Black Corporation: Joseon - Chapter 251

Episode 251 Change of signboard or complete transformation? (2)

As the reorganization plan was finalized, Yukjo Street became busy. After purchasing nearby private houses, the government began tearing them down and constructing new government office buildings.

When the building was completed at the end of the construction, the officials loaded carts with books, scrolls, and letters and moved in.

“Check the list of documents that need to be moved!”

“Did you miss anything?”

“hey! “This is a document that needs to be left behind!”

“yes! yes! “I’ll sort it out!”

“uh! uh! “It’s collapsing!”

“I told you to stack it properly!”

In a situation filled with all kinds of shouting and shouting, middle and lower-level officials had to sweat profusely to move their luggage.

“Move it properly! Just make mistakes! “I will throw you in the record office for the rest of your life!”

“Hi!”

* * *

The moving, which continued in a commotion, stopped for a moment.

“Do your part and join us again!”

“yes!”

The officials who stopped working for a moment dispersed in groups of threes and fives. Many of the scattered officials moved to the common dining room, but others opened their pockets, collected money, and called servants.

“Malbok! Bunnam!”

The servants who were called stopped the cart and rushed over.

“Yes, Nari!”

“Did you call me?”

“You go and buy a bunch according to the number of people, and you buy three or four bundles of takju and bring them with you. No, have it delivered.”

“Yes, Nari!”

The servants who received the order put the coins in their arms and quickly disappeared.

One of the officials who was watching this grumbled to his colleagues.

“If those guys knew how to read and write, we could make them work more comfortably…”

Another manager chuckled at his colleague’s complaint.

“why? Since the Social Democratic Institute seems to be doing well, do you think they can do it too?”

The official who first brought up the subject in response to a colleague’s question nodded silently.

* * *

After about four months of operation of the Social Ministries School, which opened in the fall of last year, reports on the academic achievement of children attending the schools have been posted from all over the country.

– Children who made rapid progress in mastering an average of 500 Chinese characters over a period of 3 months graduated from the 1000-character Chinese characters and entered elementary school.

In the case of industry and academia, achievements have been made to the extent of calculating basic addition and subtraction equations.

King Sejong and his ministers who confirmed these reports were encouraged by the positive results.

“If this situation continues, the people will be free from ignorance!”

Therefore, the idea arose that it would be a good idea to teach slaves to read.

* * *

The conversation that started out as a joke gradually turned into a serious conversation.

The official who spoke of educating slaves presented the basis for his argument.

“After all, aren’t they people too? So, if you teach, you can learn.”

The official who mentioned the Social Democratic Institute shook his head.

“it’s hard. Have you forgotten why the Social Democratic Institute produced that result? “Isn’t that what you do by teaching children from morning until dusk?”

* * *

Classes at the Social Democratic Institute were limited to the agricultural off-season. Because of this, classes started in the morning and lasted until sunset. Lunch was distributed at the school, and like the district’s plan, lunch was distributed using dry food. It was so thick that it was soggy, but the kids loved it. The reason was that it contained a large amount of meat because it was of the same standard as the dry weight supplied to the military. Of course, starting with the Gyejak era, the consumption of meat by ordinary people increased, but meat was always welcomed.

It wasn’t just about giving them dry food. The mothers hired by the Social Democratic Institute showed their skill in making soups and side dishes to eat with dry food. Soybean paste soup with sea radish was the standard, and sometimes there was always a variety of soup boiled with seaweed or kelp and salty vegetables. Sometimes, fruits donated by the local government of the village where the school was located were served as special meals, and the nutritional status of the children actually improved.

* * *

The official who presented the class hours of the Social Democratic Institute as the basis for his opposition continued.

“Do you think the slaves would have time to learn even if they wanted to?”

“….”

The official who first expressed his opinion was at a loss for an answer. Officials who had expressed opposition to the idea began to firm up.

“They say that if you learn only a thousand characters, you will get a rough idea, but isn’t that true in reality? “You have to know at least 3,000 characters to be considered literate.”

Another official intervened.

“Aye~. There is no need for 3000 characters. “If you know just 1,500 characters, you can figure out what the gazette on the wall means.”

