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| Hwang Jin Yi (film) (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Was Hwang Jini the Lady Gaga of 16th Century Korea?
At a time when most women (and men) throughout the world were illiterate, she became famous throughout her country for her beauty, intellect, dancing, and poetry.
Jini (Hwang being her family name) lived from about c. 1500-1560, during the reign of King Jungjong. In English, her name is variously rendered as Hwang Jini, Hwang Jin-i, Hwang Chini, and Hwang Jin-yi. In Hangul, the form of Korean used at the time, it would be rendered: 황진이. She also had a p0rn name, er, a kisaeng name, Myeongwol, Shining or Bright Moon 명월.
Her mother was of cheonmin (the lowest societal rank) birth, her father rumored to be an aristocrat. Because children inherited their mother's rank, despite her talents and beauty, Hwang Jini was not an eligible candidate for marriage to a yangban (양반) - nobleman or gentleman. Or even a commoner. Slaves weren't permitted to marry.
A Misfortune of Birth Was Our Good Fortune
If Hwang Jini had married a nobleman, her main duties would not have been writing poetry, but making babies (sons, if you please), holding ceremonial rites for household gods and ancestors, and never leaving the house with her face uncovered. As a neo-Confucianistic, more patriarchal political and social system developed, Korean women in all classes lost rights and freedom they had long enjoyed. Brides now moved in with their husbands' families, rather than vice-versa. A system of dividing the living quarters by gender began to be implemented. Widows were informed it was much more virtuous for them to starve to death than to remarry.
Some remarried, anyway, and some yangban women even wrote novels. But it seems for most Korean women, the higher the class status, the lower amount of personal freedom.
Who Was Really the Slave?
Legend has it a nearby bachelor died of love for Hwang Jini. She had relationships with many notables including Ji Jok-am, and philosopher Seo Gyeong-deok.
via EverydayKorea.com:
Kisaeng (also spelled gisaeng), sometimes called ginyeo (기녀), were female Korean entertainers similar to the Japanese geisha and the ancient Greek "hetaerae." The term literally means prostitute,[1] although some kisaeng were not prostitutes.
First appearing in the Goryeo Dynasty, kisaeng were legally slaves of the government, required to perform various functions for the state. Many were employed at court, but they were also spread throughout the country. They were carefully trained, and frequently accomplished in the fine arts, poetry, and prose, although their talents were often ignored due to their inferior social status.
Women of the kisaeng class performed various roles, although they were all of the same low status in the eyes of yangban society. Aside from entertainment, these roles included medical care and needlework. In some cases, such as at army bases, kisaeng were expected to fill several such roles.
Hwang Jini Did Not Become Famous for Her Needlework
Not that there's anything wrong with being a "crafty" woman. However, even in a class of women trained to be charming and attractive, she stood out as exceptional.
The clip below shows Hwang Jini, the graceful dancer, as represented in the popular 2006 Korean Television series.
Hwang Jini - Rock Star
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| Hwang Jini portrait from 1910 text book (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Poetry is about saying much in as few words as possible. The style of poems Hwang Jini wrote - sijo - must meet extremely complex requirements while remaining... poetic.
via Wikipedia:
Sijo may be narrative or thematic and introduces a situation in line 1, development in line 2, and twist and conclusion in line 3. The first half of the final line employs a “twist”: a surprise of meaning, sound, or other device. Sijo is often more lyrical and personal than other East Asian poetic forms, and the final line can take a profound turn.Another version of the poem and an analysis, via the Asian Files:
Sijo is, first and foremost, a song. This lyric pattern gained popularity in royal courts amongst the yangban as a vehicle for religious or philosophical expression, but a parallel tradition arose among the commoners. Sijo were sung or chanted with musical accompaniment, and this tradition survives. The word originally referred only to the music, but it has come to be identified with the lyrics.
- 동지달 기나긴 밤을 한 허리를 버혀 내여
- 춘풍 이불 아래 서리서리 넣었다가
- 어론 님 오신 날 밤이여든 굽이굽이 펴리라
- I will break the back of this long, midwinter night,
- Folding it double, cold beneath my spring quilt,
- That I may draw out the night, should my love return.
Oh that I might capture the essence of this deep midwinter night
and fold it softly into the waft of a spring-moon quilt;
then uncoil it the night my beloved returns.
