Text/Ma Qingyun
On December 23, the TV series "New Dark History" can already be watched in four episodes. Starring actors such as Kim Myung-so and Kwon Na-la, the drama tells the story of how in ancient times, the secret royal history helped the emperor investigate and handle civil cases. Earlier, a manga and cartoon of the same name was published and released. However, the manga of the same name was released in Japan and South Korea, and the background story is Japanese. This time, "New Dark History" has little relevance to the content of the manga in terms of story content.
Secret imperial history is a very interesting official position. Audiences familiar with Chinese history are no strangers to the word imperial history. In fact, it was the supervision agency, which was responsible for supervising the various officials of the feudal dynasty. Secretly, it seems that there is no direct corresponding official title in China. During the Joseon feudal dynasty, the secret imperial history was an official sent by the emperor to quietly do the imperial history work, to put it bluntly, the identity could not be transparent, and the work was to supervise the officials of the feudal dynasty and report to the emperor at any time. Of course, they are not called the emperor on their side, but only on our side.
If the secret imperial history has to correspond to the organization of a Chinese feudal dynasty, in fact, it should correspond to the Jinyi Wei. The latter, also subordinate to the emperor and not controlled by other parts of the imperial court, was a form of supervision by the emperor over his ministers. However, Jinyiwei is already stinking in China. The emperor did not trust his feudal dynasty bureaucrats, and engaged in such a dark action as the Jinyi Guard, which naturally could not get good words in history.
This phenomenon is the opposite of the feudal dynasty in Korea. Although the secret imperial history lacks virtue and does not do less, but in their film and television works of art, this "secret imperial history" is very fond of, and there are often many positive stories. Like the "New Dark Imperial History" that is being broadcast, it is actually a story of a small person relying on the emperor (who should be called a king) to realize the dream of counterattacking in life.
In "The New Secret Imperial History", the male protagonist in the imperial court is actually a muddled petty official, or a deputy, and his main job is to transcribe content in the Royal Academy. The official position setting at this initial stage is very similar to Ji Xiaolan in that year, and it was also copied and written in the royal academy. That's why I said that this "New Dark Imperial History" filmed the taste of "Iron Tooth Copper Tooth Ji Xiaolan" and is here.
And this male protagonist, when he was once examining the examination, was also full of spirit, and pointed out the country and the mountains, and stirred up the words. However, after entering the big dye vat of career, this small official also began to follow the trend, gradually degenerate, and become a sleek and sophisticated person. This kind of character handling is very close to Ji Xiaolan in real history. In The New Secret History, the male protagonist gambles in the Royal Academy all day and earns money by selling such books and periodicals to eunuchs. Obviously, the dirtiness of this little person was caused by the large dye vat of a specific feudal dynasty.
Of course, such a male protagonist was selected as the emperor's secret imperial history, and the reason is also very simple. The one selected earlier, because it was just right, after being sent out, was directly killed by the traitors, and the emperor could not find out. And this time, it was obviously more appropriate to do the opposite, quietly sending a second-rate, Wei Xiaobao-style character out to take on such a secret imperial history task. This kind of sleek sophistication is estimated to be more adaptable to the vicissitudes of the outside world.
For the male protagonist, this unambitious little official has finally opened his life and reached the peak. The arrogance of the little people is very clear. This is also where the New Dark History is interesting. As another supplement to the play, the heroine is also indispensable. In this TV series, the heroine hides her identity through the work of the Qinglou and directly obeys the real high-level personnel. In the end, the female protagonist and the male protagonist teamed up and embarked on the road of secret imperial history.
The main temperament of this TV series is funny, using ancient costumes and relying on the content of the secret imperial history to achieve a comedic expression. A small person with no fighting spirit, once he ascends to heaven, he naturally rejoices. The next task of work is to hunt and kill continuously, and the courtiers outside are all looking at the tiger. It can be imagined that in the successive pursuits, the male protagonist finally counterattacked, relying on his own ingenuity to defeat his opponent. In the end, the young man who used to support justice has returned and wants to do something serious for the people.
Using the way of supervision officials to serve the emperor and do something for the people is actually the narrative routine of "iron teeth and copper teeth Ji Xiaolan". In many aspects, this "New Dark Imperial History" is of the "Iron Tooth Copper Tooth Ji Xiaolan" style. Especially in the pursuit of comedy content. For the audience, it is still appropriate to think of it as a hilarious costume drama.