Noble Blood - The Rice Box

Episode Date: February 1, 2022

Prince Sado of Korea had gone mad. He was prone to violent fits of rage; he would assault and threaten and even kill servants at court. His father, King Yeongjo, needed a way to get rid of him.Support Noble Blood:— Bonus episodes and scripts on Patreon— Merch!— Order Dana's book, Anatomy: A Love Story— Sign up to join Dana on the Mary Shelley Pilgrimage in April Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. This Financial Literacy Month, we are talking about the one investment most people ignore, building a business around the life you actually want. It was just us, making happen whatever he said was going to happen, and then it happened. On Those Amigos, entrepreneurs like America Sam and Joe Huff, get real about money, taking risk, and while your dream might be the smartest move. At the end of my life, what am I really going to care about?

And the conclusion I came to is what I did to make the world a better place in whatever way. Listen to those amigos on the I-HartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of IHart Radio and Grimmin Mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion is advised. One quick note before I begin the episode, my novel, Anatomy, a Love Story is finally out in the world. And I just want to thank everyone so, so much, every podcast listener who's picked up a copy or read it or recommended it to their friends or picked up a copy at the library. Truly, the response has been just beyond anything I could have imagined,

and it's so gratifying to see something you work on be out in the world. So thank you all so much. If you want to support the show, we are on Patreon at patreon.com slash nobleblood Tales, where I release episode scripts. And also, we're just starting back up on the mini-series, Rain on Me, where we discuss the CW show, Rain, which is very exciting. We also have merch available at dFTBA.com. All of that info is in the episode description. One summer day in 1762, the Prince of Korea's father called the boy into his private rooms. The king, Yongzhou, had always hated his son, his only heir, since he had been a child. There was nothing specific about the prince, no one single trait that the king could point to in order to explain his

distaste for the child that had lingered in his mouth for decades. Maybe it was the prince's seeming frailty, the way he had gravitated as a child toward art and drawing instead of athletics. Maybe it was the fainting spells and the strange mood that he had sometimes fell into. The king had wanted a strong, charismatic, dynamic air for the Josun dynasty. Instead, he had this prince who had been, a strange child. And then the strange child had turned into a monstrous adult,

because the prince was monstrous. Even though the prince's wife tried to conceal the extent of her beatings, the court knew that she missed public events because of the bruises on her face. Her ladies in waiting were brutalized and sexually assaulted. Servants had gone missing. No one dared make public accusations, but everyone knew that they had been murdered by the prince. The Crown Prince of Korea, a man known most frequently by the name Princeado, whether it was due to mental illness or sadism or both, had turned his father's court into a place of terror.

Putting him up for criminal trial would be a scandal, and because of Korean law at the time, it would mean that his own wife and children would be forced to bear punishment as well. But still, Sado needed to be dealt with. No one wanted him to become the next king of Korea. And so, what could his father do if he couldn't technically force the prince to stand trial for his many crimes? And it was illegal to desecrate the body of a member of the royal family, and so it's not like Sato could have been, quickly and conveniently killed himself.

So what could the king do to kill a prince who wasn't allowed to be executed? Walking into his father's chambers that day, Sato knew something was coming. In a moment of whimsy or panic earlier that day, he had asked his wife to bring him their son's cap for him to wear. His wife didn't want the prince anywhere near their son, didn't want their son involved in whatever was going to happen. She gave Sato her own cap. The prince's wife, a woman named Lady Hygyeong,

was there in the room to watch what happened next. The king called for a wooden chest, the type normally used to store rice. The chest was brought forth, a small box with only about four square feet of space inside. It was a sweltering day in early July, and the court watched the proceedings breathlessly, trying to fan themselves as quietly as they could. King Yangzhou told his son to get inside the crate.

With no choice but to obey his father, Princeado did as he was told. The lid was closed and locked shut. Not long after, the screams began. The story of Prince Sado of Korea, is a tragic and gruesome one. It's the story of a young man, a mentally ill young man, who faced cruelty

and responded with violence and sadism. But the story is also interesting for who tells it. We know the details of Prince Sado's life because his wife, Lady Hygyeong, a woman who otherwise might have existed entirely on the periphery of history, wrote her memoirs later in life. several decades after the brutal death of her husband.

