Post by ajk on Nov 19, 2008 16:37:43 GMT -5
The episode starts by showing us the backstory that led to the man running through the street and putting the knife to Sejong's throat. The man is a slave named Chundoong, who's being accused of murdering his master. The accuser is the master's son. Chundoong, though, insists that the son killed his own father. Investigators arrive on the scene, and then are shown by the son a piece of paper with the slave's handprint on it. It's proof, he says, that the slave is guilty, and it's enough to convince the investigators to decide to arrest the slave. But the slave runs, which led him into Sejong' path.
The knife to his throat, Sejong says cool. "I can't help you." "You want to die?" "Have you ever killed a man?" "You don't think I can?" "Then do it." "What?" "Kill me!" Yun Hwe has to restrain Jinyang as the situation grows more and more frightening. But Chundoong doesn't kill the king. Sejong turns around and confidently takes the knife from Chundoong's hand. Apparently it wasn't much of a threat after all, because Sejong tells him to "get a proper weapon the next time you want to threaten a man's life. Now let's hear your story." Chundoong tells it. Just then the investigators come running. "We have a witness and clear evidence," the head man says, and Chundoong is taken into custody and led away. Sejong, though, doubts Chundoong's guilt. He says he's going to the local police agency, and sends Yun Hwe to check out the crime scene.
The next morning: Sejong is sitting on the ground outside of the local magistrate's office, appealing out loud for him to appear. Only Gang Hui is with him; he sure isn't letting on that he's royalty.
Inside: "Who is this man anyway?" The magistrate is annoyed by the appeals. Then Sejong enters the office uninvited. "Who the heck are you?", the magistrate demands; "On what authority are you meddling in government business?" Sejong hesitates, considering his answer, and then says, "I'm a holder of the classics licensate Yi Doe." So you haven't even passed your examination at your age, the magistrate says dismissively; go back and hit the books. He reminds Sejong of the law that slaves are not allowed to make accusations against their masters. But Sejong knows this, and one-ups him by pointing out that the law includes exceptions for murder and high treason. "If I'm right, I don't think your punishment will be light for ignoring a crime report, since you will have neglected your duty as a magistrate."
An apparently pregnant woman is being kicked out of a home. It's Chundoong's wife, being thrown out by the dead master's son. Her possessions are thrown out in the street after her. Then the son leaves the home with friends, smiling and not acting at all like a grieving family member. "He's rather vivacious for a man who just lost his father," Yun Hwe says to Jinyang. Could he have killed his father? Maybe, but the evidence still shows otherwise.
"Chundoong committed a contract killing." Sejong is shown the handprinted paper from the previous evening. One hundred yangs for lord Park's life, it says. Chundoong is brought into the room, and Sejong is shown that the handprint matches the slave's hand. It's unmistakable because the slave is missing the tip of his ring finger. But Chundoong says, "Young master came to me a few days ago and told me to stamp it, so I did." Sejong is shocked: You did so without checking it? "Check it? How can I when I can't read?" But the magistrate interjects, "There's a witness, too, so stop denying!" The son enters. "I'm the witness. I saw him killing my father with my own two eyes. And this is what he did to my arm when he saw me!" He reveals a bandaged wound.
Outside, Sejong listens to the slave as he's led away. "What's the use of fighting when I can't win? I'm a powerless slave. There's no way I can clear myself when it's a nobleman's word against mine." He asks a simple favor of Sejong: "Would you look in on my pregnant wife for me? I was going to try to be a proud father." It's shaping up to be a tragic story.
Later, Sejong, Yun Hwe and Jinyang talk. Park Gyeum is suspicious, Yun says (telling us the son's name). Jinyang suggests that his father reveal his identity and take charge, but it's not that simple. It's not the king's role to micromanage like that; plus, there's the matter of the Arrest Clause that Sejong himself enacted, which prevents arrest without tangible evidence of guilt. And they have none against Park. "A king who violates his own law does not deserve to be king," Sejong says. "I will find a better way."
Evening: Crown prince Hyang has been drinking--a lot--and is stumbling his way home through the palace yards. Just then Sejong returns home and encounters his tipsy son. What's the cause of this? Ogeun is with Hyang and says, "It's...nothing, your majesty." Sejong advises his son to drink only at home, if he must drink at all, and do so in moderation.
