Jewel In The Palace

Summary for the first Five Episodes

24 Jul 2008 2 Comments

by Shazoor Mirza in Uncategorized Tags: Summary for the first Five Episodes, Uncategorized

The backdrop story is set during the reign of King Seongjong (1200-1494). The King has deposed Queen Yiun, probably due to her involvement in some political intrigue. Yet initially, the King did not execute her as she was mother to the Crown Prince (Yeonsangun) who would later became the worst tyrant king in Korean history. I assume that Queen Yiun was a tyrant as well as bad apples do not fall far from a bad tree. However, the King was under enormous pressure from the Confusian Yanban to execute her.So our story starts…

The Royal Military Guards were having a competition to show their skills. Seo Chun Soo (Jang-Geum’s father) was competing in an archery (target practice) competition. As he was retrieving his arrows, the arrows suddenly broke off from the target, and he found that his hand was bleeding and that his bow string was broken.This signalled a bad omen.

Shortly after, orders came down from the palace to execute the deposed Queen by poisoning her. The military commander given the task but was reluctant to carry out the order himself. He deliberately injured his horse, thus throwing himself off the saddle and hurting his leg. It then fell to Seo Chun Soo to administer the poison. Before the Queen suucumbed to the poison, she cursed everyone who was involved, and handed her personal Court lady a handkerchief stained with her vomitted blood. She instructed the court lady to pass it to her son to exact revenge in the future. This would be shown later to her son, Yeonsangun, when he grew up and became king. (This coincided with the Gap Ja Sa Hwa – a political massacre during which Jang Geum’s father was persecuted. Yeonsangun was noted for suppressing the Confucians, in a similar way to Shih Huang Ti. He challenged and persecuted the Confucians whom he blamed for his mother’s death.)

Guilt ridden, Seo Chun Soo turned to wine to get over the incident. On his way home, in a state of drunkenness, the last words of the deposed Queen haunted him which caused him to slip and fall into a deep ravine.

When he regained conciousness, he found his injured arm attended to. A hermit was sitting in front of him. The hermit was probably a soothsayer. He asked the hermit the reasons behind his misfortunes. The hermit then told him of his fate. His destiny will be closely linked with three women. The first woman, “you killed her though you did not want to” (refering to the deposed Queen Yiun), the second, “you will save her but she will die because of you”, and the third woman “will get you killed but because of this many will be saved.”

Seo asked how he can avoid meeting them. The hermit told him that he has already met the first woman and that is why he is suffering now. Seo Chun Soo asked him to elaborate further on how not to meet the third woman who is going to kill him. The hermit replies that in order not meet the third woman would mean he should not meet the second as well. The hermit then writes three Chinese characters and flung them to him. The 1st character is “jin” ( I will have to give the words in Chinese Pinyin as I have no idea what how is it read in Hangul), the second is “xun” the third is “hao”. After throwing the characters at Seo, the hermit mysteriously disappears. Seo Chun Soo takes the papers to a Buddhist abbot to find out the meaning of the characters. After analyzing the characters,the abbot says the the characters are the virtues of a woman. Since the characters do not stand for anything, he tries to analyze them by breaking the characters up individually. Chinese characters are pictograms.

The abbot explains that the first part of the prophecy referred to a royal family who have the characters “Mu” & “zi” in their name, which when combined become the surname Lee, referring to the present Joseon Dynasty. The abbot continued to break up the character up individually. The character “jin” on the The first sheet is made up of the characters “nu” (lady) & “jin” (today). The abbot informs Seo that since these characters were given to him the previous day, he would have already met this woman.Seo Chun Soo’s face turns pale, and the Abbot believed that he had in fact met the woman. The second character is “Shun” which is a combination of Shun (flow) and “dao” (head). The third is “hao” a combination of “Nu”(lady) and “zi (son)” which looked to mean son or daughter.

Fourteen years after the execution, Seo Chun Soo is still haunted by the execution. He eventually resigns from his commission as he fears that the present day King might find out about his involvement in the assassination and also because of his guilty conscience.

Yeonsangun has become King. The royal kitchen busily prepares for the queen dowager’s birthday ceremony. Yeonsanggun’s reign is full of feasting – wining & dining. Court lady Pak Meong Yi Royal Court Maid (Na In) or rather Jang Geum’s mother sees her friend, Choi Cheng Qing (Court Lady Choi)secretly putting something (monkshood – poisonous mushroom)into the dish which would be presented to the Queen Mother. She immediately reports this matter to the Court Lady not knowing that the Court Lady is in league with Lady Choi’s Aunt who was the Head of the Royal Kitchen.

