Confucius in K-Drama

Confucius says, “In K-drama Romance there is joy without wantonness and sorrow without self-injury.”

The Analects (III, 20… a sort of Confucius saying)

Ever wondered why K-drama romance is so popular? Confucius may be right but there are a few barriers to entry:

Imaginary Portrait of Confucius by Wu Daozi (685-758CE) Tang Dynasty in the Public Domain overlaid on an image of the Chinese Garden in the Hamilton Gardens, NZ.

• A foreign language with grammatically poor subtitles or voice overs that can’t do the original language justice
• Too many tropes, clichés, if you like
• Predictable endings, even if the journey is not
• Generally 16 to 20, 1-1.5 hr episodes to tell the story
• The mores of Korean society in regard to speaking formally or informally and the hierarchy of respect within relationships have to be understood to get the significance of behaviours and their outcomes
• Strong Korean nationalism
• And the biggest turn off of all, the latent rock-solid belief that wealth and good looks are the measure of a person’s worth.

Despite all of these the K-wave tsunami is riding high outside of Korea. I know why I like it but I wondered why others do, so I googled.

Wikipedia credits story-lines with an underpinning of Confucian thought.

Cool. An answer. But, it was stated and not explained. I had to find out how, so I picked up a copy of Confucius’ The Analects and had a quick squiz before diving into the introduction by translator, D.C. Lau, and fell back on DK’s The Philosophy Book.

Gyeonbokgung Palace in Seoul, Photo credit: (Johannes Barre, iGEL (talk)). Improved by de:Benutzer:Rainer Zenz.This file is licensed under the Creative CommonsAttribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

If you’ve watched the historical drama/romances then this list of themes in the Analects will be familiar to you:

• The importance of practicing rites e.g., in relation to deceased forbears
• The nobility of a gentleman should be an inherent virtue in people born to this class – so upper class characters who work as civil servants at the palace are treated as if they are honourable and virtuous because of the station to which they are born not based on their person merit or lack thereof
• There is an awareness of the immensity of personal responsibility in those who wield power and influence, to promote the welfare of the common people and a singlemindedness and tenacity to carry this through e.g., as emphasised in the series The Crowned Clown, Love in the Moonlight and The Red Sleeve Cuff
• Destiny cannot be altered. This is especially highlighted in fantasy series. Destiny has been ordained by the Heavens in childhood and can be upheld over the course of a single lifetime or across reincarnations e.g., The Secret Garden, Lovers of The Red Sky, Guardian – The Lonely and Great God, What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim
• Benevolence is granted after overcoming difficulties. Often the denouement of a romance is a Happily-For-Now with no commitment for the future: perhaps there hasn’t been enough obstacles thrown at the couple to warrant the benevolence of a Happily-Ever-After. Often when the benevolence of a Happily-Ever-After is achieved it happens after all external obstacles to the union have been overcome and after the couple endure a lengthy separation that tests their commitment in order to cultivate their personal career goals.
• Learning is an ongoing process that can never be completed. Holding office and studying go hand-in-hand e.g., Love in the Moonlight, 100 Days My Prince, The Red Sleeve Cuff
• Respectfulness has to be shown in comportment, behaviour and action e.g., bowing, averting one’s gaze in greeting social superiors and elders and modulation of one’s tone of voice
• The sacredness of a spoken promise/oath/assent given
• If the outcome of an action is good/benevolent then it was a good and moral act. However, if the outcome of an action is bad then even if the intention was for good the action is deemed bad e.g., the Queen in The Crowned Clown breaks her oath of fidelity to the King when she has relations with the imposter who has taken his place. She is driven to attempt suicide when she realises what she has done, regardless, of the fact that she was fooled by his disguise and wouldn’t have committed the infidelity had she known about the ruse
• When seeking benevolence prevails in government, the gentleman should enjoin in service, it’s his duty. When seeking benevolence is disregarded in government, the gentleman should keep quiet and hold off, it’s his duty. This precept is beautifully made use of in Love in The Moonlight where the Crowned Prince prevails upon his old tutor to join the government in order to rid it of bad influences. The tutor holds off until the government is back on track
• There is entrenched faith in a paternalistic government as the common people are believed to be incapable of advocating for themselves. This is contrasted with the fear of insurrection by the masses. The K-drama solution is to place on the throne a monarch who has been forced to live among the common people or has been forced to feel empathy for them by his love interest who is from their world e.g., 100 Days My Prince
• In drawing the character of the nobility and in particular the Crowned Prince, K-drama has fallen back on the Confucian ideal of the perfect gentleman who was well-educated, proficient at archery, charioteering, calligraphy, maths, literature and music, and had “beautiful” personal conduct, the 6 Arts of Confucius. He listened to music that had, “joy without wantonness, and sorrow without self-injury” (yes, this is a correction of my openeing quote.) He read the Odes to inspire his imagination and provide him quotes for good speeches.
• The Odes, as directed by Confucian thought, are quoted in situations that call for diplomacy. They were a font of aphorisms that were quixotic allowing room to deny a dangerous interpretation of the quote’s use e.g., if a foreign diplomat or the king was to be disagreed with, he was led to ponder a quote from the Odes to realise the meaning on his own frowned upon stance e.g., In  My Sassy Girl Confucius’ pupil, Mencius, is quoted as a pivotal plot device that incites the Queen to be dethroned and provides a crucial obstacle in the relationship of the main protagonists.

