"The tree has big roots and deep roots" - the ideal of Sejong

This is a very interesting Korean drama. Since I have cognitive ability, I have judged Korean film and television dramas by screenwriters and starring actors, and I have rarely missed it. Because I believe in their professional level, there is also the British Empire who have this self-confidence and persistent choice. Well, it does not rule out that I am particularly fond of these two places.

The two screenwriters, Kim Young-hyun/Park Sang-yeon, attacked again after "Queen Seondeok", not to mention the King Sejong played by actor Han Shikyu, who is the master who has been printed on the Korean won to this day. The story takes place before King Sejong promulgated "Jongeum Minhun". It doesn't have the long history of "Queen Seondeok". It doesn't tell how a king can get and govern the world. It only tells about the origin of Korean characters. Learn countless.

First of all, this is undoubtedly an excellent script. "The Tree with Deep Roots" was adapted from the novel of the same name by Li Zhengming, which was the best work in the Korean book list that year. The focus is on the question that we, as citizens of a great country, have never thought about - where do the words and sounds of our nation come from? Maybe we benefited from Cangjie's creation of characters, maybe we benefited from printing technology, and made Song Dynasty become the mainstream of our descendants, but are characters just characters? Obviously not, words are communication, and words are also politics. But no one has the patience to tell us such a small story, even if it turns out to be an idol drama.

The story begins when the cowardly Li Xi was young. At that time, he had no intention to fight against the authoritarian father, and even unable to save the family of his princess, but he devoted himself to studying arithmetic and phalanx. And another young man, Cao Mang, because of the unworthy death of his untouchable father, his lifelong wish was to kill Li Xi. This young man's childhood also participated in the history in this unjust death, and became the butterfly change who assisted Li Yan in the future. On the other hand, there are political enemies in any era, either overtly or covertly, lurking in Li Xi's land.

The leader of this organization, Zheng Daochuan, recorded his own ideas in Chinese characters and passed them on to future generations. The secret book believes that Korea should establish a state system similar to a constitutional monarchy. Confucian scholars are the tree, and the system is the branch. Only then can flowers and fruits bear fruit. Advocating the sages of Confucius and Mencius, Mu Hua studied. After Emperor Taizong's death, Li Xi ascended the throne. He was also contrary to Taizong's extreme martial interests. He founded the "Jixian Hall", reused civil officials, promoted Chengjunguan, and cultivated post-Confucian scholars.

This is the beginning of the story, a general who wants to kill the king, a maidservant who wants to assist the king, and a group of secret books who want to transform Korea. They wouldn't have met in this short 24 episodes if it wasn't for Li Yan's ambitious thing. That thing is: creating North Korea's own characters, using the North Koreans' own pronunciation.

This incident led to the successive deaths of the scholars in Jixian Hall, and the conspiracy was like a secret book in the court. The reason was that King Sejong Li Yi had been creating Korean fonts for many years, and used Korean accents to create characters, and even relied heavily on them. Many Lufus in Pan Village use ventriloquists to imitate various sounds to create phonetic characters, butchers use them for corpse identification, and dumb maids use them to make living dictionaries. At first glance, it will be very confusing, and I have also seen many people say that Koreans are too promiscuous. The monarch of a country creates characters, changes the font, and so on. King Sejong ascended the throne in the Yongle year of Ming Dynasty. At that time, North Korea was deeply influenced by China. From the political system to the national thought, all the officials in the court used Chinese characters as the body. The initial difference between the two classes of nobles and the poor slaves was that they could learn Chinese characters. Can learn the Four Books and Five Classics. In this context, Li Xi wanted to create the Korean script, which was opposed by his own subjects and his political enemies, and had to sacrifice all his supporters and even his own son, and finally realized the universal spread of the Korean script.

Secondly, the admiration and suspense of this play are all sidelines. One man and one king, from cowardly to swaying to powerful, and how he clarifies his ruling thoughts are the most noticeable content. This king was chosen by his father as the object of cessation because he was not greedy for power. It was because he was cowardly and not good at martial arts that he forced Taizong to exterminate his father-in-law and his family. What he wants most is to allow the Korean people to manage themselves. He believes that the dissemination of words is the most important means of enlightening people's wisdom, and Chinese characters are too complicated and have been monopolized by the two classes in North Korea for too long.

However, his political foe, Secret Book, did everything in his power to prevent this change. They all advocate culture, they all advocate the reuse of Confucian scholars, and they all love the people like children. According to Zheng Dao’s legend, the people are the flowers on the tree of the country.

Politics is not against for the sake of being against, although it seems that way now. In the second half of the film, the dialogue between Li Yu and Zheng Jiji (the head of the secret script at that time), I think, is no less than Machiavelli's "The Prince", at least the Asian version of the discussion of the monarch. Words become the core of governance, the focus of how to view the people, and the ruler of how to be a monarch. Li Xi quoted the words of the former secret book, "Mr. Sanfeng said that after having a remonstrance officer, the way of speaking is more blocked." This means that Confucian scholars will use the voice of the people to influence the king, and the king cannot know the real situation, he wants to open a word for the people " "The road" is a road that can be expressed in twenty-eight characters, not through remonstrance, but through words. But Zheng Jiji pointed out Li Xi and said, "I know your sincerity. You don't want to separate power, but to separate responsibilities. If there is adversity, you can find a way to save yourself. You already think people are troublesome."

King, is that so? He is not decisive, he is not scolding Fang Qiu, he is not a god. He really hesitated, and asked himself whether he was trying to throw the problem of responsibility on the people. The king is for the people, respects the people, loves the people, calms the people, and the herdsmen. He originally wanted to increase his strength, but in the end, he shied the responsibility.

Zheng Jiji's death also prevented Li Xi from publishing texts. He wanted to protect the privileges of North Korean scholar-bureaucrats. Since their birth, their privileges have come from Chinese characters. The right to speak and military power lies in their ability to write and advise the master. He also thinks that North Korea's The difference between the nobility and the Goguryeo era is because the scholar-officials were selected through the imperial examination. The threshold of the imperial examination was made of bricks and tiles. If they were separated by methods, their privileges would naturally be lost, and the boundaries between them and the king would be filled by the people. They are reluctant to have such a new order, and they are especially afraid of the power to know and choose in the hands of the people. Zheng Jiji said, "They can read and write, they will be happy, they will have wisdom, and they will use it on their desires. Their desires will eventually be used in politics. If you want to control the country, politics must be responsible. From ancient times to the present The essence has not changed. Politics requires a sense of responsibility. How can the people choose the leader? If the leader fails, will all the people who choose this leader be killed? There is no hope for the people, and domination History is just a few people." They don't want to be left out of these few people.

In the end, Li Xi will be the winner of this debate, although he has lost all his supporters in this battle, and more importantly, the words are not "promulgated", but "distributed", and the first to know The maids were exiled, and they were learned by the people in the way of children's songs and similar to the way the virus spreads today - if you don't teach this children's song to others, you will get sick and die.

However, the king ended up being King Sejong the Great, the most wise king in Joseon history, and also really took Joseon out of Muhwa's way of life.

What touched me the most, first, no one told me in this way how our civilization was created, maybe because it was too long, maybe because there was too much to say, but, so many palaces There are so many imperial palaces and gardens, and a history book always talks about everything.

The second is the kind of reincarnation we are going through right now. There are always people who take a clear-cut stand for the people and love the people, but they call it "order" because they are afraid that the people will know and understand.