Original subtitles

Episode 8

If...

a meteor shower falls on the time Yeong Sil predicted,

that would mean he discovered a great system.

(Noon)

Prepare for the execution.

- Yes, Sir. - Yes, Sir.

- Hang them. - Yes, Sir.

Stop the proceedings.

His Majesty ordered...

that we postpone the execution to between 3 and 5am.

(Between 3 and 5am)

Has the King changed his mind and cancelled the execution?

That is preposterous.

The command he gave...

was merely to postpone it.

For what reason did he postpone it?

I do not know the details,

but he gave the order after Lee Chun visited.

- Lee Chun? - Yes.

Will there really be a meteor shower today?

Hush.

What if it really happens?

The mere idea that one can predict a meteor shower...

is strange in itself.

It doesn't even appear in books.

- Right. - That's true.

I cannot believe the King...

has fallen for a servant's trickery.

Doesn't he see that he's spewing nonsense to extend his lowly life?

This is too much, even for a King who's losing his touch.

Would someone...

say such a thing just to live...

a few more hours?

- What? - I actually think...

there might be a meteor shower, like he said.

If it really does happen,

it will be a disaster.

Do you wish for a disaster to befall us?

It is no disaster if it happens at the predicted time.

If this were to actually happen, would it not be a great spectacle?

If there really is a meteor shower tonight,

I plan to ask the servant how he knew.

Si Guk!

Watch what you say.

You do this for fun,

thanks to your powerful father who helped you get here.

For the rest of us, deciphering the stars and weather...

is a livelihood and a great honour.

A meteor shower is a disaster.

If you truly believe that it's a disaster,

how about we bet on whether it happens or not?

I have a rich father, so I shall bet 10 pieces of silver.

What would you bet?

Will you bet your livelihood and honour?

Your title?

Why would I bet on something so trivial?

With the dark clouds and rain,

we won't be able to see the meteor shower.

Pardon?

You're right.

I hope it doesn't rain.

My lord.

Look at the sky.

What will happen to poor Yeong Sil?

If the clouds are part of his fate,

(Lee Chun)

then he must accept it.

Pardon?

Your Highness.

We still have to wait a few hours.

You should come inside.

I can't see the stars because of the clouds.

What should we do?

(Princess So Hyun)

His Majesty the King.

Make way.

(Crown Prince Chungnyeong)

(King Taejong)

Hang the traitor Jang Yeong Sil.

- Yes, Sir. - Yes, Sir.

How much time is left?

Less than 15 minutes, Your Majesty.

It's 3am, Your Majesty.

(3am)

Please go away!

Clouds, please go away.

Your Highness.

The meteors are falling.

Dear wind, please blow.

Take away the clouds so they can see.

Do this for the Crown Prince and Lord Lee who care for me.

Dear wind.

If you move the clouds and I am allowed to live,

I will try many more times harder...

to reveal how the celestial bodies move.

I will figure out how and why the wind blows.

And I will figure out why it snows and rains.

Clear the clouds away, please.

It is 3:24am, Your Majesty.

(3:24am)

Jang Yeong Sil.

It is 3:24am.

When will the meteors fall?

The meteors...

are falling already.

They are just hidden behind the clouds.

Listen, everyone.

I cannot say I am as desperate as Yeong Sil who is awaiting death,

but I also...

had hopes of seeing a meteor shower.

However...

we cannot wait forever.

Is it not safe to say...

the obstruction of the clouds...

are telling us that Yeong Sil is destined to perish?

I shall hang the traitor Jang Yeong Sil.

Hang the traitor Jang Yeong Sil.

(Jang Hee Je, Lee Chun)

Yeong Sil!

Release him.

(Perseid meteor shower: Happens around August 12)

Will the King forgive Jeong Cho and his followers?

(Ha Yeon)

Hang the remaining traitors.

- Yes, Sir. - Yes, Sir.

(Jeong Cho)

(Jeong Heum Ji, Jeong In Ji)

Father.

Please...

forgive me.

Your Majesty.

I am the one...

who led them.

Therefore...

it is only right you hang me first.

Please...

take my life.

