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Day 20 brings us Choe Suk-bin!
The girl who would one day be Choe Suk-bin (a title; Bin was a high ranking consort; Suk, her personal title, meaning pure; and Choe, or Choi, her surname; as with many Korean women of the Joseon era, including royalty, her personal name was never recorded) entered the palace as a low-caste musuri, or water slave, during a very tumultuous period. King Sukjong deposed and exiled his queen in favor of his favorite concubine, Jang Hui-bin. According to legend, he heard a servant girl praying for the wronged queen. When he confronted her, she stood her ground, willing to be executed for the sake of the queen who’d treated her with kindness. The king was lovestruck; he also began considering the idea Queen Inhyeon had been wrongly accused.
Regardless of the truth of the legend, Choe Suk-bin became one of the king’s favored concubines, and Queen Inhyeon was eventually reinstated. Choe Suk-bin’s son with the king, Prince Yeoning, would eventually become King Yeongjo. As a prince, he was looked down on by many for his mother’s low birth, but as king, he was inspired by her memory to improve the plight of the peasants.
Choe Suk-bin has been a staple in Korean storytelling in the centuries that followed her life; my personal favorite is the recent k-drama Dong Yi, also known as Jewel in the Crown.
#Choe Suk-bin#choi sukbin#korean history#joseon dynasty#korea#my art#watercolor pencils#awesome ladies of history#october 2020#slavery mention tw
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