The Choi family has served as royal kitchen heads for five generations. In the process, they have used the royal kitchen to maintain their family fortune. The Choi family controls all purchases to the palace and use their position to help any political faction that may bring them further power and wealth. In essence, the past five generations of Lady Choi’s family have used food as a tool for political and material gains.

As a ploy to remove evidence of their sinister plot, Lady Park was falsely accused of having an affair with a Palace Guard (A serious violation of the code of conduct for court women as all women in the palace belong exclusively to the King).The Palace Gaurd gave Lady Park some cosmetic after she treated him for gastroenteritis.(A foreshadowing of Jang-geum here in the use of food as a medical commodity.)The young Lady Choi falsely reports that Lady Park was seen with the guard alone in a room. For this, she was put to death by poisoning.Lady Han,who was ordered to bring the poison,added a form of antidote to neutralize the poison and fed it to Lady Park and at the same time,inserted a letter in her hanbok (petticoat). Lady Park was then left behind for the Court ladies heard some noise in the forest wherre they admister the poison to Lady Park.

Seo Chun Soo,retired from his commission and now helping out at the temple, as he was walking along the river and saw Lady Park’s head face down in the water and Seo rushed to save her from drowning.Thus the hermit’s prediction about the second woman was fulfilled He brought her back to the temple and asked the abbot to save her.The abbot then asked Seo to boil green bean soup so as to neutralize the poison while he goes out to look for herbs. Later,the Abbot reminds Seo that if he hadn’t found her, she would have died and that he has saved this woman’s life. The words of the hermit echo back to him concerning the 2nd woman,as he did discover Lady Park’s head immersed under flowing water. Deciding that he cannot escape his destiny,he nurses Lady Park back to health.Lady Park recovers and read Lady Han’s letter that has fallen from her hanbok.In the letter Lady Han expresses disbelief that Lady Park is guilty of the crime that she has been accused of and so suspected that Lady Park’s life was in danger. To give her a fighting chance,she had given Lady Park some green bean soup earlier to counteract the poisonous monkshood.In the letter, she pleads with Lady Park(that if she survives)to remain outside the palace and expresses her hope to meet her friend again someday.

After regaining her strength,Lady Park decides to leave and thanks Seo.But Seo remains worried as well as fully mindful of the hermit’s prediction,so he secretly follows her by taking care of her food and lodging.He also ensures that her journey is a safe one. She comes upon a village with a wine tavern where she is able to find employment.While busy in her work, a few drunks starts harassing her. Seo,who has been secretly following her appears and fights off the drunkards.He requests that Lady Park not to work in the tavern anymore as she is not suited to the job.Lady Park relents and decides to follow Seo. Seo then tells Lady Park, that a soothsayer once said if Lady Park stays with him;it will be the death of her.Lady Park replies by saying that her life is no longer hers.

Seo and Lady Park start over as a couple in a bakjeong village. Bakjeong consists of residents of the peasant class and thus are of very low rank.Oftentimes, people in this class are butchers or skilled in some form of manual labour such as farming.They are not even allowed to learn how to read or write.(Even to this day, no mother in Korea will allow their daughters to marry a butcher.)It was the perfect place to hide their previous identities but it also meant that their higher education were practically worthless in such a “labor”-oriented community(Seo who is a Royal Military Guard come from the Middle class society and Lady Park is from the upper class yanban,her grandfather was a court official but lost favor in the court.)Seo is now a ironmonger/silversmith.

Jang-Geum is now 8 years old,a very curious and very bright girl. (Later Lady Han will tell Jang-geum that her mother Lady Park was exactly the same.)In one instance,Jang-geum went up the mountains to catch rabbits She wonders why rabbits cannot walk on 2 feet and was being canned by Mrs Park as she was afraid that Jang-Geum might get into trouble with their past identities. In another instance, Lady Park scolds her for being constantly missing, only to find out that she has secretly been going to the village school and playing with the official’s children. Jang-geum asks her mother why she can’t read and write like other children.Lady Park tells her that it is because they are peasants,to which Jang-geumm responds by saying that she knows that her father was in the army and was a Royal Palace Guard.This surprises Lady Park and Seo later admits telling their daughter their real identities in order to give her some hope for the future.Jang-geum promises never to reveal their identities without their permission. One day, a court lady comes to ask if Seo can make a knife for her as she has heard that his workmanship is very good.Lady Park was very uneasy around the Court Lady fearing that she may be recognized.

