Chapter 3

Autumn, 1856 — Heungseon-gun Yi Ha-eung’s Residence, Men’s Quarters

Heungseon-gun Yi Ha-eung opened the first chapter of the Analects.

“‘To learn and, from time to time, practice what one has learned—is that not a pleasure?’ How far have you read?”

Without looking at the book, I recited the opening passage.

“To learn and, from time to time, practice what one has learned—is that not a pleasure? When friends come from distant places, is that not a joy? If one does not become angry when others fail to recognize him, is he not a gentleman?”

Heungseon-gun Yi Ha-eung’s hand stopped.

“Next.”

His eyes left the book and turned toward me.

“When one governs through virtue, the people naturally follow, just as the stars revolve around the North Star while it remains fixed in its place.”

Heungseon-gun Yi Ha-eung folded his arms and gave a slight nod.

“Next.”

“If one governs the people through laws alone, they will not know shame. If one governs through virtue, the people will naturally correct themselves.”

Heungseon-gun Yi Ha-eung closed the book.

The men’s quarters fell silent.

He stared at me for a moment before slowly speaking.

“Can governing through virtue actually be applied to this country?”

It was an unexpected question.

Heungseon-gun Yi Ha-eung wasn’t simply checking whether I had memorized the text.

He was directly asking for my opinion.

Asking a nine-year-old about the political reality of the country was less of a test than an attempt to investigate me.

I paused for a moment, slowly clenching and unclenching my hands on my lap before answering.

“I don’t know. But I do know that the country isn’t being governed through virtue right now.”

Heungseon-gun Yi Ha-eung’s eyes narrowed.

“Why do you think that?”

“Because the people aren’t afraid of the government, nor do they feel ashamed before it.”

“How would a nine-year-old know that?”

“You can tell by walking through the streets. The people don’t even turn their heads toward the government offices.”

The men’s quarters fell silent again.

Heungseon-gun Yi Ha-eung stared intently at me.

I could feel something rapidly turning over in his mind.

After a long while, he spoke quietly.

“Read the rest on your own.”

“Yes, Father.”

As I left the men’s quarters, I knew that he wasn’t saying there was nothing more for him to teach me.

Rather, he had acknowledged that I was absorbing knowledge faster than he could teach it.

For a man who had spent twenty years grinding his teeth under the political domination of the Haedong Kim clan, I didn’t need to ask how deeply the words the people have turned their backs on the country must have struck him.

Autumn, 1856 — An Alley in Bukchon, Hanseong

I climbed over the wall without letting my servant boy know.

For a nine-year-old, climbing over a wall was surprisingly easy.

My body was light, and I landed quietly.

Thump!

As soon as I dropped into the alley, I pulled my hat down and started walking.

I knew from history that Heungseon-gun Yi Ha-eung pretended to be a parakho, a wastrel and hoodlum.

But seeing it with my own eyes was an entirely different matter.

A parakho was a term for a delinquent or idler who squandered his wealth and wandered the streets.

Heungseon-gun Yi Ha-eung had maintained that act for decades to avoid the eyes of the Haedong Kim clan.

Appearing to be a useless royal rather than a dangerous one was his method of survival.

History had already proven how elaborate that disguise was.

A noisy commotion came from deeper inside the alley.

“Why is the wall of this tiled-roof house so shabby? Come out, owner!”

It was Heungseon-gun Yi Ha-eung.

He wore his gat crookedly and shouted at the top of his lungs in the middle of the alley while holding a liquor bottle.

Several thugs stood around him, snickering.

Yangban passing through the alley clicked their tongues and avoided Heungseon-gun Yi Ha-eung.

I couldn’t imagine how many people in Joseon actually knew that all of this was an act.

I quietly watched from behind a wall.

Heungseon-gun Yi Ha-eung’s eyes weren’t smiling.

He was holding a liquor bottle, but his lips weren’t wet.

He was only pretending to drink.

Even in the middle of all this, his eyes quickly swept across the entire alley.

He seemed to read in an instant which house each wall belonged to and who was passing by.

Yet not a single movement of his drunken act was disturbed.

