Black Corporation: Joseon

Chapter 369

Although it was decided to officially use Hunminjeongeum from the fall semester of the following year, there were quite a few who started using it early.

Those who pioneered the early use of Hunminjeongeum were officials from the General Affairs and Education Departments, as well as those working in the research institute and Area 51.

The reason officials from the General Affairs and Education Departments learned and used Hunminjeongeum was to prepare for its official promulgation, education, and use next year.

“We need to prepare personnel to educate officials in local government offices, and identify and supplement potential problems that may arise from early use…”

“The problem is that we now have more work to do because of this…”

“Living on a government salary is really…”

“At least it’s fortunate that learning and using it is easy. If it were difficult, I would have submitted my resignation. Really…”

While grumbling and complaining like this, the officials worked on supplementing issues that arose from using Hunminjeongeum.

Of course, it was inevitable that both exclamations of admiration and curses would slip out during this process.

The admiration came from the fact that Sejong had already predicted such problems would occur, and the curses came from the fact that he had left the choice of solutions to the officials.

The easiest example was the problem of ‘homonyms’ (words that sound the same but have different meanings).

When drafting official documents, there were often cases where words with the same pronunciation but different meanings came together. Or, there were cases where the meaning of a sentence could change completely depending on how a word was interpreted.

“How should we solve this problem…”

To find a solution, officials either flipped through the Haerye edition or racked their brains.

Just in case, officials who were flipping through the Haerye edition cursed when they saw the table of contents – something that hadn’t been in books until then – on the page right after the cover.

“Damn it!”

‘Chapter 4. Problems of Composition and Comprehension’

And right below that, ‘Homonyms’ was clearly written as an item.

The officials who hurriedly found the relevant section had to frown once again.

-Hunminjeongeum, being a phonetic script, has the problem of homonyms. A simple example is that even if it’s written as ‘jeonjinhada’, the meaning of the entire sentence changes depending on whether it means ‘前進 (moving forward)’ or ‘轉進 (changing course and advancing)’.

There are several ways to solve this.

One, always write in Hanja.

Two, write both Hunminjeongeum and Hanja together.

Three, use only Hunminjeongeum as the meaning can be understood from the context of the sentence.

Choose one of these three options or consider if there is a better option. Those who come up with a better option, I (余) will remember.

Seeing the last sentence, the officials shouted simultaneously.

“What the hell!”

They were flabbergasted by the words so casually written by a king who didn’t even seem to be the same kind of human as them.

‘He found all the potential problems, even made choices, and now he’s telling us to come up with new solutions?’

The deflated officials unknowingly muttered.

“What sin did I commit in my past life…”

The officials who were grumbling with lost energy suddenly lit up their eyes and started transcribing documents.

‘If by any chance! If I get it right, it could be a life-changing opportunity!’

***

However, no matter how hard they tried, this was a situation where King Sejong – with Hyang as an option – had deliberately created it and prepared for expected problems with appropriate choices.

The officials who encountered Hunminjeongeum desperately racked their brains, but they couldn’t get out of the range Sejong had envisioned.

“So in the end, we have to choose one of the alternatives His Majesty suggested?”

“Probably…”

Although they reached a conclusion, the officials couldn’t easily make a choice.

This was because they couldn’t be confident that the alternative they chose would be the ‘correct answer’ Sejong had in mind.

It was the same for the ministers. If they made a wrong judgment and chose the wrong answer, they were sure to hear that unpleasant tongue-clicking sound.

Eventually, the ministers sought out Hyang.

When he heard the ministers’ business, Hyang unknowingly clicked his tongue.

“Tsk!”

At Hyang’s tongue-clicking, the ministers momentarily felt upset, but there was nothing they could do.

‘Ah! That damn tongue-clicking sound!’

‘This father and son really… I might really quit!’

Although they were cursing all sorts of things inside, outwardly the ministers were bowing their heads.

“No matter how much we think about it, they all seem like correct answers.”

“They are all correct answers, though?”

“Pardon?”

Hearing Hyang’s answer, all the ministers looked at him with wide eyes.

Seeing the ministers like this, Hyang continued.

“Hunminjeongeum is a newly created writing system. So we can’t know what’s right and what’s wrong. The various ministers and officials need to use it, the people need to use it, and we need to revise it as we go. The problems His Majesty pointed out are what he expected to occur in the process of moving away from the familiar Hanja, and those are just alternatives. So how could there be a correct answer?”

“Ah…”

“If we apply and use all the given alternatives, the most suitable method will naturally be selected. Or a completely unexpected new alternative might appear. His Majesty wrote that way because he wants the officials to do their best in learning and using Hunminjeongeum.”

“Ah…”

‘Was it bait? Were we hooked?’

As if knowing the ministers’ thoughts, Hyang immediately added.

“Of course, if someone actually comes up with a new alternative or finds a problem, His Majesty would take a deep interest.”

Finally, having learned through Hyang what Sejong wanted, the ministers bowed and retreated.

“Wait, it might be presumptuous of me, still young, to say this, but there’s a saying among those Westerners: ‘The only real failure is the failure to learn from failure.'”

At Hyang’s words, the ministers bowed their heads and replied.

“We are grateful for such valuable advice.”

After leaving Hyang’s office, all the ministers sighed.