In the meantime, all is not well at the palace.King Yeonsangun (considered to be the most violent King recorded in the Korean Ancient History)finds out that his mother was assassinated and is shown the bloody handkerchief.This enrages him and he orders his men to execute everybody involved with his mother’s death.This became the famous Gap Ja Sa Hwa incident-a political massacre of Confucian intellects and an outright witch hunt.

Seo gave Jang-geum a silver knife-a small handy pocket knife that can help her in cutting vegetables as well as a self-defense weapon or an instrument to end her life should her virtue be attacked.Seo also gives her a small writing brush and an ink pad.

While going to the town village,Seo and Jang-geum sees people wrestling,Jang-geum pesters Seo to participate since there is a prize for the winner.Seo succeeds in subduing his opponent but is falsely accused of cheating as his opponent feigned a knife cut injury.The crowd agrees and wanted to report this to the authorities.Jang-Geum fearing for her father accidentally reveals that his father was an ex-Royal Military Guard.The authorities recognize him from the wanted posters and because of this he is arrested.Thus the prediction that 3rd woman will be the cause of his death comes to pass.Jang-geum is the third woman.

Jang Geum and her mother wanting to find out about Seo’s whereabouts go to Hanyang to seek information.By now Seo is presumed dead(probably executed.)Lady Park has Jang-geum dress as a boy to avoid being recognized.Failing to find any information, Lady Park meets with Gam Duk Goo and his wife. Gam Duk Goo is a part-time chef(Sook So)in the palace,who also runs a wine shop that supplies wine to the palace and customers in the capital.

Lady Park writes to Lady Han who was now a Sang goon(a court Lady.)The letter is passed to Lady Han and she meets Lady Park in a tearful reunion as she recounts the events of 8 years ago.Lady Han also tells Lady Park that all the news coming out from the palace is true.Kitchen supplies are running out as King Yeonsangun has taken to much feasting and was taking many concubines daily.Lady Park tells Lady Han that Seo has been arrested and asks Lady Han to help find information on his whereabouts.

Meanwhile the Choi family discovers that Lady Park is still alive and seeks to kill her again.Master Choi Pan Su, the brother of Lady Choi(a sang goon),the merchant who monopolizes all the business to the palace through the intervention of his sister.(Later to be referred to as the “Choi Corporation” which handles all supply procurements to the palace as their only client – a cash rich cow)captures Lady Park and Jang-geum and locks them up temporarily in the Choi’s house.Upon seeing them being led away, Lady Han sang goon informs the local judicial officer about Lady Park, a task made easier because of the ongoing “witch hunt”.The judicial guard came to Choi house and takes Lady Park and Jang-geum away in the process of saving them.

Master Choi sets up an ambush,mortally wounding Lady Park when an arrow hits her while she’s trying to protect Jang-Geum.One of the assassins tries to complete the task but was thwarted by a guard. Knowing she was about to die soon,the prediction of the hermit came back to her and she realizes that the third woman was her daughter,she writes 2 letters while Jang-Geum is out looking for food.When Jang-Geum returns, she relates her own story as a Court Lady.She asks Jang-geum to become the Head of the Royal Kitchen (Su-ran-kan-jae-jo-sang goon) and writes her grievances in the journal.But the choice was hers.If she does not want to be a Court lady or the head of the Royal Kitchen,then she must not read the 2 letters nor should she show or tell others about it.A tall order for an 8 years old child.Lady Park then gives her the 2 letters – One to open once she becomes a Court Lady(Na In)the other when she becomes the Head.Jang-Geum decides to find a way to get into Palace to fulfill her mother’s wishes.Jang-Geum then goes to Gam Duk goo’s house and stay at their house.Mr Gam takes a liking to Jang-geum and subsequently adopts her.Mrs Gam is willing as long as Jang-geum proves to be a conscientious, helpful child around the home.

The reign of Yeonsangun is getting worse and unrest is brewing. The confucian intellects,under Official Park,Elder Oh are planning a revolt to install Prince Jinsung as King.As Prince Jinsung is closely guarded,Official Park sends a message under the pretext of a birthday gift.The task was given to young Jang-geum as she usually delivers wine to the officials and therefore will not arouse suspicion.She is asked to deliver four bottles of wine,to be given in their proper order and was asked to memorize the names of the wines.

