if the nation overflows with money, saving everyone including gambling addicts and those trapped in overconsumption would be truly insane.

This is because such people, even when given opportunities to recover through bankruptcy or debt forgiveness, have a high probability of repeating the same behavior again.

When I lived in Korea, there was a guy who barely caught his breath through personal bankruptcy, but one day rumors came that he had started gambling again.

Shortly after, I heard news that he had committed suicide because he couldn’t repay his new debts.

“However, those who have the will to strive to escape poverty can be saved if Your Majesty wishes to embrace them.”

“Those who have the will to escape can be saved…”

“When I served as County Governor of Jinhae, there was a widow called Sundeok Mother. She lost her husband at a young age and had to support her family alone, constantly worrying that she might starve her children to death if she made a mistake. However, when the market opened in Jinhae County, she would diligently work the tenant fields from early morning until lunch, then gather wild vegetables from afternoon until sunset to sell on market days, gradually escaping the poverty of having to go hungry.”

I still vividly remember eating the delicious mixed rice she prepared when I went to the market just before my term as Jinhae County Governor ended.

She had said that if she could save a little money by working like this, she wanted to buy a small plot of land and farm her own field.

Whether she achieved that dream… I don’t know that much.

“Even near Hanyang, there are people who wake up early at dawn to finish work in tenant fields, then come to harbors like Yongsan-jin in the afternoon to do odd jobs to earn even small money. Their bodies must be very tired, but they will be greatly pleased that by working harder than before, they no longer let their wives and children go hungry. Such people have escaped poverty.”

“That is correct.”

“As merchants engaged in trade increase throughout the Eight Provinces of Joseon, workshops multiply, and inns grow in number, each shop will have no choice but to hire workers. Then jobs will be given to those who wanted to work but had nowhere to work and were starving, so they too can escape from hunger.”

Actually, I’d like to add a few words here if I could.

Even if jobs increase exponentially, the number of Joseon’s Common People increases relatively gradually compared to that.

Then landlords and Merchants will enter into competition for the workers needed to operate their businesses, and in this process, the value of workers will rise.

Landlords will have no choice but to lower tenant fees to keep their land from lying idle, and Merchants will have to raise wages even more.

When this happens, the Common People’s income level will rise, so the poor will gradually decrease.

However, I don’t intend to bring up this point here.

If I bring this up here and the Yangban Government Officials learn of this fact, irreversible disastrous consequences will arise.

“Also, if commerce expands, the Rice and grain that the wealthy possess will no longer rot away in warehouses.”

King Sejong’s eyes lit up at the mention of Rice.

One of the reasons King Sejong and Lee Bang-won had tremendous interest in introducing currency was because they seriously worried about the problem of Rice piling up and rotting in warehouses.

‘Frankly speaking, no matter how much care you take in storing Rice, it all rots after 3 years from harvest.’

Since Yangban and Merchants aren’t charitable businessmen, they’d rather let 3-year Old Rice rot in warehouses than do anything else.

They don’t distribute Rice to the Common People just because it’s a waste to let it rot.

They just hold a few grand feasts during family ancestral rites, only enough to avoid peasant uprisings.

“What does the expansion of commerce have to do with grain rotting away?”

“I and my father-in-law greatly increased our wealth through commerce. Has this harmed the nation? Or has it benefited it, His Majesty?”

At my words, everyone present perked up their ears.

Because it would be decided at this moment whether investing in commerce to increase wealth would be legal or illegal.

“The way you increased your wealth has helped the national interest. But why do you ask that?”

“Then now the wealthy will try to invest in commerce to multiply their wealth rather than storing all their assets as Rice, silk, and various Luxury Goods. Since they are human beings, they will have the desire to become even wealthier than now… and will want to multiply their wealth rather than just storing it.”

There’s a common saying we often hear: if only I had exactly ten million won, or one hundred million won in my bank account, I’d have no other wishes.

However, a person who says they’d have no wishes if they just saved ten million won will actually aim for one hundred million and try to save money when they do accumulate all that money.

A person who says they’d have no wishes if they just saved one hundred million will want to save one billion when they’ve saved the full one hundred million – this is human instinct.

Strangely, this tendency is more severe among the wealthy than among the poor.

Among the wealthy, there are truly extreme people who have assets worth billions or tens of billions, but never eat out at all.

Even when they need to buy a simple bowl of soup rice, they tremble at the thought of wasting money and try not to buy it.

‘With the money for one bowl of soup rice, I could eat three meals at home!’

Would the wealthy of Joseon be any different?

‘Rich people are all the same in the end.’

“The rice invested in commerce will continue to circulate and return as wages and jobs for the poor common people. In this process, new opportunities will be given to those trying to escape poverty.”

Someone once said.

Throughout all of human history, capitalism has only been emerging and moving for a few hundred years, but the glory and development that capitalism has brought is far greater than that of the hundreds of thousands of years before it.

