Friday, March 29, 2024
FILM&DRAMA

Dong Yi, court lady sang-gung

Dong Yi, MBC

In episode 30, Dong Yi is promoted by the king to a special court lady, sung-un sang-gung 승은 상궁 承恩尙宮. 

The sang-gung level is a rank 5 in the court ladies ranking system. The ranking system went for level 1 (top) down to 9. But this was the top rank for a court lady –  but below the concubines.

But as a special court lady, Dong Yi is different to the regular court ladies, sang-gung.

First of all, she hasn’t worked her way up the ranks. She has gone from servant to court lady overnight!

The special court lady was a title for court ladies who were intimate with the king. Their relationship meant that they were likely to become eligible to move up to concubine status: Getting pregnant would be grounds to move up the rankings and become a concubine!

Jang Hee bin was a special court lady at the beginning of the drama. And in episode 17 there’s a ceremony for her to become a hu-gung 후궁 後宮, concubine rank 4 Sook-won.

Lady Jang becomes concubine Jang Sook-won, episode 17, Dong Yi, MBC source

Because of this special status, the sung-ung sang-gung didn’t have to work  like the other sang-gung did. The regular sang-gung had jobs to do around the palace.

in the drama we see sang-gung leading the court lady investigation bureau. It seems that all that the special court ladies –  sung-un sang-gung – had to do was look nice and wait for the king!

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4 thoughts on “Dong Yi, court lady sang-gung

  • Very interesting. One question, though. How do the concubines move up the ranking system – is it based on family, children, etc? With the four ranks, I wanted to know how or why they moved up and how each rank was chosen for the concubine.

    Reply
    • Thanks for your question.

      I haven’t been able to find out very specific criteria about how the concubines moved up the ranks, but the queen was in charge of the whole nemyeungbu (ladies’ court) which included all of the court ladies and concubines – ranks 1-9 – and so she was in charge of dealing with issues that came up including deciding who was to be promoted up the ranks. (We see Hee Bin, while she is queen, promote Dong Yi to concubine status.)

      Giving birth to the King’s child was definitely grounds for promotion, but the rank given depended on whether the child was a girl or a boy. If a sang-gung became pregnant, she may move up to concubine rank 4 sook-won. And if the child was a boy, and so possible heir, then she could be moved higher. Jang Hee Bin (while she was rank 4 Sook-won) jumped to rank 1 Bin when she gave birth to a boy as there was no other male heir to the throne.

      To become a concubine in the first place, girls were often picked from appropriate yangban families while they were still young. This was done so that from an early age they would know that when the time came they would be moving in to the palace and so they had to keep themselves pure and behave appropriately – no scandals, etc. (I’m not sure if they all had to start off at rank 4 though.)

      The other way to become a concubine was to be noticed by the King as in the cases of Dong Yi and Hee Bin who did not come from yangban families but started off as palace maids. In the drama we see that there was opposition for them to be promoted since they were not from yangban families. So I guess background did play a part in the concubine ranking system but producing an heir guaranteed promotion.

      Reply
  • I personally wouldn’t romanize ‘후궁’ as fu-gung, but rather hu-gung. For me the ‘h’ is clearly pronounced unlike it’s Japanese counterpart.

    Reply
  • oh yes, you’re right. Thanks for pointing that out. I’ve corrected the spelling.

    Reply

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