A man servant,comes to Prince Jinsung’s residence and brings in the delivered wine.Prince Jinsung was attended by Lady Kim who was the personal Court Lady to Prince Jinsung’s mother.She was reporting on Prince Jinsung mother’s welfare. Prince Jinsung asked who delivered the wine and the man servant told it was a child and the prince asked for the child to enter.Jang-geum saw Lady Kim,who was a Court Lady,immediately paid respects to her, not knowing that she owed more respect to Prince Jinsung as he was next in line for the throne.

Prince Jinsung was silently displeased with Jang-geum who only showed his displeasure until later.Lady Kim told the rude Jang-geum to pay her respects to Prince Jinsung. She pleaded with Lady Kim to let her enter the palace to be a Court Lady.Prince Jinsung on seeing the child who risks her life to bring him the wine.He asked Jang-geum is the wine given by Official Park,Jang-geum replied the wine indeed was from Official Park and that he should drink the wine in correct order.Prince Jinsung asked if the the wine was in the correct order,Jang-geum said: No,they were not in order, rearranged them and introduced the name of each wine and told him that she needed to bring back a reply message to Official Park.After correctly arranging the wine,Prince Jinsung realized with surprise at the implications of the arranged wine names.

This has some historical precedence.This is made to reference of a rebellion called the yellow scarves or turban rebellion. During the late 2nd century (AD184) in China, peasants revoke a rebellion wore yellow turban and had a slogan loosely translated as “It is the Heaven wish, that the Yellow turban will be enthroned and all under the heaven shall be auspicious” The rebellion was crushed but it was the start of the spiral downfall of the Han Dynasty which was already weak and frail and eventually led to the Three Kingdom period and more fighting. On this pretext,as Prince Jinsung who should know his classics well,knew that the Confucian officials have planned to rebel and will make him King.Jang-geum was seeing Prince Jinsung reaction told him she will sent a message that he accepts in good faith but had his worries.Prince Jinsung observing jang-geum’s natural intelligence said to pass the message she mentioned.Jang-geum left and Prince Jinsung told Lady Kim if it is possible to grant Jang-geum wish to be a Royal Maid.Lady Kim said she will see to it and said that Jang-geum was right that he did look worried.Jang-geum replied to Official Park,Prince Jinsung message. The next day Prince Jinsung became King Jungjong. As you may know the Confucian played a strong influence on the reign of King Jungjong.It is a backlash to King Jungjong as he is rendered powerless.This is seen when he tried to bestow Jang-geum a Official rank and made her his royal physician King Jungjong is a benevolent king.Though he is weak in his position,However the people loved him and his policies as he brought benefits to the country in other aspects (was to mentioned by Jang-geum when she tried to consoled the King who was ridden by guilt). Lady Kim sent some one to take Jang-geum to the palace.That is how Jang-Geum successfully entered the Palace and away from the hands of Master Choi and his hench-man.Jang-geum became Saeng Gak Si-This is a probation period of Court Lady who eventually becomes Na In -junior Court Lady.First they are taught the rules and regulations of the palacefor the first 6 months. She met Yeon Sheng, Young Ro. Yeon Sheng became her friend. Most of the girls who are sent here are official daughter’s who have lost favor with the courts and thir way out was to become Court Lady where they are being look after by the palace and received rank and salary One night jang-geum and Yeon-sheng sneak out to Inner palace,there she met her best friend,Geum Young(they used to be very close)who is saying goodbye outside of Min jung-ho’s room because she has to be a palace woman from that day on which means she will be a woman of the king and no other man can she marry.Later Jang-geum and Yeon-sheng accidently ruin the emperor’s supper.In order to sit for the exam she was being canned and banned from entering the classroom.With determination to sit for the exam she had to hold a big bowl of water from noon till the next day when everyone had finished their exam.Jang-Geum passed through the exams set by Head of the Royal Kitchen(Su-ran-kan-jae-jo-sang goon),and was taught by Court Lady Han Sang goon,which is her mother’s best friend in the Palace. Unfortunately Court Lady Han sang goon had no clue at all about Jang-Geum being her best friend’s daughter.

Under the strict supervision,the talented Jang-Geum showed her determination and hard-work in learning the basic cooking skills from Court Lady Han sang goon. Later, Court Lady Zheng sang goon, has became the temporally Highest Person In-Charged of the Kitchen,due to Lady Choi’s sickness,thus breaking the tradition of Family Choi inheriting the same position for generations and generations.There is where all the rivalry starts,because the Choi Family and their supporters had under-estimated Court Lady Zheng sang goon’s determination and will,to break Choi Family’s tradition.In fact, Court Lady Zheng sang goon was hoping that Court Lady Han sang goon to inherit her place after her death.Soon,Jang-Geum and her fellow friends became adults.