The Government Is So Powerful

The film The Book of Fish lays bare the realities of present-day South Korea through the historical setting of the Joseon Dynasty. The protagonist, Jeong Yakjeon, is exiled to Heuksando because he is a Catholic believer. In Joseon, a country of class hierarchy and authority, denying class distinctions and advocating Silhak inevitably meant facing resistance from the vested interests. He was more thoroughly versed than anyone in Neo-Confucianism, the ideology that ruled Joseon and was the very qualification for holding office, but by the time he arrives in Heuksando in exile, he has begun to doubt Neo-Confucianism itself. Thus, on Heuksando, he compiles an eobo (魚譜), a record of fish, through Changdae, the film’s other main character.

An eobo, a record on marine life, was a trivial study compared with Neo-Confucianism, then regarded as a noble field of learning. But unlike Neo-Confucianism, which lacked substance, an eobo was concrete and clear. Through this contrast between Jeong Yakjeon and Changdae, the film reveals the miserable reality of the times. Jeong Yakjeon, exiled because of Neo-Confucianism, tries to abandon it and pursue Silhak, while Changdae, by contrast, seeks to study Neo-Confucianism in order to be treated as a human being. Watching this scene, I was reminded of young Koreans preparing for civil service exams. Like Changdae, they give up their original work—catching fish, in his case—and devote themselves to study because they, too, want to be treated with dignity like the yangban. That is because our society still lacks basic respect for human beings and demands only submission to authority.

There are many other scenes that expose the foolish realities of our own age. The islanders secretly uproot the pine trees growing on the island, and when Jeong Yakjeon asks, “Why kill pine trees that will one day become assets of the nation?” they answer, “These pine trees grow on their own, and we are not even allowed to cut and use them, yet we are the ones forced to pay the unbearable taxes on them.” It is an economic principle of striking clarity. If people cannot use something for themselves and it instead harms them, then no matter how much it is called an asset of the nation, they will inevitably try to get rid of it.

The military cloth tax of the Joseon period was no different. At that time, military cloth was imposed even on the dead and on newborn babies, plundering ordinary people. Not even the dead could escape taxation. The inheritance tax now causing controversy in our society plays the same role as the military cloth tax of Joseon. In the film, there is a scene in which a commoner who cannot pay the military cloth levied on his dead father and his newborn child has his ox confiscated. That “ox” is his only means of farming and making a living. In our society, it would be a “business.” Taking away the means by which the living survive because of a tax imposed on the dead is not taxation but plunder. Take Samsung, one of Korea’s leading companies: in order to pay the inheritance tax of the previous chairman, his son is placed in a position where he must sell company shares. He is being forced to sell the “ox” essential to survival. Just as this plunder was brutal toward Samsung, it works in exactly the same way on ordinary individuals.

The film vividly portrays the corruption of the Three Administrations, including the military cloth tax. Land Tax Administration (田政) was a tax levied on land, much like how today’s real estate tax and property tax become disorderly when they grow excessive. Military Administration (軍政), including military cloth, is comparable to the distortions seen in today’s conscription system. Grain Loan Administration (還政) was a system under which rice was lent out during the spring hunger gap and repaid later when people had money, but in reality it was the most corrupt of the Three Administrations. In modern terms, this Grain Loan Administration can be compared to interest rate manipulation through the central bank. If, in Joseon, Grain Loan Administration meant lending out rice and receiving back rice mixed with sand, today it is like wages staying the same while prices alone continue to rise.

The climax of the film is the scene in which a family man, protesting the military cloth tax, cuts off his own genitals with a sickle. He says that bearing children is not a crime, yet it has been made into one, to the point that people can no longer live, and so he will no longer live as a “man.” South Korea has the lowest birthrate in the world. There is no other possible excuse for this. Taxes are so excessive that it has become virtually impossible to have children, form a family, and live a normal life. That is why healthy young men and women give up childbirth, marriage, and even dating.

When I see Changdae, enraged by this reality, fighting with the local officials and ending up in prison, I see the image of us, the young people living in this age, overlaid upon him. The government is still astonishingly powerful.

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Original title: 정부는 참 힘이 세구나

Author: Gyeong-mo Son

Date: 2021-05-10

Source: https://www.cfe.org/bbs/bbsDetail.php?cid=free_opinion&pn=11&idx=23692