King Jeonjo of Joseon was the 22nd monarch of the Joseon dynasty of Korea-- and reigned from April 17, 1776 until August 18, 1800. I do apologize if I get any of this information wrong and feel free to correct me or add onto anything in the comments!
King Jeongjo was traumatized by Koreas court politics, and was said to keep his emotions to himself. Rarely expressing his feelings, he was a reserved man. He kept to himself, until he fell in love with a lowly court lady.
He made her his concubine, and out of all his many wives she was the only woman he ever loved. She unfortunately died six years later, and none of their children had survived. In her memory, he planted 26 thousand trees under her burial ground. (This place still exists today and is called Hyochangwon. Tbh if you look into the history the love story gets pretty toxic, but I'm just here to show you the love letters)
(TRANSLATED ROUGHLY)
I love you. My heart feels sick. You have died and have separated from me... You have left far away. It has taken me some time to realize this: There is no way to retrieve you. There is no one I can send to bring you back.
My sorrow is deep. No tragedies I have experienced before can compare to how grieved I am now.
If only I could follow you to the afterlife.
I am grieved whenever I think of you. You have truly left for the afterlife. My Love, you were kind, full of knowledge, intelligent and wise, bright and logical, virtuous and well-mannered. How could I forget your talent and your beauty?
Now traces of you will disappear from this world, and I must write these words down or else who will know?
When you lost Crown Prince Munhyo, you cried without resting. And for the sake of the child you were pregnant with, and out of concern for your health as you were so grieved, I sent you away to preserve your strength. But how could your life be this fragile? How is it that you are dead?
Rest well, my love.
I will bury Crown Prince Munhyo next to you. This is all I can do for you at the moment. The living Me, the deceased you... We will be separated for all eternity. I am so grieved it is nearly unbearable.
Even now I keep needing to re-confirm whether you have indeed died. The heart of a grieved person seems to come unbound.
[END]
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How Do I Live
PoetryI'm mostly just ranting off about things that intrigue me- (+some occasional short story) Why do we love? Why do we create Art and why is it so essential? The loss of architectual beauty- Why are buildings so ugly? What is the desire to be sad- And...
