A Critique on the movie ˹Asking the Heaven˼
LIM Jongtae.
first upoaded: 2020-12-31.
last updated: 2020-12-31.
Historical background
The movie 'Asking the Heaven' begins with a subtitle “inspired by the historical facts.” The phrase is as elusive as the Christian theologian's introductory comment such as “The bible was inspired by the holy spirit.” Omitting the phrase that “the movie was based on the history” may be, in one aspect, interpreted as a request for details to be free from scrutiny for their relevance to history. However, a positive interpretation suggests that the movie bridges gaps between historical facts and imagination to produce an inspiring story. Indeed, this movie is made upon and reflects a limited number of historical sources and research on JANG Yeongsil, one of the duo title roles of the movie, and his inventions. Fans will come to realize that the fourteen pieces indexed from Thee Veritable Records of King Sejong, Joseon's official history book of King Sejong's era, (Sejong is the other title role) are fully adopted as the cornerstones of the movie.[1[ The movie placed a lot of efforts into presenting replicas of the instruments known to be made under JANG Yeongsil's supervision or with his participation such as ‘Ganui,’ the Simplified Instrument for astronomical observation, ‘Ganuidae,’ an observatory at Gyeongbokgung Palace where ‘Ganui’ was installed, and ‘Jagyeongnu,’ a water clock. The movie also includes unofficial history, for example, it presents JANG Yeongsil as the inventor of a rain gauge named 'Cheugugi'. The official history only refers to the crown prince Lee Hyang as the maker of the rain gauge. However, JANG Yeongsil was punished for the breakdown of king's carriage, just before the official introduction of the rain gauge system, so it is possible that any contribution of JANG Yeongsil may have been purposefully omitted in the official historical record. However, it should be noted that the shortage of historical sources about JANG Yeongsil makes it harder to reconstruct his character, his life, and his relationship with King Sejong. Despite his fame, there are only limited formal research on him. The fragmented historical pieces describe him as follows. He was from a slave class of ’nobi,’ belonging to the regional administration office of Dongrae. His superior talent as a craftsman helped him to earn King Sejong's recognition and he was awarded with unprecedented promotion to high government ranks. He made a huge contribution to King Sejong's accomplishments in the area of mechanics and metalworks such as, astronomical instruments, clocks, metal type, and printing. However, he disappeared from the history book after the failure of the royal carriage that he made for King Sejong. This is all we know about JANG Yeongsil. But his dramatic rise from a lowly man to a court engineer and his sudden downfall stimulates our imagination that there might be something hidden behind the scene. As a result of this epic tale, it may have led to a variety of fictional stories: fables for children, essays on history, biographies, dramas, and so on. Therefore, he has become one of the most famous figures in science and engineering of King Sejong' era, even surpassing YI Sunji or KIM Dam, the editors of the book on Joseon’s astronomical system called Chiljeongsan which is regarded as the culmination of astronomical achievements in King Sejong's era.Made-up saga
Koreans have long been inspired by history when telling stories about JANG Yeongsil, not being strictly based on history. Then how different is the interpretation of the movie director, HEO Jinho from the existing ones of the Korean public? To answer this question, it is necessary to review the stories on JANG Yeongsil that have been passed down over time. The stereotypical plot of JANG Yeongsil is made up of two contrasting elements of the society such as, the medieval and irrational Confucianism versus modern and rational science. JANG Yeongsil was depicted as the symbol of scientists and engineers looked down upon by the noble class while King Sejong was believed to be a rational and modern leader who recognized the value of science and technology and offered opportunities to an able man of an inferior class fighting social prejudice. It is former president PARK Chunghee and elite scientists and engineers, with patronage of the president, who took advantage of JANG Yeongsil's saga for political purpose at the dawn of Korea's economic development. After the foundation of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) in 1966, PARK Chunghee had established himself as an energetic patron of science and technology and eagerly supported science and technology to build the foundation of industrial development and self-defense in national security. Since 1973, he promoted a nation-wide campaign of scientific advancement of the nation in order to sweep out Confucian remains and irrational cultures. During the campaign, scientists and engineers who had been marginalized until then were reevaluated as the leadership group for modernization of the nation and their social status was promoted. President PARK Junghee and his scientists understood their relationship to be that of King Sejong and JANG Yeongsil. Indeed, in the 1970s, scientists and engineers used to say: president PARK Chunghee supported scientists and engineers as if King Sejong supported JANG Yeongsil.[2[ So the saga of King Sejong and JANG Yeongsil projected the desires of president PARK Chunghee and his scientists and engineers wishing to be viewed as equivalents of King Sejong and JANG Yeongsil. It is in this context that they chose JANG Yeongsil, a lowly man, over other noble scholars such as YI Sunji.A New light
