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I was supposed to accompany my wife, KSP and Jonas to Nyköping tonight. We were going to see Crossbows and Tulips in concert. My gouty foot wouldn’t allow it so they went without me. Mirinda reported that the concert was fantastic. I am very sad I missed it, given how much I loved the one last year.
Not that I sat around moping. I have started a new K-Drama, so I settled back and watched a couple of episodes, loving it from the start. It is called Bon Appétit, Your Majesty.
Now, don’t fret, I’m not going to give away any spoilers. The basic synopsis is in the first 20 minutes of the first episode. But something intrigued me and I felt I had to dig a bit deeper.
Okay, the basic premise is about a feisty three Michelin star chef, through a strange mishap, is thrown back in time, 500 years and winds up cooking for the King of Joseon. For those that don’t know, Joseon was what Korea used to be called from 1392 until 1897.
Now, at one point, the chef, Yeon Ji-yeong, realises that the King is a tyrant from history. She names him Yeonhuigun. She also cites something called The Gapsjin Literati Purge. Obviously, both of these intrigued me, so I was determined to find out if they were historically real.
Also, these strange hairstyles on the court ladies had me fascinated. I’ve seen quite a few South Korean historical dramas taking place in Joseon but I’ve never seen these before.
First up, the king, who is called Yeonhuigun, is fictional. He features in a web novel which, I think, inspired the series. However, his attitude and temperament are based on a real tyrannical king called Yeonsangun (1476-1506).
By all accounts, Yeonsangun was a right bastard. While his mother was executed during a bit of political wrangling between dissenting opponents, there really was no need to make the rest of the country suffer. He was a bit of a Tiberius-like ruler. Took complete advantage of his position to spread as much misery as he felt like. He was definitely an arsehole of the highest degree. The sort of person you wish hell existed for. He only reigned for 12 years, so there was that, I guess.
Mind you, it was a most productive 12 years.
For one thing, he created a load of royal brothels, made up of young women that his band of merry men would scour the countryside for and deposit in the pleasure gardens and temples. They were all over the country so he could enjoy himself where ever he was.
He also didn’t like people criticising him and in order to stop this, he abolished the Office of Censors, the sole purpose of which was to hold the king responsible for bad decisions that harmed the country. Sound familiar? He also closed down the Office of Special Advisors because he didn’t like their advice. I’m sure he would have stopped the press had there been one.
One of his nastiest actions was to kill the chief eunuch, Kim Cheo-sun, who tried to get him to, possibly, be a bit nicer. Poor Kim had successfully served three kings and was considered quite the asset. Yeonsangun, personally shot him with arrows then hacked his limbs off.
It was a shame because, apparently, Yeonsangun’s dad was an excellent king.
Anyway, the first few episodes of the series makes it quite clear that King Yeonhuigun is not historically correct. He is more like a stern, romantic lead; very good-looking with a cheeky smile.
Now, as for the Gapsjin Literati Purge, these really happened. Purges, I mean. There were a few of them. The one mentioned in the drama is called, in Korean, Gapja Sahwa. This particular purge was closely connected to the execution of Yeonsangun’s mother.
In a nutshell, the purges were the result of two strong factions, vying for power. They felt so strongly for their own particular brand of government that they would go out and kill or exile, sometimes, a load of the opposition. They mostly purged scholars, which is what the ‘sa’ bit of ‘sahwa’ means. Or experts as some people might call them.
There were four such purges: 1498, 1504, 1519 and 1545. Yeonsangun was around for two of them. The second one was the Gapja Sahwa in response to the execution of his mother. And, to demonstrate how truly awful he was, the king didn’t just kill his political opponents. No, he’d also get rid of the relatives of them as well. That’s a bit shit if you have different views to your family and then get killed for them regardless.
The Gapja Sahwa was pretty bad, He didn’t just kill heaps of people, he also closed down schools, suppressing all scholars. He was really bent on revenge. And loved exercising evil power. Anyway, by 1506, everyone had had enough of this rubbish, and he was exiled to an island where he died two months later. Of what, I don’t know, but I really hope it hurt.
As for the chef, Yeon Ji-yeong, all she wants to do is somehow get back to 2025. And, given her knowledge of the awful period she’s found herself in, who can blame her? Anyway, I wonder if she’ll change history?
Sorry about the subtitles. My South Korean is worse than my Swedish.