This was a man who had been doing this for twenty years.

I quietly turned away.

There was something I could learn from a father like that.

Long-term calculation that stretched twenty years into the future.

A disguise that never broke until the very end.

But today, I confirmed something even more important.

The place where Heungseon-gun Yi Ha-eung performed his parakho act was these alleys of Bukchon.

Among the people who passed through the area were also individuals connected to the Haedong Kim clan.

Heungseon-gun Yi Ha-eung was hiding himself while simultaneously monitoring their movements.

I can use that method too.

Appear to be a child who knows nothing while seeing everything.

Autumn, 1856 — Entrance to a Market on the Outskirts of Hanseong

There were hardly any people at the market.

Normally, after the autumn harvest, the markets should have been at their busiest time of year.

But there were only enough vendors to count on one’s fingers.

The people walking through weren’t buying anything.

They were simply passing through.

The reason was simple.

As soon as the harvest ended, the stewards managing the Haedong Kim clan’s lands had descended upon the villages and collected most of the harvest.

This year, the grain tax had been increased by twenty percent compared with previous years.

There was barely enough left to survive the winter.

There was nothing left to sell at the market.

Things were no different on land owned by the Pungyang Jo clan.

The Pungyang Jo clan’s steward had appeared before the harvest was even finished and calculated the year’s rent in advance.

Whether there was a famine or a bumper harvest, the tax never changed.

And whatever couldn’t be collected during a bad harvest was collected the following year with interest.

Eventually, tenant farmers buried under debt either left the land and became wandering refugees or collapsed where they were and starved.

An old woman was crouching in one corner of the market.

She had nothing to sell.

There was nothing she could afford to buy either.

It seemed she had simply come out to watch the people.

When someone passed beside her, she muttered:

“Does a king even exist?”

No one answered.

The person passing by quickened his steps as though he hadn’t heard her.

The sky was high and the wind was cold.

Yet the market was empty.

Autumn, 1856 — Heungseon-gun Yi Ha-eung’s Residence, Men’s Quarters

After finishing my evening greeting, I was about to leave the men’s quarters when I stopped.

“Father, there is something I’d like to ask.”

“What is it?”

“Please take me with you to pay our respects on His Majesty’s birthday.”

The men’s quarters fell silent.

Heungseon-gun Yi Ha-eung raised an eyebrow.

“What use is such an occasion to a boy your age?”

“I need to know the palace.”

“What does a nine-year-old intend to do with knowledge of the palace?”

I looked straight at Heungseon-gun Yi Ha-eung.

“What I read in books and what I see with my own eyes are different. I believe that learning without ever seeing the palace for myself would only be half an education.”

Heungseon-gun Yi Ha-eung stared at me for a long moment.

I could feel the refusal he had been about to give dying on his lips.

“If I take you, can you remain quiet?”

“Of course.”

“You must never do anything that draws attention.”

“Understood, Father.”

“Don’t move even one step away from me.”

“Yes.”

Heungseon-gun Yi Ha-eung looked at me for another moment before nodding.

“All right.”

I lowered my head and clenched my fist inwardly.

The door leading to Queen Dowager Sinjeong had opened.

Autumn, 1856 — Huijeongdang Hall, Changdeokgung Palace

The members of the royal family had gathered inside Huijeongdang Hall to pay their respects on King Cheoljong’s birthday.

On the king’s birthday, members of the royal family and powerful relatives gathered to offer their congratulations.

I quietly followed behind Heungseon-gun Yi Ha-eung, my eyes moving constantly.

The courtyard in front of the main palace hall was large enough to accommodate hundreds of people standing in rows.

Yet the living palace was completely different from the one I had read about in books.

I memorized the movements of the court ladies, the directions taken by the eunuchs, and the pathways leading toward Daejojeon Hall one after another.

Daejojeon, where Queen Dowager Sinjeong resided, was located by turning north from Injeongjeon Hall.

But today’s gathering was being held in Huijeongdang.

Heungseon-gun Yi Ha-eung spoke quietly.

“Don’t look around carelessly.”

“Yes, Father.”