In the 18th century, from Asia to Western Europe, autobiography was a realm that was almost exclusively dominated by men. And yet, Lady Yagyang spent 10 years of her life writing about her life in four parts. It's a series that's been widely translated and which is considered one of the most important texts in Korean literature. Perhaps she knew, even during her life, that the story of her husband and his father would be exaggerated, that it would become legend, twisted for political purposes, and ripe for conspiracy theories.

Lady Hyagyang was there, and she did us the favor of setting the record straight, or at least, telling the story the way that she believed it should be remembered for posterity. with nuance and sympathy, but also with an unflinching eye to the violence and terror in court. I'm Dana Schwartz, and this is Noble Blood. A warning before we begin, this story contains almost every sort of violence imaginable. So if you are listening with young children or you're sensitive to that sort of content, please proceed with caution. The name Sado translates to thinking of with great sorrow. And even though it's the name by which the prince is most commonly known today, it was actually given posthumously.

The prince was born Prince Yisian on February 13, 1735. For clarity's sake, I'll continue to refer to him as Sado. Prince Sado was his father's second son, the replacement. for the former crown prince, Hiogang, who died as a child, seven years before Sada was born. The king, Yang Jo, was heartbroken after his eldest son's death, and he immediately saw Sado as a middling replacement for his golden boy. His golden boy, the dead son, the prince who would have been perfect if only he had lived. Sada was a sickly boy who became. a sickly young man. At 10 years old, he suffered from an unidentified illness that was so severe

that he sometimes would pass out in the middle of rooms. His father, the king, resented his frailty. Sada was also artistic. We have records of small doodles that he made, drawings of dogs and other animals. Whatever kind of son, the king, Young Joe, wanted, Sada wasn't it. The relationship between father and son did not improve as the years went on. In fact, King Yangzhou only increased in his bitterness and cruelty toward his only living son. There was nothing Saddo could do correctly, nothing he could do that didn't need to be picked apart endlessly with criticism. Some of the king's behavior seems unnaturally cruel.

He would call his son into the throne rooms in the middle of the bustling court. in front of vassals, ladies-in-waiting, eunuchs and guests, and berate the prince there where everyone could see. Where the king could, he barred Sado from important court events and forbade him from visiting the ancestral tombs. Sato, perhaps understandably, became extremely anxious and visibly distressed whenever he was in the same room as his father. His only comfort was his older sister, Princess Huahio,

Their father didn't seem to hate her as much as he hated Sato. The princess was mostly just ignored and overlooked, but at least she understood. What came first with Sado, the mental illness or his father's hatred? Did the king only hate his son because he saw signs of insanity or cruelty bubbling below the surface? It's impossible to know. Regardless, Sado was the king's only. son and only heir, and so Sato continued along on the path that was expected for a young prince,

which meant that when he was nine years old, he was married. We know the story of his arranged marriage from the memoirs of the woman who would become his wife, Lady Hygyeong. She was nine years old, too, one of the hundreds of girls who were brought before court officials to be examined to see if they would make a good wife for the prince. Initially, Lady Hyagyong wasn't optimistic about her chances. Her family was noble and well-connected politically, but not especially wealthy or important. Still, she was brought to the palace, one of the finalists, apparently, and she was brought

before the king. The selection was made. Lady Hiagyong and Prince Otto, both pre-teen, were officially married, even though the marriage wouldn't be consummated until years later. It was around the time that they did consummate, around 14 or 15 years old, that Sada was given a more formal royal position. He was made a regent of the kingdom. In theory, it was more responsibility, an opportunity for him to learn how to rule and prepare for him to one day be king. In effect, it was just more opportunity for him for his father to mock and belittle and undermine him. But for the time being, at least, it seemed like

Sato was able to bear it. He liked his wife, and he could confide in his older sister. He was anxious and panicked around their father, but it was nothing he couldn't handle, at least until tragedy struck. In 1752, there was a measles outbreak in Korea, and though Sado managed to evade of the virus, his beloved sister died. It was the closest relationship he ever had. She was only 19 years old. Sato wrote a eulogy for her. Quote, my elder sister was virtuous and chased. She was born into the royal family and had grown up with me in the palace. She lived to see 20 springs till when frosty snow took her to join the immortals. Who would have expected this?

