Yi San

Mood: korean
Listening to: 'Promise' by...oh, forgot the name again...
Hungry for:...
Bella says: 'TUMMY RUB!!!! NOT TAI CHI!!!'

As you may or may not know, I am half Korean. And I am utterly addicted to Korean dramas.

But I'm fussy with my Korean dramas. My favourites are historical ones. I've watched Dae Jang Geum, which chronicles the life of the first female royal physician, Seon Deok Yeo Wang, which chronicles the life of the first female sovereign of Korea, and Yi San, which chronicles the life of King Jeonjo's relationship with his favourite concubine, Lady Ui.

Yi San is the most interesting of them all, I think.

Yi San is mostly fictionalized, but based on hard facts. Yi San is the birth name of King Jeongjo, a Korean king remembered for his sympathy for the common man, despite his comfortable upbringing. Lady Ui did exist, and was Jeongjo's favourite concubine, and his only concubine to be of low-born status.

The main story is that Prince Yi San meets Sung Song Yeon, the orphaned daughter of a skilled court artist, and her friend, junior eunich Park Dae Su as he tries to rescue his father, Crown Prince Sado, from being wrongfully executed by his grandfather, King Yeongjo, after being framed for crimes he did not commit. In the end, Sado is not saved in time, although Yi San manages to show his grandfather evidence of the Crown Prince's innocence. Song Yeon, at that time a junior palace made, is kicked out of the palace with Dae Su, and Dae Su's uncle, who raised the two children, is forced to flee the capital. However, Dae Su and Song Yeon promise Yi San that they will return. Yi San, when he grows up, marries Lady Hyoui as his principle wife, who is a model noblewoman and wife in every aspect except that she is infertile. Because of this, his mother, the Dowager Princess, brings in several concubines once he is crowned.

Several years later, as young adults, Dae Su's uncle re-enters the capital again, and Song Yeon becomes a Female Assistant at the Royal Art Bureau, but, as a woman, she is limited to lowly tasks such as preparing ink, mixing paint and washing brushes. Dae Su, after spending a short time as a thief, joins the imperial army.

Seon Yong and Dae Su slowly raise through the ranks, and Seon Yong eventually becomes an artist in her own right and Dae Su becomes an Officer. King Yeongjo tracks down Seon Yong and thanks her for being a 'friend of a boy who lost his father because of me', and gives her his most treasured posession - a pair of jade rings given to him by his mother, Concubine Choi. King Yeongjo then dies, and Yi San is crowned.

During this time, Yi San finds out that Seon Yong and Dae Su have re-entered the palace and rekindles his friendship with them. Yi San starts to fall in love with Seon Yong despite many attempts by his mother to interfere with the relationship as she fears that Song Yeon's lowly status will disrupt the Royal Women's Court, and that any heir Song Yeon bears will not be recognised.

Song Yeon is repeatedly harassed and threatened by the Dowager Princess and is forced twice to leave the capital, nearly dying when she is sent to China as an artist, but later kicked out of China when the two countries have a dispute. The second time Song Yeon leaves to live with her long-lost brother, who is a supporter of the Catholic cause, but the king tracks her down and asks her to live with him.

Yi San, sorry, Jeongjo, goes to great lengths to ensure that Song Yeon marries him and is respected as his concubine, even pretending to sleep with her after he brings her back from her brother's house to sway his stubborn mother. Eventually, she begrudgingly allows the wedding to take place, but does not recognise it nor give Song Yeon her title and rank, so she is simply known as 'Lady Sung'. As she is not recognised by the matriach of the Royal Women's Court, Song Yeon is looked down on and is not allowed to call her new mother in law 'Mother', as is custom for all of the king's wives. The Dowager Princess also brings in a new concubine, and insults Song Yeon by favouring this concubine and promoting her to first-class concubine status, when she should be under Song Yeon. This continues until Song Yeon falls pregnant, and is finally acknowledged, and gets her title as third-rank concubine and is finally acknowledged by the Dowager Princess. Thus, she is known from this point as 'Concubine Sung'. The new concubine also falls pregnant, and they give birth on the same day. The new concubine, who was initially cordial, if not a little condescending towards Song Yeon, begins to be openly hostile when she gives birth to a princess, but Song Yeon produces a healthy baby boy.