I fixed my gaze straight ahead.

But out of the corners of my eyes, I continued observing my surroundings.

When we entered Huijeongdang, several members of the royal family had already taken their places.

Heungseon-gun Yi Ha-eung’s seat was in a corner.

It was the kind of seat given to royal relatives who had been pushed aside by the power of the Haedong Kim clan.

Heungseon-gun Yi Ha-eung sat there without the slightest change in expression.

I sat neatly beside him and quietly looked ahead.

Queen Dowager Sinjeong was seated in the place of honor.

Born in 1808, she was forty-eight years old this year.

Her eyes were sharp, and a faint weariness lingered around her mouth.

It was the face of a woman who had endured decades of power struggles within the royal family.

During the reign of King Heonjong, Queen Dowager Sinjeong had served as regent.

But the Haedong Kim clan had stripped her of her power completely.

As she waited for King Cheoljong to die without an heir, there was every reason to believe that she was sharpening her blade of revenge.

All I needed to do was touch that anger.

The formal greetings had ended, and the gathering was about to disperse.

At that moment, Queen Dowager Sinjeong’s gaze slowly moved toward Heungseon-gun Yi Ha-eung.

Then she noticed me sitting beside him.

“Heungseon-gun, is that boy your eldest son?”

Heungseon-gun Yi Ha-eung lowered his head.

“Yes, Your Majesty. He is my eldest son, Jae-myeon.”

“Bring him here.”

Heungseon-gun Yi Ha-eung’s eyes narrowed for an instant.

But he couldn’t disobey Queen Dowager Sinjeong’s command.

I followed Heungseon-gun Yi Ha-eung toward her and dropped to both knees before bowing deeply.

Queen Dowager Sinjeong looked down at me.

Her gaze seemed capable of seeing straight through me.

“Your name is Jae-myeon?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. I am Yi Jae-myeon.”

“How old are you?”

“I am nine.”

“How far have you progressed in your studies?”

“I have been reading the Analects and Mencius.”

Queen Dowager Sinjeong’s eyebrow rose slightly.

Several court ladies nearby murmured quietly.

Apparently, they found it difficult to believe that a nine-year-old was reading the Analects and Mencius.

Queen Dowager Sinjeong thought for a moment before asking:

“Which passage from the Analects have you taken most to heart?”

I had been waiting for this moment.

I paused briefly, deliberately pretending to think, before slowly opening my mouth.

“When Ji Shi wished to make an offering to Mount Tai, Confucius asked Ran You, ‘Can you not stop him?’”

Queen Dowager Sinjeong’s eyes flickered.

“He was warning against someone who did not know his proper place and recklessly coveted authority beyond his station.”

The inside of Huijeongdang fell silent.

The way Queen Dowager Sinjeong looked at me changed.

Ji Shi.

Someone who did not know his proper place and coveted authority beyond his station.

Everyone present knew exactly whom those words referred to.

The Haedong Kim clan.

The very family that had ruled above the royal household for decades by placing King Cheoljong at the forefront.

The family whose name Queen Dowager Sinjeong had hated most bitterly.

And those words had come from the mouth of a nine-year-old child.

One member of the Haedong Kim clan’s royal relatives, seated in a corner of Huijeongdang, narrowed his eyes as he looked at me.

The person beside him whispered something quietly.

Both of their gazes shifted toward Heungseon-gun Yi Ha-eung.

Heungseon-gun Yi Ha-eung pretended not to notice and continued staring straight ahead.

Queen Dowager Sinjeong slowly spoke.

“You are clever.”

“I am deeply honored, Your Majesty.”

“Do you take after your father or your mother?”

“I do not know. But I wish to learn beside my father.”

Queen Dowager Sinjeong turned toward the court lady standing beside her.

“Bring that child a tray of sweets.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

I could feel Heungseon-gun Yi Ha-eung holding his breath beside me.

He clearly had no idea I was going to do something like this.

I bowed deeply to Queen Dowager Sinjeong once more.

And inwardly, I smiled.

Done.

I’ve made my mark in Queen Dowager Sinjeong’s mind.