Black Corporation: Joseon - Chapter 363

Episode 363: Things increase when divided, work and lust (5)

Every time I went back and forth between Sejong and Hyang, the size of the bundles grew bigger and bigger.

This wasn’t just because things got mixed up in the process.

The biggest reason why the volume gradually increased was the problem of mindset and communication.

* * *

By actively participating in the creation of Hangul, Hyang significantly introduced the grammar and writing system of the 21st century.

The reason why the word ‘significantly’ had to be used here was an unavoidable problem brought about by the time gap between the 21st century and the mid-15th century.

In other words, it was a matter of mindset.

Another obstacle, the problem of communication, was a problem that inevitably occurred in the process of doing everything in writing rather than through real-time conversation.

Even when looking at the same sentence, each person’s understanding could not be completely the same, so conflicts continued to arise, and as criticisms and rebuttals continued, the volume gradually increased.

* * *

“It can’t be like this! If this continues, we’ll have to put it on a cart and move it!”

In the end, Hyang had no choice but to appeal this issue directly to King Sejong.

After putting down the bundle that was as big as her body, Hyang immediately got to the point with Sejong.

“Abama. “This makes it impossible to produce decent results quickly.”

Sejong nodded at Hyang’s words.

“That’s right, we should have sorted things out by now and started producing Haeryebon…”

“The reason work keeps getting delayed is because there’s a problem with communication between Abamama and Soja. To be more specific, this is because mistakes occur when conversations are communicated in writing as they are now. “

“It’s a mistake…”

Sejong, who was stroking his beard and thinking about Hyang’s words, nodded.

“That would be the most accurate. Even when it came to the old sage’s sentences, each person would often come up with different words…”

Sejong, who was nodding his head as he recalled the events that took place in the competition, which he rarely does anymore, looked back.

“You are right. But there is a problem. Creating our own Korean writing system would not only be groundbreaking, it would be close to a revolution. There is a high possibility that even ministers who are listening well now will rise up. Therefore, it must be kept secret until it is completely created. “Wouldn’t carrying out work at Gangnyeongjeon or Donggungjeon every night attract the attention of ministers?”

The eunuchs and court ladies were not supposed to reveal what was going on inside the palace to the outside world, but there were bound to be some who were ‘slightly’ soft-spoken everywhere. So far, I have entrusted the work to the people I have chosen, but I cannot guarantee how long the secret will be kept.

Sejong’s point was valid, so Hyang thought about a suitable solution.

After thinking for a moment, Hyang soon remembered something useful.

“Abama. “How about using Milwi?”

“Wilwi?”

“Yes, I am ordering the Secret Service to find a suitable secret wife.”

“Hmm…”

At Hyang’s suggestion, Sejong stroked his beard and calculated the profit and loss. King Sejong, who was considering and weighing various cases, soon made a decision.

“You look okay. “I should tell you to look for a suitable house within 2 gak (about 30 minutes) of Gyeongbokgung Palace.”

“Yes, even if it’s 2 o’clock or 1 o’clock (2 hours), if Abamama and Soja can proceed with work without misunderstanding, things will be much easier. Working outside may be interesting, but you can speed up the pace and save time. ”

“I get it. “I’ll call Captain Naegeum tomorrow and get things started.”

* * *

After receiving the order from King Sejong, Naegeumwiwi immediately delivered the order to the Milwi.

“My superior ordered me to find a suitable thatched house, as tile-roofed houses are rather annoying.”

At Naegeumwijang’s words, the directors of the Mill Committee looked at Naegeumwijang in confusion.

“Why but?”

“Do you think that there will be a house within two square blocks of Gyeongbokgung Palace where His Majesty can reside?”

“Ah…. Tsk!”

After regaining his appetite, Commander Naegeum revised his order.

“Just find a suitable house. A place where the inside is not visible from the outside and where security is easy. And to a place where you can return to Gyeongbokgung Palace as quickly as possible in case of an emergency.”

“yes. All right. So why are you suddenly looking for a house? if?”

Director Naegeumwi’s face turned fierce at the question of the second director, who had a strange look in his eyes.

“It’s not what you think. Don’t imagine anything. “If you do it wrong…”

Naegeumwijang’s eyes were full of murder as he blurted out his words and glared at me. The second director saw that and immediately lowered his head.

“I won’t even think about it!”

Milwi was Milwi. Milwi found a suitable house in three days and acquired it through reasonable negotiation.

After cleaning the interior and bringing in the furniture needed for work, Milwi immediately reported to King Sejong.

From the night after receiving the report, Hyang and Sejong met together at the house and exchanged opinions about the text message.

As a result of this process, the characters that were created had a very different appearance from the historical Hunminjeongeum that Hyang learned in the 21st century.

The first thing that caught my eye was that the writing system was divided into two.

This is the reason for the incense that completely separates the letters used to express words used daily by the people of Joseon and the letters created to express foreign language pronunciations – ᄼ ᄽ ᅎ ᅏ ᅔ ᄾ ᄿ ᅐ ᅑ ᅕ, etc. (Note 1). explained to Sejong.

“These modified alphabets are meant to record the sounds of foreign languages, so there is no need for the general public to know them. So, it would be better to leave this part out so that only interpreters or foreign language learners can learn it.”

“Wouldn’t it be good to have all the people speak at least one or two foreign languages?”

Hyang shook her head at Sejong’s point.

“If it were easy, Abamama wouldn’t have had to create letters to replace Chinese characters.”

‘Does this gentleman want to turn Joseon into the Netherlands?’