This sijo is deceptively simple; it is composed with the central image of an eternal night, one that is both cold and loveless, but one that is ultimately transformed into a warm spring night of love and joy. The process of unraveling the cold night unifies the poem in a combination with a series of contrasting emotions and images—dark and light, warm and cold, perpetual and transient—rendering the poem as an analog to the various states of existence.[xii] Life on earth is thus transient and eternal given the emotion or setting in which an individual finds himself in a single moment of time. Love, Hwang Jini posits, is similar to this paradigm of time and space; it is both timeless and transitory.
The "It" Girl of 16th and 21th Century Korea
Although popular in her own time, the stories of Hwang Jini have enjoyed a resurgence in modern times. Novels and books written about her. A popular television series and movie.
Of course, the stories have been more than a little Hollywooded up.
And the Take-Away on Hwang Jini Is...
from the Asia Files:
Hwang Jini managed to attain a considerable degree of economic independence and had the unique opportunity to socialize across social boundaries due to her wit and self-cultivation.[xiii] While today she embodies the “emancipated, urbane womanhood” of the modern Korean woman, Hwang Jini’s poems reflect a blend of traditional values and deep self-perception. These poems suggest a remarkable emotional freedom rooted in Hwang Jini’s complex position in the societal norms of Joseon Korea. However, they are tempered against feigned sentimentality and impassioned longings—both of which were deemed unacceptable by Confucian doctrines. While Hwang Jini mingled through the social classes and had brief but celebrated love affairs with various men, her poems intriguingly mirror that of a self-composed woman with not only elegant tastes, but more importantly to the denizens of the Neo-Confucian minded Joseon dynasty, a woman with a keen sense of place and devotion to those she loved.
I have to confess, during the research for this piece I developed a mad girl-crush on the woman. That her legend endures to this day speaks to what an incredible woman she was.
A Word on the Use of "Slut" for Women of Color
Of all the women who are slut-shamed or otherwise called nasty names in American culture, women who are African-American, Latina, Middle Eastern, Native American, Asian, or otherwise "dark" have been and continue to be especially targeted. As a white woman attempting to be sensitive to the concept of privilege, I considered not using the word "slut" for any posts on women of color in this series. Perhaps modifying it to the word "sl*t...?"
After much sleeping on it and pondering, I decided not to be chicken-shit about it. The whole point of this series is that NO woman deserves to be slut-shamed or ridiculed for being frank and outspoken, for being powerful, or for being sexual. We cannot suck the venom and power out of the word "slut" if I apply it here only to white women. So, with apologies to any women of color who may feel triggered by the word, I am presenting the viewpoint that the insult "slut" has become a badge of honor, a demonstration by the fearful that our feminine power and strength frightens them, and that all of us sluts are in this together.
Past Sluts:
- Anaïs Nin
- Anne Boleyn
- Ava Gardner
- Boudicca
- Jezebel
- Dr. Joycelyn Elders
- The "Unsinkable Molly Brown"
- Peggy Lee
Upcoming Sluts of the Month:
- Mae West
- Joan of Kent
- Cleopatra
- Sandra Fluke
- Morgan le Fey
- Aspasia
- Madonna
- Liz Taylor
- Dorothy Parker
- Kassandra of Troy
- Tullia d'Aragona
- Josephine Baker
- Marie Antoinette
- Lillie Langtry
- Eleanor Roosevelt
- Rhiannon
- Shelley Winters
- Mary, Queen of Scots
- "Klondike Kate" Rockwell
- Catherine de Medici
- Lucrezia Borgia
- Umrao Jaan
- Sarah Bernhardt
- Matilda of Tuscany
- Cher
- Eleanor of Aquitaine
- Theodora (wife of Emperor Justinian)
- Angelina Jolie
- Jeanne d'Arc
- Margaret Sanger
- Coco Chanel
- Isadora Duncan
- Sappho
- Joan of Kent
- Dorothy Dandridge
- Eva Perón
- Susan B. Anthony
- Natalie Wood
- Diana, Princess of Wales
- Hillary Rodham Clinton
- Mata Hari
- Lady Gaga
- Malala Yousafzai
Would you rather be a proper yangban wife, or a kisaeng like Hwang Jini?
Would she be high on the guest list for your cosmic dinner party?
Your thoughts?
Would she be high on the guest list for your cosmic dinner party?
Your thoughts?