Your Highness.

Please stand up.

- Your Highness, please stand up. - Your Highness, please stand up.

Your Highness, this is a disgrace.

Your Highness.

- Your Highness. - Your Highness.

- This is a disgrace. - This is wrong and unfilial.

- Your Highness. - Your Highness.

- Your Highness, please stand. - Stand up, please.

- Your Highness. - Your Highness.

- You must stand up. - Your Highness.

Silence!

Was this flippant and insincere act all you could think of?

If you thought sacrificing your life would stop me from hanging them,

you are mistaken.

Your Majesty.

I came here thinking it would be a relief...

if I could save Yeong Sil alone.

The clouds parted and he is safe,

so I got what I wished for.

Your Majesty.

Now kill me and those who caused you trouble,

so you can rule in peace and Joseon can prosper.

If that is what you wish, then I have no choice.

Guards.

The Crown Prince just confessed that...

he led those traitors.

So...

Your Majesty.

Your Majesty.

My father Jang Sung Hwee...

had a friend other than Woo Bo called Gok Gang Cheo Sa.

My father said that out of all the nobles of Joseon,

no one loved the people more than Gok Gang Cheo Sa.

I shall recite one of his poems.

"Choi who lives by the stream by the large rock is very polite."

"I gave him some of my unhulled barley."

"He took only what he needed..."

"and told me to give the rest to the less fortunate."

"How could he do so..."

"when he lives in hiding because he can't afford to pay taxes?"

You fool.

Shut your mouth.

Your Majesty.

That is the first poem I memorised.

I always dreamed of meeting Gok Gang Cheo Sa in person,

and today I finally did.

Gok Gang Cheo Sa was a weak-minded scholar...

who is long dead.

Why do you say you met him today?

But I did, Your Majesty.

The one who promised to spare my life if the meteors fell...

is the one and only Gok Gang Cheo Sa.

Just because I spared your life...

does not give you the right to speak so freely.

How dare you even mention that name?

All I can do now...

is teach you a lesson by killing you.

Hang him immediately.

- Yes, Sir. - Yes, Sir.

- Your Highness. - Please do not do this.

- Your Highness. - You can't do this.

- Your Highness. - Your Highness.

- Your Highness. - No, Your Highness.

- Your Highness. - Do not do this.

- Your Highness. - Your Majesty.

Please forgive me.

- Your Majesty. - Your Majesty.

- Please forgive me. - Please forgive me.

- Please forgive me. - Please forgive me.

- Please forgive me. - Please forgive me.

Your Majesty, may I speak?

I, Meng Sa Sung,

under your mercy and grace, was able to serve you and Joseon.

I have no regrets.

I request that you hold me responsible...

for failing to teach the younger generation.

Take my life instead.

Please let the young men live and serve you and Joseon.

The Crown Prince's actions...

may be unfilial and disloyal,

but he is only choosing death because he can do nothing more.

Your Majesty.

Jeong Cho, Jeong Heum Ji, Jeong In Ji...

and their young followers are the only ones...

who can talk sense into him and guide him on the right path.

Your Majesty, please accept my plea...

and allow me to give my life to save the young men.

Would you...

really die for them?

Yes, Your Majesty.

I am doing this for Joseon.

It is nothing but an honour.

Can you recite...

the rest of "Choi From Kaesong" by Gok Gang Cheo Sa?

Yes, Your Majesty.

"I shall preserve..."

"the honour of Choi..."

"who lived in hiding in Kaesong."

"I do not care if my barn is empty."

"To preserve Choi's name,"

"I filled the pots..."

"of the poor who lived around him."

"Choi survived the Red Turbans..."

"and the Japanese when they invaded."

"But he took his life when Goryeo betrayed him."

"I do not dare mourn him."

"Instead, I blame myself and look back on my actions."

"Every day, every hour,"

"I think of..."

"the polite Choi from Kaesong."

Jeong Cho, Jeong Heum Ji and Jeong In Ji.

You three lost your lives today.

However I take pity on you...

and return your lives to you.

Spend the rest of it to serve me,

Joseon and the people.

Stay loyal for the rest of your lives.