“Hah~. That father and son…”

Anyway, the ministers informed their subordinate officials of Hyang’s advice. The officials who heard the advice began to use Hunminjeongeum more actively. As they used Hunminjeongeum more actively, their understanding rapidly increased, and they gradually found solutions to problems arising from transcribing Chinese texts.

***

As the system of Hunminjeongeum was settling in this way, places began to appear where Hunminjeongeum was used more actively than Hanja.

One was the military, another was among the Jurchen people and in Daeseoldo, and the last was the research institute.

All three had reasons why this had to be the case.

First, in the case of the military, it was the place with the lowest level of humanities education. Of course, there were people like Choi Hae-san or Lee Chun who had considerable humanities knowledge – with science or engineering knowledge as an option – in addition to military capabilities, but excluding those who had transferred from civil service – typically Jo Mal-saeng – the level of humanities education was poor.

Of course, high-ranking military officers who had passed the military service examination were somewhat okay as they had to read military books, but the humanities education of mid to low-ranking officers like Gapsa, who had entered through talent selection, was terrible.

Therefore, Hunminjeongeum was very welcome to these people. There was almost no inconvenience in writing reports, drafting orders, or reading received orders.

In the end, those who had suffered various grievances – especially in terms of promotion – due to character problems raised both arms towards Hanseong and shouted “Long live!”

“Long live His Majesty! Long live! Long live!”

Besides easing the grievances of these less educated military officers, Hunminjeongeum showed its power in another area, which was communication.

The combination of the light communication network installed thanks to Hyang’s obsession and Hunminjeongeum was like “giving wings to a heavenly horse”.

With the existing number code, the amount of information that could be transmitted was limited.

However, as soon as Hunminjeongeum appeared, Hyang created a Hangul code. By assigning 4 digits each to initial consonants, vowels, and final consonants, the combined light signals could transmit slightly more detailed information faster than before.

Of course, it was still the same that truly detailed and accurate information was handled by relay runners, but still, they could receive urgent news in more detail compared to before.

***

The case of the Jurchen people was a bit unusual. The Jurchen people had Jurchen script created during the old Jin dynasty era.

However, as it was a script based on Chinese characters, it wasn’t a script that could be used comfortably. In the end, by the present day, only a few Jurchen nobles were learning it.

In this situation, ordinary Jurchen people found Hunminjeongeum easier to use and had no reluctance in accepting it.

“We’re Joseon people anyway, so what!”

In the process of using Hunminjeongeum to record the Jurchen language, a chain reaction occurred: the Jurchen people who had submitted to Joseon learned the Korean language more quickly.

It was a chain effect brought about by the advantage of being able to read with their eyes, not just hear and speak.

***

The same was true in Daeseoldo.

The situation was even worse for the Ainu people of Daeseoldo, as their history and myths had all been passed down orally.

Of course, there were attempts to record documents using hiragana, katakana, or Chinese characters used by the Japanese, but most ended in failure.

It was impossible to accurately record Ainu pronunciations with hiragana or katakana. Using Chinese characters failed because there weren’t people with good enough Chinese character skills to that degree.

In this context, Hunminjeongeum, which Joseon people had been using recently, was the best script for recording their traditions in writing.

It could transcribe their language almost without error, and Ainu people who knew Hunminjeongeum could understand properly just by reading those sentences.

As a result, Ainu people who had submitted to Joseon couldn’t help but show more favor towards Joseon.

***

“What interesting people.”

Hakumakkuru, who had bought salt and some medicinal ingredients from the government monopoly store and came out, muttered as he watched Joseon people passing in front of him.

Since Joseon set foot on Daeseoldo, the number of Joseon people had been gradually increasing.

Most of these were soldiers and miners, and their families.

Having learned that the natural environment of Daeseoldo was not easy to deal with, Joseon was cautious about population relocation.

After observing the Ainu people, the Joseon court learned that agriculture was possible and recruited those who would serve their military service as garrison farmers in Daeseoldo.

‘Income from garrison farms cultivated while serving in Daeseoldo will be recognized as additional income, not as part of the salary.’

At the court’s announcement, many soldiers volunteered for service in Daeseoldo. Since military deployment was essential now that Daeseoldo had become Joseon territory, they aimed for additional income.

These people could live as garrison farmers in Daeseoldo during their mandatory military service period and then return home, or they could settle in Daeseoldo. If they settled, they could receive tax benefits and rent – after the Giyou Rebellion, Joseon nationalized most of its land based on the concept of royal land – overwhelmingly larger lands than those who had relocated to Jurchen areas.

While these dispatched soldiers and their families formed one axis, the other axis was the miners.

The miners who entered Daeseoldo were extracting sulfur and coal.

Among the information obtained from the Ainu people of Daeseoldo, Hyang immediately ran to Sejong when he confirmed information about sulfur hot springs.

The survey team, which began investigation by Sejong’s order, was able to find a large sulfur hot spring in a place the Ainu people called Hell Valley.

Seeing the sulfur heavily coagulated on the rocks near the hot spring, the survey team hurriedly wrote a report and returned to Joseon.

After confirming the survey team’s report, Sejong sent miners to Daeseoldo without a second word.

This was because they could solve the sulfur shortage problem that had remained unsolved until then.