WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 33: In April, All the Flowers of the World Have Faded (4)
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“My name is Jin Geol.”
The poor scholar in patched clothes was named Jin Geol.
“What you said earlier left a deep impression on me. There is no sin in self-interest. If one's thoughts hold no wickedness, self-interested acts may gather into a great good. Hah... I consider those words nearly as valuable as the teachings of Confucius and Mencius.”
Comparable to the teachings of Confucius and Mencius.
That was impossible praise.
Put in twenty-first-century terms, it was like saying, “Wow, you’re on Jesus’ level.”
Yet Yeon Sowol was not particularly surprised.
‘Of course it is. It’s a quote from Adam Smith.’
A legendary passage that could be called the starting point of modern economics.
To Yeon Sowol, it was only natural for it to stand alongside Confucius and Mencius. If anything, it ought to rank even higher.
“Huh. You can receive such praise so calmly...? I like you even more now!”
Only after hearing the transmitted voice did he belatedly reflect, ‘Ah, was I thinking too much like a modern person?’
Still, there seemed to be no need to explain himself.
“This is all I can offer by way of help.”
Jin Geol suddenly whispered a line of poetry.
“Peach and plum blossoms in the spring breeze, a cup of wine.
A lamp for ten years beneath the night rain of the Jianghu.”
?
‘What’s this supposed to mean?’
Jin Geol’s transmitted voice brushed against Yeon Sowol’s ear as he puzzled over it.
“Remember it. It is the Governor-General of Liangguang’s favorite poem. It may be of use to you.”
Yeon Sowol quickly analyzed the poem.
‘Peach and plum blossoms in the spring breeze, and night rain in the Jianghu. So it contrasts a flowering spring breeze with a rainy Jianghu night. In the spring breeze, they shared a cup of wine and were happy. In the Jianghu, he faced only a lamp for ten years, alone and lonely? It also contrasts one with ten. This is how Chinese poetry works.’
Using the skills he had built solving Korean language exam questions, he finished analyzing and memorizing the poem in an instant.
“As a man of the Jianghu, no one will expect much of you. Still, simply knowing that poem should earn you some points, if the chance arises.”
Yeon Sowol gave a slight nod of thanks. Jin Geol grinned, then sent no more transmitted voices.
* * *
The Governor-General of Liangguang, Seo Myeongeum, spoke.
“Do you know why I enjoy bonsai?”
Small trees in pots nearly filled the entire pavilion.
Seo Myeongeum gazed at them with satisfaction as he continued.
“Because raising people is much like tending bonsai. One cuts off branches that grow astray, protects those that grow well, watches that they do not exceed their proper bounds, and repots them into suitable pots at the proper time.”
At a gesture from him, the attendants standing behind him began stacking small one-nyang gold yuanbao and silver yuanbao before Seo Myeongeum.
The scholars watching them swallowed hard.
“People are the same. Their achievements must be examined without rest. Praise them when they do well, and punish them when they do poorly.”
Seo Myeongeum looked slowly over the scholars.
“Today, I will assess you all. I will praise what you have done well and rebuke what you have done poorly. Come forward one by one and accept my wine.”
The first scholar stepped forward. As Seo Myeongeum filled his cup to the brim, he recited a line of poetry.
“Peach blossoms drift away on flowing water, vanishing into the distance.”
It was a poem by Li Bai.
The peach blossoms floated away down the water, far out of sight.
The original next line was, “There is another world here, not the realm of men.”
But as he received the cup, the scholar answered with a line of his own.
“A steadfast loyal heart remains clear within me.”
Seo Myeongeum’s face darkened.
“Wrong!”
How could such a powerful voice come from that frail old body?
Every scholar seated there gulped.
“You have utterly ignored the sentiment in the line about peach blossoms and flowing water! Without considering the context, you immediately boast of your own loyalty. What is that if not the conduct of a treacherous courtier? How poor must your self-cultivation be for this to be all you can draw from a poem?”
The scholar’s face went white.
His hand shook violently. Wine spilled over the rim and dripped down.
“Get out!”
Trembling, the scholar set the cup on the table and fled down the stairs.
“Next.”