Confucius presence in historicals is really obvious and an easy fit. References to Confucian thought by scholars and ‘gentlemen’ abound. What isn’t so obvious but integral is the centrality of his morality in the contemporary dramas and romances.

My copy of Confucius’ Analects with an Introduction by D.C. Lau, on whom I leant heavily in compiling my points and lists for this post.

Confucius Key Relationships

There are many lists claiming to encapsulate the essence of Confucius teachings or a particular aspect of them – the 4 Beliefs of Confucianism, the 3 Major Teachings of Confucius, the Principles of Confucius, the 6 Arts of Confucius. These are later scholars’ attempts to contain a collection of often quixotic observations and thoughts used as aphorisms. The 5 Constant Relationships from The Philosophy Book can clearly be see in K-drama. They are a hierarchical list that reflects social order and the responsibilities of serving respect in order of importance. The challenges of upholding these relationships in the modern world form the basis of dramatic tension in K-drama.

1. The imperative to respect one’s sovereign. Korea no longer has a monarchy with its branches of nobles, however she does have a stratified society that places powerful chaebol’s (powerful family-owned conglomerates) at the top of the pecking order. In the world of a K-drama romance/drama, the sovereign is the CEO, president of a corporation or chairman and a chaebol class is depicted.
2. Obedience to one’s parents
3. Respect between a husband and wife
4. Respect for older siblings by younger siblings
5. Respect between friends, where the older friend has seniority

In this hierarchy respect demands loyalty, obedience and affection. In exchange there is an expectation that the power holder in the relationships will be considerate, benevolent, loving and fair. When this system is bucked by the minor, “inferior” in K-drama the exchange falls apart.

In contemporary dramas/ romances the lead male protagonist is wealthy, handsome and charismatic. He comes into conflict with his chaebol patriarch-chairman whose directives he has to overcome to establish a lasting relationship with his partner, who often is from a working class background. The couple will have to battle entrenched ideas from both sides of the social divide as crossing that line is played out like a taboo e.g., Business Proposal.

A dating couple may have to overcome opposition from an older sibling and endure ill treatment simply because they are younger. This older/younger sibling tension extends to friend-to-friend relationships where the older friend’s wants are deferred to.

Tension is milked when all of these demands conflict with each other e.g., in Lie to Me, where the older and executive brother gives up his love interest when he realises his younger, artist brother is also smitten. The younger brother doesn’t pursue his brother’s jilted love but then is incapable of approaching the next girl his brother falls for, whom he also crushes on. Ultimately, the more powerful, older brother gets the girl.

The weaknesses in the rigidity of the social structure are milked for their pathos, questioning a transactional system that isn’t built on the whimsy of falling in love but hereditary tradition and the meritocracy of having and consolidating money and power.

Confucius espoused living life in a thoughtful way, always striving for a benevolent outcome for all, always striving to be virtuous. This sense of responsibility is present in K-drama romances. In depicting idealistic outcomes they always show a way to strive to achieve them – e.g., finding self-fulfilment first – gaining maturity by having achieved something for themselves, being autonomous and confident before engaging in marriage. Most often in a romance two couple’s stories are followed. The lead couple have a more fairytale-like existence and conclusion while the supporting actors depict a more messy relationship that often has greater pathos and more to relate to. They may face similar obstacles but the supporting couple may have a more realistic outcome – that isn’t ideal.

Ahn Hyo-seop/ Clark Gable and Kim Yoo-jung / Vivien Leigh in a hash up of Lovers of the Red Sky and Gone with the Wind

If Confucius is the reason why K-drama stories have appeal it’s probably got a lot to do with his influence on people’s morality in Asia. K-dramas are often remade by other Asian countries where Confucian thought has had a big influence. Confucian ideals are conservative and share ethics with agrarian societies world wide. Migrants to the West who have maintained their traditional values can relate to the conservatism of Confucius and so K-drama appeals to these often middle aged and senior aged audiences. For westerners, besides the novelty value, I’m guessing that there is a nostalgia element that harks back to when heroes were heroes and not anti-heroes, when morality was more black and white, when a strong didactic element and sense of moral responsibility to depict ideal outcomes was standard, when storylines didn’t rely on a lot of skin to sell themselves but offered drama and catharsis like classic Hollywood movies of the early-mid 20^th Century.

K-drama is not just about historicals, romances and dramadies – there are zombies and crime, and dramas without the focus of romance. Romance has been one of its greatest successes. As K-drama grows beyond romance-dramedies and tells a wider range of stories I hope in their reach for International audiences they don’t lose their greatest appeal – their points of difference.

Bibliography

Jackson, Brianna, Confuciansim and Korean Dramas: How Cultural and Social Proximity, Hybridization of Modernity and Tradition, and Dissimilar Confucian Trajectories Affect Importation Rates of Korean Broadcasting Programs between Japan and China, Auctus: The Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Scholarship, Virginia Commonwealth University, 2017.

https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1041&context=auctus

Confucius, The Analects (Lyn Yu) translated with an Introduction by D.C.Lau, Penguin Classics, 1979. Confucius’ The Analects

The Philosophy Book, DK, London, 2011, The Ancient World 700BC-250BCE, Hold Faithfulness and Sincerity as First Principles – Confucius, pp.34-39.