Post by ajk on Aug 20, 2008 15:10:42 GMT -5
Sejong, ministers and officials are having emergency meetings to assess the flood situation. "What's our plan?", Sejong asks. "The plan is already in action," Jo Malseng tells him.
Out in a courtyard, they're flogging the astrologer. (Yippee!! Hooray!!)
"Dismiss the prognosticator?" Sejong seems a bit baffled by the suggestion. Ministers tell him that the head of the astronomy bureau must also be dismissed. "Punishment of those accountable" for the calamity is necessary, Huh Jo says. Sejong questions how they can be held responsible. But then Jo Malseng dares to suggest that the floods are heaven's punishment for a king who has "lost his virtue."
Taejong is watching the rain fall. Wongyeong comes to his side; the storm's violence kept her awake. She wonders, "Why is heaven testing the young king this way from the beginning of his reign?"
Jo tells Sejong, "You must perform a sacrificial rite and seek forgiveness from heaven." (Oh, no, not this again.) Yu Jeonghyun concurs; so does Huh Jo. Sejong asks Meng his opinion; Meng hesitates but agrees that "You must calm heaven's rage." But Sejong is skeptical of the idea: "What will heaven do for me if I seek forgiveness? Will the destroyed homes be undestroyed? Or will the missing be found and the dead come back alive?" Jo suggests to the king that he's being a bit dramatic, but Sejong continues right on: "If heaven cannot do any of that which is my job, I will not turn to heaven." Stop punishing the astronomers; he orders; I'll put them to work on the restoration effort. And the same with the funds that a sacrificial rite would require. And then, "Round up every single official to begin restoration efforts. That is not a request. That is an order from your king!" He leaves. The ministers don't like it; they want the rite.
Taejong is receiving acupuncture from the royal physician. The treatment ends and the physician leaves. Outside, Noh Huibong tells the physician, "We need to talk."
Wongyeong brings her husband a pot of special green tea. Her mother used to make it for her father. "Now you're treating me like a useless old man too," Taejong grumbles. She only partly disagrees: "You're not the young man you used to be. You've put me through enough already. Am I going to spend my last years taking care of a sick husband? Give in just this once." He gives in and drinks the tea. Then she suggests to him, "Why don't you call the king and give him a word of encouragement?" His retainers are blaming him for everything "including an unavoidable natural disaster. And he feels angry and alone." Go to him not as the king but as our son, she urges. Taejong calmly but firmly declines: "The king can never be our son again. He is the father of the people now."
Nighttime: Ignoring his attendants' pleas for him to rest, Sejong goes to the Hall of Worthies.
Ministers are warning Yun Hwe about Sejong practicing "closed door politics with his scholars." That gets Park Eun's ire up. But Yu Jeonghyun says, What good are the waterwheels now?, and I repeatedly warned against the king's "imbalance" for overly concentrating on drought. The scholars don't know any better, he tells Park, but you should. Then Jo Malseng ventures that if the scholars can't find a plan to deal with the flood devastation, the Hall of Worthies will be blamed for angering the gods.
At the Hall of Worthies: The scholars think they might be put to death. Gim Moon is furious. "This is completely unreasonable! We only followed the king's orders and reviewed his policies. How can we be blamed for this?" Then the scholars argue about whether or not Sejong should hold a sacrificial rite. Choi Manli wants him to: "Frankly I'm disappointed with his arrogance."
Sejong is standing outside the room, listening to this.
Later, Sejong is standing alone out in the rain, without an umbrella, getting all wet and feeling sorry for himself. His mother shows up and an attendant holds an umbrella over him. "I don't deserve to have anyone hold up an umbrella for me, mother." She calmly tells him, "Be prepared to get a whipping from me if you neglect to take care of yourself this way again. Care for the body you're in, so you can be a good father to the people who serve you as their king." (Taejong gave him similar advice in a similar situation in Ep39; apparently he forgot it already.) From around a corner, escort Han and Yi Sun watch and listen. Sun had gotten there first; she's holding an umbrella for the king. "Are you disappointed you didn't get there first?", Han asks her. (Hmm.) Then she observes, "I've served the queen mother for over twenty years, but I have never seen her so gentle and warm toward the king. I guess she's getting old as well."
Inside, Han hits Yi Sun with a heck of a question: "Are you in love with the king?" Sun doesn't answer right away, probably because the question stunned her). Han assumes that the answer is yes and continues, "I can't fault you. Ladies of the court are to serve the king and the king only, from the moment they enter the palace whether or not they receive royal grace. I can't fault you for how you feel." Then she smacks Sun with a dose of reality: "But...forget about it. His majesty is much too great and exalted for a lowborn girl like you to be near."