Now I have rarely seen the wild geese flying across the sky. I could not believe that what had started as a minor illness would end up incurable. Mother and I had been anxious over your deteriorating health day and night.

You were sincere and filial till the end of your journey. Upon hearing that His Majesty was about to visit you, you rose from your sick bed, but your words drifted like flowing water and faded away with time. My grief is merely expressed through these humble offerings. Your virtue will be remembered as lingering fragrance.

The next year, another massive life event would hit Sato. In addition to his wife, he took a royal consort, a woman named Yung Bin, and in 1753, she became pregnant. Sado was terrified that she would have a boy, knowing that a son would incite his father's rage. Though the king had continued to have daughters, the king had only been able to have one son, Sado. In his panic, Sado tried to force his consort into taking abortifacin's while she was pregnant in order to allay his father's jealousy. Still, despite the attempts, the child was born healthy, and it was a bit of her. a son. Sato refused to deal with his mistress or his child at all, and so it was his wife, Lady Hyeongg, who provided for the woman and helped her find a safe place to give birth

and a safe place to stay with the newborn. From that point on, Sado's mental wellness began to fully deteriorate. His anxiety began to bleed into paranoia and hallucinations and phobias. One evening, while reading a Taoist book about the Thunder deity, he had a full hallucination, seeing the Thunder God in front of him. In his vision, the God told him what he would need to do in order to avoid disaster. Sato became terrified of thunder,

and he refused to touch any object that was engraved with the character for Thunder from the book. He also developed a complicated compulsion around dressing and a fear of clothing called Vestophobia, It would take him hours to get dressed and he would rip off items of clothing and reject outfits in a frenzy, sometimes even lighting, offending items of clothing on fire. His wife, Heagyang, wrote, quote, For him to get dressed, I had to have 10, 20, or even 30 sets of clothes laid out.

He would then burn some supposedly on behalf of some ghost or other. Even after this, if he managed to get into a soon, of clothes without incident, one had to count it as a great good luck. If, however, those serving him were to make the slightest error, he would not be able to put his clothes on, no matter how hard he tried. In the process, people were hurt, even killed. It was truly dreadful, end quote. The prince was violent. People got hurt in the fires that he set, and sometimes he killed people outright. It seems that a major factor that provoked the prince's violence was fear of his father. After his father berated or mocked him, Prince Sada would go into something that some described as a

manic state and turn that anger and humiliation onto someone else, someone beneath him in status or power, sometimes even going so far as to kill them. Once, so distraught after an interaction with his father, the prince fled down a hallway and began to give chase to a random official that he in turn wanted to berate. As the prince ran, he knocked over a candlestick and burned down the entire building and the one next to it. Sato could be downright horrific in his violence. There's one story where he killed a eunuch that displeased him for some reason or another, and he beheaded him, and then the prince brought the severed, bloody head into his wife's chambers to shock her and her ladies-in-waiting.

When Sato didn't kill the eunuchs outright, he would beat them, taking out his rage and grief and frustration. He began to violently sexually assault palace staff as well and beat his wife to the point where she was missing formal events because of the bruises. On one occasion, in a violent rage or manic state, he threw a go-board at his wife's face, and the injury was so bad that she didn't attend a royal ceremony

for the king moving palaces. Lady Hiagong had been with her husband since they were nine years old. Even if she couldn't love him, she still had tenderness for him and knew that someone needed to intervene when it came to his behavior. Lady Hiagyang tried to report Sato's behavior

to his mother, the royal noble consort young, But the consort begged Lady Hyg-Young to keep it quiet. The consort knew how terrible her son's behavior was, yes, but she didn't want it to turn into malicious palace gossip. He was the prince and heir to the throne after all. What would become of them, of all of them, if people knew that he was unfit to rule? In 1757, Prince Otto took another second royal consort,