The questions and answers continued, one scholar after another.
Whenever Seo Myeongeum liked an answer, he said, “Correct!”
Then he handed out silver yuanbao on the spot.
But when an answer was wrong, he showed no mercy.
“Wrong!”
Many scholars left the pavilion trembling.
The silver on Seo Myeongeum’s table gradually dwindled, while the number of untouched cups of wine kept growing. The gold remained stacked there, unchanged.
Then it was Jin Geol’s turn.
Seo Myeongeum once again filled a cup to the brim and recited a line.
“For every petal that flies away, spring is diminished.”
It was a poem by Du Fu.
As much spring vanished as the petals that flew away.
Before even answering, Jin Geol drained the wine in one go. He let out a pleased breath, then replied.
“With half my heart flushed red, I dare raise a cup to you.”
“Oh?”
The wrinkles around Seo Myeongeum’s mouth curled upward.
“I clearly rebuked the phrase ‘a steadfast loyal heart,’ yet you bring me ‘half a heart flushed red.’”
Jin Geol only smiled calmly.
Seo Myeongeum smiled as well.
“Very good. Against the mood of regret over spring’s passing, you offer a cup with half your heart turned red. It may be read as an offering to a friend or lover, yet also as loyal devotion offered to one’s sovereign. Very good.”
“Thank you.”
“Using half rather than whole was fitting as well. It seems to reveal the heart of one whose cultivation is not yet complete, while also expressing the heart of an old man with only half of spring remaining. Exquisite.”
“You honor me.”
“The way you rhymed chun, ‘spring,’ with gun, ‘you,’ was excellent as well. Take it.”
For the first time that day, Seo Myeongeum gave out a gold yuanbao.
Jin Geol bowed deeply and returned to his seat. When his gaze met Yeon Sowol’s, he gave him a wink.
Now it was Yeon Sowol’s turn. He felt nervous.
At the same time, something inside him thrilled.
‘This atmosphere... I know it.’
The cold life of an exam student, where right and wrong were sharply divided.
Yeon Sowol had been a predator in that paper jungle.
Jin Geol had frightened him by calling it saibii and all that, but...
‘If it’s something like this, I’m confident.’
His heart pounded as he waited to be called.
“Next.”
Yeon Sowol stepped forward confidently.
Glug, glug, glug.
Seo Myeongeum filled his cup.
“Peach and plum blossoms in the spring breeze, a cup of wine.”
‘Here it comes!’
A poem by Huang Tingjian.
Peach blossoms were red, plum blossoms white. In a spring breeze full of blooming flowers, you and I shared a cup of wine.
The original following line spoke of how, after that, they could not meet for ten years and could only long for one another.
The scholars read all that between the lines and swallowed.
‘Could a mere martial man of the Jianghu possibly know that poem?’
‘His Excellency gave him a line about friendship and longing between people... His Excellency must favor that man of the Jianghu.’
‘It’s more than favor. Isn’t that an invitation to take the civil service examinations and enter office? You’ll long for today all your life, so leave behind the lonely Jianghu and spend every day like this in office.’
‘He means that the boy will remember the wine he poured for him today for a long time. It is an invitation into officialdom!’
But Yeon Sowol’s mind held none of the complicated calculations filling the scholars’ heads.
Putting feeling into poetry and speaking in riddles?
A person from the twenty-first century could not be expected to grasp something even harder than Kyoto-style indirectness on the spot.
So he simply did what he knew. Like solving a Korean language question, he desperately sought the “correct answer.”
‘It really came up. A question I already knew. No reason to be scared.’
Grateful to Jin Geol for giving him the answers in advance, he checked the line he had prepared.
‘Perfect parallelism. It pays respect by showing the original, and the meaning fits the present situation perfectly!’
Yeon Sowol answered.
“At a night outing in the Jianghu, a hundred thousand lanterns shine.”
“...”
“...”
“Gasp...”
One scholar made a strangled sound.
‘Is he insane? He completely overturned the original meaning! It has the mood of loneliness, but now it suddenly becomes a night of eating and partying...!’
‘No. It is a highly calculated move. He noticed that Lord Seo was subtly inviting him into officialdom.’