The most dramatic proof of this is that European powers, who would struggle against Joseon in a one-on-one fight now, completely defeated the Qing Dynasty during the Opium Wars.

The Qing Dynasty controlled commerce and did not fully embrace capitalism, creating stagnation in development, while Europe continued to develop after accepting capitalism.

History is the footsteps left by victors, so as a bureaucrat of Joseon, I will make Joseon take the path of ‘capitalism’ to make it the greatest nation.

King Sejong was nodding while listening to my words, but suddenly made a serious expression.

There’s no way what I said would displease King Sejong, right?

“The words that those who starve will decrease are truly pleasing to my heart. However, I want to know and understand the lives of the common people better. Looking back, it seems that terrible incidents like the great fire of Hanyang occurred because I didn’t know the butchers well. Therefore, wouldn’t it help me understand the lives of the common people if I personally visit and meet them?”

The most common mistake that politicians or high-ranking general-level officers make is visiting civil servants and asking what difficulties they face.

The reason is that regardless of the intentions of those visiting, civil servants will say ‘there are no problems.’

For example, suppose a National Assembly member goes to a police box in their district and asks what’s most difficult about performing police duties.

And if one clueless rookie patrol officer honestly answers about what difficulties they face?

The National Assembly member will hear that and tell the police chief to correct those issues, and the police chief will not look favorably upon the police box that caused them to be reprimanded.

Therefore, after the visitor leaves, that police box will face a top-down scolding starting from the police chief.

That’s why people capable of common sense judgment answer ‘no problems.’

So in such situations, people who speak with conviction about problems are either lacking in awareness or have tremendous resolve.

What’s more, in the Joseon Period, the king personally visits the common people to ask about their circumstances?

The outcome is obvious to see.

“Even if His Majesty personally visits the common people to ask them, no one would be able to truthfully tell the story of their life’s joys and sorrows. If you truly wish to know their genuine lives, you must completely hide your identity when you visit them.”

Even now in the military, there are those who get fooled when a senior sergeant acts like a ‘private.’

In Joseon, there are hardly any cases of the king completely concealing his identity for Secret Inspection in Disguise, so everyone would be fooled.

“Your words are right. Someday I shall go on a distant secret inspection to see their lives with my own eyes and hear with my own ears.”

“Your grace is boundless.”

Though he spoke like that, King Sejong is the king of Joseon.

How could such a person conduct Secret Inspection in Disguise like a Secret Royal Inspector and go to where commoners live?

Probably not me, but he’ll order someone else to properly conduct an inspection of the people’s livelihood and work them hard.

“Lastly, I ask you. Among the common people, there are those who do not show brotherly love or filial piety even though they do not starve. What do you think is the reason such people arise?”

“It is because they have not learned. How many people in the Eight Provinces of Joseon have read Elementary Learning, which deals with basic human duties? Even combined, it would be less than 5 percent. Since they have not learned, they do not know what duty is and cannot live like proper human beings.”

Humans become people through education.

Among goose fathers, there are quite many cases where they don’t receive proper treatment as fathers from their children.

That’s not because those children’s nature is rotten, but because they couldn’t learn it from their mothers while living apart.

Conversely, if there’s a kid who mistreats his mother, it’s because he grew up watching his father disrespect his mother.

It’s natural in a way for humans who haven’t learned what duty is to not know duty.

“Zilu was nothing but a ruffian who liked to use his fists until he met the sage, but when he met Confucius and learned propriety and the Way, loyalty and righteousness from him, he later became a loyal retainer. If he had not met Confucius and learned from him, how could he have lived like a proper person?”

Education makes people human.

I too, when I lived in Korea, spent a very poor and difficult childhood…

But thanks to someone’s teachings, I was able to reach my current position.

That’s why I think education is more important to people than anything else.

And the core of that education is just one thing.

Characters that are not Chinese Characters, but are easy for anyone to learn and write.

‘Hangeul.’

“If all people learn the ways of the sages, then in the future, even among the Navy (seven base occupations, legally commoners but treated as lowborn in practice), there will be those who achieve first place in the examinations. Among those called lowly, there will be many who pass the civil service examinations.”

Indeed, in the second year of Crown Prince Munjong’s reign, a man whose grandfather had been in the Navy achieved second place in the examinations.

His score was first place, but Crown Prince Munjong demoted him to second place because his status was lowly.

This is my personal opinion, but I think this was a great mistake by Crown Prince Munjong.

“I dare to think that His Majesty will be able to accomplish this great undertaking.”

The royal lecture continued after that as well.

However, because King Sejong often muttered about ‘a world where everyone learns the ways of the sages,’ it couldn’t continue for long.

So the royal lecture ended earlier than expected, and everyone was getting up to leave.

King Sejong grabbed me and gave me a suspicious smile with clear intent.

What is it? Why are you acting like that?

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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