"A lesbian lover?" Ogeun is telling Jachi about the situation with the crown princess. Jachi isn't sure what to do about it, but decides it's best not to tell the king now, since things are already rocky between father and son. But outside the room, Jinyang is listening. (More eavesdropping. This is getting ridiculous.) Ogeun leaves the room and Jinyang confronts him: "Is what I just heard true?" Ogeun looks away and doesn't answer. Jinyang leaves...
...and goes to see his father, despite the late hour. "I came back to discuss something with you." Uh-oh. Just then Jachi enters, with three maidservants. They've come at the queen's request, he says, to bring food. Trays are placed before Sejong, Jinyang and Yun Hwe, who's there too. Sejong asks, "What did you want to talk about?" Jachi is standing there apprehensively. But the tension goes away, because that's not why the prince is there. He hands his father a book. It's a book on forensic medicine. "Why don't we perform an autopsy on the victim?", he suggests. "If we can't decide who the real culprit is, perhaps we can let the dead man tell us." Good idea! The local agency might refuse to do it, but Sejong says he'll lean on the magistrate: "I want to give him the chance to be a civil and compassionate leader."
As they leave, Jinyang tells Yun Hwe that he's going to read up on pathology and attend the autopsy, just to make sure it's done right. He leaves Yun...and then we see Yun grab his chest, as though he's in sudden discomfort. He runs into a records room and frantically grabs a jug hidden behind some records. He takes a drink of whatever is in the jug; it appears to alleviate the pain. But what happened?
Jinyang goes to visit Hyang, who's still drinking. Jinyang declines his brother's offer to drink with him. Hyang just isn't coping well at all with what he saw his wife doing.
We see the crown princess in a rage, smashing pottery, and then scolding escort Han, who's come to see her: "How dare you barge in here unannounced!" Han tells her gently that her conduct "is unbecoming of the future queen." "Future queen!?" And she overturns an entire table, food dishes and all.
It's late at night, but the queen has waited for Han to return. "Forgive me," Han tells her, "but she many not have what it takes to be the mother of the state." Jachi is there too, and adds, "Drastic measures may be necessary, your highness." "We cannot depose another crown princess," the queen says. But something has to be done, because rumors are spreading. It looks like Sosang and Danji (Sosang is the lover; not sure who Danji is) will have to be removed from the palace. And not just removed, but "we must find a way to shut them up permanently" if they talk. Not sure what that means, but it certainly doesn't sound good.
"Shut us up permanently?" Sosang and Danji are talking, and somehow found out about the conversation. They think they've got the crown princess wrapped around their fingers, and they're not going to give up easily.
Hyang is really miserable. "Do you want this robe?", he asks Jinyang. "Should I take it off and give it to you?" At that, Jinyang has to take a drink after all. "Father will be going out of the palace again tomorrow," he says. "Take care of this before he gets back. And don't blame yourself. Don't think that you're responsible for everything. Some things are beyond your control." We can see that he's being a good brother, trying to be supportive and give some good advice.
The next morning: Huh Jo is frustrated because he can't find the king. In his hands is an urgent report from Ming.
Once again incognito, Sejong is asking the local magistrate to perform an autopsy. The magistrate refuses; he's already closed the case.
In Sejong's absence, Hwang Hee has gathered the ministers to discuss the Ming report.
Ming: It's 1435, and we see that the nine-year-old prince imperial is now the new emperor. All of the Ming bigshots (including our buddies) have gathered to salute him. "Long live the emperor!" He's now named emperor Yingzong.
Back to the ministers' meeting: For the next few years Ming is likely to become absorbed with internal politics; everyone will be trying to curry favor with the kid emperor. Jo Malseng observes that this is an ideal time for Joseon to pursue its northern expansion without Ming interfering too much. But again, where the heck is the king?
The magistrate is practically mocking Sejong: "Why don't you take this up with the king if you can?" Sejong is getting angry: "What are you trying to say--that an order from the top is more important to you than a citizen's appeal?" "Cocky bastard! Do I look like chopped liver to you? I may not show it, but I'm a busy man! I have 21 petitions and 17 litigations to resolve today and 50 different bills tomorrow. I don't have enough time in my day to keep up with our nosy king who makes more work for us." (Okay, maybe it's just me, but it's starting to get very funny listening to this guy digging himself a bigger and bigger hole.) Sejong says, Those aren't just numbers, those are problems that involve people's lives. But the magistrate has had enough; he will not "indulge a slave's lie." "Are you sure you won't regret this?" "If I see as much as your shadow in this building again, I'll have you arrested for interference with a government officer!"
Yun Hwe shows up in front of Park Gyeum and tells him it's the king's order that his father's body be transferred to the capital. So Sejong obviously gave up on the magistrate and has taken his own steps.
