Kim Jun-hyuk's History and Reality Dasan Jeong Yak-yong, the "Creative Human"

In 1797 (the 21st year of King Jeongjo's reign), King Jeongjo appointed Dasan Jeong Yak-yong as the governor of Goksan County in Hwanghae Province. Two years earlier, he had been sent to Geumjeong as a post station inspector in Chungcheong Province to gain experience in regional administration, but the position of Geumjeong post station inspector was not a magistrate's position for the benefit of the people, but rather a manager's role for the post station relay system. Though managing the Geumjeong post station—raising and renting horses for traveling officials—could have been valuable experience for Jeong Yak-yong, it did not provide experience as the administrator of a county.

Dasan had gained indirect experience in local administration through his father Jeong Jae-won, who had served as magistrate of Yecheon County and governor of Jinju, but had never served as a magistrate himself. Therefore, King Jeongjo decided to give Jeong Yak-yong field experience to prepare him as a future prime minister, appointing him as governor of Goksan County in Hwanghae Province. Of course, there was also a desire to temporarily remove him from the capital due to the emerging Catholic issue at the court at that time.

Goksan County was also the hometown of Kang Bi, the second queen consort of Taejo Yi Seong-gye. Consequently, the court regarded it as a particularly important place. As such, the position of governor of Goksan was an important post to which influential figures were assigned. However, before Jeong Yak-yong took office, the previous magistrate was so notoriously corrupt that the people, including Lee Gye-shim, protested collectively and succeeded in forcing out the county governor.

It was rare in the Joseon Dynasty for the people of a county to collectively protest at the county office against their magistrate, but the previous governor of Goksan County was so excessively corrupt that the people rebelled at the level of civil unrest.

Upon taking office, Jeong Yak-yong resolved the rebellion-level protests without difficulty. Although some at the court argued that Jeong Yak-yong should be impeached because the court pardoned Lee Gye-shim, the leader of the uprising, King Jeongjo did not accept these opinions, supported Jeong Yak-yong, and enabled him to perform his duties as magistrate with justice.

With the absolute support of the king, there were no problems for Jeong Yak-yong in fulfilling his role as governor of Goksan County, but there was indeed a critical challenge ahead. It was none other than the unsound finances of the county. In other words, the county had almost no accumulated resources. The previous magistrate had so thoroughly embezzled the county office's finances that there remained no money, rice, or cotton cloth. By spring, before barley ripened and before the autumn harvest could provide food, the people faced severe shortage—the so-called barley pass—yet there was no rice to lend to the people as emergency grain relief.

Dasan contemplated various approaches to overcome this serious problem. His conclusion was to make ice in winter, store it well, and sell it in summer. While making ice through refrigeration is trivial today, in the Joseon Dynasty, obtaining ice in summer was nearly impossible. The royal court had the Ice Chamber built for the king, but this produced only minimal quantities. Thus, ice in summer was precious—its price was whatever one could ask.

When winter came, Jeong Yak-yong had workers dig several large pits in a secluded, shaded spot on the mountain behind the county office. He had rice bran laid on the bottom, then oiled paper, then water poured and frozen into ice. Rice bran and oiled paper were laid again over the ice, and more ice was frozen. In this manner, ice layers over ten layers deep were created, and finally, dozens of burlap sacks were laid on top of the uppermost ice layer and covered with earth to prevent warm air from entering.

The following summer, when the burlap sacks were removed and the pit opened, it was full of unmelted ice. Jeong Yak-yong had merchants sell this ice to supplement Goksan County's insufficient finances.

Based on this experience, after returning to the central government, Dasan proposed making ice in a secluded spot on Namsan in Hanyang to supplement the national treasury. However, due to political maneuvering by the Noron faction, who argued that Jeong Yak-yong, being a Catholic, should leave the government, his policy proposal was not realized. Later, he recorded this in the Gyeongseoyutpyo (Governance Exemplified).

Today, leaders of metropolitan and local governments face considerable difficulties due to fiscal shortages in their regions. Support from the central government has its limits, and they cannot collect additional taxes from the people. In such difficult times, leaders should follow the example of Governor Jeong Yak-yong of Goksan County and employ creative policies to stabilize finances by creating practical work that can actually be done.

This is precisely the work that our society's leaders must do.