Warning: it might contain spoilers from episode 1 to episode 8.
It must be that Yeori's character somehow influence me to have an empathy with the characters. There's always laid a reason on why the characters did what they did. And that sparks my curiosity to know what happened to the general deity/8 ft tall ghost.
What originally just a casual curiosity, it got me intrigued more to the Korean history. While the drama claimed that this is a work of fiction, I believe that they have the influence from the history in building the characters.
Here tare two problems that's been bugging me mind:
1. Who's the 8 ft tall ghost?
2. What's the historical context that supports the story?
My theory about the 2.5 meters ghost
He seemed like he had a history with the former king or maybe his ancestor?
It looks like he's in a soldier uniform. although I'm not sure if it's joseon's army uniform or not.
However it reminds me of the jurchen's soldiers uniform that lee jong hyun and ryeong eum wore in My Dearest.
And I remember the history that inspired some drama/movie like Kingdom Ashin of the North.
If he was a soldier, why there's only one ghost? Like why he was alone and not act in a group? I guess because it was political. That ghost must be one of a higher up of the soldier for him to seek revenge by himself. Hence the theory that he was a commander/general makes sense to me.
It could be that he was their leader, the commander, who felt the responsibility after what happened to his people. The shaman that worshipped him addressed him as the general deity.
"Generally lacking a central authority, and having little communication with each other, many Jurchen groups fell under the influence of neighbouring dynasties, their chiefs paying tribute and holding nominal posts as effectively hereditary commanders of border guards." [1]
Whoever he was, it has something to do with the commotion in ep 1. the incident that made a kid witnessed gang cheol's ascending.
It's shown that the Qing's army trying to invade joseon. With many joseon people and army died.
In the Korean history, there are several incidents that involved with jurchen and the Qing. [2]
- Manchu-Joseon conflicts
- Battle of Sarhu
- Later Jin invasion of Joseon
- Qing invasion of Joseon
During those events, there are several generals and political figures that spark my curiosity.
There are two possibilities:
1. He's a jurchen person either he was a part of the joseon or not. The story could be similar to Ashin's father.
2. He's a joseon's general that met with injustice when Qing tried to invade their land. His story could be inspired from a real figure in history. It'll be interesting to discuss about it later if the story is turning to that direction.
I'm drawn to take a look about Joseon's history to understand the backstory of the 8 ft tall ghost. And I have some suspicions that this drama is indeed related to history at some point.
Drama setting time
Although it's not literally implied in the drama when the story happened. But by understanding the history, it might open the door for us to give a clue about the background conflicts of the drama.
The current king in the drama, king Yi Jeong, has to be someone living around the 17th century or the era after that. Because the Joseon king that got exposed to the western value was Hyojong, the 17th king and Hyeonjeong the 18th king. Hyeonjeong was born in Qing, when his father and his older brother, crown prince Suhyeon, held as captives. And please take a note that Hyeonjeong was the only king that doesn't have concubines in the 500 years of the Korean history.
When Yeori had a chance to present her her skill in front of the king, the king said he has reads Adam Schall - Treatise on the Telescope [Ep 2 min 24.43]. And fun fact, Adam Schall is the name of a German astronomer and instrument-maker that did a missionary in Qing (China). He gave Suhyeon all the copies of the works written by him before crown prince was about to comeback to his homeland. Because the crown prince was eager to learn about western science and theology. And one of the books that he gave to him was what mentioned by king Yi Jeong in episode 2 in the drama.
Crown prince Suhyeon was someone who was a pro with modern values. The ones who supported him are warriors and slaves. He was deeply moved by how women in Qing were allowed to participate horseback in hunting. He also shared the sorrow with the Joseon captives that becomes slaves in Qing. [3] For more context to understand his character, he was presented in My Dearest.
I found a source said that the the prince accepted the books and presumably brought those to Joseon. [4] Although I haven't find any source if the books still remain collected till this day. But apparently the writer used that information to develop the story.
And for more context, what makes me sure that the setting time is around the 17th century is this. Gangcheori is a Korean mythological creature introduced in the 17th century. [5]
Disclaimer
I don't think this drama is based on the true story. But in building the characters, the writer seemed getting the influence by the timeline in history. Hence I still believe that all the characters are fiction regardless. But somethings are indeed interesting to take a note.
Sources:
1. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jurchen_people?variant=zh-cn#CITEREFRoth_Li2002
2. https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/Joseon_Army
3. https://en.namu.wiki/w/소현세자
4. http://anthony.sogang.ac.kr/KorMagazine/BongseonsaMap.html
5. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gangcheori
