[……And so, Kim Chun-sik opened the he had just received!
Take a look at this complete summary of every crime and misdeed the local officials commit in the government office.
Tampering with the land registry, erasing fertile lands that exist, creating imaginary ones that don’t, all to squeeze extra taxes.
Rejecting the tributes that the people prepare themselves, criticizing their quality, and only accepting those bought from colluding merchants—bleeding the people dry.
Adding corpses and infants to the military registry, squeezing military taxes from the dead and nursing children alike.
Framing the innocent and throwing them into prison. Ransacking homes under the pretense of searching for evidence.
Extorting money for clothing, food, even the cost of prison cells and jailers’ wages from innocent prisoners, stuffing their own bellies.
Inflating costs for government construction projects.
Falsifying ledgers to embezzle from the national treasury.
Using shoddy materials and pocketing the difference.
The people forced into labor are treated as little more than the officials’ private slaves—what a gruesome, wretched state of affairs!
And yet, these very officials are shamelessly reporting all this to the new magistrate, Kim Chun-sik.
No wonder thick veins are bulging from Kim Chun-sik’s forehead!]
Is this for real?
I could swear I’ve seen this story somewhere before….
After the huge hits and , there was a brief lull.
Choi Court Lady brought me a book, calling it the latest sensation that would fill that gap.
But when I received it, I couldn’t believe my eyes.
“They say, according to Lord Gye of Jeonju, that Master Yeonam put his whole heart into writing this in vernacular script.”
“Master Yeonam?”
“Yes. Of course, only we know who the true author is, right? You understand?”
Choi Court Lady pressed her finger to her lips and winked.
It was a book that loyal Gye Deok-sang had presented in advance, to amuse ‘that person.’
The result: Park Ji-won, who had set aside his brush for years, had rolled up his sleeves at last.
But why?
Did Park Ji-won’s orchard catch fire or something?
Besides, as far as I knew, Park Ji-won wrote all his novels—like , , —in classical Chinese.
Yet the novel I was reading now was written entirely in pure Korean.
How? Why?
Honestly, as someone who studied classical novels, Park Ji-won was a kind of superstar to me.
Take for instance.
While writing a truly entertaining novel, he openly attacked the contradictions of Joseon society and the absurdity of the Northern Campaign theory with such bravado.
On top of that, Park Ji-won wrote such dangerous works under his real name, never hiding behind a pen name—proving himself a true man of integrity.
Unlike me, hiding like some wretched coward, writing novels in secret, always afraid my nagging father might find out.
Of course, that very he wrote, which took Hanyang by storm, eventually landed in the hands of that old stick-in-the-mud King Jeongjo, sparking the prose style crackdown.
Still, a writer who boldly shows his convictions while also creating entertaining novels—how could I not respect him as a fellow author?
Especially Park Ji-won’s sharp-edged black humor and biting wit—still top-notch, even generations later.
This time, as he bought off the old men of Tapgol with money, I was genuinely curious how Park Ji-won would react.
“When Master Yeonam first turned down ‘that person’s’ offer, I was a little taken aback, but now I don’t think we need to worry.”
It was just as Choi Court Lady said.
I, too, had worried the old scholar would take offense at being bribed.
But Park Ji-won was blazing his own trail, in a completely different way.
“Then, why did he refuse the sum we sent?”
“He said he was grateful for the kindness, but he’d rather earn that much himself.”
Well, it was already an era when even village teachers were writing novels to sell at the printing shops.
Up until now, Park Ji-won seemed to scorn such commercial novels, but maybe his mind had changed.
Or maybe that sly Gye Deok-sang had let slip the manuscript fee for to Park Ji-won.
‘If your work sells well and we keep printing new editions, our Gyeonggi Printing Shop can offer this much…!!’
‘Hoho.’
Maybe something like that?
But, the real shock wasn’t just Park Ji-won’s announcement of coming out of retirement.
“Right? Even I was surprised. I don’t usually read this kind of farce, but I couldn’t help but wonder how it would end!”
Most satirical and social-critique novels of this era followed the same formula.
A typically righteous hero appears, criticizes corruption, corrects injustices, and is rewarded with a government post, changing the nation for the better.
Countless derivative, stale novels with that plot filled the market.
But Park Ji-won was different.
Just as Heosaeng in left Yi Wan and King Hyojong baffled before vanishing, this time too, he took the story in a radical direction.
[Word spread far and wide that the new magistrate had personally taken up the rod and punished the wicked officials.
The townsfolk rushed to praise the governor’s virtue.
“To think our lord punished those bloodsucking officials in one swift stroke! Truly, Heaven watches over us!”
But even as the people were whispering, the magistrate was busy ransacking the warehouse.
“What a calamity! How dare descendants of failed civil service candidates lay hands on the nation’s stores!”
Heaving a long sigh, the magistrate began rifling through all the town’s records in the archives.
But even after those beaten officials stopped skimming off the top, discrepancies between the ledgers and the actual goods continued in the town…]
If this were an ordinary Joseon-style heroic tale?
A righteous magistrate would punish the corrupt officials and ‘restore’ the town in old-fashioned Joseon style.
But Park Ji-won was different.
In the reality of Joseon, local magistrates and officials were all the same—legally extorting the people.
In Park Ji-won’s tale, the magistrate, after suppressing the officials and seizing all economic power, started embezzling as much as he pleased to grow his own fortune.
But as long as the outcome is good, does it matter how?
As fate would have it, with rice prices surging and plunging, the magistrate amassed a mountain of wealth.
Yet, since the commoners had less taken from their pockets, they ironically praised the magistrate.
