A New Horizon in Green Field

It is dark in Green Field. Even after the sunrise, people can hardly tell whether it is day or night. After looking at the sky carefully for a while, they can barely notice movement of the sun behind thick clouds. That is what people say in Green Field when they are asked about the darkness. No one is sure about what they see. They try to believe that there is a sun that circles around Green Field once a day. Because of the darkness, there are no trees, no flowers, not even a single plant. Nothing grows from the ground. Everything is grey or black. The only green in the city is in its name, Green Field.

For thousands of years, Green Field has been ruled by an emperor, known as the Son of Heaven. The city has been the emperors’ domain. Like many other imperial cities around the world, Green Field has been strictly constructed to achieve the physical embodiment of a governing power. The entire city is covered with heavy, stone pavement. The grey pavement, like a large pedestal below the city, separates it from the earth. At the center of Green Field, in the darkness, there has always stood a magnificent palatial complex to impress its subjects. All of the property, people, and lives within the city belong to the Son of Heaven.

People in Green Field revere the Son of Heaven. At least they believe that they do. The city had been governed by him and his ancestry for thousands years. Like a divine power, the emperor has always been overlooking everyone’s life. The existence of the Son of Heaven is natural to everyone even though no one has seen him. He is like the invisible sun that rises every morning behind thick clouds. Land and anything above the ground belong to the Son of Heaven. These are the terms. The terms are strict and obeyed by the people in Green Field.

One day, the Son of Heaven’s parade was marching along the main boulevard of the city. It was a magnificent march with a series of lanterns and an orchestra of music followed by the Son of Heaven. He sits inside a covered palanquin carried by the bearers. There were crowds of people in the street, but no one has courage to look up to the parade except one little girl. She is not afraid of the Son of Heaven. She just wants to talk to him.

The little girl shouts toward the imperial march. “If everything above the ground belongs to the Son of Heaven, how about below the ground?” The march stopped. So did the music. There was silence among the crowd. No one has thought about this kind of question before because the ground is always covered with a thick layer of stone. The little girl knew there is dirt below. She and her friends often played with dirt. Once, they dug up the dirt to create holes in the earth. She dropped her doll in a hole by mistake. And then, she was curious whether the doll still belonged to the Son of Heaven. She just wanted to know. People started to talk in whispers, but there was no answer from the palanquin. People’s whisper turned into shouting. “What about below the ground?”

A few days later, the imperial government announced an interpretation of the doctrine, “Anything below the ground is exempt from any rule by the Son of Heaven.”

The new announcement from the imperial government stimulated people’s curiosity. With this opportunity, they wanted to excavate the earth to find uncharted territories where the rule of the Son of Heaven does not extend. Some people discovered magic reeds that glow both day and night. More and more people began excavating the earth in Green Field. The new settlement is densely covered with magic reeds. Below that, the reeds are weaved into three-dimensional grid structures networking the entire underground space. The settlements become noticeable in Green Field appearing like flocks of fire flies, some here some there.

Like growing grass roots, the underground infrastructure rapidly stretched horizontally and down to parallel the scope of the above ground Green Field. All the Green Field people have noticed the spread of the underground settlement. One after another, more and more people want to experience the underground life as well. When old buildings are demolished, they are rebuilt downward instead of upward. When several buildings are constructed downward, they are connected with bridges. When an area is surrounded by connected buildings, it becomes an underground plaza. More and more dirt is removed and the empty space is filled with buildings and with structure. They are linked with streets and trains and form a network in the underground city. A new horizon has been created in Green Field where everyone is the owner of his or her own life.

Collaboration with Kiwon Kim