Presumably, such achievement motive and aggressive daily lifestyle rubbed off on the son. From the cradle, the son, Cheong, Mong-gu, practiced all of his role-playings habitually. That might have been his teaching to the son. (詩禮之訓)
Willingly or unwillingly, he was endowed his father’s unique but excellent qualities. Like his father, his mind is tough and aggressive, his spirit hungry with can-do spirit, his chin-up attitude unwearied and industrious. His thinking looks odd yet creative. All extraordinary instincts dwell unchanged in him. In all respects, he is the clone of his father. Such a primitive diligence and competitiveness was instilled in him. Then, his obsession ran more toward leisureless mind and workaholic attitude.
Furthermore, the rapidly changing world weather might have coiled around himself. All of these factors might have bred the obstinate policy, Saturday Management, in the end. So, the Saturday Management policy must have been a spin-off from his father’s hard-driving style and the changing world weather. On the other hand, reversely all of them might have driven him towards a much bigger dream than his father’s. At the opportune moment, the bigger dream would electrify him to spring up into the world stage beyond his father’s greatness.
“Avant-garde”
There is a watchable thing between him and his father. That is a profitable instruction given to him from his father. However, it is not a teaching from the father. A certain Korean’s life made him one of the great captains of industry. By all accounts, he was not a bookish person.
But, in his early age he chanced upon a book for children on the life of Chang Bo-ko. The book was written as lots of working knowledge and adventures. Soon he found it aroused much amusement so that he read it all amusingly.
The juvenile book runs as follow:
“His birth and early life was little documented. But, he was known as a descendant of the vanquished nation of Baekjae(百濟). The small kingdom was destroyed and united into Shilla more than one hundred years ago before his birth. He was born in the early 9thcentury as a nation of Shilla(新羅). As a lost nation people he had no chance to make a dignified life in the country. (立身揚名) But he was not discouraged. Rather he was resolved to be an extraordinarily great man. With his extraordinary ability for swimming and shooting arrows he panted to cultivate his dream. Thus, he, in his tenths, went abroad to seek his fortune. Then, he crossed the deepwater Yellow Sea and entered the prosperous Chinese Empire, Tang China(唐). There he joined the army of Tang Dynasty as seaman to fulfill his boyish hopes and dreams. In his youthful thirties he became a high-ranking commander such as admiral.”
Indeed, the juvenile book was a treasury of information with the secret to success. This part stunned the boy even if it was a simple copybook. Also the copybook maxims wakened his mind anew. Right, he found the courage in the book to do something in life. It changed the boy’s entire life. It encouraged him as below:
“He was born from a poor family as colonial people of the fallen nation Baekjae. So his early days were also poor, humble, and unfortunate. He drained the cup of hunger and poverty to the dregs in his boyhood. However, in spite of his natural-born adversity he had ‘new thinking’. That was to create his destiny for himself. That was the new thinking. With the new thinking he found out ‘new possibilities’ to fulfill his dream. Then he came to know that the possibilities spread out in the huge continent, that is, China.
For such a reason the boy found out the book was highly readable and that it was not a pulp novel at all. Then, with curiosity he continued reading it, fixing up his mind. He burbled that:
“Aha, ah ha, it is similar to mine. But he was a he-man. He worked out his own destiny with his iron-like will and made a great life for himself. Indeed, with new thinking he dreamed of honors. Nursing ambitions, he sought to overturn the unfavorable environment. Even if he was a boy he dreamed a great dream. Then he crossed the deepwater Yellow Sea to find new possibilities. There, he achieved a great dream even with barefoot. I, also, am barefoot. If so, life is basically barefoot. Presumably, in a sense, it might be hungry-spirit. And the flash of youth must have been the seed money. Right, hungry-spirit and youth were his best weapons with new thinking & new possibilities. With the weapons he dreamed a great hopeful dream and did it. Sure enough, youth is half the battle. By now, like him I am young. So, I, also, can do it with barefoot. Like him I’ll make a new life and build up my youthful dream. There is no reason I am not able to do such a great thing. Then, I’ll be a great man like him.”
Finally, the boy found the best weapons in the book.
“New thinking & new possibilities”
Now, the weapons he had kept were delivering to the boy. The very weapons were not better than a great vision and a hungry spirit. Unquestionably, Chang Bo-ko was the boy’s vision itself. His panoramic life has already taught him that ‘where there’s a will there’s a way.’ All the footprints kindled the boy to ambition.
Those made him imagine that his once-thought dream would be not inapproachable even if it was incognizable to his eyes.
Then, the boy shot his arrow boldly on the mark. The mark was not made but it was to be established in the forth-coming years. Then the arrow found its mark by exploiting the mirror. Presumably the boy might have already seen the mark through the mirror of Chang, Bo-ko. For such a reason, the boy could have survived the poverty and overcame the hardship. Like a tiger, he worked hard as long as he lived. Then, like Chang, Bo-ko he earned a great fame and fortune as a proud Korean tycoon. Indeed, the recognition was the turning point for the boy. And his great vision and hungry spirit did not come amiss and stirred him to the last of his day.
The biography continued to tell about the dramatic life on Chang Bo-ko as follow:
“While he was acting as a high-level naval commander of Tang China, he would see his countrymen raped and working as slaves. They were captured from the fishermen’s villages and carried off into slavery. Korean slaves thronged Chinese slave markets. They were seen chained to the oars of galleys in many harbors in the Yellow sea. The pitiful scenes gashed him. He felt sad and raged at the pirates. As a Chinese admiral he suppressed them with his sailors. Then he saved slaves and released them as freemen.
Not long afterwards, however, Chang, Bo-ko came to realize that:
‘So far, I have repelled down the pirates and saved several hundreds of my countrymen. And I built some Buddhist temples for them here and there with taking care of the Shilla villages (新羅坊) with my arms. So, to some extent, I could have protected them from the pirates. But, this way has still limits. Basically I cannot solve the built-in problem. The coastline is too long and the stage of pirates is too broad. But my control area is too narrow and small. Also my military power, as a Chinese general, is limited and scanty. It’s not possible to stop pirates’ devastating behaviors. Also it is not possible to extinguish their roots.
In a tight feeling he spent years. Then he abruptly came to get some idea that:
‘I have to come back to my country. Then I myself cultivate my military strength with the country people. Building up military power of my own is the best solution to root up weeds of piracy and protect them from the pirates.’
It was another ‘new thinking.With this sort of thinking he tried another ‘new possibility’to achieve his greater dream.”
All of it was Chang, Bo-ko’s new thinking & new possibility. His new thinking was his new arrow. And new possibility was his new mark. In this way, he found out the new mark with new thinking. Then the arrow found the mark. Now the mark has been changed. It was not China but his home town.
