The Making of A King

author: mattie2012

We see the King, Gongmin, in these first scene with Jo Il Shin lamenting about the injustices of not being able to travel as a king of Goryeo and be under cover.  We also get a short background story of the king who was forcibly taken to Yuan as a hostage and lived there for 10 years.  He is now traveling back to his country with his new wife but this operation has to be done under the veil of secrecy.

Born in 1330 as the second son of King Chungsuk and younger brother to King Chunghye, King Gongmin was sent to the Yuan court as a hostage at age 12 and lived there for ten years until he returned to Goryeo following the dethronement of his nephew King Chungjeong.
Having failed in his two prior attempts to rise in power, King Gongmin was able to move up in the inheritance line by marrying the Mongol Princess Noguk at age 21.  Credit:  KBS World

Watching this scene makes me think about this young king and what is going on through his mind right now.  Thrust into a dangerous situation which he has no control over, he is practically at the mercy of everyone around him.  Drawing is his refuge from the reality of being a king in name only, the responsibility of taking care of a country he has not seen in 10 years weighing heavily on his young shoulders. Sure, Jo Il Shin was his trusted companion for the last 10 years but he is badgering him right now about traditions and proper decorum which are probably the least of his worries at the moment.  My heart goes out to him at this point.

The queen is on the brink of death.  Jo Il Shin tells the king that if the queen dies, so will his country, Goryeo.   He counsels the king to pray at the Gate of heavens where the legendary Hwata is.  At least, he says, word will travel to Yuan that his majesty prayed earnestly for 3 days and appease Yuan's anger in case the queen dies.  The face of the king shows that somehow he does not believe in this talk of Hwata and the gate to heaven.  But what choice does he have?  Jo Il Shin is the expert in these political matters.  He has no first hand experience with politics and diplomacy.  I would like to think that as an heir to the Goryeo monarchy, he was schooled in Yuan about the duties he had to perform when he became king.  But right now, he is a king in name only,  forced to travel to Goryeo in secret and now his wife, a Yuan princess, becomes a victim of an attempted assassination.   She can die any minute now and he could incur the wrath of Yuan.  If that happens, his life could also be over. Helplessness is etched on his face.   So he turns to the person who saved his life, Choi Young, and asks for his opinion.

The King and his Wudalchi

How do you trust someone  you don't know?  The king is forced to make a decision on the spot to trust the head of the Wudalchi who says he can protect him.  Should he trust him?  Earlier, Jo Il Shin, his trusted advisor, was showing complete disregard for the Wudalchi.  He does not think highly of them. 

There must have been some wavering on the part of the king; after all, Jo Il Shin was his trusted companion during his exile.  But in this life and death situation, the king has no choice but to put his life in the hands of this stranger.

For Choi Young, it is his first test of trust between him and this new king.  As a Wudalchi, he is bound by duty to protect him.  That is the extent of his relationship with him right now.  Without this trust, he cannot do anything more for him.

As this scene unfolds, Choi Young is completely indifferent to this king's predicament.  As far as he is concerned, the Wudalchi's job was to protect the king and the queen; politics is none of his business.  Why would his opinion carry weight with the king?

But is he really not concerned about the state of the queen?  Could he also be guilty of not being able to protect the queen and feigns indifference to mask this guilt?  As a citizen of Goryeo, wouldn't he also be concerned about the state of his country? We are seeing a reluctant warrior now sucked into this unfortunate turn of events.

The king muses further:

It's hard not feel sorry for this young king right now.  You wish you could shake him and tell him to get a grip on himself, but really, what can he do?

Jo Il Shin's words of impending doom just made him more insecure as an inexperienced king.  When he turned around to ask for Choi Young's opinion, I believe he did that because there was no one else there to talk to.  Maybe he was thinking that the Wudalchi captain who saved his life might have some encouraging words for him.  Unfortunately, that was not the case.

Choi Young's Honest Opinion of King Gongmin

So Choi Young tells the king he knows nothing about politics.  But King Gongmin must discern something about the Wudalchi captain who has been around the previous kings that he turns to him and asks him point blank:  

The Wudlachi captain is surprised at this question.  I don't think any of the kings he has served so far has asked him his opinion on anything.  As far as he is concerned, politics is none of his business.  To his knowledge, his job description just calls for protecting the king  and kill anyone who becomes a threat to the king.  So the Wudalchi captain answers him in his best matter-of-fact demeanor. 

But the king isn't fooled.  King Gongmin may be young but he is astute.  I think that being a hostage in Yuan has taught him to discern between people who are sincere or are sucking up to him.

I would also like to add @Auntie Mame's assessment of King Gongmin:

A lost soul, GM may have been.  But, that doesn't mean that he wasn't aware or couldn't discern which person he should trust.   After living his life in two royal courts, GM would have been quite adept at sizing up a person and figuring out whether the person had a personal agenda and wanted to potentially use or harm GM.

I don't think that Choi Young intended for his answer to come out as being insincere.  He must have been caught off-guard by the question and just wanted to come up with an answer that would be pleasing to the king's ears. 

So the King follows up his question.

 

 Tell me the truth.  What do you think of me as the king of Goryeo?  So Choi Young tells him exactly how he sees it.

Ouch.  But you asked for his honest opinion, King Gongmin.  

Those words must have hit King Gongmin right in the heart.   He probably did not expect Choi Young to be very blunt with his opinion.   But at least his captain of the Wudalchi gave him an honest assessment.  If there is anything that he needs right now is someone who gives him an accurate picture of how he is viewed by the populace that he will rule over.  Otherwise, he would not have asked Choi Young's opinion of him.