The next morning: The rain continues; Youngsil is trying to salvage the demonstration waterwheel that was wrecked in the storm. Yi Chun tells him to get back to his work at the Bureau of Weaponry. But Choi Haesan tells Chun (and us) that Youngsil worked hard on developing the waterwheels and won't listen to them. As he works, we see flashbacks of earlier interactions between him and Sejong. The flashbacks end; he keeps working frantically in the rain, until a hand is laid on his shoulder. He turns around and it's Sejong. Sejong realizes that Youngsil was working all night. "Fool," he calls Youngsil. But then, "...That's why I like you."
At the Hall of Worthies: "Do you think it is arrogance," Yi Su asks the scholars, "because he thinks he is above the gods?" "If not," Choi Manli answers, "what is the reason?" Yi Su tells the scholars to stop doubting the king, stop thinking of your own welfare, and start working on solutions for him.
Back to Sejong and Youngsil outside: Sejong is talking to Youngsil and then starts to reveal his larger feelings: "Are you angry like I am? This is your blood and your sweat. You worked on these waterwheels day and night for a full year. Youngsil, I...I'm angry with the gods. For turning your proud effort into a waste of time; for ignoring the hard work of the scholars and the assessors; and most of all for hitting us without warning and taking precious lives of my people. I don't want to beg. I don't want to kneel before such indifferent gods. I want to fight the gods. Make me a powerful weapon so I could fight the gods and win." Sejong, his eunuchs and Youngsil are all standing there getting soaked in the continuing rain as he talks.
A few days later, inside a gisaeng house: Ministers are gathered. Jo Malseng tells them that the rain has stopped and the king is working hard on damage restoration, but the public outcry has not stopped.
In a village, we see clamor and commotion as emergency food supplies are being distributed; it's a chaotic scene. Then we see inside a Bureau of Public Welfare complex; more chaos.
Yi Su tells Sejong that an infectious disease has broken out. He also says that medicine is running short but that not much improvement is being seen in the sick anyway. Then Park Eun pipes in that Sejong should have performed a sacrificial rite, because "Now they will blame what is happening on your refusal," even if the rite wouldn't have alleviated the flooding.
Back at the gisaeng house, the ministers discuss that an eclipse is coming. Huh Jo points out that even the most benevolent of kings comes under scrutiny when an eclipse occurs. Jo says that this could lead the public to want to serve another king.
We see prince Hyoryeong for the first time in a while; he's helping distribute relief supplies at a humble-looking structure. Prince Kyoungnyeong sees him.
Later, the two princes are inside having tea. "Why are you here doing this?", Kyoungnyeong asks his half-brother. "Are you going to become a monk?" He's half-kidding, but Hyoryeong tells him, "If we can overcome the crisis by seeking Buddha's help, wouldn't that be good? Kyoungnyeong states the obvious, that Joseon reveres Confucianism, not Buddhism. But Hyoryeong tells him that there are still many Buddhists around. They see Byun Gaeryang; he's a Buddhist, Hyoryeong says. The prince believes that devotion to Buddha will help the people.
Park Eun, Yun Hwe and Yi Su are talking. Park observes that people are flocking to Hyoryeong for aid, and that We'd better find away to defuse this before the eclipse. Or it could be trouble for Sejong.
"I will not hurt my older brother," Sejong tells Yun Hwe and Yi Su. But what are you going to do, they ask with concern. Sejong isn't worried; he's prepared an amnesty declaration to gain public favor and will hold an eclipse ceremony, and that will calm everyone. Now stop worrying about it and go look for physicians across the country to help control the epidemic and save lives.
Again at the gisaeng house: "Do you believe Hyoryeong should be Joseon's new king?", Meng Sasung asks Jo. Jo answers that "Hyoryeong doesn't have what it takes to lead a country." Well then who? "Let us first see the direction of public sentiment after the eclipse," Jo says. This might be an opportunity to "tame the very young king." (I guess this means he thinks they could end up controlling Sejong like a puppet leader.)
Yun Hwe and Yi Su are with Yun Saoong and Choi Chungu from the astronomy bureau. They want assurance that the two astronomers have calculated the eclipse time EXACTLY. Apparently this is going to be very important for Sejong politically. They reply, "We did everything humanly possible. If nothing else, our devotion enough should turn heaven around."
Taejong is at the ancestral shrine. "Tomorrow is the eclipse," he ponders to Noh Huibong. "I trust that the king isn't taking the ceremony lightly." He has not, Noh tells him; "He has been eating humble meals, living in a thatched-roof hut and sharing the public's pain." ('I feel your pain'--?)
