Prefect Jin Cheon-hee posted a notice throughout Baekrin Commandery a month ago. It read as follows. - We seek talented people who wish to work for the White Scale Medical Pavilion. However, to work at the White Scale Medical Pavilion, one must know how to read and calculate.
Therefore, we will pay you wages while teaching you these skills. - Those who pass the examination afterward may become members of the White Scale Medical Pavilion, so we hope for your interest. That was what it said. We’ll give you money, so learn to read and calculate!
Normally, one had to pay a great deal of money to learn knowledge from others. No one taught precious knowledge cheaply. It was quite literally an era of 군사부일체, where the king, teacher, and father were one.
In this Confucian land of swords, one could sometimes learn for free after entering a master-disciple relationship. But in truth, it was not that one paid nothing. One became bound by the relationship between master and disciple.
But where in all the world was there a ruler who would instead say, “We’ll give you money, so learn to read and calculate”? Because of this, countless people who lived from one day’s wages to the next came rushing in. Their numbers reached well into the thousands!
“There really are a lot of people.”