Well... That Escalated Quickly

People who talk about their mental health struggles are not ”attention seeking” they’re ”support seeking.” Read that again.

if you're not obsessed with anything weird and niche please try harder. stop going outside for a while. consider getting weirder about the things you already like

It’s not an Enola Holmes movie unless Henry Cavill attractively lounges in a (politely) slutty way.

Girls will say "I just need to lie down for a little while" and then sink into a muddy river and get all their hard.tissues replaced with mineral deposits

Mood

me, reading late at night: "i'll be so tired tomorrow"

also me: *keeps reading until 3am*

Some historical facts to know as you watch the red sleeve

* if anyone has any questions, my ask box is open. I'll answer as long as i know.

* i am not historian. I just like history. I made this post because i thought non koreans who are not familiar with joseon dynasty might need an explanation to better understand the show especially regarding politics and yisan's father"s death. I tried to simplify complicated incidents or concepts. Hope this post is helpful to those who are reading it!

This drama is based on historical novel with the same title "옷소매 붉은 끝동(the red sleeve)". This is a fiction based on real people king jeongjo(real name yisan), the 22nd king of joeseon and his noble consort seong deok-im(aka uibin, the title that was given as a noble consort)

Yisan was a son of crown prince sado who lived and died tragically. The granpa king yeongjo was a great king but was a horrible abusive worst father of all time. Yeongjo wanted a perfect crown prince but sado was far from it. Yeongjo started to hate his own son. He gaslighted and psychologicaly tortured sado too much since very young that sado developed serious mental problems. He slowly lost his mind and got insane. at some point he started to murder his servants. It is estimated that he killed more than 100 people. When sado planned to assasinate his father, yeongjo, his mother(the woman that yisan called grandma who died in the begining of the drama) had to tell it to the king. Because it was too late to save her crazy son sado but she could save her grandson. If sado lives on and does more crazy stuff that will make his entire family killed including yisan. So she told the king about sado's plan. And the king had sado go inside a small rice chest. King himself nailed that chest so that sado can't get out. he did himself because if someone else do it than sado's son yisan might revenge him. It was mid summer hot day. The crown pince sado died in 8 days with dehydration, heatstroke and starvation Sado was 27 and yisan was 10.

This traumatized little yisan. As he was the son of the sinner, the traitor sado, people that were involved in sado's death did not want him to be next king. He had many assasination attempt since kid. He studied all night long because he had to stay alert for the assasination. That made him the smartest king of joseon(along with the great king sejong and seongjong) ironically.

Sado made some court ladies his concubines. That wasn't desirable but not really serious crime but his father yeongjo was furious about it. He hated that crown prince made illegitimate children with low class women(yisan had half siblings). And he scolded his son harshly for that. In red sleeve, yisan doesn't want to be close with any of court ladies because of that. Yisan never should do anything that would angry his grandpa. He shouldn't be like sado. He should be the flawless crown prince that grandpa wants: doesn't play, doesn't like women too much, only study, have traits of tru king. If his grandpa abandons him and makes other royal son the next king, he's dead. They will all kill him. Yisan has to survive. And he has to be a great king. (Yisan(jeongjo) was indeed the last great king of joseon, the revolutionary king, the king that 18 century needed)

Hong Jung-yeo from red sleeve who doesn't want yisan to be king is noron. Noron is like a political party to simplify. They were the one that made yeongjo the king but their power was too strong. Too strong for the king to suppress. Noron was sado's political enemy. They pleaded to the king that sado must die. Therefore Noron was yisan's enemy. They did anything to stop him from becoming the king and when he became the king they did anything to stop whatever he does. Hong jung-yeo was yisan's maternal grandfather's younger brother. Yisan's mother's family hong clan was leader of noron. They did not help sado when he was executed.

Yeongjo in red sleeve may looks like a toxic old grandpa which is ture.. but he tried his best to make joseon better for all people, common people who can't raise their voice. He made many policies for common people. In his time, so many political parties fought against each other all the time. Yeongjo tried to balance them and strengthen royal authority so that he has the power to suppress privileged elite nobles who exploit commoners. He used to gather commoners around infront of the place and have them tell him whatever they want to say. This is called "인문(inmun)". He did inmum 29 times in his reign. thousands of people went to see the king every inmun. As i said before he was great king but horrible father.

King's daughers are not actually all the same princeses. Daughters of legitimate qeen are titled 'gongju공주' and daughters of concubine(=noble consort)'s are titled 'ongju'. Ongju is lower class. Princess hwawan is ongju. (Imagine the rudness. how dare ongju thinks she is higher than the queen in red sleeve) Her and sado's mother was concubine who was originally a court lady. (Yes. Yeongjo made court lady his concubine. Actually he himself was a son of former court lady who became noble consort after having a son. However he hated when his son sado did the same)

Yeongjo favored some of his children more for no reason. He despised his heir sado but somehow he loved sado's younger sister, princess hwawan. She used that to get what she wants and come between yeongjo and sado.

