Post by ajk on May 25, 2014 22:42:01 GMT -5
Fortunately JD and Mongju don't come to blows; they just argue about Lee Saek being named chancellor and whether or not JD is a traitor. Later JD's allies tell him that Mongju must be impeached for all the trouble he's caused them. JD argues that Mongju is still respected enough by the people that impeachment would be a bad idea...but oooh Yun Sojong challenges him and says maybe he's going to easy on Mongju because of their longtime friendship.
Evening: JD barges in on Lee Saek and tells him that for Mongju's sake he should turn down the chancellor appointment. Says it's putting Mongju in a dangerous political position. But Saek insists he has to protect Confucian ideals from those on the court who would disregard them. Ugh! He won't budge, and then he even tells JD that the biggest mistake he ever made was accepting JD as his student. Geez, was that necessary?
Now what's this...Yun Sojong and a group of scholars and officials are before King Gongyang, trying to stop the Lee Saek appointment. Relying on the stuff about Kings Wu and Chang being "false" kings and Saek being a "traitor" who served them. "Appointing someone like him is denying your own legitimacy. Lee Saek should be in prison, not in court."
Well guess what, JD didn't know about this! Nam Eun find out and goes and tells him as it's happening. The two of them rush right over to the palace, just as the group is leaving. Yun really does think JD isn't pressing this whole thing like he needs to, so Yun decided to step up and lead the charge--or at least this part of the charge. Interestingly, JD doesn't argue with him.
Lee Bangu tells his father about all this. Seonggye bangs his fist on his table in anger. Bangu says JD must be behind it and starts talking badly about him--untrustworthy, traitor etc.--but Seonggye doesn't like that either. Now Mongju shows up and tells Seonggye to put a stop to it...and now JD shows up! Gives Mongju the you-started-it argument, and now they're alternately pitching their points of view to Seonggye. "Politics is about compromise," Mongju urges. JD counters, "Politics is about righteousness," and "compromising with good-for-nothings who make the people suffer is a betrayal."
JD leaves, and sits down next to a family of four who are begging for food down the street from Seonggye's home. He's talked about how he spends time among the poor and homeless to remind him what's important in the country, and we see him doing that now. He hands them a meal's worth of steamed buns he's bought them, wrapped in a cloth, which they gratefully and hungrily snap up. But the younger daughter is thoughtful enough to offer JD one of the buns she's holding--what a beautiful moment. From a distance, Seonggye and Jiran have spotted all this and watch JD. "He has an odd hobby," Jiran remarks. But the sight of it moves Seonggye to action...and then narration tells us that Lee Saek was arrested, tortured and exiled; that Jo Minsu, already exiled, was demoted to commoner class, and that general Byeon was executed!
Now it's 1390. We have a new councilor: Wu Hyeonbo, a traditionalist who opposes land reform. He's arguing with Jo Jun on the land reform question; Mongju is moderating between them and trying to get them to compromise. It's not going very well.
Afterwards Jo Jun reports back to JD. We learn that there's a whole lot of opposition to total land reform, even among the temples. Jo suggests, "How about taking a step back?" Let's be satisfied with abolishing the private land system for now, and we can distribute the land later. General Bae agrees: "We can't do everything all at once." But JD won't back down.
Seonggye has come back from a long vacation at a hot spring. He looks refreshed but is burdened with worry because his oldest son Bangu has vanished. It's so much on his mind that he won't even attend court meetings for now. JD tells him and Bangwon that it's important to find him, because if Seonggye becomes king then Bangu becomes crown prince. But yikes, now what is that look that we suddenly see in Bangwon's face? Something just started cooking in that guy's head, clearly. Seonggye asks Bangwon to find his brother. Once he and JD leave, Bangwon confesses to his aide Jo that "I had a vain thought. Becoming the king and sitting on the throne." Jo laughs, and Bangwon acknowledges he has four older brothers...so he shakes it off, but wow that was very, very weird.
Uh-oh. Talk about weird...At a council meeting with the king presiding, word arrives that a couple of officials named Yun Yi and Lee Cho went to Ming and told the emperor that Seonggye was planning to attack Ming! And that he killed or exiled a whole bunch of officials for opposing the plan. And they asked for Ming's help in subjugating Seonggye. Why would two officials tell Ming such nonsense (and probably commit career suicide in the process)? And is Mongju nodding just a little bit? You don't think....
That evening: Seonggye goes to visit the panicked king and assures him that it will all be resolved properly. Then Mongju walks in and offers a solution: send an envoy to explain. Specifically , the vice chancellor...but he's too important to leave so send "his confidant": "Send Jeong Dojeon."
Obviously this is a plan to eliminate JD and squelch land reform. But JD is only too happy to go to Ming, because he believes it's an opportunity to get Ming on their side.