“Whether it’s 3,000 or 1,500 characters, it’s only 50 paces. In any case, it is impossible to teach slaves how to write. “It would be better to find a way to encourage the academics of those learning at social democratic schools and middle schools during that time.”

“That is the correct answer. Even if you know up to 1,500 characters, isn’t that enough to turn it into an official document? “The number of characters in an official document is at least 10,000.”

All the officials nodded at those words. As soon as he finished speaking, the official who had been opposing it from the beginning spoke up.

“I also have a problem with my biceps.”

“Ah…”

When ‘Idu’ was mentioned, all the officials listening to the story nodded loudly.

* * *

Most things like letters and contracts sent and received by close people could be resolved with the 1,500 characters mentioned above.

However, formal official documents or appeals to the king could not do this. Therefore, a manual for writing official documents and a Chinese character dictionary, such as a jade version, were always placed on the officials’ desks along with writing utensils. Even officials who were confident in their writing skills, having read through the Four Books and Five Classics, or worse, the Four Books and Thirteen Classics, and had passed the exam in the past, were in a situation where they were sweating without manuals and autobiographies.

* * *

This problem became even more unanswerable when it was moved to Idu – including Hyangchal Gugyeol, etc.

Gugyeol, which is used as a substitute for the Korean word tosi, did not pose much of a problem because the number of characters was about 20 to 30. But things got more complicated from Hyangchal. It was said that one had to worry about whether the hyangchal notation on a sentence represents the meaning or the pronunciation.

Of course, there was a conventional way to distinguish between meaning and pronunciation, but it did not work every time.

Going one step further, as the scope of Joseon’s trade expanded and its power area expanded, the officials’ concerns became increasingly deeper.

Aside from the name of the country that is the home country of Chinese characters, the Japanese country also has the same right to use Chinese characters, so the situation ended if they wrote down the Chinese characters they used as is. Even if the pronunciation of Joseon and Japan were different, if it was written down in sentences, conversation was possible even without an interpreter.

However, the situation was different for the Jurchen people who had recently become wealthy in large numbers. In extreme cases, it was necessary to record all the names given by Joseon, those received from orders, and even the transliteration of the names given by Jurchen people to prevent errors from occurring. The good news is that the Jurchen people also have a way of writing their names and unique words in Chinese characters. This was because errors could be reduced by using their Chinese character notation.

In the case of Hohoe people and Seo-i, things went even further.

In order to record their names, such as ‘Pietro’, ‘Raphael’, and ‘Mansur’, or place names such as ‘Aden’ and ‘Alexandria’, officials had to move beyond simple records into the realm of creation.

An official with good writing skills would use phonetic notation so that the meaning could be inferred to some extent, but in most cases, it was best to import Chinese characters whose pronunciation was closest to the original.

The most representative one was ‘Undergusanduria (亞來口山豆里亞)’, a transliteration of ‘Alexandria’.

The officials who first confirmed the report submitted by Oh Ha-seok called Oh Ha-seok without question.

“What’s going on?”

“What sentence is this?”

“This is a place name. “It is a city called ‘Alexandria.’”

The officials who were organizing the documents all frowned at Oh Ha-seok’s answer.

“What is the name of the city?…”

“For us, we can say that it was created by adding a word meaning city to the name of a famous king during the old Samhan period.”

“The king’s name?”

“Let’s say it’s Alexander.”

“Alek…. Kkeun….”

In the end, the officials had no choice but to use ‘Under Gusanduria (亞來口山豆里亞)’.

Of course, some officials who did not know how to give up went to Hyang with some possibility.

After receiving the report, Hyang asked back on the spot.

“Do you have time to think about that? “Do you have some spare time?”

“no! I’ll just use it!”

The officials were so shocked that they had to run away.

* * *

“The biceps are definitely the problem.”

“yes.”

“We need some alternative means.”

“Alternative means? Are we going to use their text as is?”

The official who was asked the question shook his head.

“Wouldn’t that be unreasonable? “The number of countries we will be trading with will continue to increase, so wouldn’t it be impossible to learn all of their languages and characters?”

“Then how?”

“Wouldn’t it be best to create a character that could do that?”