Joseon's royals usually married around 8-10 and lived in the court for more years (for they are just children) then went out and live their life. Yisan married when he was 11 and his wife queen hyoui was 10. In red sleeve yisan is not married yet but he should already be married by now if it was historically accurate. He and his queen's relationship was bad when they were young because princess hwawan and other people came between them. But later they became close partners but had no children

In history, Yisan asked deok-im to be his noble consort when he was 16 and she was 15. But she rejected because yisan's legitimate wife hadn't have children yet. Yisan respected her words. And also as he didn't want to make same mistake as his late father, he didn't pursue more. But he later wrote that he always thought of her as his consort even after the first rejection.

Normally court ladies are from commoner class. But deok-im wasn't. Her family was like a middle management class. Not noble but not commoner either. Her father worked for yisan's mother's family. Deok-im became apprentice court lady aroud 8. Yisan's mother kept her and raised her as her own daughters are all married and lived elsewhere. So it is believed that yisan and deok-im knew each other since they were kids

As yisan's queen couldn't get pregnant, yisan had to have noble consorts (concubine). It wasn't his will but it was one of his most important duties to produce an heir. The first noble consort was wonbin. Guess who that is? Deokro's little sister. That 13 year old girl married 28 year old king yisan. Of course deokro forced that marriage. The poor girl didn't adapt to court life and died 1 year after

Yisan had a concubine, hwabin from noble family but she didn't give him a child either. He hasn't had any child until he was 30. This was very late for him.

Yian asked deok-im to be his consort second time when they were around 30. She rejected again! This time yisan punished deok-im's inferiors so deok-im accepted it. Deok-im was the only nobel consort that he chose himself and only court lady he ever had interested in unlike other joseon's king. If producing an heir was his only purpose he would have chosen more noble ladies in late teens but he chose his first love who was in 30. Because he always only wanted her. Deok-im got pregnant immediately after becoming the noble consort.

Deok-im really did trasnscript novel "곽장양문록" with yisan's two sister when she was court lady. It is believed that she was close with yisan's sister as yisan's mother raised her. There are three more people that transcripted the novel, bok-yeon, young-hee, kyung-hee were their names. In red sleeve they are deok-im's close friends

Yisan though novels are worthless. That is why he bought "real books" to her in red sleeves

Yisan later revealed that deok-im was smart, intelligent and wise and that he counted on her. He said he loved her so much. this was unusual because joseon's kings do not express their love for a woman. He wrote a short biography of her when she died. Normally king's concubines are forgotten from history since they are insignificant but yisan couldn't let her be forgotten like that. So we know about deok-im, yisan's love and how he was rejected two times through his writings

Yisan's mother lady hong wrote "The Memoirs of Lady Hyegyeong" detailing her life as the ill-fated Crown Princess, her husband's descent into madness and the deeds for which he was eventually put to death. We should take grain of salt reading this because like i said earlier her family was noron. Her own family was against sado. Yisan's grandfather's younger brother, hong jung-yeo was against yisan. Some historians say lady hong wrote that book to make exuse for her family.

If anyone wants to know how yisan's father sado got insane and how traumatazing yisan's childhood was, watch 2015 movie "사도(english title: the throne)" parasite's song kang-ho star as yeongjo and yoo ah-in star as crown prince sado.

Deokro was indeed good looking man. Deokro is his pen name. His real name is 홍국영(hong guk-yeong). Yisan's mother wrote in her memoirs that deokro had a pretty face

Unlike kings of europe who choose their king name upon becoming the king, kings's of joseon's are named after their death. The names are chosen according to their accomplishments as king. Yeongjo and jeongjo didn't know they will be called like that when they were alive. 'Having 'jo' in the name means they did many great works as king. However some '-jo' kings weren't that great such as 'sejo', 'seonjo' and 'injo'... that is because their sons who became the next king insisted that their fathers should be called '-jo'

Princess hwawan's husand died young and their daughter died as a baby. She adopted her husband's distant relative as a son. That is Jeong Baek-ik. His real name is 정후겸(jeong hu-kyeom). He was against yisan. Yisan dismissed him when he became king and princess hwawan lost her title as a princess

There is a saying "Concubine has no children. There are only king's children". A king's child is born just borrowing concubine's body. In theory, no king's child has a inferior blood. Children are immediately adopted as queen's child. This legal process gives a concubine born son legitimacy though. Yisan's father sado was born to a concubine but he was legally queen's son so he can be legitimate crown prince. Children can't call their concubine mother "mother". King's children are above rank. A concubine can be rank 1 at best. As a concubine mother's rank is lower than her own child, she can't call them "너(in german 'du')" a concubine has to lower themselves and use honorifics when they speak to their children. In first episode, yisan's biological grandmother yeongbin is bowing to her grandson because the crown prince is much much higher than her and legally she's not his grandmother.

