A deliciously sophisticated time-slip rom-com, Bon Appétit, Your Majesty (2025), fascinates the world right from the first episode. With more episodes airing every weekend, the series tempts me to predict its success as one of the best K-dramas of 2025. Set in the backdrop around the 10th King of Joseon, 연산군 Yeonsangun (1476 – 1506), its creative storyline can be enjoyed several times more if you know a bit of history during the dramatic period of the kingdom about 500 years ago. 


It is not a historical drama, of course, but a genre-breaking gastronomical fantasy fiction that invokes viewers’ historical knowledge, which makes it even more delectable. So the drama slightly changes the names of the main characters and historical events: 

  • King Yi Heon (연희군 Yeonhuigun) [ fictional ] == Yi Yung (연산군 Yeonsangun) [ historical; the most notoriously violent tyrant in Joseon. After learning that his biological mother was deposed and executed when he was little, the vengeful king massacred hundreds of high-ranking officials (courtiers) and scholars. His deliriously despotic rule includes a systematic forcible conscription of women to serve him in the palace, raping his courtiers’ wives, banning 한글 and burning all books in 한글 after finding a poster in 한글 criticizing his immoral acts, and converting universities and Buddhist temples into lewd playgrounds for his pleasure. Historians consider him the worst king ever in Korean history. ]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeonsangun_of_Joseon

  • Kang Mok-ju 강목주 Royal Consort(Concubine) [ fictional ] == Jang Noksu 장녹수 (c.1474–1506) [ historical; Yeonsangun’s favorite concubine of a lowborn (노비 slave) origin, who encouraged the king’s tyranny. Arguably a Korean version of Marie Antoinette, she was beheaded and stoned in public when the king was dethroned during the 중종반정 Jungjong Coup. ]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chang_Noksu

  • Grand Queen Dowager Inju [ fictional ] == Grand Queen Dowager Insu 인수대왕대비 (1437 – 1504) [ historical; Yeonsangun’s grandmother, whose death was caused by the tyrant’s temper tantrum. As a former Queen Insu (posthumously, Queen Sohye), she was the first woman writer in Korea, authoring “내훈 Naehun” in 한글(1475). ]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Insu

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naehun

  • 갑신사화 Gapjin Literati Purge [ fictional ] == 갑자사화 Gapja Literati Purge or The Second Literati Purge (1504) [ historical; Yeonsangun’s vengeful purge/massacre of his officials and Confucian scholars involved in the death of his mother, who was deposed and executed for her temperamental acts and a murder when he was a child. ]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_literati_purges

On the other side of the world, in the same era, the awakened Europe was in full speed towards modernity through the blooming Renaissance in the Age of Discovery, while Joseon was gradually entering into centuries of doom and gloom, eerily triggered by such a dissolute tyrant in delirium. In the same year of 1504, Michelangelo finished his sculpture of David in Florence. Queen Isabella I of Spain wrote her testament. And Christopher Columbus used his knowledge of a lunar eclipse to frighten the native Jamaicans into providing supplies for his stranded crew. 

  • 중종반정 Jungjong Coup (1506) [ Historical; a coup of officials/courtiers that deposed the despotic Yeonsangun and exiled him to 강화도 Ganghwa Island, where he died of disease in a few weeks. All his sons and his concubine Jang Noksu were executed. The throne was succeeded by his half-brother, who became the 11th king of Joseon, 중종 Jungjong. ]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jungjong_coup

You may have noticed that the tyrant’s name (연산군) is a bit different from most other Joseon kings’ names ending in “조” or “종,” e.g., 태조, 성종, 중종, etc. It is because, according to the Confucian convention of “묘호 temple names” for monarchs, kings of the Joseon and most of the Goryeo dynasties were named only after their death, given by their successor. In essence, if a king does a decent or at least okay job during his reign, he gets a temple name ending with “종” or, more infrequently, “조.” It is that temple name that remains in history, i.e., the name by which we, as future generations, know a king. Unfortunately for the overthrown tyrant Yeonsangun, after the coup, his rank was demoted to that of meager princes whose names end mostly with “군(君).” Hence, the notorious 폭군 연산군.

stat rex pristinus nomine

nomina nuda tenemus 

The ancient king remains by his name

Naked names are all that we have

Level A2: At the king’s surprise party in the first part of the video, which of the following does not appear?

a. 폭죽

b. 꽹과리

c. 탈춤

d. 아쟁

e. 판소리

Level B2: At 3:35 in the video, the king doesn’t seem to understand his own name (Yeonhuigun) when she says it to him. Why is that? Please explain it in Korean, referring to the above article.

Level B1: Please find 연산군, the worst tyrant, in the long list of Korean monarchs for thousands of years shown in the link below. And then, about 50 years before or after him, you can also find the name of a king whom historians consider the greatest king in the entire history of Korea. What is his temple name? And how is he called by Koreans of today? 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_monarchs_of_Korea

As you see, only two generations (50 – 60 years) seem to be enough for the fate of a nation to change, depending on who the leaders are. In the past, most people had few choices: follow or revolt. But nowadays, if you are lucky enough to live in a free world, you have the option to choose, to elect your leader. So, when you vote, choose well. And in case you happen to be in a position to lead or manage other people, behave yourself and try not to hurt other people. After all, it is all the ordinary people you help or hurt or murder, or rather, the entire human population on Earth, who watch your every action on their smartphones today, and pass on your story to their children and grandchildren. And in the end, merely your name will stay in collective memories called history, long after you leave this crazy planet. 

호랑이는 죽어서 가죽을 남기고 사람은 죽어서 이름을 남긴다
[ Literally, “Tigers die and leave their skins, and people die and leave their names” ]

  – Korean proverb
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