Episode 12 Title: Dancing on Top of a Sword

I know this kdrama is supposed to be fictional but I still like to have my historical “markers.”

If you’re wondering how this character King Cheoljong fits in the Joseon books, there were only 26 Joseon kings. Cheoljong was the second to the last. We’re looking here at the waning years of the monarchy.

Also, if you want the context of the conversation in Ep 7 between the Grand Queen Dowager Sunwon with her brother, Minister JwaGeum, here it is. It was implied in the drama that the GQD had her grandson killed to “protect” the country.  She wanted to continue being the regent in Cheoljong’s reign.

JwaGeum: (assuring her) The King is different from the late king.
GQD: Makes sense. You were the one who chose him.
JwaGeum: There is only reason as to why I put the King in that position. It is so that you do not need to make a painful decision like you did with the late king.
GQD: That is true. It was quite painful. I protected this country by getting the blood of my grandchild on my hands. That is why if someone tries to ruin it, I cannot forgive them even more.

The title becomes easier to understand as the drama is 3/5th done. I can think of THREE interpretations.

The first interpretation refers to the King.

As I said in another post, he was plotting something dangerous with the (mistaken) belief that Minister JwaGeum was clueless about his activities. “Dancing on top of a sword” is a foolhardy exercise. If you dance with a sword, expect to be cut by the sword.

It’s not unlike that biblical saying, “Live by the sword, die by the sword.” If the religious connotation is to be disregarded, this saying simply means that what comes around, goes around. The King thought he could teach the Andong Kims a lesson, but in the end he was the one schooled like a schoolboy by Minister JwaGeum.

Just like in the picture here.

He thought he subdued ByeongIn with their fan dance. He didn’t anticipate however that ByeongIn was going to be the sword used by Minister JwaGeum to cut down his Royal Guard.

BongHwan tried to warn him.

BongHwan: Just give up. It’s easier to give up, you fool.
King: My Queen.
BongHwan: You already know that it’s bound to be ruined. The more you resist, the more the people around you, as well as you yourself, will suffer.

Yes, this was BongHwan’s style.

Remember he didn’t fight back when the dinner accident was pinned on him. He also didn’t fight the corruption charges placed on him. He ran away when he could have called up an attorney and showed up at the police station with his own legal counsel. At least, the King was was putting up a struggle against the Kim clan although he knew it was an uphill battle.

So was this SoYoung’s style too? I don’t know, to be honest.

SoYoung said that she always tried to do her best. But *IF* on the eve of her nuptials, she had:

a. begged the GQD to be allowed to go home,
b. gone home to cry by the well, where ByeongIn discovered her,
c. faked letters to both the King and the concubine HwaJin to arrange to meet with them,
d. jumped into the lake to commit suicide,

then she was like BongHwan who refused to fight the establishment. Maybe he’d get some “dragon balls” from the King.

King: Then, should I just take it all in like I’m a corpse? I can’t do that. I’ll do my best to do everything I can. So if my efforts like this are bothering you, please ignore me.
BongHwan: Oh right! We’re doing “no touch,” aren’t we? Okay, got it.
King: (runs off)

I think BongHwan misunderstood the King. The King wasn’t telling him to mind his own business. Instead, he was telling him not to worry.

But BongHwan was right to detect trouble brewing.

Just like the Chief of Staff Mr. Han sabotaged the banquet at the Blue House he prepared for the Chinese Ambassador, a Mr. Han look-alike (most likely bribed by Minister JwaGeum) was also trying to ruin the King’s banquet.

BongHwan could sense that something was wrong.

But BongHwan could only help with the meals. There was a bigger plan afoot to check the King that was beyond BongHwan’s skills to avert.

That’s the reason Prince YP and his men encountered bandits on the way back to the palace.

According to Prince YP, the ingredients weren’t really the target. He didn’t know that the bandits were meant to distract him so the Royal Guards could be rounded up.

Anyway, this reversal of the King’s fortunes would only be temporary. I’m not worried because he’d still reign for another 10 years or more. He’d learn from this experience and do better next time in anticipating Minister JwaGeum’s dirty tricks.