After the official finished answering, the surroundings became quiet. A moment of silence followed, and the surrounding officials waved their hands at the same time.

“Aye~. “Say something that makes sense!”

“You’re talking nonsense!”

“Are you dreaming in broad daylight?”

The official, who had spoken out in response to the negative reactions of those around him, also asked back with a bitter smile.

“It must be difficult, right?”

“Isn’t that obvious! Could it be that there has been no one who has thought that way over the nearly thousand years since the old Three Han Dynasties when Chinese characters were first introduced? But what are the results? “There isn’t one, right?”

“That’s right…”

The official who spoke also nodded to that point.

In the end, among the officials who made such a fuss, the most senior official came forward and came to a conclusion.

“Creating letters is not an easy task. And it is even more difficult to create a perfect character like the one you mentioned. “If someone comes along who makes it possible, he or she will go down in history for that alone.”

“I guess so?”

“yes. ah! Gyejak and Takju have arrived! “Let’s eat quickly and get back to work!”

“yes!”

With that, the officials ended their discussion and began eating.

* * *

“Our Abama is so suspicious these days, isn’t it?”

Hyang, who was organizing documents in the study of Donggungjeon, looked in the direction of Geunjeongjeon with her arms crossed and muttered.

This was because the number of questions Sejong was asking about text messages was gradually increasing these days.

It was a question he asked as if he had thought of it in passing, but the difficulty of the question was gradually increasing.

The same thing happened in the morning assembly.

“Oh, by the way. Crown Prince. “I was reading Seo-yi’s book on urban sanitation.”

After the assembly, when the Hyang and the ministers were gathering up writing instruments and reports, King Sejong suddenly spoke to the Hyang.

“Yes Abama. “Please ask.”

‘Anyway, Abama Ma is also outside the standard. ‘That’s also a long way off.’

When King Sejong first encountered a Latin book, he needed Hassan’s help. But soon, King Sejong no longer needed Hassan’s help. Therefore, the scent was evaluated as ‘out of standard’.

‘But what was the book Abama took these days?’

When Hyang was reminiscing, the question Sejong asked was absurd.

“There are usually about 5 to 6 letters that make up the speaking form of a word.”

‘You mean vowels!’

Hyang understood the meaning of Sejong’s words and immediately answered.

“Yes that’s right.”

“Is it possible to express all pronunciations with such a small number?”

“If that’s the problem, they use the letters that mean that type in pairs or mix the pronunciations of different letters to express it.”

“It’s a little complicated.”

“That’s right.”

‘That’s why the vowels of Hangul are basically based on the three talents of heaven and earth… Abbu!’

Hyang held back the words that were about to come out right after that.

‘Be patient! If you do it wrong, you will be divided! ‘You have to endure it!’

Sejong, who caught a glimpse of Hyang struggling to hold back the words that were automatically coming out, leaned against the backrest.

“I get it. “Go and do your work.”

“Yes Abama.”

King Sejong, who had sent out his ministers and ministers, came down from the party house.

“I will take a short nap at Gangnyeongjeon. Officers are not to follow.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

* * *

Returning to Gangnyeongjeon, King Sejong entered the secret space and unfolded the paper.

“Of course, it would be a problem if the number of middle voices was too small.”

It was King Sejong who had already established the basic structure of initial consonants, middle consonants, and final consonants.

“But it’s also okay to mark them in different shapes…”

Sejong, who was pondering, observed traces of incense scattered in another room.

“Hmm…”

Sejong, who was tracing the shape with his finger, instantly stiffened.

“aha! Based on the three good fortunes of heaven, earth and human beings… solved!”

* * *

Author’s note.

Sorry for the hiatus yesterday.

On Wednesday night, I felt extreme pain in my chest while I was sleeping, and I haven’t been able to sleep since.

I went to the hospital yesterday morning and the results of the examination were that there didn’t seem to be any major problems, but they advised me to be careful because I have a family history and a current illness.

Thanks to this, I was able to take a breather, but I ended up taking a hiatus from the series, probably because I was overconsuming my mental energy.

I apologize again.

We will do our best to prevent something like this from happening in the future.