노리개 (Norigae)

A Norigae pendant is worn with a women's hanbok (Korean traditional clothing). It is tie to the outer goreum (a coat string) or the waist of a skirt. It gives a luxurious look to the entire outfit but also creates a subtle harmony between the radiant color of the hanbok jeogori (short jacket) and the dresses elegant folds. It was an accessory loved by all women of the Joseon dynasty from the royal family and yangban (ruling class) wives to the commoners. 

        

Not only is the norigae used as an accessory alone, it contains the hopes and dreams of women. The various shapes and patterns, which includes animal inspired forms, usually contain some kind of meaning. The norigae is used as a good luck charm, hoping to bring something like eternal youth and wealth (or many sons). For example, the lotus flower and pomegranate stood for fertility and the turtle and peach represented longevity. A sword symbolized chastity while the incense pouch symbolized elegant feminine beauty. Along with these hopeful meanings, the norigae served as a wedding gift passed down from the parents or parents-in-law. It usually symbolized maternal love as it was traditionally passed down from mother to daughter. 

동이 (Dong Yi)

Dong Yi was a popular historical drama in 2010, set during the reign of King Sukjong in the Joseon dynasty that traces the life of Lady Choi Sook-bin. Although orphaned at a very young age and lowborn, Dong Yi first enters the royal palace as a water maid and later becomes a concubine of the King and eventually bears a son who will later become the 21st king of Joseon, Yeongjo. Through her warm and sincere personality, she makes many allies, including Queen Inhyeon, and succeeds in the political infighting in the royal courts in order to survive and protect her son. Even through her struggle with another concubine, Jang Hee Bin, who goes against every matter that involves Dong Yi in the royal court, Dong Yi is able to fight and survive while raising her son to be a well rounded king. This drama was one of m favorite shows when it came out. Not only did you see how a lowborn could become queen and eventually be the mother of the next king of Korea but also the intensity of the political issues to survive within the royal court. 

Also, if you like cute love stories, Dong Yi is a great drama to watch. The love story between Dong Yi and King Sukjong starts out with the King telling Dong Yi that he is a royal police. As Dong Yi really treats King Sukjong as a royal police and not as the King, King Sukjong slowly falls in love with her and her loving personality. 

One thing I love about historical dramas is looking at the beautiful hanboks Korean people wore in the past. You can clearly see how each person by status dressed differently. Looking at Dong Yi in the drama, you see her different outfits. Her outfit as a water maid with the white pretty apron, her outfit as a normal civilian of the low class, and then her special outfit as queen. You see the transformation of her status through her outfits. Even when the King pretends to be a police, he makes sure to change his outfit to fit the role. 

                                       water maid outfit                                              

    

                              outfit as a lowborn civilian                     outfit as a concubine

가야금 (Gayageum)

The Gayageum is a Korean zither-like string instrument, made of 12 strings and paulownia wood. After seeing a guzheng, an old Chinese instrument, King Gasil, of the Gaya confederacy, is said to have made the gayageum around the 6th century.  King Gasil ordered Wu Ruk, a musician, to compose music that could be played by this new instrument. The Gayageum was associated with court music, chamber music, and lyric music. On the soundboard, which is the bottom long board, the Anjok (the bridges) are used to adjust for tuning. It is amazing to see how the Chinese influenced this traditional instrument, which is only a small part of traditional Korean history. Although it looks like a simple instrument, it is amazing how different finger movements can change the way music is made from this instrument. With your left hand, you press the strings and use various finger movements, like shaking, bending, and vibrating the strings. With the right hand, you either pluck or stomp the strings. Even the words for these different finger movements shows how different the sound would be. The modern version of this traditional instrument has more strings.  

Sejong the Great (세종대왕)

King Sejong 

King Sejong is known to be one of the greatest Korean kings during the Choson Kingdom. His reign, which ended in 1450, is often called the "Golden Age" because of its time of great cultural and intellectual accomplishment. He was chosen over his oldest brother as the heir to the throne at age twenty two after his father, King T'aejong, abdicated his throne.  King Sejong implemented a lot of reform to improve the life of the common people. He provided shelters and food during times of drought and flood. He created a loan system for farmers who had an unsuccessful harvest. He supported research in cultural, economic, and political heritage of Korea while also helping to improve scientific inventions and musical instrument. 

King Sejong also put great emphasis on scholarship and education. He commissioned several numbers of literary works to encourage and spread education among his people. He created a book about the history of the Koryo Kingdom and handbooks such as those on farming methods and filial deeds. The most important achievement of King Sejong was the Korean alphabet, or han'gul, in 1443. Before, Koreans used the Chinese language, which is a very different from Korean in its vocal patterns and sentence structure. Especially since the Chinese language was so hard to learn, the Korean people in the upper class were usually the only ones who knew how to read and write. Han'gul allowed all classes to have the opportunity to read and write. By the establishment of the Korean alphabet, King Sejong created a cultural identity for the Korean people. Han'gul has 28 letters and people can read and pronounce Korean in just a few hours. Having once learned the Hanja, the adapted Chinese characters, and the Chinese language before, I know how difficult Chinese is when compared to the simple Korean language.

Consonants and Vowels are put together to make the Korean characters. 

Turtle Boat (Geobukseon)

Geobukseon

The Turtle Boat (named after its turtle-like shape) was created by Admiral Yi Sun-Sin during the Joseon Dynasty. It was the first ironclad warship in the world and a very significant part of Korean history as it drove many Japanese warships away. Used by the Royal Korean Navy between the 15th to 19th century, the turtle boat participated in many winning battles against the Japanese naval forces in their attempts to conquer Korea. The dragon in the front of the turtle boat existed as a form of psychological warfare, striking fear into the opponents. The dragon head was also large enough to fit a canon inside and to emit sulfur smoke to hide the boat's movements from the enemies in close range. 

The deck (as shown below) was covered in iron spikes to specifically discourage enemies from trying to aboard the ship during battle. 

Korean Palace Food

            Away from home, one thing I miss the most is home made Korean food. A lot of present day Korean food originally came from the royal court during pre-modern Korea.  Although special foods was only given to the royal court, influence of the royal court customs extended beyond the palace to non-royals during the Choson era. In the Choson era, the government made legal measures that prohibited marriage among those with the same surname and clan seat, which gave the royal family no choice but to marry outside of the royal family and marry those of the yangban status group. As yangban families attended the royal weddings and banquets, they adopted the wedding foods and serving customs from the royal palace. From these yangban families, the food culture was then passed down to other stats groups. What once was exclusive to the royal palace was transferred to other status groups. Some of the following were present in a typical royal meal. 

Yuk hoe, raw, seasoned beef

P'yonyuk, boiled, thinly sliced meat

T'angp'yongch'ae

       It is evident that food was very significant at the royal palace during the Choson and Koryo eras. Besides the official posts charged with overseeing the procedure, preparation, and serving of food, there were hundreds of servants doing the actual tasks of making and serving the food. Groups of usually female servants were put on specific tasks, such as preparation for liquor, tofu, tea, and ttok (rice cakes). This system was even made in the legal codes of Choson. These female workers of the royal palace are rare examples of female government workers in pre-modern Korea. These women were from lowborn families and came into the palace at a very young age and served an apprenticeship under senior women until the time of their coming- of-age ceremony, where they would be given an official rank and position. These women were also not allowed to get married unless granted permission by the king and they usually spent their whole life as a servant to the royal palace. The dedication of hundreds of these women really shows how important food was in pre-modern Korea.  

The following is one of my favorite kind of ttok.

Injolmi, rice cakes made with glutinous rice