Song Yeon continues to live in the palace and raises her son, but she fears that her low status will not allow her son to be named as the Crown Prince. The king eventually does proclaim his as Crown Prince anyway, to the shock of his court, but he silences them by showing them Yeongjo's ring that Song Yeon still had in her posession. Song Yeon is promoted further, becoming his most important wife under Queen Hyoui, and becomes known as 'Royal Noble Consort Ui'. (all these titles were very important. I know they don't mean much to you guys, but it's a very complicated and rigid system, and, seriously, everybody has a different 'rank' and 'title'. It's even colour-coded.) Song Yeon's son dies shortly after of measles, devastating the Royal Family, however, Song Yeon stops herself from ending her life as she is pregnant with her second child.

Song Yeon later self-diagnoses herself with liver cancer and asks Dae Su (have you forgotten him?) to smuggle a private physician from outside the castle to come see her, who confirms her liver cancer and says that it is in it's advanced and possibly incurable stages. She refused to see any of the court physicians or tell the king, as she knows they will try and force her to take toxic medicines that would kill her baby. She attempts to leave the palace, telling the king she could not stay in the castle at the present after the death of her son, but Dae Su tells the king and she is sent back, halfway through her journey. The king desperately tries to make Song Yeon take medicines, but she refuses, and as she succumbs to her illness he desperately searches for a cure, even sending Dae Su to China to get Western physicians. Just as the physicians are entering the capital, however, Song Yeon dies in the king's arms. He lives on and has another son, and then dies, followed shortly by Queen Hyoui. The series then ends, in episode 77, showing Dae Su serving the new king, Sunjo, and visiting the graves of the king, queen, and Song Yeon, asking if 'they had met in heaven yet'.

The most fascinating part of the drama, for me, is the relationships in the Royal Court, and how they differ drastically from modern Western relationships. The King, despite being the most powerful man in the country, is still under, to a certain extent, his mother, and he is obligated by the Confucianist society to obey her wishes, although he is not technically obligated by the law. The Confucian respect for parents disregard and 'legal ages' that we observe nowadays.

Another interesting character is Queen Hyoui, King Jeongjo's principle wife and the Head of the Royal Women's Court. She also is obligated to obey her mother in law, but she is also part of a complicated polygamous marriage. Especially as she is unable to produce an heir to the throne, Quen Hyoui is completely at the mercy of her husband, who could choose to execute or exile her in favour of a fertile woman. But, infertile or not, all Korean queens of the Joseon era had to accept the various consorts and concubines brought into the palace - a king could have twenty or more wives. Queen Hyoui is initially resentful of Song Yeon, as she realizes that Song Yeon is the king's true love, but she is the first to accept her and they become close friends.

Another thing that is so fascinating is the different social statuses of all the people involved in the King's marriages - The King, his mother, the Dowager Princess, Queen Hyoui, Concubine Yoon and Royal Noble Consort Ui - in real life there are more, but in the drama it is just simplified to that. At that point in time, there were at least six different ways of speaking, and they all have to speak differently to each other, which make personal relationships quite difficult, especially between the king and Seon Yong, as they are quite literally languages apart.

Put it this way. In those days, there were at least six different ways of saying 'father', depending who you are, who your father is, and in what context you are saying it in. If you are the king, for example, and referring to yourself as the father of your child, you would refer to yourself as 'ah-bi'. If you were lower-class people, you would call your father 'ah-bah', and then next up is 'ah-bo-ji', then 'ah-bo-nim', and then, if your father is the king 'ah-ba-ma-ma' (Your Lordship My Father'. Same with mother - 'ah-mi', 'oh-ma', 'ah-mo-ni', 'ah-mo-nim' and 'oh-ma-ma-ma' (this sounds ridiculous when you say it fast).

I dunno. I just find all this stuff fascinating.