"Yushi and Zuoyi" is a costume comedy set in the early Joseon Dynasty, and the story synopsis does not show that the secret yushi was ordered to visit the people, find out the bad guys to exercise justice, and let the people return to Taiping in peace.
The interesting thing is that the protagonist Yushi Lord Luo Eryan is a character setting who has no intention of leaving work on time and dreams of opening a dumpling shop, while the heroine Jin Zuoyi is an avant-garde woman who dares to propose a divorce and pursue her own life.
Examining the class setting in "Yushi and Zuoyi", under the surface of comedy, the plot is based on ancient metaphors for the present.
Class tragedy
The setting that allowed the plot to be established was the rigid feudal class system of the Joseon Dynasty.
Luo Eryan was born into two classes of nobles, and he was forced by his grandmother to seek one of the two titles in marriage or merit, and finally chose Kao Keju to become the deputy editor of the Hongwenguan. Jin Zuoyi is of marriageable age and is married to Ma Bao's family to work as a cow and a horse. Her husband gambled and owed debts, and her mother-in-law kept calling, she had checked the laws and knew that she could file a renunciation lawsuit, and she was not afraid of being called a shrew and against morality, so she sued the court in a single case, only to restore her freedom.
The same is true of park Tae-su, the most distressing villain in the play.
As a son born of a consul and a slave, no matter how he behaves, in his father's heart, he will never be as good as his brother-in-law Daoxiu, who was born on the same day, and he can only enter the house and can only be with the thieves outside. After he learned that he was actually born in the main room, he was reversed by Daoxiu's mother not long after his birth, which led to the two people's heavenly and hellish life fortunes, which was a big blow. Taisu tells Eryan about his wronged past at the seashore in Kabiko, and Eryan tells him that even if you tell the Lord, this fact will not change all that you have experienced.
It is precisely because he is the son of a dalit that he will never get the affirmation of his father, but also because he is a two-class son, he can surpass the ordinary untouchables and have more voice and resources. In those days, life choices were not free, but limited by gender and identity. Identity, really double-sided.
The class rules of the Joseon Dynasty, which were revered by Chu Tzu Confucianism, were quite strict and the class mobility was limited.
After King Sejong, the class system of Korea was consolidated by the principles of motherhood and one-off, and after King Sejong, the identity of children depended on the identity of mothers. And a lowly is a lowly influence on the marriage match, the untouchables will be married to the same color, and other classes will be married in a way that does not degrade the status, and generally speaking, good and lowly marriage is not allowed.
In his founding ceremony, King Sejong established the slave law, which increased the ratio of slaves in Korea to an average of 100 slaves per household. This is the class distribution of the population described in the Records of Chengzong after the mother law, and 80% or 90% of the people are untouchable slaves, and only 10% or 20% of the people (commoners) are good people.
In addition to the above mention of Park Tae-su, the son of the consul and the slave, who has not been able to get his father's affirmation, the play also mentions that although Eryan is in love with Zuoyi, as a two-class family, Eryan cannot marry Zuoyi after divorce, unless Eryan abandons the identity of the two classes or abides by the custom of picking concubines. Although Eryan's retinue, Lu Qi, was interested in Guangchun, as a dalit, he did not dare to open his mouth to court Guangchun, who was from a middle-aged family, for fear of pulling Guangchun into a dalit because he married himself.
Customs of concubine picking
In 2021, there is a Korean drama "Baggage: Stealing Fate", which tells the story of Wang Laowu, who missed the marriageable age in North Korean customs, and asked the kidnappers to kidnap the widow as a wife under the acquiescence of the parties and the woman's parents, because the marriage behavior of packing widows is very similar to the Korean diet of vegetables and meat, which is called rice wrapping. "Yushi and Zuoyi" uses the custom of picking concubines throughout the beginning and end.
A concubine is a widow or divorced woman who has nowhere to go, unties her hair, carries her baggage, and waits for the first man she meets at the City God Temple in the middle of the night, and follows him. The woman must follow the man back, she cannot choose the object, and the man has the obligation to take care of the woman.
During the Joseon Dynasty, Confucian thinking was emphasized, women should observe festivals, and remarriage was almost impossible. Baggage and concubinage, while not officially recognized marriages, are also some kind of flexible practices that have been tacitly acquiesced to North Korea's rigid marriage system.
After a successful divorce with the help of Eryan, Zuo Yi wants to start a new life in Hanyang, and finds a break in the City God Temple because she is lost. Eryan and her gang also arrived at the City God Temple because they got lost, but because Eryan accidentally tripped up by Zuo Yi, she became the first man she saw at the City God Temple. The two people who worship freedom have originally transcended the times, even if they have each other in their hearts, they do not want to be tied to death by marriage, and they do not admit the establishment of the fact of concubine picking.
However, Eryan's retinue, Lu Qi, was limited by his status as a dalit and had not dared to propose to his favorite Guang Chunjie. Everyone knew that Lu Qi's heart was scrupulous, and under the design of Zuo Yi of the ghost spirit, Lu Qi's becoming the first man Guang Chun who guarded the City God Temple was the first man to see, and he had to get married under the custom.
Eryan and Zuo Yi transcended traditional customs, free love and enjoyed singleness, and later how to solve the identity gap and concubines, the plot was not carefully explained. The other pair, Lu Qi, and Guang Chun, used the custom of picking concubines to combine across the identity gap, and finally the second word also got the document exempting Lu Qi's identity as Lu Qi's new wedding gift, which was really a great joy for everyone.
The story ends with the concubine picking up the fate of Eryan and Zuoyi, and then ending with the beautiful combination of concubines, and can't help but sigh at the screenwriter's ingenuity.
Meet the agents of the past and the present
Although this is a costume drama set in North Korea, in order to meet the taste of modern theater, we must make some adjustments in values and bridges. In addition to the two protagonists' views on marriage with modern thinking that is beyond the times, the screenwriter also specifically used the now prevalent real estate fraud arrangement Choi Seung-lu's cameo appearance.
South Korea's real estate fraud crime is prevalent, "Witty Doctor Life" in the hard-earned money of the doctor was cheated out in the first season, and only caught the prisoners in the second season to return the money; "38 Division Mobile Team" is directly based on real estate fraud as the main plot, designed to deceive and cure greed, interested people can take a look. In real life, Girls' Generation captain Tae-yeon also lost 1.1 billion won due to real estate fraud. Such content was moved to North Korea unchanged, and the modern scam methods made the audience no stranger.
"Yushi and Zuoyi" is a costume comedy that knows what the ending is from the beginning, and the old terrier is still popular, or it lies in the audience's satisfaction through the plot agent. Life and marriage in modern Korea are still not easy, although it is not as much as in the Korean era, and then the responsibility on the shoulders is a little bit. Although class mobility is now more frequent than before, the resource gap caused by the gap between rich and poor is even more different. Even if we want to believe in love, marriage, freedom, and want to believe that hard work can lead to the first day, you still have to pay a lot of effort to pursue.
"Yushi and Zuoyi" provides a positive energy, telling us that in such a difficult Joseon period and so many unfavorable conditions, lovers can still become dependents, you still have the opportunity to live the life you want to live, as long as there is faith and dreams, we actually have the opportunity to write our own fairy tales.