Spany Noh

Ms. Scrivner

Honors English

Wednesday May 20, 2020

The Lady with a Sword

“She’s a rose”

It was a phrase easily used among the noble ladies whenever they gossiped about Lady

Ki, the daughter-in-law of one of the wealthiest families in the entire Joseon. Her father-in-law

was probably the most powerful person in town, and she lived in the largest house on the tallest

hill. Lady Ki was a charming, elegant woman.

I remember myself as a child, always envying her gorgeous looks that I couldn’t dare to

wish for even in my next life. Her beauty was what every girl dreamt of, and her graceful

manners were what every man wanted from their wife. I’m pretty sure that my own husband had

also been mesmerised by her at some point in his life. She had once stolen many aching hearts of

her endless suitors. It wasn’t at all a surprise when she eventually married the man of most

wealth and gift.

The husband of Lady Ki was a brilliant scholar. He was clever from his childhood, and

showed exceptional talent in education as he grew up. He was also a man of beauty, as handsome

as Lady Ki herself. The two used to be the center of attention wherever they went; people always

talked about the stunning pair of husband and wife. That was, until, Lady Ki’s husband died

from a tragic disease, after only 2 months of a terribly short marriage. Lady Ki was now a young
widow, without her husband nor even a child. Everyone knew that a childless widow was the last

thing any woman would want to be in Joseon. Having attractive appearances no longer did her

any good, for the mere value of a female was being a virgin as a girl and a wife as an adult.

“She’s a rose”

That was why people used this phrase to describe Lady Ki. She was as elegant as a rose,

yet just as useless as any flower. She had once bloomed brighter than all the others, but had now

withered hastily into worthless leaves of grey. No one had talked about her ever since. Men no

longer fancied her appearances, and the only emotion she received from other ladies was piteous

compassion. Lady Ki locked herself up, and didn’t come out of the house anymore. I myself

couldn’t have imagined how awful it would be to live in the house of her dead husband, having

to serve his parents for the rest of her life.

“What does she do, being alone in that gigantic house?”

Lady Seol once asked, a fairly young and bright lady who had just had her marriage

ceremony the previous month.

“She must be bored to death!”

Commented Lady Jeon in her chirpy voice. She was a highly talkative woman, who knew

about almost everything that was going around in town.

I always remained quiet.

It had been a long time since Lady Ki had been the topic of the discussion. With Lady Ki

having isolated herself inside the walls for more than 5 months now, she had slowly become

forgotten in the outside world, no longer being the topic of ladies’ afternoon discussions. These

days, the most popular ‘tea’ among us was the newly published series of novels that was gaining
immense popularity at an unbelievable speed. The books were titled ​The Lady and the Sword.​

They were those types of books that merchants sold secretly in the back streets, disguised under

fake covers or ​veneers of meaningless documents​. Most jewelry sellers had them prepared inside

their shops, as the majority of the books’ readers were young ladies.

It made complete sense for the books to be sold in utmost secrecy. The content was far

from what the government considered ‘appropriate’. They were nothing like the boring piles of

text that men studied day and night preparing for exams they would take in Hanyang. Those

were all about politics, history, medicine, and teachings of Confucianism, which none of us

women were arrogant or foolish enough to claim; education was only a distinct hope for most

females. In fact, we were lucky enough to be born as nobles; if we weren’t from wealthy

families, being able to read and write would even be no more an option.

The books that women read were story novels. They featured adventures or romantic love

stories, which were some actually entertaining topics that allowed many bored ladies to kill time

in other ways besides doing pointless embroideries or pretending to listen to their fathers’ and

husbands’ lecturing about the proper attitudes of women.

The Lady and the Sword​ brought a revolutionary wave of unconventional ideas. Unlike

all the rest of the novels that fantasized love and heroism only around male protagonists,while

using women more as rewards or trophies for mens’ bravery, ​The Lady and the Sword​ featured a

strong female main character who was a master swordsman - or technically, a master

swords​woman​. She carried a gigantic shiny sword that she used to defeat villains and save people

from danger. The character pursued her true love, without even the slightest dependence on her

father; she chose who she wanted to love, entirely on her own.
 It was such an unrealistic and lunatic idea for most of Joseon, that it had been a greatly

controversial subject when the books were first released. Most aged women considered it too

scandalous and unbearably defiant, while almost all men thought of it as perilous. The

government declared the prohibition of reading ​The Lady and the Sword​ and officially claimed to

proceed with a strict investigation to find the ‘treacherous trickster’ that is responsible for the

wicked work. Some went as extreme as setting the books on fire in public. Nonetheless, despite

all their hard work to get rid of the copies, it was nearly impossible to stop ​The Lady and the

Sword f​ rom becoming the most popular novel in the country, earning the title of the first

‘best-seller’.

The author induced all of his readers with the terrifyingly original and rebellious content,

well plotted story elements, and most of all, his amazing storytelling techniques. It was

something peculiar about his use of words; he sounded like no other author that stood before

him.

While being well aware of the severity of the possible consequences of reading those

unorthodox texts, it was simply unstoppable for some reason. It was both thrilling and weirdly

satisfying to read about a made-up character living the life of a woman in an entirely different

way from ours.

