Symbolism of ‘The Red Sleeve’

Three years after it aired, MBC’s historical drama The Red Sleeve still has me in a chokehold. 

The show, one of the best saeguk (historical) dramas there is, depicts the consequences of choosing love over freedom. This is what burdened a headstrong lady-in-waiting named Seong Deok Im when the young, lovestruck King Jeongjo attempted to make her his mistress.

The drama is a fictionalized account of the relationship of the real-life King Jeongjo (1752-1800) and his beloved concubine Uibin Seong (1753-1786). Unlike some parts of the drama, Deok Im in reality experienced no fairy tale. 

Because of her father’s connections to the Pungsan Hong clan, the family of King Jeongjo’s mother, Lady Hyekyeong, also known as Queen Heongyeong, Deok Im was able to enter the royal palace in 1762 at the age of 10 to work as a gungnyeo (court lady). Since the queen is claimed to have treated Deok Im like her own, King Jeongjo (then Crown Prince Yi San) and young Deok Im would have known one another since they were teenagers. 

While The Red Sleeve depicts the two falling in love after turning 18, it was only after he was refused three times by Deok Im that they eventually ended up together. 

King Jeongjo first confessed his feelings to Deok Im when he was 15 and she was 14. She rejected his proposal to become his royal concubine, as he already had a principal wife, Queen Hyoui. Around 1780, Jeongjo urged Deok Im once again but was turned down anew, even after having numerous concubines. 

After nearly two decades, Deok Im finally accepted his advances, shortly after she became pregnant with their first child. 

“It was after her servants were punished that Uibin obeyed the orders, became pregnant that month and gave birth to a Crown Prince in September of 1782,” Jeongjo wrote in a historical document.

Deok Im gave birth to their first son, Crown Prince Munhyo, and was formally elevated to the rank of Royal Consort Noble Uibin. 

In Korean history, once given the “king’s favor,” a woman would not be able to marry for life. As ladies of the palace, they have to dedicate their whole lives to serving the royal family. 

Crown Prince Munhyo succumbed to measles just 22 months after being born. Uibin was in the initial phases of her second pregnancy when, unfortunately, she died from an illness. Their unborn baby also passed away. 

This point of history is recorded in the funeral oration documents and eulogies written by King Jeongjo himself after her passing. 

As per the account provided by the Academy of Korean Studies on the “Epitaph of Uibin Seong,” which can be accessed digitally at the Academy of Korean Studies’ digital archives, “it was rare during the Joseon Dynasty to compose eulogies for a spouse’s tombstone, even more so for a king to write one for his concubine.”

It seemed that the king didn’t write just one but several texts during and after the three-year mourning period to express his heartfelt love for and grief over the death of Uibin Seong.

“Now I will seek my solace from the grief that you and I can never meet again,” Jeongjo wrote. 

Uibin Seong was buried next to the grave of Crown Prince Munhyo, a rare honor for a concubine.

The Red Sleeve is streaming on Netflix.