As Prophet - Chapter 107
Only Krnovel
Episode 107. Realization after Resignation
He had the letter of reflection delivered directly to the magistrate. The magistrate was very embarrassed when he received the letter of reflection while eating dinner.
“This is very difficult. They are the children of the local leaders. If the news reaches Hanyang, the military officials may be punished for beating up a Confucian scholar.”
The spleen laughed bitterly.
“It sounds like you’re trying your best to make it happen.”
“Surely not?”
“Manho has put his career on the line.”
Baek Ui-hyeong was prepared to resign anyway. He was not the type of person to be afraid of one more issue.
“Please judge accurately tomorrow. It is written that he forced those who were not his slaves to carry his palanquin. He brought a gisaeng to a quiet temple where the people with nowhere to turn prayed and tried to make them sleepy. I believe you will judge him accordingly.”
“What if I entrust you with this kind of work?”
The magistrate asked the chief.
“Did you find the person?”
The spleen nodded.
“You couldn’t bring him down?”
“Yes. It seems difficult.”
“Whew… … I’ll do my best.”
After repeatedly pressuring the magistrate for a definite answer, he left the county office and headed to the temple.
* * *
Wonju prepared a guest room. Baek Ui-hyeong could only sigh. Aside from work, Dalcheon’s stubborn face looked like someone else’s. We had been together for years, but was it no reason for him? He felt like crying because he was sad about losing a person rather than not being able to accomplish something. He wandered around the empty yard for no reason and then went into his room and wrote a letter of resignation.
– I inform Your Majesty.
Shin Hoeryeong Manho Cheomjeoljesa Baek Ui-hyeong came to persuade Sanin by royal command. With great difficulty, I found the hermitage where he was staying and persuaded him, but he had no intention of returning. I tried to persuade him by using human nature and the weight of the order, but failed.
It is natural for a mountain man who has returned to the mountain not to want to go back down, but I am so disturbed that I cannot sleep because I seem to have forgotten the value of fate. As an official who has failed in his work, I feel a deep sense of responsibility and submit my resignation. Thanks to Your Majesty’s favor, I have taken on an important task despite my lack of ability and worked with a sense of mission, but I have found that I am no longer qualified to perform my duties.
I will resign here and be buried in the wilderness, so please be lenient and do not cause any more trouble to those who know me. The honest subject Baek Ui-hyeong wrote.
I wrote the letter and looked down at it with tears in my eyes. After sighing for a while, I folded the letter and went to the spleen in the next room.
“This is a letter of resignation. Please go to the post station and send it now.”
“Manho, Elder!”
“What else can a failed officer do? I would rather resign.”
“Manho, you are being too hasty.”
“At the very least, we should have information that he is here and that attempts to persuade him by fate have failed.”
“adult!”
“I’m sorry.”
He bowed his head and sent his resignation letter to Hanyang, weeping profusely. It would arrive within three days at the latest.
It was a quiet temple, so you could hear everything. Monk Wonju got up without making a sound, woke up Bulmokhani, and headed into the mountains.
* * *
When he reached the cliff and sniffed like a bear, Dalcheon fell down from the clear, windless sky. When Wonju monk told him about the evening and the resignation, Dalcheon laughed bitterly.
“What can I do? It is my intention.”
“Isn’t this the death penalty for a true person?”
“Does that mean I should live as an assassin of those in power?”
“Was that Your Majesty’s order?”
“Similar.”
“Oh my god, that’s happening!”
“I saw a lot of dirty things.”
“What should we do?”
“What should I do, monk? Just feed him a good breakfast tomorrow morning.”
Dalcheon sent the two people off. The night mountain path is dangerous, so he guided them far ahead.
* * *
Baek Ui-hyeong’s resignation letter arrived two days later. The king’s expression turned gloomy as he looked through the documents that had been submitted the night before before the morning service.
“I can’t convince you of that one thing… … .”
Isn’t it easy to blame others in this world? There are people who get angry because their subordinates can’t do something that they themselves couldn’t do. No, there are many. The eunuch of the Great Grand Prince bowed his head, looking around. As expected, the king’s gaze turned to the eunuch of the Great Grand Prince.
“Your intentions have been confirmed as failures.”
“But the location has been confirmed.”
“I see. What do we do now?”
“There is a saying that a light rain will get your clothes wet.”
“A drizzle?”
“Please send the next person.”
“Who? Your Majesty?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“It will fail.”
“Yes, but I think there should be at least three solutions.”
“Next up is Baek Sa-ban Gong?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
The king chuckled. He knew it wouldn’t work, but it might have some effect.
“What’s the next number?”
“I will tell you after I think about it carefully.”
“Haha. Do it. By royal command, tell the Grand Prince to go to Taebaek and persuade him to come back!”
“I will do as you command, Your Majesty.”
Failure is not something to be afraid of. The fact that there is no answer afterward is what we should truly fear. How can we succeed in a task right away when there are countless possibilities that block our path? If there is a next move prepared, we do not have to worry about failure.
“What should I do with my resignation letter?”
“Ahem, I see… … Are you going to accept it in a way that makes him suffer?”
“The thoughts of the servants are different.”
“Speak.”
“Winning and losing are common in the military [一勝一負 兵家常勢]. And this incident was not a battle. I think it would be better to use him as a valuable tactic once again.”
“Ahem, next one… … . Yes, he said he hated my execution!”
