584 t h e a n n a l s o f k i n g t’a e j o
Yuan court, I suppose you can speak Chinese.” Saek quickly replied in
Chinese, “I personally came to attend the morning audience in your court”
(qinzhao). Unable to understand what Saek said, the emperor asked him to
repeat what he had said. Then an official from the Ministry of Rites explained
on behalf of Saek. Since Saek visited the Chinese court after a long absence,
his Chinese naturally would be awkward and inarticulate. The emperor said
laughingly, “Your Chinese sounds like that of Nahachu.”^34
After he returned to the court, Saek said to the people, “The current
emperor [of Ming] is one who has no views of his own. I expected that he
would ask certain questions, but he never did; instead, he asked only the
things I least expected.” The people at that time laughed at him, saying,
“How can a vulgar scholar understand the thoughts of a great sage?”
In the winter, King Kongyang ascended the throne. As Saek did not
concur with the general opinion of those in power at that time, he was ostra-
cized as many as five times.
When T’aejo ascended to the throne, he forgave Saek on the grounds that
he was an old friend. Whenever Saek returned home after having an audi-
ence with T’aejo, he said to his sons, “He is truly a sage king who received
the Mandate of Heaven.”
Saek often requested that T’aejo stop public works, but when he found
people who spoke against them, he would say, “The king who has founded
a new dynasty cannot delay the construction works of buildings such as the
Royal Ancestral Shrine, palaces, government offices, and city walls.”
In the autumn of the Ŭlhae year (1395), he requested that he be allowed
to tour the Kwandong region [Kangwŏn Province] and went to Mt. Odae
with the intention to reside there. Then the king sent a royal messenger
summoning him to the court, where he enfeoffed him as Count of Hansan.
In his audience with the king, Saek said, “Why didn’t you inform me of
your ascending the throne? If you had, I would have come without fail to
pay my respects and could have made the occasion shine much brighter.
Wouldn’t it be better than having a horse merchant lead the royal proces-
sion?” The one referred to as a horse merchant was Pae Kŭngnyŏm.
Nam Ŭn, [who happened to be sitting next to the king], said, “Why is it
necessary to invite an old, corrupt scholar like you?” Reproaching Nam Ŭn- A Yuan general who invaded Ssangsŏng in the Northeast Region in 1362, leading the
army of thirty thousand or so but defeated badly by the forces led by T’aejo. Later, he surren-
dered to Zhu Yuangzhang, the founder of the Ming dynasty.