Um Jachi brings Sejong the news: the eclipse is to take place at 12:30 tomorrow afternoon. Sejong is worried. "Will heaven once again reject me before my people? I'm very afraid. Isn't it funny? I said with such confidence that I would fight the gods, but here I am hiding, trembling in fear."
Wongyeong is advising her daughter-in-law on how to handle the eclipse events. "The queen must devote her heart and soul for the eclipse," she explains. As we see a bath being prepared for the queen, Wongyeong continues to talk: "Not only must your heart and body be pure, but your mind must be pure of worldly thoughts" as the mother of the state.
Morning: messengers around the country announce the coming eclipse, and that ceremonies will be held in each province and in the capital. In one of the local crowds listening to the announcement, we see a familiar face--it's Hwang Hee!
In the capital, the ceremony begins. Everyone—-EVERYONE--is standing outside, dressed in white. The big drum begins to beat, and little drums are being played as well. Troops are brought to attention. It's a large, impressive ceremony. Everyone waits and looks up at the sun. (Didn't their moms tell them not to do that?)
A cloud slowly drifts in and covers the sun. No one is sure if the eclipse is starting behind the cloud. Sejong kneels on a mat, assuming that the eclipse is starting. Then the cloud drifts away--and the sun is still at full strength. No eclipse. Everyone looks around, confused. "Was the prediction inaccurate?", Yun Hwe wonders. "That's not possible," say the astronomers in a panic. "The eclipse should have begun by now!"
In Hwang Hee's village, discontent starts to rumble: "He's oblivious about divine will. He's just not fit to be the king." "Another great calamity may consume the kingdom." Hwang listens to all this with great concern.
"Your majesty, give me death!" The astronomers drop to their knees before the king.
"Heaven is enraged once again. Why else would it punish the king" in such a way. "Do you disagree, your majesty?", asks Jo, boldly. Huh Jo, concluding that nothing is going to happen, announces that "It is time now that all royal subjects clear the courtyard." Through it all, Sejong stands there with a stunned look on his face. The retainers begin to disperse. But just then we notice the sunlight start to dim; it's the eclipse beginning. We're shown a representation of the moon crossing over most of the sun; it's a full annular eclipse (an alignment that takes more than an hour to develop fully, but here it happens within twenty seconds. Give me a break.). This should be a welcome sight for everyone, but the astronomers are still begging for death, and Sejong looks just as confused as before.
Out in a courtyard, they're flogging the astrologer. (Yippee!! Hooray!!)
"Dismiss the prognosticator?" Sejong seems a bit baffled by the suggestion. Ministers tell him that the head of the astronomy bureau must also be dismissed. "Punishment of those accountable" for the calamity is necessary, Huh Jo says. Sejong questions how they can be held responsible. But then Jo Malseng dares to suggest that the floods are heaven's punishment for a king who has "lost his virtue."
Taejong is watching the rain fall. Wongyeong comes to his side; the storm's violence kept her awake. She wonders, "Why is heaven testing the young king this way from the beginning of his reign?"
Jo tells Sejong, "You must perform a sacrificial rite and seek forgiveness from heaven." (Oh, no, not this again.) Yu Jeonghyun concurs; so does Huh Jo. Sejong asks Meng his opinion; Meng hesitates but agrees that "You must calm heaven's rage." But Sejong is skeptical of the idea: "What will heaven do for me if I seek forgiveness? Will the destroyed homes be undestroyed? Or will the missing be found and the dead come back alive?" Jo suggests to the king that he's being a bit dramatic, but Sejong continues right on: "If heaven cannot do any of that which is my job, I will not turn to heaven." Stop punishing the astronomers; he orders; I'll put them to work on the restoration effort. And the same with the funds that a sacrificial rite would require. And then, "Round up every single official to begin restoration efforts. That is not a request. That is an order from your king!" He leaves. The ministers don't like it; they want the rite.
Taejong is receiving acupuncture from the royal physician. The treatment ends and the physician leaves. Outside, Noh Huibong tells the physician, "We need to talk."
Wongyeong brings her husband a pot of special green tea. Her mother used to make it for her father. "Now you're treating me like a useless old man too," Taejong grumbles. She only partly disagrees: "You're not the young man you used to be. You've put me through enough already. Am I going to spend my last years taking care of a sick husband? Give in just this once." He gives in and drinks the tea. Then she suggests to him, "Why don't you call the king and give him a word of encouragement?" His retainers are blaming him for everything "including an unavoidable natural disaster. And he feels angry and alone." Go to him not as the king but as our son, she urges. Taejong calmly but firmly declines: "The king can never be our son again. He is the father of the people now."
