[The Three Kingdoms] Golden Sun Exhibition



1 – West

“The azure sky is dead, the yellow sky shall rise.”

The old man quietly mumbled these eight characters. As I transcribed his words, tears filled my eyes.

“In the great imperial family, two huge shadows loom over this country. Do you know what they are?”

“I do.”

“Answer.”

The old man imposed a test on me. It was a lesson he intended to teach me before his life ended.

“One is what Master mentioned before, the ‘Yellow Sky shall rise.'”

“Correct. The sky has turned yellow. Why?”

“It’s due to rebellions and bandits.”

“Indeed.”

The old man unfolded his fan and fanned his face.

“The rabble regard this as a rebellion of large-scale thieves. They plunder other people’s property, kill people, take away wealth and grains. Those who fill the world and tie yellow bandanas around their heads, what are they called?”

“They are called Yellow Turbans.”

“Correct. Turbans, thieves. They are thieves who commit notorious misdeeds. Taiping? What a joke. Their leaders spew nonsense about Taiping followers, but they are nothing more than trash that instigate rebellions.”

“Didn’t you once defend them?”

At my words, the master fell silent.

“You said that the reason rebellions occur is because the country cannot govern the people’s lives. The people have to gnaw at their bellies every day and cannot feed their children even a grain of rice, resorting to cannibalizing their own flesh. But even that has reached its limit now. Has there been a famine in the country? No. They are experiencing an unprecedented bumper crop, and the granary is so full of rice that it is spoiling. Considering this situation, you said that the occurrence of rebellion is natural.”

“Indeed, the Taiping followers exploited such chaos. They gathered people, raided the government offices, robbed the warehouses, and distributed grain.”

The old man chuckled and shook his head sideways.

“No matter how official the army is, they can’t stop tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people armed with hoes and starving from running towards them. Let alone when the government army is less than a thousand. Who can stop the starving people? If there are their parents, siblings, children among them, who can stand against them?”

The old man sighed deeply.

“The Han Empire did not support the people who started the rebellion. They couldn’t even offer them a grain of rice. In regions beyond the reach of the imperial court, local officials were dispatched, but instead of providing meals, they even took the rice on the table.”

“Bribery and corruption earned these positions, and they have to recoup their investment—as high as several times as what they have put in.”

“Quite so. They have bought their official positions with money, and they must make up for it with money. Who can they get it from? The people. Those bastards have wrung the people’s sweat and blood. There are thieves among the people, and the people have become thieves, but who did they become thieves after looking at? They became thieves after looking at the bastards in the palace of Luoyang.”

The old man’s half-closed eyes quivered. Simply uttering ‘the palace’ made his hands and feet tremble.

“People often say that corrupt merchants trick peasants. But that’s wrong. Corrupt merchants are simply the worst of the lot. Isn’t corruption permeated in all regions of China? It’s those in official positions.”

“Master, as you said before, there are two types of people who are eating away at the country. Those who have already made a fortune and those who are still sucking their fingers because they’ve yet to make a fortune.”

“Correct. There are no innocent ones. There are no true heroes in this world.”

The old man stared at me.

“Who do you think is a hero? Who do you think is the hero who will put this turbulent age into peace?”

“I do not know yet.”

“You rascal, pretending you don’t know when you do?”

The old man pressed me.

“I know the will within you. I know your ambition better than anyone else. Because I’ve despised a guy like you my whole life, I know better than anyone. Able, but incompetent, not planning to make a stand, focusing only on extending their lives—such rotten idiots…!”

“Your curse words are heavy.”

“What! Curse words! The person whom the story referred to was laughing!”

“Ho Ho.”

It was a recrimination.

But, it was also a compliment. For the old man to call me an ‘able trash’, it meant I had a remarkable ability in my own way.

“You’re familiar with the strategy of playing it low-key, aren’t you?”

“Yes, I am. That is why I will live even more humbly.”

“Even if people around the world are asking for you?”

“There are so many capable people in the world, there is no need for someone like me to emerge.”

“Do you truly have no desire for anything?”

“I do have desires. To have enough, to be content, and to live a peaceful life before returning to dust.”

Hearing my words, the old man shook his head.

“It’s not good to be agitated.”

“Dammit. You truly never disappoint until the end.”

“That’s just who I am.”

People don’t change easily.

“I will live and die how I want to. My life is my own. I am sincerely grateful to you, who took care of me with no family. So isn’t it good for me to stay by your side till the end?”

“You need to study about the citrus again! No, fundamentally, people are broken!”

“A normal person would not be here.”

I bowed respectfully at the old man.

“Foolish disciple! I cannot stand to see the falling dynasty! I will handle those cunning scoundrels who deceive the emperor and take advantage of their official positions!”