‘A cup of wine in the flower-scented spring breeze you offer? There are a hundred thousand lanterns in the Jianghu, though? Is that what he said, before Lord Seo Myeongeum?’
‘He openly challenged him! What nerve!’
‘And those hundred thousand lanterns there were not lit by you people, either...?’
‘He’s mad!’
As everyone stared in shock,
“Huh. Hahaha?”
Seo Myeongeum let out a hollow laugh.
Yeon Sowol could only feel confused.
‘Why is the mood like this...?’
Seo Myeongeum narrowed his eyes at him.
“Your father got the better of me earlier, and now his son does the same.”
Yeon Sowol only blinked wide-eyed.
“Hah. After saying something like that, you can still look me straight in the eye. Your spirit truly is extraordinary.”
With a faint smile, Seo Myeongeum asked him,
“Very well. I had intended to give you a gold yuanbao no matter how you answered, along with the precious sword I promised. But since you have come at me this way, I must test you further.”
‘What... did I do?’
Seo Myeongeum asked the flustered Yeon Sowol,
“Your father told me he would eradicate the bandits of Heavenly Road Mountain.”
“Yes.”
“Yet it is said that a ruler must act as a ruler, a subject as a subject, a father as a father, and a child as a child.”
A ruler must be like a ruler.
A subject must be like a subject.
A father must be like a father.
A child must be like a child.
“The people, too, must act as the people. Yet the people’s proper role is not to take up swords. And still, your father, one of the people, comes to me and says he will take up a sword, then asks for my help. How should I answer? If the people take up swords, are they truly any different from bandits?”
Cold sweat broke out on Yeon Sowol’s back.
‘This is... the issue of vigilante justice...?’
It was a problem that could not be said to have been resolved even in twenty-first-century South Korea.
People endlessly argued about self-defense, about laws being too weak, about how no one could live with injustice like that.
Legally, private vengeance was forbidden. But human hearts were not so simple.
People devoured webtoons, web novels, dramas, and every kind of content that glorified vigilante justice.
In short, it was a difficult question.
Even a Seoul National University student would have struggled to answer it. For someone who had merely been preparing to enter Seoul National University, it was even harder. On top of that, he had to answer according to this world’s common sense and academic principles...
This was simply impossible.
A twenty-first-century high school student did not know much about Confucianism.
In the end, Yeon Sowol decided,
‘Let’s just admit I don’t know.’
Yeon Sowol knew teachers fairly well.
Teachers hated it when students pretended to know what they did not.
‘But they also don’t like it when you only say you don’t know.’
They saw it as having no desire to learn.
So...
‘First, admit that I don’t know. Then ask further questions about what I don’t know. That’s the right approach.’
The perfect attitude of a model student.
Hoo...
Yeon Sowol took a brief deep breath and formed his question.
“I am too dull to find an answer. To answer you, I must first know what Nature Learning calls the people. Yet my learning is still shallow, and I have not learned about the people.”
The scholars frowned.
‘He does not know the people?’
‘The people are the foundation.’
‘That is beyond merely having shallow learning.’
‘He could compose a passable poem, but now his true level is showing.’
Quiet snickers spread through the pavilion.
Amid them, Yeon Sowol continued.
“I have read various classics under my father’s guidance, but they all concerned the Dao and principle. In the books I read, I never encountered a detailed discussion of the people and life. Yet if the people are called the foundation, surely there must be detailed studies and teachings on the people and life as well. Only when the root is strong can the branches stand straight.”
The air in the pavilion suddenly changed.
“Uh...?”
One scholar let out a deflated sound.
The same question arose in everyone’s mind.
‘Come to think of it, have I... read a book that deals with the people and life in detail?’
‘No, this one discusses Dao and principle. That one also discusses Dao and principle. The people and life...’
‘There are such books. But they are not what is fashionable these days.’
‘No. There are books that discuss the people and life, but none that examine them as thoroughly as Dao and principle. Though they are called the foundation...’
Within that strange silence, Yeon Sowol went on.