The magistrate has been summoned to appear before the king and is in the throne room; the king's back is turned. "You didn't have to rush here so quickly," Sejong says. "I believe it is a royal subject's duty to answer to the king immediately." "If only you were as committed to the public, you'd be able to see names and faces in the 21 cases on your desk today." The magistrate wonders to himself, "21 cases?" How did the king know that. "Do you recognize me?" Sejong turns around, putting the magistrate's bladder to the test. The man drops to his knees: "If I had known in advance...why in plainclothes?" Sejong scolds him: "Anyone in plainclothes should be as important to you as the king." "I have made a mistake deserving of death, your majesty!" Sejong tells him he'll be punished if the autopsy finds the slave innocent.
Yun Hwe and Jinyang watch the autopsy taking place. The stab wounds, we learn, are very clumsy, certainly not the work of a clever killer, and were made by a left-handed person.
Yun Hwe asks Park Gyeum for his signature on a form to authorize the autopsy. Park complies--with his right hand. Darn.
Jinyang goes to see Chundoong in his prison cell. He's eating some rice--holding the spoon with his left hand. Darn.
Sejong is informed of all this. "You mean he deceived me with that innocent face?"
The magistrate, still in the palace, is begging Huh Jo for his job back, since the autopsy has apparently cleared him. But Huh is firing him nonetheless. "I'm so embarrassed and ashamed to have appointed a man like you to a major position that I want to quit my job myself. You're out regardless of the outcome of this case, because you don't deserve to be an official of this government." (Huh Jo can be a real irritant, but he does seem to have a core of solid principles inside him.)
Jinyang isn't at all convinced by the autopsy results. He goes back to the Hall of Worthies and studies more. When Sejong comes in, Jinyang tells him that the autopsy must be redone. "We may only have heard half of what the dead man has to say."
So they redo it, this time with Sejong there too. And guess what? Examining the stab wounds again, and this time examining the dead man's blood, the pathologists realize that they jumped to conclusions and ignored "the decisive evidence." They bow in shame. Turns out, the man died from poisoning, not stabbing. The stab wounds were inflicted not just to cover up the poisoning, but also possibly to frame someone else--someone left-handed. Then Yun Hwe appears, bringing with him a man who sells herbs. Park, he discovered, purchased a large quantity of a certain (apparently dangerous) herb not long before the murder. Sejong pats his son on the shoulder. Case closed.
Later, Yun Hwe tells Sejong that the younger Park murdered his father to get money to pay off a gambling debt.
Chundoong has been reunited with his wife, and now has a newborn daughter. They're living in their own simple home now, too. Sejong comes to visit, again incognito. He's brought a bundle of seaweed as a gift. (A longstanding Korean tradition is the serving of seaweed soup to new mothers to help them recover quickly from giving birth. (Thanks to member oasis6107 for this information.)) Chundoong is beaming with a new father's pride and is happy to have been exonerated, but at the same time he's a bit melancholy. "I got lucky because you were there at the right time," he tells Sejong, "but bringing a new life into the cold hard world...she's a lowborn like me with no hopes of having anything or learning anything, so I worry for her future."
Sejong walks home, weighted down by the experience and by Chundoong's words. "I just happened to be there. The king just happened to be there at that moment, so a precious life of a man was saved. But if I had not been there, if I'm not there when my people are suffering because they are lowborn, poor or uneducated, what happens to them then?"...An important series of flashbacks: Ep65, Dami telling the king that her people can't communicate with him because they can't write...Earlier in this episode, Chundoong saying he couldn't read the paper he stamped...Ep70, Dami showing Gim Jongsuh her first attempts to write Chinese characters; Dami dying, wishing she'd had the chance to learn to write; Gim showing Sejong her writing paper and Sejong putting the paper in his robe, next to his heart...
Flashbacks ending, we hear Sejong's thoughts: "My people are mute although they can speak. And I have ears but I cannot hear them. It is the king and his men who govern the people, but it is people with ability to preserve their own rights who guide and teach the king and his men. I will give voice to my people. What Joseon needs now is a system of writing that embodies our sounds."
The episode concludes with a crawl:
In 1432 Sejong published "Illustrated Conduct of the Three Relationships" to enlighten the public. In 1440 Sejong compiled "New Commentary on Forensic Medicine" and established a systematic autopsy procedure with the objective of preventing wrongful deaths. Most of all, Sejong wanted the people to preserve their own rights by having and understanding this information. That was the inspiration for creating a new system of writing. October 9, Hangeul Proclamation Day, celebrates the publication of Hunmin Jeongeum (The Proper Sounds for the Education of the People). On October 9, 2008 Hangeul (Korean alphabet) becomes 562 years old.