I wanted to pause for a while here and think about why KG decided to ask a warrior his opinion of him as king.  I doubt that he knew what to expect from Choi Young's thoughts but he must have thought to himself:  here is a warrior, a regular citizen of my country.  He is not a politician or a statesman so he would not be in any position to give diplomatic answers.  I have no connection to him right now other than his duty to protect me.  I put my life in his hands today and he protected me with his life.  What does a regular citizen like him think of this new king in town?

Although taken aback by by his answer, the king graciously thanks Choi Young.  He was mustering the courage to put a smile on his face after a disparaging opinion of him. 

Choi Young is probably surprised by the King's reaction.  Any other crazy king would have struck him dead after the answer that he gave.  He calls the kings's attention as he walks away.   I particularly like this statement that he made.

This final statement of Choi Young is open to a lot of interpretation.  It's everyone's turn to explain why he said that.  

The Conflict of Moral and Practical Perspectives

The heavenly doctor has served her purpose.  She is able to save the queen from certain death.  Jo Il Shin, ever the scheming politician, finds a a new purpose for the heavenly doctor: a tool to elevate the kingship of King Gongmin as a monarch backed by the heavens in order to command respect from those who would subjugate him.  Therefore, it would be in the king's best interest to keep the doctor in Goryeo. Having a heavenly doctor on his side could give him some form of assurance of recognition as a legitimate ruler. [note: Rulers were usually backed up by the belief of a mandate from heaven.]

FLASHBACK

But before we start, here is a  short history on how King Gongmin became king.  (Please see @guadi post on the background of Goryeo during king Gongmin' s reign.

If we remember CY's discourse earlier on the history of of the Goryeo kings. he said that Gongmin was the the 5th King in 10 years.  The 4 kings before Gongmin were Chungsuk , who is his father, his older brother Chunghye ( the depraved king in Episode 4), Chungmook and Chungjeong, both sons of Chunghye.   Chungmook was the one who was sickly and died at age 12.  Chungjeong took over but was assassinated later.  Chungjeong is the the one that we will see in upcoming Episode 6.  Gongmin, by imperial edict, was appointed king by the Yuan emperor. 

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Gongmin's  daddy, King Chungsuk, 27th King of Goryeo 

King Chungmok who died at a young age, 29th King of Goryeo

King Chungjeong, 30th King of Goryeo

As a side story, it would please everyone to know that the King Chunghye that we hated was also very much abhorred by the Yuan ruler.  He was known to have made the Goryeo people suffer while he lavished himself in excess and moral depravity.  So the Yuan emperor sent an ambassador to Goryeo and this ambassador was said to have kicked him in the stomach as soon as he met him.  King Chunghye was brought back to China in chains, was tied to a board to be exiled west of the Mongol border.  He died on his way to exile as he was exposed to the scorching hot sun as he was transported.  So no need to bring the stabbing brigade of @awesomeduck.

An important observation of a missionary during the Goryeo dynasty was that the debauchery that was going on in Goryeo during the Yuan rule rivaled that of of the emperors of Rome.

Credit to :  http://www.topicsinkoreanhistory.com/2012/06/03/vi-ix-goryeo-the-rising-flood/    -   an excellent podcast on the ancient histoy of Korea

King Chunghye, 28th King of Goryeo

Let's continue our bromance:

King Gongmin is tempted by the sweet talking JIS.    But not so fast, King G.  The Wudalchi captain Choi Young overhears this exchange and he is definitely not liking what he hears. 

Choi Young delivers a similar lecture that Gongmin got from NoGuk earlier:

To which the king answers:

Choi Young replies and we see that he is getting agitated at this point:

 The "he" here is referring to Jo Il Shin.

After this conversation I can see how Choi Young has lost all his confidence and respect for the new king.

I would like to look at both sides objectively.  

I would like to understand King Gongmin's practical perspective first as  a king in name only.  He is about to rule his country as the new monarch who at best is a figurehead king with nothing much to stand on.  He has no army, he has no wealth , even his royal lineage does not carry much weight. [we actually get to see this when he returns to an empty palace in episode 3] With 5 kings in the last 10 years, the Wudalchi captain told him that the  people don't care much for the monarchy anymore.  And Jo Il shin also informed him that there will be people who will want to usurp his power and offer Goryeo to Yuan.  He is a king about to drown and the High Doctor is his only lifeline.  I believe that King Gongmin has a good heart but what  to do when he is squeezed between a rock and a hard place.  Isn't duty more important than moral values?  I can see this quandary even with our own politicians in the present.  They give up what they believe in for the sake of the realities that they face when they start to serve their country or communities.

And there is a warrior's moral perspective in the case of Choi Young.  As we already know he has no interest in the all these political maneuvering.  He has made an oath as warrior that he would return the High Doctor to where she came from as soon as she fulfilled her purpose.  He also knows that he brought the High doctor into his world against her will and that must also be weighing on his mind.  So he imposes this moral perspective on the king with his question:  Shouldn't a king a be different from everybody else? This is what I believe. This question goes back to the heavenly mandate of kings which is predicated on the conduct of the ruler in question. According to this principle of Heavenly Mandate, a ruler who becomes despotic would lose the support of the heavens and will be subject to being overthrown.  So in this light,  Choi Young was pretty much asking the king, "shouldn't your behavior be very different from us ordinary citizens?" 

So in this edition, I just wanted to show both sides of this dilemma.  Your turn to ponder Choi Young and Gongmin's differing perspectives.