This review is full of spoilers, and this is an exploration of the hidden messages put across the drama. The drama itself invited the viewers to think beyond and interpret it differently, as in the scene when the FL said it was easy to get the meaning of the clue, in which the ML contradicted her, a hint that there were double meanings. Clues from the victim scenes were sayings from the Analect of Confucius, the moral and ethical teachings, as well as the code of conduct.
1. My principal is unified. Found on the body of the captain of the bailiff (polce), propped like a scarecrow on a field. The principal purpose of a bailiff (police) is to uphold the law and fight against corruption. Unifying his team to fight against corruptors was his mission. The theme of the drama is why the bailiff (police) was the first victim, as they are the vanguard against corruption. He failed to do all that was depicted as a scarecrow, which was to scare away birds from feeding the crops. Instead, he was a corrupt officer. the fox in a chicken coup.
2. Six or seven young ones This refers to the fourth scholar of Confucius, who only wants an easy life. Found on the body of the scholar, whose mouth was stuffed with a headless chick and whose head was buried under the sand. A corrupt official can have an easy life with an ostrich attitude of hearing and seeing no evil and doing nothing. with the principal that you scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours.
3. Standing by the river, the Master said, "Time passes like this." Time passed easily for corrupt officials as they were sitting pretty.
4. Such a person could only get such a disease. A person with no strong moral character can easily be tempted by the disease of corruption.
5. In youth, his vital force was unstable; he should guard against lust. In his youth, it could mean that when he got his post, he was unstable as he was new and had no experience. He should guard against lust for easy money (corruption).
6. Worship the wrong ghost. Worship materialistic things in life.
7. The last clue found hanging on a corpse was ”those who cannot serve the people cannot serve the spirits," which I interpret as the second theme: justice. "What is justice?” Like the coin, which has two sides (head and tail), if one is missing, it is counterfeit. Justice is to expose the guilty AND their crimes; otherwise, it is not justice at all. Power corrupts, as the magistrate became a judge, jury, and executioner, taking the law that serves the people into his own hands and killing murderers without trials. The spirit of justice was not served. Without trials, it was also an injustice to the families of murderers' victims who didn't know about their despicable crimes. It thus became, inadvertently, a cover-up. A cover-up is an ACCOMPLICE to the crime. One of the reasons Judge Song had no closure and felt injustice was because he didn't expose the chief examiner and his incriminating actions against him and his friend. Justice has to expose the guilty and their crimes. Another person, the Ml, used his position in the Yamen (police station) to send his fellow officers on a wild goose chase to allow the murderer to kill the magistrate, who he suspected killed his captain, to get “justice”.
The law was to serve the people, and the guardians were the judge the magistrate, and the bailiff. If they don't get what justice is, then it's like hanging and suffocating justice.