The knife to his throat, Sejong says cool. "I can't help you." "You want to die?" "Have you ever killed a man?" "You don't think I can?" "Then do it." "What?" "Kill me!" Yun Hwe has to restrain Jinyang as the situation grows more and more frightening. But Chundoong doesn't kill the king. Sejong turns around and confidently takes the knife from Chundoong's hand. Apparently it wasn't much of a threat after all, because Sejong tells him to "get a proper weapon the next time you want to threaten a man's life. Now let's hear your story." Chundoong tells it. Just then the investigators come running. "We have a witness and clear evidence," the head man says, and Chundoong is taken into custody and led away. Sejong, though, doubts Chundoong's guilt. He says he's going to the local police agency, and sends Yun Hwe to check out the crime scene.
The next morning: Sejong is sitting on the ground outside of the local magistrate's office, appealing out loud for him to appear. Only Gang Hui is with him; he sure isn't letting on that he's royalty.
Inside: "Who is this man anyway?" The magistrate is annoyed by the appeals. Then Sejong enters the office uninvited. "Who the heck are you?", the magistrate demands; "On what authority are you meddling in government business?" Sejong hesitates, considering his answer, and then says, "I'm a holder of the classics licensate Yi Doe." So you haven't even passed your examination at your age, the magistrate says dismissively; go back and hit the books. He reminds Sejong of the law that slaves are not allowed to make accusations against their masters. But Sejong knows this, and one-ups him by pointing out that the law includes exceptions for murder and high treason. "If I'm right, I don't think your punishment will be light for ignoring a crime report, since you will have neglected your duty as a magistrate."
An apparently pregnant woman is being kicked out of a home. It's Chundoong's wife, being thrown out by the dead master's son. Her possessions are thrown out in the street after her. Then the son leaves the home with friends, smiling and not acting at all like a grieving family member. "He's rather vivacious for a man who just lost his father," Yun Hwe says to Jinyang. Could he have killed his father? Maybe, but the evidence still shows otherwise.
"Chundoong committed a contract killing." Sejong is shown the handprinted paper from the previous evening. One hundred yangs for lord Park's life, it says. Chundoong is brought into the room, and Sejong is shown that the handprint matches the slave's hand. It's unmistakable because the slave is missing the tip of his ring finger. But Chundoong says, "Young master came to me a few days ago and told me to stamp it, so I did." Sejong is shocked: You did so without checking it? "Check it? How can I when I can't read?" But the magistrate interjects, "There's a witness, too, so stop denying!" The son enters. "I'm the witness. I saw him killing my father with my own two eyes. And this is what he did to my arm when he saw me!" He reveals a bandaged wound.
Outside, Sejong listens to the slave as he's led away. "What's the use of fighting when I can't win? I'm a powerless slave. There's no way I can clear myself when it's a nobleman's word against mine." He asks a simple favor of Sejong: "Would you look in on my pregnant wife for me? I was going to try to be a proud father." It's shaping up to be a tragic story.
Later, Sejong, Yun Hwe and Jinyang talk. Park Gyeum is suspicious, Yun says (telling us the son's name). Jinyang suggests that his father reveal his identity and take charge, but it's not that simple. It's not the king's role to micromanage like that; plus, there's the matter of the Arrest Clause that Sejong himself enacted, which prevents arrest without tangible evidence of guilt. And they have none against Park. "A king who violates his own law does not deserve to be king," Sejong says. "I will find a better way."
Evening: Crown prince Hyang has been drinking--a lot--and is stumbling his way home through the palace yards. Just then Sejong returns home and encounters his tipsy son. What's the cause of this? Ogeun is with Hyang and says, "It's...nothing, your majesty." Sejong advises his son to drink only at home, if he must drink at all, and do so in moderation.
"A lesbian lover?" Ogeun is telling Jachi about the situation with the crown princess. Jachi isn't sure what to do about it, but decides it's best not to tell the king now, since things are already rocky between father and son. But outside the room, Jinyang is listening. (More eavesdropping. This is getting ridiculous.) Ogeun leaves the room and Jinyang confronts him: "Is what I just heard true?" Ogeun looks away and doesn't answer. Jinyang leaves...