Your Majesty.

- We thank you greatly. - We thank you greatly.

- We thank you greatly. - We thank you greatly.

- Your Majesty. - We thank you.

- Your Majesty. - We thank you.

- We thank you greatly. - We thank you greatly.

- We thank you greatly. - We thank you greatly.

- We thank you greatly. - We thank you greatly.

- We thank you greatly. - We thank you greatly.

(Changdeok Palace)

(Poems by Gok Gang Cheo Sa)

Gok Gang Cheo Sa finally found his way back to me.

Do you remember what you said...

before I ordered your execution?

You said that the fact that a king had to kill his subjects...

showed just how strange ruling a country must be.

Yes. I remember saying that.

I let you live, so now you must think differently.

I do not think...

I will change my mind.

But I do understand that...

you didn't give the order...

solely out of selfishness.

Just like I didn't study the stars solely out of selfishness.

You...

cannot escape to Ming.

Try and you will be killed before you can take two steps.

For as long as you dream of getting away,

my soldiers will watch you night and day.

I just remembered...

that I forgot I was trying to escape to Ming.

While I was hanging, I swore that if I were to live,

I would devote the rest of my life to studying the world.

Now that you let me live,

I just want to return home and look up at the sky.

What made you give up so easily?

I heard you tried to escape whenever you could.

When I wished to escape to Ming,

I was full of anger and resentment.

But now...

all of that has disappeared.

I was angry because I was a servant.

Your Majesty.

I got a second chance on life but I am still a servant.

But I decided to forget about...

what I cannot change or control.

I can focus on the things that I want to...

and the rest of my life probably won't be long enough.

Do you not owe me that change?

The anger left you only because...

I pushed you to the brink of death and got you out.

I saved you, so make it up to me.

You were born a servant,

but you owe me and Joseon...

your talents and the rest of your life.

Devote the rest of your life and your skills...

for Joseon and its people.

I will.

I will do that.

- Good. - But...

I hope you remember that I'm not doing it because you told me to.

I'm doing it because the wind made me.

The wind of Joseon.

You are so much like your father.

Your father sent you to me.

I miss him...

and thank him so much.

Gok Gang Cheo Sa, the poet you adore is the Crown Prince.

He will care for the people from his heart...

in a way I never could.

Serve my son and Joseon, your own country...

the best you can.

With your whole heart.

I will, Your Majesty.

I will never forget that.

There is one more thing you must do for me.

I heard you can make a water-powered Honsang.

Yes, Your Majesty.

Make me a Honsang.

(Honsang: A sphere on which a map of constellations is depicted)

I shall provide you with a place to work.

Make it in secret. No one can know.

Yes, Your Majesty.

"I shall preserve..."

"the honour of Choi..."

"who lived in hiding in Kaesong."

"I do not care if my barn is empty."

"To preserve Choi's name,"

"I filled the pots..."

"of the poor who lived around him."

Did you wait for long?

The King must have had a lot to say.

He did.

So...

what did he say?

He told me to help the Crown Prince study the world.

He gave you the perfect job.

I do not have to figure out if you are right or wrong.

So I called you...

to return that to you.

Thank you.

I see you made a Honsang.

Yes. So you saw it?

Did it spin once a day...

even when it was powered by water?

Yes.

A Honsang that spins on its own...

would show the constellations at any given moment...

and the ones we will see the next day.

We can see the stars in the sky...

that are hidden by the bright sunshine.

Did you just say...

that Jang Yeong Sil made...

a water-powered Honsang?

Yes.

That is what I heard.

The King spoke in private for that long...

with a servant who can make a Honsang?

Yeong Sil.

- Yeong Sil. - Suk Gu.

Yeong Sil.

Did you speak with the King?

Yes, Your Highness.

Yeong Sil.

Why are you empty-handed?

Didn't he reward you for predicting a meteor shower?

I was rewarded plenty.

Were you?

Let's see.

What did you get?

Where's the reward?

That day...

for the first time in my life,

I had a nation and a King.

(August 11, 1418 of the lunar calendar)

- Your Majesty. - Your Majesty.

