Memoirs of Lady Hyegyong: The Autobiographical Writings

By Lady Hyegyeong, JaHyun Kim Haboush, Wayne. Dynes

Book Overview

Lady Hyegyong's memoirs, which recount the chilling murder of her husband by his father, is one of the best known and most popular classics of Korean literature. From 1795 until 1805 Lady Hyegyong composed this masterpiece, which depicts a court life whose drama and pathos is of Shakespearean proportions. Presented in its social, cultural, and historical contexts, this complete English translation opens a door into a world teeming with conflicting passions, political intrigue, and the daily preoccupations of a deeply intelligent and articulate woman.

JaHyun Kim Haboush's accurate, fluid translation captures the intimate and expressive voice of this consummate storyteller. The Memoirs of Lady Hyegyong is a unique exploration of Korean selfhood and of how the genre of autobiography fared in premodern times.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0520200551
• ISBN13: 9780520200555
• Release Date: April 1996
• Publisher: Perseus - Ucal Pod
• Length: 329 Pages
• Weight: 1.22 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A compelling time travel

Beyond the scholarly merit and historical significance of this book, the story is hugely compelling, not merely for the facts of the chilling event, but for several other reasons. First, the view Lady Hyegyong provides of the court life and the strict Confucian beliefs that hinge on filial piety, loyalty, virtue and honor is evident more in what she doesn't say than what is said. It's a growing subtle presentation of how life unfolded within these confines of faith, and as a result, how tragedy after tragedy continued to compound. One could read the Analects or any Neo-Confucian work, and not understand to the degree shown here the depths of the practice and belief that affected every aspect of life in the late Choson era. Second, along with JaHyun Kim Haboush's careful introduction, the annotations she has so helpfully added, the glossaries and appendices, the book presents a highly respectful translation that brings forth all the humanity of the players in a way that makes the story unfold like a novel of hope, horror, survival and the desire for inner peace and heavenly redemption. Third, by providing the historical literary context of these MEMOIRS (in the introduction), we benefit from understanding not only the historical events but the tense cultural climate and the severe limitations that Lady Hyegyong had to challenge and overcome in order to redeem the honor of her family. Almost as a self-reflective postmodern work of existentialism, the book stands as its own redemptive testament to its themes. To read of this historical event from one who suffered in its aftermath, and who despite the strictures of her sex and position could tell of it with artistry, is an amazing literary experience.

The Korean Hamlet

"The Memoirs of Lady Hyegyong" is actually four different works written by one woman, a circumspect, scrupulous, unfortunate 18th Century Korean aristocrat. The memoirs are, successively, a family injunction, a memorial, a biography, and a historiography. At the center of the collection sits Hong Hyegyong and her husband, Crown Prince Sado. "The Memoirs" span the reigns of Yongjo, Chongjo, and Sunjo, and the careers of Lady Hyegyong's father, Hong Ponghan, and her older brothers.Lady Hong Hyegyong was the wife of Crown Prince Sado, who in 1762, was ordered by his father, King Yongjo, to step into a rice chest, which was susequently bound and covered in sod. Crown Prince Sado had been punished by his father for a series of heinous murders caused by Sado's mental illness. Lady Hyegyong and her family, including her son, the future King Chongjo, then became the focal point of factional quarrels at court, each side using the execution of the Crown Prince, to its own political advantage.Lady Hyegyong, in the first three memoirs, strives to defend her father and brothers against chages of treason and complicity in Sado's execution. The last memoir is a defense of her husband. All four are addressed to her grandson, King Sunjo, to restore the honor of her family.Although Lady Hyegyong nor Haboush could ascertain the specific cause of Crown Prince Sado's illness, and Lady Hyegyong's anecdotal evidence is hardly scientific, I would like to offer ''hwabyong'', or, in Korean, ''fire disease'' or ''anger disease''. ''Hwabyong'', as offered by Alford in "Think No Evil: Korean Values In The Age Of Globalization" (see review), is ''...a unique Korean folk syndrome...'' characterized by ''...anxiety, panic,...and the suppression of anger...'' (p. 77). Korean fire disease's ''...symptoms reflect[s] the constraints of the culture: not just on the expression of of emotion, but the lack of opportunity...to change...''(p. 79). Only Crown Prince Sado,and the evidence offered in "The Memoir of 1805", can affirm this conjecture.The last work, "The Memoir of 1805", is a brilliant psychological portrait of Crown Prince Sado. It is a revealing exercise in historical writing, and also reveals the mind of an extraordinary woman trying to understand some of the most harrowing personal tragedies any spouse or daughter might face."The Memoirs" can be compared to Lady Murasaki Shikibu's "The Tale of Genji", "Hamlet", and the lives of the Roman Emperors. One major failing of Haboush's''Introduction'' is, that she does not place the incidents in a broader historical and international context. But she does manage to argue against abridging and collecting each work into a longer historical novel. A broader focus would further aid in understanding Lady Hyegyong's dedication in defense of her brothers and father.This is not only a valuable history, but it is also another demonstration of the narrative powers of Asian women authors operating in a patriarchical, almost misogynist

A Tragic Saga of Shakespearean Proportion!