...and goes to see his father, despite the late hour. "I came back to discuss something with you." Uh-oh. Just then Jachi enters, with three maidservants. They've come at the queen's request, he says, to bring food. Trays are placed before Sejong, Jinyang and Yun Hwe, who's there too. Sejong asks, "What did you want to talk about?" Jachi is standing there apprehensively. But the tension goes away, because that's not why the prince is there. He hands his father a book. It's a book on forensic medicine. "Why don't we perform an autopsy on the victim?", he suggests. "If we can't decide who the real culprit is, perhaps we can let the dead man tell us." Good idea! The local agency might refuse to do it, but Sejong says he'll lean on the magistrate: "I want to give him the chance to be a civil and compassionate leader."
As they leave, Jinyang tells Yun Hwe that he's going to read up on pathology and attend the autopsy, just to make sure it's done right. He leaves Yun...and then we see Yun grab his chest, as though he's in sudden discomfort. He runs into a records room and frantically grabs a jug hidden behind some records. He takes a drink of whatever is in the jug; it appears to alleviate the pain. But what happened?
Jinyang goes to visit Hyang, who's still drinking. Jinyang declines his brother's offer to drink with him. Hyang just isn't coping well at all with what he saw his wife doing.
We see the crown princess in a rage, smashing pottery, and then scolding escort Han, who's come to see her: "How dare you barge in here unannounced!" Han tells her gently that her conduct "is unbecoming of the future queen." "Future queen!?" And she overturns an entire table, food dishes and all.
It's late at night, but the queen has waited for Han to return. "Forgive me," Han tells her, "but she many not have what it takes to be the mother of the state." Jachi is there too, and adds, "Drastic measures may be necessary, your highness." "We cannot depose another crown princess," the queen says. But something has to be done, because rumors are spreading. It looks like Sosang and Danji (Sosang is the lover; not sure who Danji is) will have to be removed from the palace. And not just removed, but "we must find a way to shut them up permanently" if they talk. Not sure what that means, but it certainly doesn't sound good.
"Shut us up permanently?" Sosang and Danji are talking, and somehow found out about the conversation. They think they've got the crown princess wrapped around their fingers, and they're not going to give up easily.
Hyang is really miserable. "Do you want this robe?", he asks Jinyang. "Should I take it off and give it to you?" At that, Jinyang has to take a drink after all. "Father will be going out of the palace again tomorrow," he says. "Take care of this before he gets back. And don't blame yourself. Don't think that you're responsible for everything. Some things are beyond your control." We can see that he's being a good brother, trying to be supportive and give some good advice.
The next morning: Huh Jo is frustrated because he can't find the king. In his hands is an urgent report from Ming.
Once again incognito, Sejong is asking the local magistrate to perform an autopsy. The magistrate refuses; he's already closed the case.
In Sejong's absence, Hwang Hee has gathered the ministers to discuss the Ming report.
Ming: It's 1435, and we see that the nine-year-old prince imperial is now the new emperor. All of the Ming bigshots (including our buddies) have gathered to salute him. "Long live the emperor!" He's now named emperor Yingzong.
Back to the ministers' meeting: For the next few years Ming is likely to become absorbed with internal politics; everyone will be trying to curry favor with the kid emperor. Jo Malseng observes that this is an ideal time for Joseon to pursue its northern expansion without Ming interfering too much. But again, where the heck is the king?
The magistrate is practically mocking Sejong: "Why don't you take this up with the king if you can?" Sejong is getting angry: "What are you trying to say--that an order from the top is more important to you than a citizen's appeal?" "Cocky bastard! Do I look like chopped liver to you? I may not show it, but I'm a busy man! I have 21 petitions and 17 litigations to resolve today and 50 different bills tomorrow. I don't have enough time in my day to keep up with our nosy king who makes more work for us." (Okay, maybe it's just me, but it's starting to get very funny listening to this guy digging himself a bigger and bigger hole.) Sejong says, Those aren't just numbers, those are problems that involve people's lives. But the magistrate has had enough; he will not "indulge a slave's lie." "Are you sure you won't regret this?" "If I see as much as your shadow in this building again, I'll have you arrested for interference with a government officer!"
Yun Hwe shows up in front of Park Gyeum and tells him it's the king's order that his father's body be transferred to the capital. So Sejong obviously gave up on the magistrate and has taken his own steps.