- Please do not abdicate. - Please do not abdicate.

- Your Majesty. - Your Majesty.

A month after the meteor shower,

the Crown Prince became King.

The ministers objected,

but the King said that...

he had promised the stars...

and therefore could not take back the vow.

- Your Majesty. - Your Majesty.

The former king was afraid that the King's father-in-law...

would threaten the King's reign, so he arrested Lord Shim...

and forced him to confess.

Lord Shim took his own life in prison.

His Majesty hid his emotions when he heard the news...

by reading the calendar Lord Shim had brought...

for him from China.

He did not show how he felt.

Your Majesty.

Congratulations.

The fact that Ming's Emperor bestowed you with a calendar...

means that he accepts and acknowledges you as King.

It also means that he takes us as an ally...

and not an enemy state.

Jang Yeong Sil made it.

It stands up straight then bows...

whenever the door opens.

He made it so you would think of your people and smile.

Now is not yet the time.

I will smile when my work is done.

His Majesty the King has bestowed upon you...

these foods and wine.

(Hwang Hui)

The King...

embraced even those who objected to his rise to power.

(Hwang Eob, Yoon Bong)

Our Emperor...

sent an imperial letter to state that he accepts...

your reign as King.

(Acceptance of his reign as king)

Your Imperial Majesty,

your graciousness envelopes the entire country...

and the depth of it does not cease to touch and amaze us.

I will engrave your advice in my ear...

so that I will never forget it.

Hello.

Hello.

Master Hee Je has been promoted as the Officer of Astrology.

(Jang Hee Je, Officer of Astrology)

(Jupiter)

I finally confirmed that Jupiter has returned to its original position...

after 12 years.

In Venus' case, it's 620 days.

It looks like Mars will take about 680 days...

to return to its original position.

But I must observe them carefully to be more accurate.

I cannot just rely on my eyes.

I looked through the books I found at the Office of Astrology.

Based on what I've learned from the books,

I sketched out the planets' movements.

I thought that the planets could be orbiting the earth like this.

The observation device called Ganeui made by Guo Shoujing from Yuan.

If I observe Jupiter and Venus with it,

will I be able to find out whether my thoughts are right or wrong?

I told you to clean the floors.

Are you slacking off again?

People have forgotten the night that the meteor shower fell.

I have also been forgotten.

The solar eclipse prediction was wrong once again.

Hence, the solar eclipse ritual could not take place.

The predictions are made according to Ming's astronomical calendar,

so it is not strange at all that they're constantly wrong.

The ministers of the royal court advise His Majesty to...

hold these rituals fully knowing that the predictions would be wrong.

I cannot comprehend their intentions.

I heard that Ming predicts solar eclipses accurately...

using the astronomical calendar made by Guo Shoujing.

I heard that this calendar was created...

based on his observations made with Ganeui.

What is this device, Ganeui, which Guo Shoujing made?

What did he observe using this apparatus?

I have a workroom now.

The former king has kindly arranged it for me,

so that I could make Honsang in secret.

The stars' bearings and altitudes tell us the time.

Their movements follow almost the same pattern every year,

so sailors can tell the time looking at their positions in the sky.

Right. In order to properly locate all the stars,

I need a guide.

All stars revolve around the North Star,

so I shall use it as a guide.

The North Star isn't really the North Pole.

It's just a star that sits closest to the North Pole.

Ganeui could be accurate because...

it was designed to point to the North Pole, not the North Star.

Hence, I've decided to find the North Pole.

If Polaris, which is beside the North Pole,

moves in a regular circular motion following this furrow,

the centre of this wooden device...

must be the North Pole.

That is the North Pole.

It is the centre of this earth as well as of all the stars.

What wonders would be on the North Pole?

His Majesty has been through many hardships since the enthronement.

I couldn't see him for a long while, so I couldn't even console him.

But His Majesty asked to see me.

So this device...

can tell us which stars will appear on the eastern sky tonight.

It is absolutely fascinating.

And the stars on this device move towards the west...

and disappear like this.

It's just like how real stars move.

Plus,

this rotates 361 degrees in a day on its own.