The plot of the movie does not go beyond the confrontation between Confucianism and modernism at large. But the audience seems to be entertained by the movie, not bored by the story of the movie that they already know, maybe because the movie director successfully modified the well-known stories. The most outstanding twist in the plot is the relationship between the King and his humble servant depicted as colleagues or friends in “a bromance-like or horizontal relationship, rather than a hierarchical one. There is evidence that may justify such adaptation in the movie. After finishing the water clock, King Sejong appointed Jang Yeongsil as an officer of a higher rank, named‘hogun,’ and expressed his fondness of JANG Yeongsil by saying “My father, King Taejong, protected hime (JANG Yeongsil), I also adore him."("太宗護之, 予亦恤之", untranslated) To some extent, JANG Yeongsil was an informal and trusted secretary of King Sejong as seen in King's comment, “I wish him to be at my side and entrust him to deliver my message instead of court eunuchs.”[3]. Of course, these comments are said within a hierarchical relationship between the king and his servant or between a patron and his patronee, but they reveal the cordial and trusted relationship between King Sejong and JANG Yeongsil. The director's plot twist of the relationship between King Sejong and JANG Yeongsil from a casual friendship to camaraderie may deliver his message that the hierarchical relationship or patronage between the state and the scientists and engineers formed in the 1970s should be reshaped into a horizontal and cooperative one. Moreover, the message is coherent to the recent trend that emphasizes the independence of the society of scientists and engineers and pays attention to the cultural aspect of science, overcoming the outdated idea of science seen as simply a tool of modernization and industrial competitiveness. This new trend of the society may have moved the director towards an imaginative collegial relationship between King Sejong and JANG Yeongsil that entertains the audience. Now let’s focus on the goal of King Sejong and JANG Yeongsil as presented in the movie. Who are the villains that hindered their goal and drove their relationship into peril? The director adds a twist to the stereotyped plot. While the movie's plot foreshadows the 1970s' schism between science and modernity vs. Confucianism, it manages to instill the nationalism that has gained popularity since the 1990s. King Sejong and JANG Yeongsil, the protagonists for modernity in the 1970s against the ‘ancien regime’ are now depicted in the movie as those for patriotism against betrayal. Thus, this movie contends that the goal of King Sejong and JANG Yeongsil is not simply the introduction of advanced science from China, but it is to establish independent science for Joseon and an original time system that suits Joseon's territory. JANG Yeongsil in the movie tells King Sejong that they do not have to follow the Chinese prototype of the water clock but should modify it to be tailored to Joseon. JANG Yeongsil's water clock and the Simplified Instrument measure time according to seasons of Joseon, which differ from those of China as a result of the difference between their longitudes. Therefore, the water clock and its underlying astronomy that serves Joseon's standard time led to facilitate Joseon's political independence in the realm of science. This affirms King Sejong as the mastermind of nationalistic science, or of ‘Juche’ science in North Korea's terms. But their adventure leads to a perilous end as King Sejong gives orders to demolish the Simplified Instrument and other astronomical instruments due to pressures from the Ming dynasty and some court servants serving the Ming dynasty over Joseon. They believed only the Ming emperors could set the time for their people from astronomical observation and not the king of Joseon. So, people of Joseon who were considered as the subjects of the Ming emperor’s rule, may only follow the time set by Ming’s emperors. The supposed patriotic alliance between the king and his scientist or engineer confronting the mighty Ming dynasty and Joseon's court servants who prioritized the Ming dynasty over their country led the movie director to shed new light on the episode of the breakdown of the king's carriage and the following downfall of JANG Yeongsil. The event was taken advantage of by King Sejong to purge pro-China court servants, eventually paving the way to the announcement of Hangeul, the Korean alphabet system, which contributed to the grand picture of King Sejong.Historical reality
It is of no doubt that this movie is more novel than the stereotypical stories about JANG Yeongsil thanks to patriotism pari passu modernism and bringing in imaginative fiction about JANG Yeongsil's disappearance from history. Without this kind of novel interpretation and the excellent performance of seasoned actors, the movie's‘objet’ JANG Yeongsil alone may not have been sufficient to draw the attention of the adult audience and its ticket box may have been limited only to school kids doing their homework during their winter break. However, the movie's scheme should not be given full credit for its creativity. Modernism and nationalism continue to hold their role as pillars of the narrative. Also unchanged is the fact that the movie views Korea's contemporary issues with the lens or metaphor of the saga of King Sejong and JANG Yeongsil. Then whether or not the metaphor is suitable comes into question. It should be questioned whether modernism and nationalism well suit the actual scene of King Sejong and JANG Yeoungsil in the beginning of the 15th century. I am not positive on that. The problem is that the movie depicts the two characters to appeal to modern sense too much. The confrontation between patriotism and betrayal in the movie's main plot is not recorded nor is feasible in reality. This confrontation brings forth the movie storyline: the collusion of the Ming dynasty and Joseon's court servants, Ming’s ordering to bring JANG Yeongsil in captivity to Ming, and the demolition of the Simplified Instrument and other astronomical instruments. If the demolition ordered by Ming was indeed true,The Veritable Records of the Joseon Dynasty, admired for its details and accuracy, would not have missed such an important event. The most similar record about that in The Veritable Records of King Sejong is that King Sejong tried to move the Simplified Instrument and its standing out of concerns for Ming’s envoys to notice it. But it is King Sejong himself who was concerned about Ming’s envoys, not his court officials. And the main reason does not seem to have been King Sejong's concerns about Ming’s envoys but his intention to build a secondary palace there.