“Is this how you live?”

“It’s not for me.”

“Bastard… Whew.”

I just grinned.

“Can I ask a personal question? You can answer or not. In your prediction, the dynasty…”

“Will collapse.”

I stated confidently. At my word, the old man’s eyes teared up.

“So in the end, that’s how it will be.”

“The corruption is too deep to clean up. What the current dynasty needs is a major reform. It’s impossible to remove the rotten flesh. The bone structure is already decaying.”

“What now?”

“Shouldn’t new wine be put in new wineskins?”

“…Cough, look at this…! There is a traitor in this royal court, encouraging rebellion! Cough.

The old man yelled at me threateningly. Unfortunately, nobody lives around this thatched-roof house.

Only the old man and I are here.

“…Since the time of Goryeo, this country has preserved for a long time. Is it facing its end?”

“It might not.”

“If you work for the dynasty, it could be.”

“I don’t have that capability.”

“Could you accelerate its fall?”

“I don’t intend to.”

Whoosh.

The wind came through the window frame. The cold night air was tinged with a faint smell of blood.

“Right… it’s about time for the end. The fall to the ground, ascending to the underworld. What will you do in this chaos?”

“May I ask one thing? What kind of person does the teacher want his disciple to look like?”

“Of course, it’s me…. Cough.”

The old man covered his mouth with his hand and coughed. A gush of deep red blood splattered onto his white outer garment.

“Heh heh, not much time left now. That’s just the kind of disciple I want. Obviously… someone who will correct this imperial family that I’ve devoted my entire life to, serve the emperor, and achieve a truly peaceful and prosperous era.”

“I see…”

Tears welled up in my eyes at the old man’s fervent wish.

“But you.”

“Yes?”

“You won’t listen to me, will you?”

“No.”

“Even if it kills you?”

“I might reconsider if my life were in danger, but I wouldn’t let it come to that.”

“Bastard.”

The old man knows me too well, and I know him too well. That is why we have entered into a deep master-disciple relationship, yet at the same time, we can’t be truly a master and a disciple.

He is a righteous man who wishes to live for the imperial family, and I am merely a lowly person who struggles to survive amidst the current.

“Prince Hwang.”

“Yes, Master.”

“If I told you to live for the imperial family, it would be a great burden on you. Your path is different from mine, and if I forced you to tread the righteous path, you would surely die.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. So you…”

The old man smiled broadly and handed me his fan. The fan, handed over by his trembling hand, was stained with the blood he had coughed up.

“Just live however the hell you want.”

“Master, is that your final message to your disciple…”

Thud.

The old man dropped his head. With the fan handed over, and his last words to me, he said nothing more, seemingly contented.

“What does he mean by ‘live however the hell I want’. Damn. For a man of such noble rank, he should have departed with dignity, delivering noble words.”

I laid the old man on his bed. The prince had endured hardships for three years, but I am not worthy of such sufferings.

The old man, my master, had oft-spoken. He didn’t want to rot in the soil after death, but wished to be cremated.

With his humble dwelling, he wanted to soar into the sky.

“…….”

I waited until my master’s breath stopped. Until his breath ceased, his pulse no longer pulsated, and the color drained from his face, I waited and waited.

He died of old age.

In these troubled times, dying of old age could be considered a good end. He didn’t get beaten to death by a power struggle, or beheaded by thieves.

In a place not home to him.

Without any family around.

The only person he knew was a disciple to whom he could pass on a fan, and he quietly passed away. Such a death is quite common in these chaotic times.

“…my legs are numb.”

I don’t know how long I had been kneeling, my legs were numb due to lack of blood circulation. The moon had long set behind the horizon.

Shhh.

A fly had come in through a hole in the paper window. It hovered around the master and attempted to sit on his body as if it was something natural.

Flutter.

I swirled my fan. Not attempting to kill the fly, yet, it hit my fan and was now staggering against the wall.

“…Phew.”

Flick.

I lit an ember, picked up my fan, and quietly exited the hut.

Roar.

The little thatched house I had built in the forest was quickly cognizant of the fire. As I watched the flames, I quietly performed a bow on the bare ground.

“I shall follow your will. I will act as you have ordained. Master, I…”

I quietly clasped my hands and prayed.

“I will drift with the seasons, live long and lean, merely a candle in the wind.”

Under the brightly risen yellow moon, I exist, creeping in like a shadow, never to dissolve.

“With disturbance arising in the realm…”

Hwangwol Yeong

“I should escape to Yangyang. They won’t conscript soldiers there.”

That’s me.

“Let the nobles and the heroes fight. I just want to live quietly, sipping on honey wine.”