I heard that the stars in the sky move exactly like this.

This shows that we could understand the wonders of the universe.

Yes, Your Majesty.

In the past, every day felt meaningless.

Now, the wind I feel on my skin and every star I see...

are meaningful to me.

If we can accurately record everything that happens with...

the sun, the moon and the stars in each passing day...

If we can record all astronomical phenomena...

that occurs every year,

the commoners will no longer need to be afraid...

of nature thinking that such phenomena mean disasters.

You are speaking about the need for an astronomical calendar.

Joseon will soon have its own astronomical calendar.

I will make sure it happens.

I asked to see you outside of the palace...

and meet here at my sister's house for a confidential meeting...

because what I'm about to say now must stay amongst us.

Envoys will be sent to Ming to inform them about the Crown Prince.

As the Officer of Astrology, you should go and bring back...

Ming's astronomical calendar. When you arrive in Beijing,

go to Sacheondae secretly.

Ganeui made by Guo Shoujing of Yuan. Find out what it looks like.

Find out what mechanisms the observation device uses.

Observe every detail and report to me.

Your Majesty.

Accessing Sacheondae is strictly forbidden by Ming's Emperor.

Hence, this is a dangerous mission. You could lose your life.

Your Majesty.

I am not afraid of death.

I will make sure to accomplish this mission.

You are not going alone.

Is there any chance...

that you changed your mind while waiting?

I've become more determined...

during the wait.

No matter what kind of danger is awaiting, I will go and see Ganeui.

I will make sure to come back and make Ganeui for Joseon.

Ganeui for Joseon.

I'm pleased to hear your determination.

Just like how Guo Shoujing observed astronomical phenomena with it...

and made his remarkable astronomical calendar,

we should observe the sky of Joseon with our own Ganeui.

Making an astronomical calendar for Joseon...

and making accurate predictions of solar eclipses...

are the missions you two must carry out.

Your Majesty.

I will be sure to accomplish the task.

Yes, Your Majesty.

I will make it happen.

Officer Jang, when you arrive in Beijing,

go and meet Master Yoon Bong...

who was here as an envoy.

Are you referring to that arrogant envoy?

Yes.

He will...

help you.

(Yoon Bong)

That identity tag...

will allow you to go anywhere in Ming.

Yes, Your Majesty.

One more thing.

Make sure...

to return in one piece.

This is...

an order.

(Jang Yeong Sil)

I will send Jang Yeong Sil with the envoys...

and have him learn Ming's culture and science.

Where were you?

I almost missed you.

Princess So Hyun put extra cotton wool in it for you.

Thank you, Princess So Hyun.

You cannot beat Yeong Sil when it comes to astronomy and science.

- Yeong Sil! Jang Yeong Sil! - Look! There!

Gil Su, it's Gil Su.

Tell me where Jang Yeong Sil is.

It's you...

You can find relics of the Joseon Dynasty at...

the National Palace Museum of Korea located inside Gyeongbokgung Palace.

This is the second oldest astronomical map in the world,

the Great Constellation Map.

In this map, the sky is divided into 12 sections,

which are organised in order.

(Great Constellation Map: An astronomical map made in 1395)

Along with 28 constellations of the East,

various types of astronomical data and information are recorded.

This map was created based on Goguryeo's astronomical map.

Office of Astrology revised the map according to...

the calculations of the stars' movements in Joseon's sky.

Unlike China's Soonwucheonmoondo,

it differentiates the stars' brightness and shapes...

and was designed to better suit Korea's traditional culture.

The information about the stars' brightness on this map...

matches the stars' brightness scale we currently use.

On the topic of Joseon's astronomical knowledge,

we should also talk about Chiljeongsan.

It is the first almanac made based on calculating the movements...

of the seven stars, using Joseon's own knowledge and technology.

The total duration of one year estimated in this almanac...

is identical to what the modern science has found out.

(With a unique system, it calculated 1 year to be 365.2425 days.)

The Great Constellation Map and Chiljeongsan...

serve as symbols of Joseon's governance principles.

They are our history engraved in the sky.

(Jang Yeong Sil)