Chosen to become the crown princess of Choson Dynasty in the 18th century Korea, Lady Hyegyong's life would change from a quite, cloistered life of an aristocrat to that filled with tragedy. Indeed, only the most tragic of Shakespear's tragedies could possibly match the sad story of Prince Sado. Lady Hyegyong watched with anguish as her husband progressively fell deeper into his own twisted world. King Yongjo--a monarch obsessed in cultivating himself as the most Confucian ruler of his day--frustrated and angry over his son's increasingly bizaare behavior orders his son death by confining Prince Sado to a rice chest. Jahyun Haboush has done a commendable job of introducing this compelling story to wider readers. As a fine scholar of premodern Korean history, Haboush leads the reader through not only Lady Hyegyong's heartwrenching memoir but provides the historical context in which the tragedy take place. Indeed, this book is an important scholarly and literary work that will undoubtely raise interest in Korean history.

Beautiful, Eloquent Words from 18th Century Korea

The tragedy of Lady Hong and Prince Sado occurred in 18th Century Korea, but Dr. Haboush's detailed translation and commentary of 3 of Lady Hong's diaries makes the tragedy come to life. I've actually read 3 other translations and this is the best. It translates the 3 versions of her memoirs accurately and Dr. Haboush includes valuable commentary and insight

Lady Hyegyong's ``Unmentionable'' Memoirs Revived in English

THE KOREA TIMES 971016 CULTURE 1044WORDS > By Yang Sung-jin <p> Staff Reporter<p> Darkness seals the closed space. In a wooden rice chest, he protests desperately, but to no avail. After nine days of unimaginable pain and despair, he dies alone.<p> It would be a sheer nightmare to see a person imprisoned in such an unlikely place and die from asphyxiation. To Lady Hyegyong, the widow of this man, it was much worse. For her husband is Prince Sado and the person who ordered him to die is no other than his own father, King Yongjo (1694-1776).<p> "The Memoirs of Lady Hyegyong" (University of California Press; 327 pages) reveals the darkest chapter of Korean history. It was translated in 1996 by Kim Ja-hyun, professor of East Asian History and Culture at University of Illinois.<p> For the brilliant translation and the original book's literary value, Kim received the 3rd Korean Literature Translation Award, a biann ual ceremony organized by the Korean Culture & Arts Foundation in order to promote Korean literature overseas.<p> "Professor Kim's translation is brilliant in every sense. For its unparalleled accuracy in translation as well as the literary value of the original text, we had no difficulty choosing her work as the best one," announced jury chief Lee Young-kul at the award ceremony Tu esday.<p> "There were a lot of difficulties and problems, of course. Starting from choosing the most authoritative text available to making footnotes and endnotes, I had to spend much time solving the problems one by one. And yet I think I have been with Lady Hyegyong's voice all those years," said Kim in a press conference.<p> Interestingly, Lady Hyegyong's voice was at first Korean and then it changed into English as Kim continued to work on the translation. <p> Finally it was Lady Hyegyong's voice which helped and encouraged the 56-year-old professor to finish the translation.<p> "Over the past 18 years, many times I felt it's too difficult and too much for me. But whenever I tried to give up, I heard Lady Hyegyong's voice. That's the reason I did not quit," explained Kim.<p> The translation started back in 1975 when Kim was a graduate student at Columbia University, where she was also working as a teaching assistant of a class called "Asian Humanities," based on the famous humanities course, "Contemporary Civilization." In contrast to many Chinese and Japanese works included in the course list, Kim found no Korean literature, which later prompted her to push ahead with the translation.<p> "While I was translating Lady Hyekyong's memoirs, it occurred to me that I am a kind of shaman. As far as I know, a shaman supposedly connects the living with the dead. The only difference is, translation connects two different cultures," said Kim.<p> What Kim did not mention is that a shaman does not simply connect the living and the dead. Traditional Korean shamans are supposed to resolve the entangled relations or unfulfilled desire between the living and the dead thro