Such a farcical, darkly humorous tale was unfolding before my eyes.
“To be honest, even as a court lady, I wondered if it was believable, but it was fun, so who cares?”
“It’s probably something that could really happen, though.”
“Is that so?”
Unlike the puzzled Choi Court Lady, I knew Park Ji-won’s novel was grounded in some reality.
He had actually done something similar when he served as a local magistrate.
Whether this was before or after that, I couldn’t say.
Black humor like this was out of my league.
If it were me, I’d have written a tired old story about a secret powerhouse magistrate who, after hiding his strength, smashes the corrupt officials with a club and becomes a paragon of integrity.
Truly, Park Ji-won could write unique stories like this.
That’s why he was a superstar, and why I’d always envied him.
And not long after, Park Ji-won proved his talent.
Of course, unlike his previous bold acts, he didn’t use his real name for this hangul novel—perhaps it didn’t quite fit his principles…
“Give me a copy of !!”
“Hey, I was here first!!”
“Shopkeeper! Get the order right!!”
Later, when I stopped by to pick up my manuscript fee, Choi Court Lady told me that Park Ji-won’s new hangul novel had caused a craze in Hanyang as well.
What’s more, Park Ji-won achieved in one stroke the very thing I hadn’t managed with and .
This was related to the emergence of a new class of readers outside of Hanyang in this era.
“ is even more popular in Jeonju?”
“Yes. Lord Gye of Jeonju was gnashing his teeth that he sold it too cheaply.”
In fact, there was another printing tradition rivaling the Hanyang edition.
That was the Wansan edition, named after Jeonju’s old name.
With , more editions of this type have survived, showing Jeonju was also a center for southern fiction readers.
Apparently, Park Ji-won’s novel perfectly tapped into those provincial readers’ tastes.
Of course, stories of corrupt officials hit home more in the provinces than in the capital.
And unlike the trend-sensitive Hanyang, Jeonju readers seemed to prefer long, weighty tales like Park Ji-won’s.
So, just as I was about to grow complacent, Park Ji-won gave me a good jolt of motivation.
“Well, it’s not bad.”
Anyway, with appealing to women and to men, the readership was already somewhat divided.
But should I really compete head-on with a giant like Park Ji-won?
It seemed much better to play to my own strengths and surpass the limits of my previous works.
And so, some time later—
I was in the midst of teaching that rascal Buyong, as I had promised.
“What?”
“Are you really answering my muttering, Buyong?”
*Snap.*
In the middle of our lesson, I flicked my finger hard against Buyong’s smooth forehead as she was daydreaming.
With a yelp, she rolled on the floor.
Buyong’s famously exaggerated movements were even more irritating than usual today.
“If you whine, you’ll get hit again.”
“So mean! Did ‘that person’ tell you to do this?!”
“Yup. I was told, ‘If she can’t keep up, do whatever it takes to make her follow.’”
“Eeh…?”
Well, Buyong was clutching her swollen forehead, eyes brimming with tears.
In fact, it was her request to learn writing from me that gave me the idea for my next novel.
And, well, the Korean blood in me—ready to bet everything on kids’ education—was steering me forward.
‘Education changes the world!’ What Korean hasn’t heard that slogan at least once?
“Besides, you haven’t memorized a single new character. Is this really the time for you to argue with me?”
“But, but classical Chinese is just too hard. Are these drawings or letters…?”
“Then go do chores like the other servant girls.”
“N-no! I’ll do my best!!”
Actually, spiriting away a servant girl like Buyong under the pretense of ‘that person’s’ orders was easy.
Choi Court Lady herself probably intended to make the clever Buyong a top-class court lady, able to read.
So, I launched the ‘Young Miss Wonja’s Special Writing Class,’ starting with Thousand Character Classic.
I did consider just letting her write hangul novels, but—
This Confucian-Taliban age required even fiction to include Confucian values, if readers were to praise its quality.
Kind of like how modern web novels need a main character’s unbroken rise.
Thus, to write good novels for this era, classical Chinese and Confucian learning were essential.
That’s why I had to start with the Thousand Character Classic, and then drill into Buyong the required reading for noblewomen of this era.
For example, , , , and the like.
Honestly, all that Confucian study I’d forced myself to do as Wonja turned out to be surprisingly useful.
Ah, but that doesn’t mean I forgive Jeong Yak-yong, the evil minion who still shoves Confucian texts at me day and night.
Even after the forehead flick, Buyong couldn’t seem to focus.
Well, she was precocious, but still just a child.
Maybe I was asking too much concentration for too long.
“Um… So-won?”
But I’d underestimated Buyong.
This sly creature was sharp enough to sense the faintest trace of pity in me.
“The next part… it’s really hard… couldn’t we do ‘that’ instead?”
‘That’ referred to the new work I was writing, in hopes of breaking past my limits.
Of course, Buyong and the others thought it was a book ‘that person’ was commissioning for the suffering people.
“Haa….”
“Please!! It still counts as studying the Thousand Character Classic, doesn’t it?!”
“All right, just this once.”
So I handed Buyong the first volume of the newly completed manuscript.
She immediately became engrossed, as if her earlier struggle to focus was all a lie.
“Retreat—’to withdraw’! Place—‘seat’! Hiyah!!”
“Hey! Quiet down!”
Well, she really was just a kid after all.
But seeing even Buyong lose herself like that, the chances of my next novel’s success seemed very high.
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※ Author’s Note
I am deeply grateful to author Korax for permitting me to pay homage to the work !
As those who have read it will know, the anecdote in the nested story about manipulating rice prices using official grain reserves is something Park Ji-won actually did in real history.
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