Shout out to @soyabeancurd, et al.
I was informed that subbers (Bless their hearts!) made an error and didn’t account for the different way time was kept in the Joseon period. While the Western world divided the day into 24 hours, a day was only segmented into 12 in the Joseon method of timekeeping.
Thus, if we were to properly translate the 69,329 hours mentioned in the sageuk, it meant 138,658 hours in our time. The Joseon hour is equivalent to two of ours.
69,329 Joseon hours = 138,658 standard hours = roughly 5778 days = 15 years and 303 days.
Hmmm… I wonder if people knew that during the Middle Ages, a day was divided into 8 canonical hours. Church bells rang to announce the time of prayers: matin and lauds, prime, tierce, sext, nones, vespers and compline. And the length of an hour varied depending on the season and location. (Lol. A kid would have wanted his play hour to last half the day.)
If you want to know more about Korean traditional timekeeping, I found this website that explained it well and with diagrams. I’m all for visual props.
But what fascinates about this whole discussion on time is how truly relative the passage of time is. The CP’s negative emotions, in particular his resistance and resentment for being confined in that situation, have made his time in the palace pass by more slowly than they should have. It felt never-ending like an eternity.
Had he spent those 16 years with his mother, a companion, a lover or a family of his own, he would have reflected upon those years and marveled at how quickly those years flew by.
WOW!! This is why it’s awesome to come here
I learned something today
” While the Western world divided the day into 24 hours, a day was only segmented into 12 in the Joseon method of timekeeping.”
“Hmmm… I wonder if people knew that during the Middle Ages, a day was divided into 8 canonical hours. ” – I didn’t
Hahaha. You’re here!!!!!😍 Glad you’re here!
During the Middle Ages in Europe, they relied on the churches to ring the church bells to mark the hour. Now, if you woke up at 4:15am like I just did now, there was no way to tell if it was 12:05am or 3am or 5am. Everything would be dark outside. You’d have to go back to sleep again or wait till the church bells tolled to know what time it was. But between compline (which is the last prayer before going to bed) and the matins (the prayer at daybreak), the church bells were silent because people were asleep. Hmm, I guess they rang for vigils (special prayers for the eve of special occasions like Easter) but they would be typically quiet at night for sleep.
Lol. All I know is, I would have been verrry disoriented if I were to wake up in the middle of the night and NOT know the time. I’d hate that.
Okay, I’ll go back to sleep now. It’s only 4:40am here. 😴😴😴