“For a mountain man without a family, the Baek family’s connection is a good fortune.”
“Should I? I think I’d like to just cut it off.”
“It feels that way, but it’s not something that can be done in one go.”
“I will do as you say. I will reject Manho Hoeryeong’s resignation, summon him to Hanyang, and then send him back to Hoeryeong after encouraging him.”
“debriefing!”
The eunuch Daejeon bowed his head deeply. The eunuch Daejeon ran to the Seungjeongwon.
* * *
Meanwhile, Baek Ui-hyeong, who had written a letter of resignation, did not go down to the temple but sent the two secretaries back to Hoeryeong. He also wrote a letter of resignation to the county magistrate and told him not to worry about this matter since he had now returned to being a commoner. Although he had done everything he had to do, Baek Ui-hyeong stayed at the temple.
I had no intention of persuading Dalcheon again. I just had nowhere to go. When someone who was working quit their job, it was like suddenly having nothing to do. When I said I was quitting, I had no idea what the time would be like after that.
I attended morning prayers, four hour prayers, and evening prayers without fail. In my free time, I sat in any of the temple halls and meditated. My life began in a quiet temple without any guests.
At first, I couldn’t help but feel bad about ignoring him, who was a death row inmate, and the time we spent together for quite some time. I don’t know about others, but shouldn’t he listen to my request? I don’t want to think of the world as a give and take, but still, how much sincerity did I put into him? Every time I thought about it, I sighed.
Of course I knew that the king was trying to use the relationship between the two of us, but I still thought that he would grant my request. The sincerity I had put into him was solely mine, and I was furious that the king was using it and trying to intercept it, but wasn’t he the king who could give me more?
When I was having a lot of thoughts, Wonju monk recommended that I go to a Zen retreat. Since I had been going to a temple since I was young, I already knew the basics of Zen meditation, but I wasn’t at the level where I could really study with the monks in a Zen retreat.
“You seem to have a lot on your mind. I wonder if it would be better for you to study in the Seonbang. I saw you moving around between Daeungjeon, Yaksajeon, and Myeongbujeon. If there was no place to sit, I saw you go to Sanshin-gak up there. I told the Seonbang in the western forest. Go there.”
“thank you.”
I did think about giving it a try. They say that Zen meditation is something that cannot be done no matter how hard you try, so I thought that maybe it was because I was not doing it properly, but maybe I could do it if I tried.
They said it was an empty temple, but when I went inside, there were about twenty people sitting in meditation.
‘I didn’t know there were this many people.’
The moment the young monk who showed me the seat clasped his hands together and stepped aside, meditation began. I had not received a topic or precepts, but I already knew what to do.
Heebeondeok turned his eyes and looked at the seats where the monks were sitting, then sighed. He thought he knew why Wonju monk had been persecuted by the Confucian scholars and had tried to protect the temple by accepting all of Hyeon’s outrageous demands. It was these people. Only then did he realize that the goal of Wonju monk’s duty as a Sapanseung was to study these people.
Some people sacrifice and others receive the blessing. Everyone wants to protest, “Why isn’t it me?” but the conclusion is that it is the result of fate and karma. What I have done is done to me, but since time and space are not the same, I feel resentment, saying, “It’s not my fault, why is it only me?”
Baek Ui-hyeong realized once again that Dal-cheon was a great blessing to have come to us. He felt proud when he saw him do a good job, and when he led the war to victory, he thought that he was truly a blessing. At some point, he took his companionship for granted, and now he is resenting that they are no longer together.
There was no need to look back. In a world without him, Baek Ui-hyeong would once again be a vagabond without any official title. Baek Sa-ban would have died in battle with the Japanese pirates. Many officials died because of the Japanese pirates’ persistent method of attacking the commander first. He felt bright, wanting to do a little more now and carrying out the king’s orders. It was nothing special. After a few hours of meditation, the front and back became clear at a glance.
I had no choice but to do it because I was told to. But couldn’t I have refused? We do things that we shouldn’t be afraid of the retaliation we might receive if we refuse. And we make excuses that we couldn’t help it. Was it really impossible? Honestly, my current position was more important, and I believed that my family would be happy if I did this for a longer period of time, so I chose injustice. It wasn’t that I couldn’t help it.
Perhaps I was unaware of the world in my mind, but I realized it clearly through the resignation letter. Realization is accompanied by progress. The moment my mind ceases to be obsessed with maintaining the official position, I begin to move toward more possibilities with the freedom I have gained. It was three days after I entered the meditation room that I truly sought the law of the mind and focused on the koan.
They took a short break every hour, and most of them went outside for a light walk. It was rare for students to talk to each other. They didn’t talk to each other, and avoided eye contact. When it was time to serve food, they would say, “Let’s eat and go.”
There were some negative views because someone who was not approved was with him, but Baek Ui-hyeong studied hard, so they quickly acknowledged him and took their eyes off him after three days. The time for the meal offering was different from that of the other monks in the temple, and the route between the meditation room and the dormitory was not to overlap with other people’s, which was probably Wonju’s consideration.
Still, rumors spread.
I came to bring the true man on the mountain to the world, but I failed to persuade him. I made him carry a palanquin for flower viewing, scolded him for trying to get drunk with gisaengs, and made him stand in the court of the county. His subordinates were loyal, but now he sent them all back, saying it was a personal matter. He was a military officer who guarded the front lines of Joseon and was excellent at martial arts. Etc.
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