The second interpretation of the title refers to BongHwan. A “sword dance” means a display of skill and in this episode, BongHwan was demonstrating his skills with the chopping knife.

He didn’t show his military skills but his culinary training by creating fancy dishes for the banquet on the fly.

Here was the King’s original banquet menu. Thanks to @Grace for translating the menu!!!

First, he made the curly fries which I explained below.

Then, he made the McDonald’s veggie burger.

BongHwan: I’ll dice and stir fry sweet potatoes, zucchini, and eggplants. And I’ll make whole tomato stew with broth and eggs. The novelty of eating the bowl, too, will make them go wild! Are you almost all done?
Chef: Not yet. Barley powder and soybean powder. You made us knead all the powders that exist.
BongHwan: What you’re making is the highlight of the banquet.

He was talking about the veggie patties.

BongHwan: It’s a banquet after all. It’s no banquet without meat. The main dish will be complete with vegan hamburger steaks.

He called it Mac Dunaldu. I love that squiggly “M” he added to the name.

King: (explaining the tomato stew) This is an edible lucky pouch. Since this produce is red every day of the year, it’s called the yearly persimmon. Its red color chases away any evil spirits on Surit-nal.

BongHwan originally called the fruit by its English name, “tomato.” The chef corrected him and called it by its proper name “ilnyeon (one year) gam (persimmon).” The King however adlibbed to appeal to the superstitious nature of some of the courtiers.

As for the vegan burger, the Ministers thought that they were eating short rib rounds, and the King fabricated a whole lie about its significance.

King: There’s a proverb from the Qing Empire, “In the sky, there are dragons for the meat. On land, there are donkeys.” And we should add, “Soybeans for meat in the barley hump.” Barley is “Mac,” soybean is “du,” fattening is “nal” and belly is “du.” Therefore, “Mac-du-nal-du”! Just like real meat, it’s delicious and filling.

The last course was dessert.

BongHwan: I’ll add my artistic touches to the cooled down sweet jelly. So it will please your eyes. Desserts should be delicious and beautiful to look at.
Everybody: Gosh. Look at that.
BongHwan: On top of that, give it a wow factor. The perfect finale for the part.

lol. I like that only the King got two scoops…errr…two sticks of the jelly while the others only had one.

BongHwan called it “Fortune Jelly.” According to Viki, “po” means embrace and “Chun” means spring, but the King made up some glib explanations about wishing his courtiers well.

Ministers: It looks pretty, but it’s just plain old sweet red bean jelly. It seems like the end of your fascinating talents.
King: The stick in this jelly is not only for your convenience but also has a fortune written on it. This dish embraces the meaning of spring so it’s called “Po-chun” (sounds like Fortune) Jelly. It shows my hope that your future may be fortunate like spring.

When everybody learned that they could read the fortunes on the stick, they were all excited even the GQD who didn’t believe in superstitions.

I’m sure if BongHwan heard the King’s words, he would have scoffed at all that nonsense the King was . You see, for BongHwan, it was all a “sword dance.” That’s what he meant when he talked about the fishcake. He also talked about the fish cakes that night of the ill-fated dinner for the Chinese Ambassador. But now, he had a different take, a different insight on the fish cakes. He realized that, like the chef of Emperor Qin Shi, he had no choice but to come up with creative ways to cook the food given the ingredients he had.

BongHwan: I poured my soul into this instead of real ingredients.
Chef: I’m going to pass out. We did it.
BongHwan: Do you know what I’m thinking about right now?
Chef: I know. This is exactly how I feel.
BongHwan: Fish cakes.
Chef: Pardon?
BongHwan: I’m thinking about fish cakes. The chef that almost died in the hands of Emperor Qin Shi Huang created fish cakes the night before. I thought that was because he was lucky. But that wasn’t the case. I’m sure he came up with it after trying whatever he could to stay alive. Inspiration isn’t something common that would come to a person who has given up.

There. And that’s the THIRD interpretation of the title, “Dancing on Top of the Sword.” For me, it meant that desperate people would risk everything and take extreme actions in order to survive. They’d even dance on top of a sword if they had to.