We see the new guy Wu Hyeonbo talking with Mongju. Suddenly, soldiers barge in, arrest him and haul him away before Mongju even has time to react! Narration then tells us that the lies by Yun Yi and Lee Cho triggered the mass arrest and imprisonment of Wu and many conservative officials. And that Lee Saek, Gwon Geun, Lee Sungin, Ha Ryun, all of whom had been exiled, were brought back and imprisoned instead. And that the conservative faction never recovered from it.
Bangwon managed to find Bangu, and he and Seonggye go to see him. He's living in a shack in the woods, barely managing to find enough food to survive. But he's not coming back home, that's how angry he is with his father. "You abdicated and killed two kings. You killed and exiled many officials. You distance yourself from a loyal servant like Jeong Mongju and have a traitor like Jeong Dojeon at your side. " His father had been compassionate and patient up until now, but now he goes ballistic. This was to survive, he says, and "it is for the poor and weak people! It is to give them land and food. It is to create a world like that." But Bangu won't buy it and tells him, "if you want me to live, please forget about me. I will pray that you live a long and healthy life." This isn't easy on Bangu--he's shaking as he says it--but he's adamant. Seonggye wanders home in a daze, wondering if he'll ever see his son again. At one point his knees buckle under him and he's left just sitting on a rock, just staring off into the woods around him.
Mongju and Jo Jun are talking about the land reform issue. Would be best to settle this before JD returns from Ming, they agree, because he and Seonggye "have strong resolve" about it. Wait...are these two guys suddenly turning practical? Jo Jun proposes a system called Gwajeonbeop, described in subtitling as "Organizing land for taxes and giving tax rights to officials." Not entirely clear how that works, but Jo Jun says that while it won't give land to farmers, it will improve their lives. Mongju looks off into the distance...
...and that evening goes to see Seonggye, for the first time in quite a while. Tells him he'll readily to agree to Gwajeonbeop and urges him to accept this before JD returns. Seonggye considers that a betrayal and won't do it...so Mongju falls to his knees and begs him. "If you truly care for the country and the people," he says, accept this because it will help the people and they'll like it. Don't continue to be uncompromising, he begs. "Return to being the general who protected Goryeo."
Days later: Not far from JD's house, in a public plaza, carts piled high with documents are being pulled in and the documents are being dumped into a pile that must be eight feet square. They're land deeds. As a large crowd gathers and cheers, the deeds are set on fire.
JD is leading his delegation home from Ming; he's returned safely. Nam Eun rids out to meet him and delivers the news that LS gave up on equal land distribution and compromised. "It seems LS has had a change of heart."
Evening: JD barges in on Lee Saek and tells him that for Mongju's sake he should turn down the chancellor appointment. Says it's putting Mongju in a dangerous political position. But Saek insists he has to protect Confucian ideals from those on the court who would disregard them. Ugh! He won't budge, and then he even tells JD that the biggest mistake he ever made was accepting JD as his student. Geez, was that necessary?
Now what's this...Yun Sojong and a group of scholars and officials are before King Gongyang, trying to stop the Lee Saek appointment. Relying on the stuff about Kings Wu and Chang being "false" kings and Saek being a "traitor" who served them. "Appointing someone like him is denying your own legitimacy. Lee Saek should be in prison, not in court."
Well guess what, JD didn't know about this! Nam Eun find out and goes and tells him as it's happening. The two of them rush right over to the palace, just as the group is leaving. Yun really does think JD isn't pressing this whole thing like he needs to, so Yun decided to step up and lead the charge--or at least this part of the charge. Interestingly, JD doesn't argue with him.
Lee Bangu tells his father about all this. Seonggye bangs his fist on his table in anger. Bangu says JD must be behind it and starts talking badly about him--untrustworthy, traitor etc.--but Seonggye doesn't like that either. Now Mongju shows up and tells Seonggye to put a stop to it...and now JD shows up! Gives Mongju the you-started-it argument, and now they're alternately pitching their points of view to Seonggye. "Politics is about compromise," Mongju urges. JD counters, "Politics is about righteousness," and "compromising with good-for-nothings who make the people suffer is a betrayal."
JD leaves, and sits down next to a family of four who are begging for food down the street from Seonggye's home. He's talked about how he spends time among the poor and homeless to remind him what's important in the country, and we see him doing that now. He hands them a meal's worth of steamed buns he's bought them, wrapped in a cloth, which they gratefully and hungrily snap up. But the younger daughter is thoughtful enough to offer JD one of the buns she's holding--what a beautiful moment. From a distance, Seonggye and Jiran have spotted all this and watch JD. "He has an odd hobby," Jiran remarks. But the sight of it moves Seonggye to action...and then narration tells us that Lee Saek was arrested, tortured and exiled; that Jo Minsu, already exiled, was demoted to commoner class, and that general Byeon was executed!
