My Name is Choi Chen Qing

Para sa members ng forum ni chinthy, eto po yung explanation:

What went wrong?

The third inner rule of the palace girls is the most applied of all the inner rules in Dae Jang Geum. The summary of the application of the third inner rule in the entire series can be put into these words: Sacrifice the few for the benefit of the many.

We have seen this reasoning take place many times in Dae Jang Geum. When Jang Geum’s own mother, Lady Meong He Park was framed-up by the Choi family for adultery, she immediately had to be killed to protect the prestige of the palace girl community and in effect, the integrity of the palace.

This event need not happen. Observing the lifestyle of an ordinary palace girl in Dae Jang Geum, even if their entire stay in the palace is, as described by Madame Jung, lonely, there are still little hardships. Except that you are not allowed to marry, their tasks are essentially light, especially the palace girls under King Joongjong’s rule, who is described to be a warm-heated and forgiving ruler. The palace girls just have to strive hard and be responsible for keeping up with their tasks, which can be easy for those with perseverance since everything is provided to them. The palace girls are allowed to read and write, and get educated about not only food but history and government as well. They have access to certain books and are free to use the facilities inside the kitchen anytime if it’s for their training. Their lives will be easy as long as they obey the rules.

If the life inside the palace is not that heavy at all, why did the deaths of Meong He and Lady Han ever take place? Why was Jang Geum needed to be exiled to Genju Island? How come the once idealistic and loyal friend Lady Choi is, turned to be so ugly and wicked? Why was Geum Young’s principles destroyed? What went wrong? All the answers rely on the practices of the people of the part of Asia they belong in.

Korea is a part of Monsoon Asia, where group effort and wellness of a community is more valued than individual growth. This is very evident in the series especially with the Choi family. So what went wrong with Lady Choi and the others? The main problem here is that they are attached to one family and one group of people. They are only concerned about the situation of their own small group and because of that, they are willing to hurt other groups that hinder their way. Taking Lady Choi for example, when they were just worker girls and her friend Meong He saw her put poison into the Queen’s food on her family’s orders, she did not wish to frame Meong He up for adultery and watch her die, but she needed to protect her family and thus, she did so. Eventually, that became her principle in life, to protect the Choi family at all costs. The bad thing is, the group she vowed to protect doesn’t really deserve her protection. When Lady Han was declared as the new Highest Kitchen Lady, she could easily have given in, but no. Her family has held the Highest Kitchen Lady position for five generations and she could simply not let it end, especially not in her hands. She asked herself to be demoted to the sauce department, but pleaded to Lady Han that she let Geum Young, her niece, stay in the kitchen because she has talents. She wants Geum Young to continue the legacy of the Choi family.

Later on, she cooked up a conspiracy involving Jang Geum and Lady Han to the poisoning of the king. Because of this she was able to recover the Highest Kitchen Lady position for her family. At that time, both Lady Han and Jang Geum was supposed to be sentence to death as any forms of disobedience to the king will have to face death. However, Lady Choi did not want to do anything bad anymore, this is evident when she told Lady Han while she was still in prison that all of these, starting from Meong He, would never had happened if only they did not let their principles hinder the intentions of the Choi family. The death sentence was later on mellowed to exile and slavery because of Lady Choi. This is a proof that Lady Choi is naturally a good person, however, the selfish intentions of the group of people she was attached to hinder the way for her individual goodness to prosper.

Until her last days, and in her death, she was still thinking of ways to save the Choi family, more than her own life. Because her attachment to the group hindered the way for her individual concerns to be voiced out, the only way she can prove herself is by not letting the Choi family go down especially in her time, which is not parallel to her niece, Geum Young’s view of her obligations to the Choi family.
When she was asked by Lady Choi to place a written curse in the special kitchen in order for the son in the Queen’s womb to become a princess, she accepts the job but says that she does it so because it is the fate of the Choi family and that she has to accept it, but she also noted to Lady Choi that she will definitely make sure that this fate will end in her time. Lady Choi did not believe her, because Geum Young was just like her at first.

What about Jang Geum and Lady Han? Lady Choi told them that they could not have suffered if only they did not meddle. What can really have caused this ‘meddling’? Why did they have to let themselves experience the hardships, just to fight for their principles, when other palace girls are busying themselves with petty in fights? Reviewing the lifestyle of an ordinary palace girl, they could easily have avoided the hard life, but the factors that contributed to the principles of Jang Geum and Lady Han is right there inside the kitchen, education.

The mode of education inside the Choson royal kitchen can be viewed in a way that it provides for the growth of an individual, rather the entire group. If you are free to use any ingredient you want and facility to learn outside class hours, you can easily leave behind your classmates in their knowledge and be able to develop your skills on your own. Especially to people like Jang Geum and Lady Han, to whom a day without reading a book or two cannot be considered a day, taking advantage of this privilege is more beneficial to an individual, rather than it is to the group. If they are allowed to acquire a great deal of knowledge, they learn new ideas, and they also learn of the past behind their time and realize that things had not always been the way they are. Generally, the mode of acquiring education came in conflict with the situation of the society. Because of the education Madame Jung acquired inside the palace, she was able to form her principles; she was able to recognize that her mission inside the kitchen is to make a difference in the way highest kitchen ladies are chosen. She suggested to the king that they hold a contest instead of the head lady choosing the next to fill the position because her vocation is that for talents and good intentions become the sole basis for choosing the people to take over the positions, not wealth, family or influence. Doing so, she ensures only the best for her beloved kitchen, she wants to see fair play and democracy, but doing so too, changes a dynasty old tradition of passing down a position. Her way of thinking, the method she acquired that thinking and the changes she wants to do using the new ideas she has acquired can be categorized as a form of liberalism. The way she and Lady Han died is a good example to show us the dangers of liberal thinking in a colony. The Spaniards allowed only a small percentage of Filipinos, usually the rich, to acquire education. Other than that, the education that the lowly indio acquires is mostly on the Christian doctrine, a tactic the Spaniards have developed so that the Filipinos will have a firmer hold on their vehicle of colonization, which is religion. This may cause some of the privileged Filipino elites to fear change; they fear that their call for change may endanger them, the way Lady Han suffered because she voiced out her liberal ideas.

This similar idea is one of the things that separate the East from the West. Liberalism and democracy are generally a western invention. Because westerners are not that attached to their family as Monsoon Asians are, they can be expected to have different principles, unlike in a family based society. When we say family, we mean a group of people following the same law, enjoying the same culture and as expected, one traditional way of thinking. During the series, we saw what happened to
the people who deviated away from these traditions. And because as we have said, liberalism and democracy is a western invention, the lives of the palace girls of monsoon Asia which welcomed these new ideas were persecuted.