“This foolish and lacking person knows only that people grieve, rage, beat their own bodies, and sometimes take up swords. What my father means to do is ultimately that sort of thing. Surely Nature Learning has already studied such matters in detail as well. For if people who weep, harm themselves, and take up swords are only told to endure, that could not be a great teaching.”
“...”
The silence in the pavilion became frighteningly heavy.
“Why do the people act that way? How can their hearts be comforted? How should people who weep and take up swords be governed so there is no injustice in the world? No, what measures should be taken from the beginning to prevent such a situation? Even if they have not been put into practice, surely they have been studied. If you teach me, I will take it to heart.”
“...”
Seo Myeongeum could not say a word.
He was unlike the scholars whose learning was still shallow.
His mind held not only books and doctrines, but administrative records as well. How should laws serve the people? How should they be enforced? What of the economy? What of people who took up swords? What of people starving to death at that very moment?
He had pondered such matters countless times.
He had debated them countless times.
Yet he could not speak.
‘In the end, had we only agonized among ourselves and failed to set it right? Did we truly make the people and life our foundation? Was it not because we failed, because we were lacking, that Yi Yubaek and Yeon Sowol now stand before me?’
As Seo Myeongeum remained silent, the scholars sighed.
‘What a scathing criticism.’
‘He knows everything. He is saying it all while knowing.’
‘Frightening. His words sting unbearably, yet they do not violate reason.’
‘A book that closely examines each and every person who weeps and takes up a sword... I have never even imagined one...’
After a long silence, Seo Myeongeum finally managed to part his lips.
“I... am ashamed.”
Not correct.
Not wrong.
Ashamed.
He looked at Yi Yubaek and Yeon Sowol in turn, then murmured bitterly,
“You are truly people of the Jianghu.”
He looked over the bonsai filling the pavilion and murmured,
“Some trees are straight and green all on their own.”
Then he turned to the attendants behind him.
“Bring what was prepared.”
Soon, a chest was placed before Yi Yubaek.
Inside, one-nyang gold yuanbao were stacked high. There was so much gold that even the wealthy Yi Yubaek momentarily found it hard to breathe.
“Yet we are in no position to send troops to help directly. So I will use my private wealth to assist you. Scatter that gold, and it will be easier to gather righteous heroes of the Jianghu.”
“Thank you, Your Excellency.”
Yi Yubaek clasped his hands and bowed deeply.
“And this is a commander tally.”
Seo Myeongeum held out a pouch containing half of a wooden token.
“This is temporary military authority granted by me, the Governor-General of Liangguang, to Yi Yubaek of Shinheung County. When you gather men and strike Heavenly Road Mountain, it will no longer be a private matter. It will be an affair of the state and this office’s responsibility.”
“Th-thank you.”
Yi Yubaek’s lips trembled.
He had not expected support to this extent.
Seo Myeongeum nodded deeply, then turned to Yeon Sowol.
An attendant hurried over and presented Yeon Sowol with a precious sword, the sword he had been promised upon reaching the boat.
But then...
“Take it away!”
Seo Myeongeum waved a hand.
He spoke to the attendant behind him.
“Bring my Demon-Severing Sword.”
Soon afterward, an attendant came running over with a large sword in his arms.
“I may not be a martial artist, but fine swords are gifted to me from all directions. Of those, this is the finest.”
A pitch-black hilt in a pure white scabbard.
Seo Myeongeum offered it to Yeon Sowol.
“With talent and wisdom like yours, you will surely one day face a true demon. When that time comes, this sword will aid you.”
Yeon Sowol accepted the sword in a daze.
He dimly sensed that he had struck at some weakness of theirs.
‘Could it be? Have they really done so little research into the people’s livelihood?’
If that was truly the case...
‘It’s not just the Jianghu that’s crazy. Politics too...’
He had expected things to be different because of the atmosphere around them.
The medieval world’s spicy kick left his tongue numb.
Then,
“Live well in that Jianghu where a hundred thousand lanterns shine. Still, should the chance arise, I would like to see you once more. Thanks to you, I have gained great insight. Thank you, young man of the Jianghu.”
At Seo Myeongeum’s final farewell,
for some reason,
‘A man of the Jianghu.’
Yeon Sowol felt an inexplicable pride.
Footnotes:
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