Mandarin orange was harvested only in jeju island back in joseon. It was rare food even for royals. Sejong the great once called his favorite noble consort in secret and gave her a mandarin orange. This appeared to have inspired that madarin scene in the red sleeve. Madarin is still jeju island's speciality btw. Visit jeju! Jeju has it's own unique culture and it is such a beautiful island

There is a speculation that yeongjo had alzheimer's disease. Historians who follows everywhere king goes, listens everything king says and stays close to king 24/7 wrote he couldn't recoginze people and sometiems said nonsense. It could be because he was very old. Historians didn't exactly write yeongjo seems like he's suffering alzheimer.

Jeongjo studied medicine. He found out that 동의보감(dong-ui bogam) which was written by 허준(heo jun) the greatest doctor of joseon had missing infos so he had royal doctors to make a new book about it. The book's title is <제중신편>. He even prescribed himself what kind of treatment he needs. That is how in bath scene from the red sleeve, yisan immediately knows efficacy of peony. Btw dongui bogam is on UNESCO’s Memory of the World Programme.

Yeongjo told deok-im that she reminds him of princess hwapyeong in the red sleeve(not in the history). It's a good thing. Hwapyeong was his most beloved daugther. She was generous person. She tried to share her father's love with her siblings. She tried to reconcile sado and yeongjo. Unfortunately she died at 22 while giving birth. This really broke yeongjo's heart. After her death yeongjo started to favor princess hwawan. Hwawan was greedy. She monopolize her father's love and came between sado and yeongjo.

Yisan wrote that he taught deok-im math and she understood immediately.

Yisan was really a great archer.

Translators of joseon's payment wasn't great so they engaged in commerce. Most of translators made a great fortune through international commerce. Deok-im's friend kyung-hee said her father is the best translator of joseon. That means she's super rich! But then why would a rich girl work as a court lady? It sounds unlikely but it's not unprecedented. Yeongjo's father had a concubine who was raised in super rich translator family then worked as a court lady before becoming the royal noble consort.

Yeongjo and marinated crab and persimmon explanation (history of political rivalry)

There were more people that work in the palace besides eunuch and court ladies. 무수리(Musuri) are from the lowest class. They do all the physically hard work. Btw Joseon's lowest class is 노비. This may translated as 'slave' but it is not exactly like slavery of north america before the civil war. Lowest class was able to get married with the one they want and built a fortune on their own. It's more similar to serfs back in european middle age. Anyway yeongjo's mother was a musuri. She didn't live in the court. She commuted. Some say she already got married before she met the king sukjong. No one knows her background. She met sukjung and had 2 sons. First born son died as a baby and second born yeongjo survived. In theroy, king's children have no inferior blood but in reality, people belittled and underestimated musuri's son yeongjo. If sukjong had many sons, yeongjo would have been the last in line to the throne. One thing led to another, yeongjo became the king . But inferiority complex regarding his birth followed him for life.

Deok-im's title as the royal noble consort is '의빈(宜嬪, uibin)'. Usually the name is chosen by ministers. But uibin was named by yisan himself. 의宜 has various meaning. Firstly 'as it should be' or 'meant to be',. And 'peaceful, warm, beautiful'.

Yisan built a new place for deok-im. It's way of showing king's affection. It was right next to his office. He practically never left her side and even worked in her place.

Yisan was the first king of joseon that wore glasses, the product of western civilization.

That old man from the red sleeve who apposed every single thing yisan said is 심환지(sim hwan-ji). In the red sleeve he used his pen name 심희원(sim hee-won). He was the leader of noron, the political party that was politically opposed yisan. In the court, he really objected yisan a lot. So he was kind of considered like a villain by modern historians. Historians even suspected that he poisoned yisan and assasinated him. However, a shocking discovery was made in 2009. Secret letters of yisan to sim was found. It turned out that yisan and his political enemy were scheming together behind everyone's back. Yisan directed him what to do and he did it. Like when yisan propose A, many noron would object it. So yisan secretly told sim to oppose in the forefront. Then Yisan unperson sim. Later he brought sim back. That political show silenced other opposers. They were partners. Yisan told sim to destroy the letters once he read it but he kept it even recording dates. If he didn't, history would have always remembered him as yisan's enemy. So in the red sleeve sim was seen as the opposer but in the end he tells yisan that he's a great king that takes care of people.

In the letters to sim, yisan wrote a lot of curse word and undignified slangs. In modern english, it would be something like "that son of a bitch", "eat 떡(rice cake) and shut up" "○○○ smells like rotten money that is why people avoid him.", and something like "lmao"

Deok-im & crown prince munhyo's graves and what yisan wrote about her

Death of king of joseon

Complete history of yisan and deok-im's love story

me listening to my spotify wrapped filled with songs i've loved and constantly listened to all year: damn i have good taste in music

I'm not a book awards girlie but I will say if you were considering reading anything off the Booker Prize list then I'd highly recommend Boulder by Eva Baltasar

It's a hundred-ish pages of internal monologue about what happens when a restless soul almost accidentally settles down, and how love and resentment can exist in the same space in your chest when two people don't want the same things. It's beautifully written and the way the narrative voice translates her life through her love of food and the sea is just 🤌🤌🤌

Aww so pretty ♡