It’ll be interesting to see what the King and BongHwan — and SoYoung, if she’s still in there somewhere — plan to do in the future.

So those are my three interpretations of the title. If you can come up with more, feel free to post them here.

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This is a work-in-progress so please come back later to read the finished review.

But I’m leaving this out in the open because I see that people have been wondering whether the King knew it was BongHwan cooking, and many assumed that he had no idea.

I’m “Contrary Mary” of kdramaland so I’ll say that, yes, he definitely knew that the Queen was the chef.

illustrated by Frederick Richardson. source: surfnetkids.com

Here are my reasons:

1. The Queen was noticeably absent from the banquet.
2. The King already knew BongHwan cooked in the Royal Kitchen.

From Episode 7

3. He encountered BongHwan in the Royal Kitchen earlier that day.

4. He was exchanging letters with BongHwan for a couple of nights. He’d be a doofus not to recognize BongHwan’s atrocious handwriting.
5. He knew that, unlike the cultured ladies in court, BongHwan didn’t write in Chinese, but in hangul.
6. He made a dictionary of BongHwan’s STRANGE language so of course, he already understood BongHwan’s weird terminologies.

Take for instance, BongHwan’s name for the “tornado potato.”

BongHwan called it Yongsu Potato. In viki, the term was also translated as “spring” potato. By spring, BongHwan wasn’t referring to the season when flowers bloom, but to a metal coil that resembles the spiral shape of the skewered potatoes.

source: wiki

But the King added his own interpretation. According to Viki, he called “yongsu” a “dragon’s beard” because “yong” meant dragon while “su” meant beard, in Korean.

As expected, BongHwan’s message was “understood” by the King in the same way that he (mis)understood “No Touch” and “anti-fan.”

I’m using the translation for Kissasian, just because I couldn’t screenshot Viki.

King: Although my intentions are noble, I still must treat my guests properly. So I have used simple ingredients, but I have come up with a new theme. The first dish of the banquet is a potato dish. It resembles the whisker of a dragon. It is called Yongsu Potato. It is a lucky dish for a lucky day. If we did not have potatoes, we would have lost more lives every day. Rustic-looking potatoes can grow well even in a barren land are easy to store. This becomes the main staple of the people during the barley hump. This is a sacred ingredient that saves people’s lives. It’s more than a “mere potato.”

He also explained the seasonings.

King: There are three seasonings in front of you. As for the green one, this is the pine salt made of bay salt and pine needles from Hwaseong Palace (the cutie concubine’s home) in the district of the Namyang Hong clan. This light red power is wild grape sugar. This is powder taffy which the people enjoy. It is mixed with wild grapes from Mount Gamak (the innocent concubine’s home) where the Papyeong Yoon clan has put down roots. It adds a beautiful color and fragrance to sugar. The yellow sauce is made of peaches. This is made with the best peaches from Yeonju (the sexy concubine’s home) where the Yeoheung Min clan resides. The theme of today’s banquet is harmony. Politics divide people but delicious food brings people together. I hope you can taste the harmony of the three clans who are with us today.

That’s why I say that the King knew the master chef was BongHwan. He understood Bonghwan’s quirky sense of humor. Not only that, he extemporized and used BongHwan’s street food as springboard for his new political agenda.

Personally, however, I consider it a breach of etiquette to lecture people while they were eating. How would you like it if I invited you for dinner and I used each course to moralize and shame you? You’d think me rude, and the goodwill that the food was intended to elicit would be all for nothing.

Another thing I’ve to point out.

Remember what I wrote in the Queen’s Cuisine? I said that the poison could have been delivered by the King’s Eunuch because HE was the one who brought the wild orchid and the letter to BongHwan.

In fact, ByeongIn asked BongHwan if there had been any suspicious activity…

But BongHwan didn’t remember the King’s gift.

Welllll…

I think the mysterious Mr. Han was reporting to that very same Eunuch that he was almost caught by a woman. Obviously, Mr. Han wouldn’t recognize the Queen because he was an outsider, but the Eunuch would have.

It couldn’t have been this Eunuch —

because he was locked in the pantry. Remember?

It was this other chubby Eunuch standing behind the King.