The Netherlands and neighboring Nordic countries used English as well as their native languages. But that was possible because their languages were all similar to branches branching out from the great root of the Roman Empire.

Hyang’s argument continued.

“Why did Abamama create a new text? Didn’t you want to make it easy for the people to learn and use? But is there any need to put in effort that doesn’t need to be put in? And…”

Hyang paused for a moment, quenched her throat, and continued speaking.

“When our Joseon becomes strong, it will not be we who learn foreign languages, but foreigners will learn our Korean language and writing.”

King Sejong immediately responded to Hyang’s words.

“Then how good would it be? No, we have to make it that way.”

“If you are Abama, you will make our Joseon like that.”

Sejong responded to Hyang’s words with an embarrassed expression.

“You are painting your father’s face with gold.”

* * *

When Hyang and Sejong put their heads together and exchanged opinions in real time, the work progressed incredibly quickly. The work, which had been sluggish for nearly three months since Hyang first took charge of the job, was nearing completion by the end of the 15th month.

Even though the average time spent on the work was only an hour and a half (about 3 hours), the speed was dazzling.

There were three final hurdles in the work that proceeded so quickly.

The problem of spacing: the problem of which to adopt between vertical and horizontal writing. And then there was the question of what name to call this new character.

“Spaces… It looks good, but haven’t you been writing well without spaces until now?”

Hyang immediately responded to Sejong’s point.

“The same thing was said when punctuation was first introduced, but what about now? Rather, don’t you use it so well that it’s strange if you don’t have it?”

* * *

Hyang strongly advocated the introduction of punctuation marks from the time he first began to stand out. No, he didn’t just claim it, he actively used it.

Although he was young, the crown prince actively pushed for it and with King Sejong’s support, punctuation marks soon became established.

And the punctuation marks that were established in that way soon proved their usefulness, and they came to be established not only in official documents but also in letters and private documents between the people.

Those who suffered the most in this process were those who were dragged into the records office. This was because punctuation marks had to be used in the process of organizing, classifying, and re-recording past records. What he meant was that it was not enough to simply transcribe old records, but that every sentence and word had to be examined.

* * *

“That’s true, but wouldn’t it be said that paper waste is increasing?”

Hyang responded to Sejong’s comment with a ridiculous expression.

“Who would say such nonsense when there is already so much cheap paper out there?”

The county handed over the technology for mass-producing yellow paper using pulp to the private sector. Of course it wasn’t free. He pocketed a lot of money from technology usage fees and sales of paper machines.

Pulp paper technology released to the private sector led to mass distribution of paper and polarization.

Hanji (Korean paper) made using traditional papermaking methods was sold as a high-end product, while yellow paper and white paper bleached from yellow paper became low-priced products.

Armed with reasonable quality and low prices, yellow paper and white paper soon began to dominate the paper markets of the Ming and Japanese countries.

In the end, after several rounds of debate, King Sejong accepted the spacing.

“It has more benefits than disadvantages and is especially useful for understanding sentences, so it would be a good idea to use it.”

* * *

After adopting spacing, King Sejong and Hyang fought again over the issue of horizontal and vertical writing.

“If you use a gold pen, there is no problem with left-to-right writing. However, this only applies if it is a golden pen. When writing with a brush, writing horizontally to the left is very inconvenient. The simplest example is, when writing with a brush, if you put ink on an inkstone and put it on paper, what should you do if the ink spills? And we have been using the right-jongseo (right-jongseo) up to now, so if we change it to the left-heavy writing, there will be a lot of backlash.”

Hyang nodded at Sejong’s point.

“you’re right. However, if you use left-to-right writing, it becomes easier in many ways. The easiest example is a report prepared in coordination, which contains many tables, formulas, and function diagrams. It’s much more useful to use them if you’re doing left-to-right. Of course, as Obama said, if the government and private sector forcefully urge the use of left-right policies right now, the backlash will increase. “First of all, you can start by asking the government to write left and right forms for the documents to be filled out in the future.”

“Still, there will be quite a bit of backlash. “Do you have any good measures or tools to appease them?”

In response to Sejong’s question, Hyang’s expression suddenly became mysterious.

“Why are you looking like that?”

In response to Sejong’s question, Hyang hurriedly adjusted her expression and answered.

“Oh no. “There is one piece I was thinking of.”

Sejong’s eyes sparkled at Hyang’s words.

“okay? “What was it?”

“It’s called a typewriter.”

King Sejong, who heard the explanation from Hyang, was very happy.

“If done properly, it could be very useful! “It will be especially useful for those who have bad penmanship!”

Sejong really liked the typewriter. This was because it was very painful every time a report or appeal written in bad writing came up.

* * *

Thanks to the hidden card called the typewriter, the left-hand writing was easily passed.

The last thing left was what to name this newly created letter.

“Do you have a name in mind, Abama?”

“At first, I thought it was ‘Ija (易字)’ which meant ‘easy letters’, but I thought it was considered an inverted character (易) and it would cause negative comments, so I got rid of it. So now I want to call it Jeongeum (正音). “Because the people can record their words correctly.”

Hyang, who had been nodding at Sejong’s words, opened her mouth.

“How about adding Hunmin (訓民) to that? “Because the people can clearly understand Abamama’s meaning.”

“Hunmin…. “Hunminjeongeum…”

King Sejong repeated several times and then nodded.

“Feel so good.”

* * *

Note 1) https://namu.wiki/w/Chidueum and political sound of Hunminjeongeum