Nighttime: Ignoring his attendants' pleas for him to rest, Sejong goes to the Hall of Worthies.
Ministers are warning Yun Hwe about Sejong practicing "closed door politics with his scholars." That gets Park Eun's ire up. But Yu Jeonghyun says, What good are the waterwheels now?, and I repeatedly warned against the king's "imbalance" for overly concentrating on drought. The scholars don't know any better, he tells Park, but you should. Then Jo Malseng ventures that if the scholars can't find a plan to deal with the flood devastation, the Hall of Worthies will be blamed for angering the gods.
At the Hall of Worthies: The scholars think they might be put to death. Gim Moon is furious. "This is completely unreasonable! We only followed the king's orders and reviewed his policies. How can we be blamed for this?" Then the scholars argue about whether or not Sejong should hold a sacrificial rite. Choi Manli wants him to: "Frankly I'm disappointed with his arrogance."
Sejong is standing outside the room, listening to this.
Later, Sejong is standing alone out in the rain, without an umbrella, getting all wet and feeling sorry for himself. His mother shows up and an attendant holds an umbrella over him. "I don't deserve to have anyone hold up an umbrella for me, mother." She calmly tells him, "Be prepared to get a whipping from me if you neglect to take care of yourself this way again. Care for the body you're in, so you can be a good father to the people who serve you as their king." (Taejong gave him similar advice in a similar situation in Ep39; apparently he forgot it already.) From around a corner, escort Han and Yi Sun watch and listen. Sun had gotten there first; she's holding an umbrella for the king. "Are you disappointed you didn't get there first?", Han asks her. (Hmm.) Then she observes, "I've served the queen mother for over twenty years, but I have never seen her so gentle and warm toward the king. I guess she's getting old as well."
Inside, Han hits Yi Sun with a heck of a question: "Are you in love with the king?" Sun doesn't answer right away, probably because the question stunned her). Han assumes that the answer is yes and continues, "I can't fault you. Ladies of the court are to serve the king and the king only, from the moment they enter the palace whether or not they receive royal grace. I can't fault you for how you feel." Then she smacks Sun with a dose of reality: "But...forget about it. His majesty is much too great and exalted for a lowborn girl like you to be near."
The next morning: The rain continues; Youngsil is trying to salvage the demonstration waterwheel that was wrecked in the storm. Yi Chun tells him to get back to his work at the Bureau of Weaponry. But Choi Haesan tells Chun (and us) that Youngsil worked hard on developing the waterwheels and won't listen to them. As he works, we see flashbacks of earlier interactions between him and Sejong. The flashbacks end; he keeps working frantically in the rain, until a hand is laid on his shoulder. He turns around and it's Sejong. Sejong realizes that Youngsil was working all night. "Fool," he calls Youngsil. But then, "...That's why I like you."
At the Hall of Worthies: "Do you think it is arrogance," Yi Su asks the scholars, "because he thinks he is above the gods?" "If not," Choi Manli answers, "what is the reason?" Yi Su tells the scholars to stop doubting the king, stop thinking of your own welfare, and start working on solutions for him.
Back to Sejong and Youngsil outside: Sejong is talking to Youngsil and then starts to reveal his larger feelings: "Are you angry like I am? This is your blood and your sweat. You worked on these waterwheels day and night for a full year. Youngsil, I...I'm angry with the gods. For turning your proud effort into a waste of time; for ignoring the hard work of the scholars and the assessors; and most of all for hitting us without warning and taking precious lives of my people. I don't want to beg. I don't want to kneel before such indifferent gods. I want to fight the gods. Make me a powerful weapon so I could fight the gods and win." Sejong, his eunuchs and Youngsil are all standing there getting soaked in the continuing rain as he talks.
A few days later, inside a gisaeng house: Ministers are gathered. Jo Malseng tells them that the rain has stopped and the king is working hard on damage restoration, but the public outcry has not stopped.
In a village, we see clamor and commotion as emergency food supplies are being distributed; it's a chaotic scene. Then we see inside a Bureau of Public Welfare complex; more chaos.
Yi Su tells Sejong that an infectious disease has broken out. He also says that medicine is running short but that not much improvement is being seen in the sick anyway. Then Park Eun pipes in that Sejong should have performed a sacrificial rite, because "Now they will blame what is happening on your refusal," even if the rite wouldn't have alleviated the flooding.
Back at the gisaeng house, the ministers discuss that an eclipse is coming. Huh Jo points out that even the most benevolent of kings comes under scrutiny when an eclipse occurs. Jo says that this could lead the public to want to serve another king.