The magistrate has been summoned to appear before the king and is in the throne room; the king's back is turned. "You didn't have to rush here so quickly," Sejong says. "I believe it is a royal subject's duty to answer to the king immediately." "If only you were as committed to the public, you'd be able to see names and faces in the 21 cases on your desk today." The magistrate wonders to himself, "21 cases?" How did the king know that. "Do you recognize me?" Sejong turns around, putting the magistrate's bladder to the test. The man drops to his knees: "If I had known in advance...why in plainclothes?" Sejong scolds him: "Anyone in plainclothes should be as important to you as the king." "I have made a mistake deserving of death, your majesty!" Sejong tells him he'll be punished if the autopsy finds the slave innocent.
Yun Hwe and Jinyang watch the autopsy taking place. The stab wounds, we learn, are very clumsy, certainly not the work of a clever killer, and were made by a left-handed person.
Yun Hwe asks Park Gyeum for his signature on a form to authorize the autopsy. Park complies--with his right hand. Darn.
Jinyang goes to see Chundoong in his prison cell. He's eating some rice--holding the spoon with his left hand. Darn.
Sejong is informed of all this. "You mean he deceived me with that innocent face?"
The magistrate, still in the palace, is begging Huh Jo for his job back, since the autopsy has apparently cleared him. But Huh is firing him nonetheless. "I'm so embarrassed and ashamed to have appointed a man like you to a major position that I want to quit my job myself. You're out regardless of the outcome of this case, because you don't deserve to be an official of this government." (Huh Jo can be a real irritant, but he does seem to have a core of solid principles inside him.)
Jinyang isn't at all convinced by the autopsy results. He goes back to the Hall of Worthies and studies more. When Sejong comes in, Jinyang tells him that the autopsy must be redone. "We may only have heard half of what the dead man has to say."
So they redo it, this time with Sejong there too. And guess what? Examining the stab wounds again, and this time examining the dead man's blood, the pathologists realize that they jumped to conclusions and ignored "the decisive evidence." They bow in shame. Turns out, the man died from poisoning, not stabbing. The stab wounds were inflicted not just to cover up the poisoning, but also possibly to frame someone else--someone left-handed. Then Yun Hwe appears, bringing with him a man who sells herbs. Park, he discovered, purchased a large quantity of a certain (apparently dangerous) herb not long before the murder. Sejong pats his son on the shoulder. Case closed.
Later, Yun Hwe tells Sejong that the younger Park murdered his father to get money to pay off a gambling debt.
Chundoong has been reunited with his wife, and now has a newborn daughter. They're living in their own simple home now, too. Sejong comes to visit, again incognito. He's brought a bundle of seaweed as a gift. (A longstanding Korean tradition is the serving of seaweed soup to new mothers to help them recover quickly from giving birth. (Thanks to member oasis6107 for this information.)) Chundoong is beaming with a new father's pride and is happy to have been exonerated, but at the same time he's a bit melancholy. "I got lucky because you were there at the right time," he tells Sejong, "but bringing a new life into the cold hard world...she's a lowborn like me with no hopes of having anything or learning anything, so I worry for her future."
Sejong walks home, weighted down by the experience and by Chundoong's words. "I just happened to be there. The king just happened to be there at that moment, so a precious life of a man was saved. But if I had not been there, if I'm not there when my people are suffering because they are lowborn, poor or uneducated, what happens to them then?"...An important series of flashbacks: Ep65, Dami telling the king that her people can't communicate with him because they can't write...Earlier in this episode, Chundoong saying he couldn't read the paper he stamped...Ep70, Dami showing Gim Jongsuh her first attempts to write Chinese characters; Dami dying, wishing she'd had the chance to learn to write; Gim showing Sejong her writing paper and Sejong putting the paper in his robe, next to his heart...
Flashbacks ending, we hear Sejong's thoughts: "My people are mute although they can speak. And I have ears but I cannot hear them. It is the king and his men who govern the people, but it is people with ability to preserve their own rights who guide and teach the king and his men. I will give voice to my people. What Joseon needs now is a system of writing that embodies our sounds."
The episode concludes with a crawl:
In 1432 Sejong published "Illustrated Conduct of the Three Relationships" to enlighten the public. In 1440 Sejong compiled "New Commentary on Forensic Medicine" and established a systematic autopsy procedure with the objective of preventing wrongful deaths. Most of all, Sejong wanted the people to preserve their own rights by having and understanding this information. That was the inspiration for creating a new system of writing. October 9, Hangeul Proclamation Day, celebrates the publication of Hunmin Jeongeum (The Proper Sounds for the Education of the People). On October 9, 2008 Hangeul (Korean alphabet) becomes 562 years old.