Now it's 1390. We have a new councilor: Wu Hyeonbo, a traditionalist who opposes land reform. He's arguing with Jo Jun on the land reform question; Mongju is moderating between them and trying to get them to compromise. It's not going very well.
Afterwards Jo Jun reports back to JD. We learn that there's a whole lot of opposition to total land reform, even among the temples. Jo suggests, "How about taking a step back?" Let's be satisfied with abolishing the private land system for now, and we can distribute the land later. General Bae agrees: "We can't do everything all at once." But JD won't back down.
Seonggye has come back from a long vacation at a hot spring. He looks refreshed but is burdened with worry because his oldest son Bangu has vanished. It's so much on his mind that he won't even attend court meetings for now. JD tells him and Bangwon that it's important to find him, because if Seonggye becomes king then Bangu becomes crown prince. But yikes, now what is that look that we suddenly see in Bangwon's face? Something just started cooking in that guy's head, clearly. Seonggye asks Bangwon to find his brother. Once he and JD leave, Bangwon confesses to his aide Jo that "I had a vain thought. Becoming the king and sitting on the throne." Jo laughs, and Bangwon acknowledges he has four older brothers...so he shakes it off, but wow that was very, very weird.
Uh-oh. Talk about weird...At a council meeting with the king presiding, word arrives that a couple of officials named Yun Yi and Lee Cho went to Ming and told the emperor that Seonggye was planning to attack Ming! And that he killed or exiled a whole bunch of officials for opposing the plan. And they asked for Ming's help in subjugating Seonggye. Why would two officials tell Ming such nonsense (and probably commit career suicide in the process)? And is Mongju nodding just a little bit? You don't think....
That evening: Seonggye goes to visit the panicked king and assures him that it will all be resolved properly. Then Mongju walks in and offers a solution: send an envoy to explain. Specifically , the vice chancellor...but he's too important to leave so send "his confidant": "Send Jeong Dojeon."
Obviously this is a plan to eliminate JD and squelch land reform. But JD is only too happy to go to Ming, because he believes it's an opportunity to get Ming on their side.
We see the new guy Wu Hyeonbo talking with Mongju. Suddenly, soldiers barge in, arrest him and haul him away before Mongju even has time to react! Narration then tells us that the lies by Yun Yi and Lee Cho triggered the mass arrest and imprisonment of Wu and many conservative officials. And that Lee Saek, Gwon Geun, Lee Sungin, Ha Ryun, all of whom had been exiled, were brought back and imprisoned instead. And that the conservative faction never recovered from it.
Bangwon managed to find Bangu, and he and Seonggye go to see him. He's living in a shack in the woods, barely managing to find enough food to survive. But he's not coming back home, that's how angry he is with his father. "You abdicated and killed two kings. You killed and exiled many officials. You distance yourself from a loyal servant like Jeong Mongju and have a traitor like Jeong Dojeon at your side. " His father had been compassionate and patient up until now, but now he goes ballistic. This was to survive, he says, and "it is for the poor and weak people! It is to give them land and food. It is to create a world like that." But Bangu won't buy it and tells him, "if you want me to live, please forget about me. I will pray that you live a long and healthy life." This isn't easy on Bangu--he's shaking as he says it--but he's adamant. Seonggye wanders home in a daze, wondering if he'll ever see his son again. At one point his knees buckle under him and he's left just sitting on a rock, just staring off into the woods around him.
Mongju and Jo Jun are talking about the land reform issue. Would be best to settle this before JD returns from Ming, they agree, because he and Seonggye "have strong resolve" about it. Wait...are these two guys suddenly turning practical? Jo Jun proposes a system called Gwajeonbeop, described in subtitling as "Organizing land for taxes and giving tax rights to officials." Not entirely clear how that works, but Jo Jun says that while it won't give land to farmers, it will improve their lives. Mongju looks off into the distance...
...and that evening goes to see Seonggye, for the first time in quite a while. Tells him he'll readily to agree to Gwajeonbeop and urges him to accept this before JD returns. Seonggye considers that a betrayal and won't do it...so Mongju falls to his knees and begs him. "If you truly care for the country and the people," he says, accept this because it will help the people and they'll like it. Don't continue to be uncompromising, he begs. "Return to being the general who protected Goryeo."
Days later: Not far from JD's house, in a public plaza, carts piled high with documents are being pulled in and the documents are being dumped into a pile that must be eight feet square. They're land deeds. As a large crowd gathers and cheers, the deeds are set on fire.
JD is leading his delegation home from Ming; he's returned safely. Nam Eun rids out to meet him and delivers the news that LS gave up on equal land distribution and compromised. "It seems LS has had a change of heart."