The greatest question regarding the amazing pieces of literature was the author. An

unusual aspect of ​The Lady and the Sword​ was that the author had remained fully anonymous.

While it made enough sense for him to hide from being caught and punished by the government,

it had been strange how not even any of the merchants knew the author’s name. It was obvious

that he would have gained great popularity and wealth had he revealed himself to the public, as
there were already innumerable fans of his fascinating stories that were dying to meet him in

person. It had been the most prominent mystery for some time -- who this talented author that

had written such a bold, revolutionary book is -- until one morning, when the government

announced the date of judgement of the criminal; the author has been caught.

This was the reason that the ladies of the town had gathered up today. Lady Jeon had

heard from her husband about the date having been rescheduled to this afternoon, and had

hurriedly assembled a meeting to deliver the urgent news.

“Would it not be the most unjust thing to penalize someone for simply writing a story? It

is not like he had intentionally targeted anyone, or had hurt them at all!”

Exclaimed Lady Seol in a face colored bright red. She had shown remarkable enjoyment

in reading ​The Lady and the Sword, ​above any other lady in the room. Her shoulders bounced up

and down as she talked; it was obvious that she was displeased about the author being put to

trial. In fact, we all did. None of us wanted the author to be punished - not for the marvelous

stories that he had written; not for the consolation that his words had given; especially not for the

small piece of freedom that he had allowed within all of us.

“Truly spoken. We must not let him receive any type of penalty, for is it not he who had

provided us with the joy of literature?”

Added Lady Jeon in an equally elevated voice. I found it quite funny for us ladies to be

making such a fuss out of only a couple of books, but I was more proud than ever to see our

compliant selves united for once. I opened my mouth.

“ Let us support him on trial. If we all speak for him, maybe they will excuse the author.”
 With less than an hour remaining before the event began, we rushed together to the city

center - where the judgement was to be held. At that moment, I was only excited at the thought

of finally seeing the face of this brilliant author. How half witted I was to be glad and

enthusiastic about someone’s public trial.

The marketplace was already packed with people when we arrived. All were standing on

the tip of their toes to look above the heads and see the face of the famed author. But the criminal

did not seem to have arrived yet. After a few moments passed and the crowd settled down, a

group of high officials made their way in. Behind them were soldiers, dragging the sinner, who

was wearing a white gown with a white cloth covering his head.

“What a strange piece of clothing. I’ve never seen a man wear a gown for a trial.”

Lady Seol said with a confused face. She wasn’t wrong.

One of the officials stepped up and unrolled a scroll that he had taken out from his

sleeves. He read it out loud to the people.

“Speaking in place of our king, I bring to you a sinful criminal!”

He pointed to his left where the author was forcefully kneeled down. A soldier grabbed

him by his shoulders while another took the cloth off his heads, revealing him at last.

Shocked gasps burst out from the crowd. The author’s face was finally disclosed, and

nothing was particularly special - except that it wasn’t a ​he​; she was a woman. Though it was

quite worn out compared to how it used to be, the woman’s incomparable beauty was

immediately recognizable.

“This woman, Ki Myeongwol, the daughter of Ki Yangcheon, is a deceitful witch that

had tried to play the minds of the people with her treacherous words. She has brought disorder
throughout our country and should be convicted of treason!”

The audience was greatly startled. No one had expected the author to be a woman, let

alone that woman to be Lady Ki. Who could have ever imagined for a powerless, pretty woman

to have written such bold and daring words.

“Has she gone mad?”

Whispers broke the silence.

“This is why women don’t deserve to be educated. Look at what this foolish widow had

done! All they need to do is take care of the house and their family.”

Whispers turned into murmurs.

“Burn the witch at the stake!”

“Hang her!”

Which then soon turned into shouting.

People were now yelling and cursing at the author, throwing rocks at her feet. This was

no trial. It was simply public humiliation. I looked at the other ladies. They looked just as

stunned as I was, but only stared down at the ground. We couldn’t say anything. We couldn’t do

anything.

I clenched my fists. Was it so wrong to be a woman? We didn’t choose to be born this

way. Had we been given the choice, we would have been men as well. It wasn’t Lady Ki’s fault

that her husband died. It wasn’t her fault that the society didn’t approve widows to remarry. I

trembled in agony. My neatly piled nails dug into my skin. I felt blood drip out of my palms, but

I didn’t feel pain.

 “Under the names of all gods and the name of our wise king, I hereby sentence this traitor

to death!”

The high official yelled out loud with a cold-blooded face. The uproar of the crowd

amplified. At the official’s gesture, the executioner appeared behind him, as if to show that the

result of the trial had been decided all along. They had no plan of keeping the author alive from

the start. The executioner dragged Lady Ki over to the gallows and hooked the rope around her

neck.

I met her eyes. She stared into space, desperately trying to hide her fear. Tears rolled

down my cheek. They were tears of sorrow; tears of rage; and tears of pain. It was painful to

realize my helplessness. It was painful to see how weak and cowardly I was. It was painful to be

able to do nothing but watch the rose take its last breath.