We see prince Hyoryeong for the first time in a while; he's helping distribute relief supplies at a humble-looking structure. Prince Kyoungnyeong sees him.
Later, the two princes are inside having tea. "Why are you here doing this?", Kyoungnyeong asks his half-brother. "Are you going to become a monk?" He's half-kidding, but Hyoryeong tells him, "If we can overcome the crisis by seeking Buddha's help, wouldn't that be good? Kyoungnyeong states the obvious, that Joseon reveres Confucianism, not Buddhism. But Hyoryeong tells him that there are still many Buddhists around. They see Byun Gaeryang; he's a Buddhist, Hyoryeong says. The prince believes that devotion to Buddha will help the people.
Park Eun, Yun Hwe and Yi Su are talking. Park observes that people are flocking to Hyoryeong for aid, and that We'd better find away to defuse this before the eclipse. Or it could be trouble for Sejong.
"I will not hurt my older brother," Sejong tells Yun Hwe and Yi Su. But what are you going to do, they ask with concern. Sejong isn't worried; he's prepared an amnesty declaration to gain public favor and will hold an eclipse ceremony, and that will calm everyone. Now stop worrying about it and go look for physicians across the country to help control the epidemic and save lives.
Again at the gisaeng house: "Do you believe Hyoryeong should be Joseon's new king?", Meng Sasung asks Jo. Jo answers that "Hyoryeong doesn't have what it takes to lead a country." Well then who? "Let us first see the direction of public sentiment after the eclipse," Jo says. This might be an opportunity to "tame the very young king." (I guess this means he thinks they could end up controlling Sejong like a puppet leader.)
Yun Hwe and Yi Su are with Yun Saoong and Choi Chungu from the astronomy bureau. They want assurance that the two astronomers have calculated the eclipse time EXACTLY. Apparently this is going to be very important for Sejong politically. They reply, "We did everything humanly possible. If nothing else, our devotion enough should turn heaven around."
Taejong is at the ancestral shrine. "Tomorrow is the eclipse," he ponders to Noh Huibong. "I trust that the king isn't taking the ceremony lightly." He has not, Noh tells him; "He has been eating humble meals, living in a thatched-roof hut and sharing the public's pain." ('I feel your pain'--?)
Um Jachi brings Sejong the news: the eclipse is to take place at 12:30 tomorrow afternoon. Sejong is worried. "Will heaven once again reject me before my people? I'm very afraid. Isn't it funny? I said with such confidence that I would fight the gods, but here I am hiding, trembling in fear."
Wongyeong is advising her daughter-in-law on how to handle the eclipse events. "The queen must devote her heart and soul for the eclipse," she explains. As we see a bath being prepared for the queen, Wongyeong continues to talk: "Not only must your heart and body be pure, but your mind must be pure of worldly thoughts" as the mother of the state.
Morning: messengers around the country announce the coming eclipse, and that ceremonies will be held in each province and in the capital. In one of the local crowds listening to the announcement, we see a familiar face--it's Hwang Hee!
In the capital, the ceremony begins. Everyone—-EVERYONE--is standing outside, dressed in white. The big drum begins to beat, and little drums are being played as well. Troops are brought to attention. It's a large, impressive ceremony. Everyone waits and looks up at the sun. (Didn't their moms tell them not to do that?)
A cloud slowly drifts in and covers the sun. No one is sure if the eclipse is starting behind the cloud. Sejong kneels on a mat, assuming that the eclipse is starting. Then the cloud drifts away--and the sun is still at full strength. No eclipse. Everyone looks around, confused. "Was the prediction inaccurate?", Yun Hwe wonders. "That's not possible," say the astronomers in a panic. "The eclipse should have begun by now!"
In Hwang Hee's village, discontent starts to rumble: "He's oblivious about divine will. He's just not fit to be the king." "Another great calamity may consume the kingdom." Hwang listens to all this with great concern.
"Your majesty, give me death!" The astronomers drop to their knees before the king.
"Heaven is enraged once again. Why else would it punish the king" in such a way. "Do you disagree, your majesty?", asks Jo, boldly. Huh Jo, concluding that nothing is going to happen, announces that "It is time now that all royal subjects clear the courtyard." Through it all, Sejong stands there with a stunned look on his face. The retainers begin to disperse. But just then we notice the sunlight start to dim; it's the eclipse beginning. We're shown a representation of the moon crossing over most of the sun; it's a full annular eclipse (an alignment that takes more than an hour to develop fully, but here it happens within twenty seconds. Give me a break.). This should be a welcome sight for everyone, but the astronomers are still begging for death, and Sejong looks just as confused as before.