The historical drama Dong Yi (MBC 2010) is the love story of a servant girl (Dong Yi) and the king. (King Sukjong r.1674-1720). A servant girl did in fact become the king’s top ranking concubine (and given the title Sukbin). And she gave birth to King Sukjong’s son who became King Yeongjo, the longest reigning king in Joseon history. These are facts. But did Dong Yi and King Sukjong really have a long romance?
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Well, it seems that this is impossible to know! The problem is that Dong Yi came from the the cheonin, servant class, so there’s very little information about her in the history books!
The record keeping in the Annals of Joseon focus on the king. In general, there isn’t much information about the royal concubines either. But there’s even less information about her because she came from the servant class! The names and positions of the family members of upper class concubines were likely to be recorded. But it would have been awkward to write anything about her background, so information was purposely avoided. (that’s according to the introduction to the novel, Dong Yi) In fact, Dong Yi wasn’t even her real name. And there’s no record of what her real name was. She’s just known as Sukbin. (Choi was her real family name though.)
People in the lowest class couldn’t generally move up the social ranks. And even Dong Yi’s son, King Yeongjo, had a complex about his low class background. So much so that eventually he changed some of the laws about marriage between the lower and upper classes. This led to the servant class finally dying out.
The Annals of Joseon
If you’d like to know what the scribes at the palace did write about at the palace, take a look at my book review of The Annals of King Taejo. He was the first king of Joseon and these detailed records have now been translated into English. They are written in diary-form with notes entered almost every day. Some days have short entries on the weather, others have long descriptions on serious happenings such as the execution of high officials for treason.
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So the drama is romantic fiction because nobody knows what really happened.
Perhaps Dong Yi and King Sukjong really did have a long romance. And perhaps they did sneak out of the palace together in disguise and hang out at the tavern. It’s not that hard to believe since kings did indeed go out of the palace incognito to find out how the ordinary people lived. But due to the strict Confucian society rules about relationships between men and women, they would probably not have been able to sit so casually together without attracting attention. So the drama takes some artistic licence for our entertainment and creatively fills in the gaps that the history books have left out.
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