[4] The officials seriously opposed to the relocation plan, citing the political importance of astronomical observation, and the economic burden of removal and construction, but the king did not heed their advice.[5] The opposing stances of the king and his servants over this relocation issue were exactly contrary to the plot of the movie. It is true that the king and his servants were cautious not to let Ming’s envoys notice the astronomical instruments such as the Simplified Instrument, but there is no evidence that Ming’s envoys ever questioned them. Ming was not friendly to Joseon and it was notorious for making absurd political and economic requests frequently, but there are no official records that Ming pressured Joseon on the matters of astronomy. .According to research, Ming overlooked Joseon's own astronomical practices and instead it was Joseon's own self-censoring that made the king and his officials nervous. So the adventures of King Sejong with his servant JANG Yeongsil and others are severely distorted by the movie's plot centering on the confrontation between modernism and Confucianism or between patriotism and betrayal. As revealed by recent research, King Sejong was not an enlightened or patriotic monarch to pursue modernism over ’ancien regime’ and pursue autonomous and an independent political regime free from China's dominance. On the contrary, Joseon's nascent era under King Sejong saw the unfolding of the grand picture of further encouraging Confucianism and voluntary subordination of Joseon to Ming’s tributary order which continued till the 19th century. King Sejong was a mastermind of, never a rebel to, that picture. Of course, this does not mean that we have to see King Sejong as the antagonist that overlooks irrational tradition and promotes Joseon’s servile attitude to China. But the point is that the adventures of King Sejong are not well understood in the frame of confrontation between autonomy vs. succumbing or modernity vs. pre-modernity. King Sejong's scheme was to make Joseon as a tributary state under the guardianship of China and a civilized country on par with China. While King Sejong wanted to operate an independent astronomical and time system, he never intended to pursue a science and technology system different from the Chinese one. King Sejong wanted his astronomers to fully absorb and utilize the Chinese astronomy and his wish was realized thanks to JANG Yeoungsil's instruments and YI Sunji's astronomical system, the pioneering works of the era. In brief, the autonomy of astronomy in King Sejong's era meant a successful acceptance of the Chinese system or achieving the capacity of managing the time system comparable to that of the Ming dynasty. Of course, there were concerns over the legitimacy of the independent management of astronomic system as a tributary state of Ming, but it should not be understood as a confrontation between independence and succumb as depicted in the movie. In conclusion, the phrase “inspired by the historical facts” should be read quite the opposite. The director may have interpreted the history as inspired by the modern point of view, making the history as a puppet of the present. Korean movie audience, who feel overwhelmed by the big powers surrounding Korea and concerned about some seemingly disloyal people, may be thrilled and atoned by the scenes of JANG Yeongsil's weird and unrealistic behavior like his peeing and flipping over party tables in front of Ming’s envoys or King Sejong's harsh criticism of his court members for their subservient attitudes. In this sense, the metaphorically symbolized relationship between King Sejong and JANG Yeongsil in the movie is better revealing of the Korean people's unstable and damaged ego than the historical reality. If this was the intention of the movie, then it is not to be blamed, but the subtitle of the movie should be rewritten as “inspired by the present and reimagined,” instead of “inspired by the historical facts.” If we want to be inspired and informed by history, we should be open-minded and be willing to absorb what the historical records have to say. The words of the past are often incompatible with our present common sense, and offer a chance to revisit our present common sense. So, King Sejong who tried to have a well-established civilized state while being faithful to the Ming dynasty may look self-contradictory to our eyes. But it is in such contradictory impression that may give us insight into the unclear borderline between patriotism and betrayal or between independence and submission.(*1) Lim Jongtae is Professor of Program in History and Philosophy of Science, College of Natural Sciences, Seoul National University. (*2) This article was translated (from the Korean one) by KIM Seokhyeon, editor, and proofread by PARK Hyunjoo and confirmed by the author. PARK Hyunjoo is Adjunct Professor, Hongik University English Language & Literature Department. (*3) This article is published in intelligence korea, Summer and Winter, 2020. The Korean version is available at intelligencekor.kr/periodical/article.html?bno=15.
Notes
[1] The Veritable Records of Joseon Dynasty, sillok.history.go.kr [2] Joseon-ilbo, 2009.10.5. [3] The Veritable Records of King Sejong, the 16th day of the 1st month in the 15th year (1433) of King Sejong’s reign. [4] The Veritable Records of King Sejong, the 14th day and the 25th day of the 1st month in the 25th year (1443) of King Sejong’s reign. [5] The Veritable Records of King Sejong, the 15th day of the 2nd month in the 25th year (1443) of King Sejong’s reign.