a woman named Pingae. He claimed that they were in love, but there was a problem. Pingay had been a lady in waiting to his grandmother, which was culturally taboo, considered incest. The king was incensed, and depending on the story, the king either tried to force his son to jump down a well, or he berated Sato so incessantly

that Sato himself chose to jump down a well as a suicide attempt, only to be rescued by guards. Lady Hygyang knew that disaster was imminent, and she tried to protect Pingae from the outrage of the court and of Sado by bringing her to a hidden spot in the home of one of Sado's sisters. But her respite was only temporary. A few years later, in a fit of random rage, Sato would assault his mistress Pinge and leave her alone on the floor,

helpless and bleeding. until she died. We don't know how long Pingae laid on the floor alone. It was Lady Hyg-young who prepared Pingae's body for the funeral rights. When the lady returned from the burial, Sato never mentioned Penge or her death. She was never spoken of again by Sado, completely forgotten. Two more horrible events occurred that finally sealed the king's decision to do away with Prince Sado altogether.

At Sado's 25th birthday party, he began screaming at his family, at his mother, his father, his sister, and his children. By this point, he had a son and two daughters by his wife. Sado demanded that his younger sister, their father's favorite, use her influence to force their father to let him visit the springs at Onyeng. If you don't, Sado said, glaring at his sister, I will kill you in front of our mother and my wife. Fortunately, in this one case, he was soothed and didn't resort to violence. Two years later, Sato made another death threat. An official angered him for some reason or another, and Sado claimed that he was going to kill his son.

And so, in an effort to either follow through or to appear as though he was following through, Sato snuck into the upper chambers of the palace through a water passage where the official's son lived. Fortunately, the son didn't happen to be there at the time, and so Sado just stole some of the boy's clothing and personal effects as a way to send a message. But here was the real problem. The king, Yongjo, also lived on the upper floors of the palace. And as rumors of Sado's trip upstairs began to circulate, the story became that Sado had actually gone up there to try to kill King Yangzhou. enough was enough. It seemed Yang Jo could tolerate erratic behavior, violent assaults, and multiple murders,

but he would not tolerate even the rumor of a threat against his own life. But there were a few complications when it came to Yang Jo's decision to do away with his son. Prinzado could not be tried in court, because there was a practice of communal punishment at the time, which would have meant that his wife, Lady Hiyao, and, more importantly, their children, would be punished as well. At this point, the couple had three surviving children, one son and two daughters. Sado was still the king's only heir, and Sado's son was directly in line for the throne. And even more complicated, there was a rule at court that dictated that the body of a royal person

could not be defiled. So where did that leave the king when it came to ways of fervous? getting rid of his son. On a hot day, July 4th, 1762, King Yangzhou told his son to come into his rooms. While members of the court stood silently waiting to see what would happen next, the king ordered his servants to bring out a rice chest. It was a wooden rice chest, just over two feet long, empty. The lid was taken off. King Yongjo told his son, Prince Sado, to get into the box. Maybe the prince thought of disobeying.

Perhaps for a fleeting moment, he thought of running, of fighting. But in the end, Prince Sado obeyed his father and lowered himself into the small wooden crate, tucking his legs beneath him. The king nodded to his servants, who closed the lid and locked it shut. The court listened to the lid. the scratching, to the screaming, to the pleads from the prince already sweltering inside his small wooden prison. The prince's wife, Lady Hyagyang, stood there, watching with horror. She had already written a letter to the king, begging for clemency for her and for her son.

With another nod, the king had the box tied with rope and covered in grass and moved to the upper palace. Lady Hyagyang's brother came that day and took his sister and her children back to their parents' house for safety in a palanquin. From the rice box, the shouts and cries continued for another seven days. On the eighth day, the prince was finally silent. No one had touched the prince, not technically, and so the royal body had not been defiled. On July 12, 1762, they removed the lid and saw that Prince Otto was dead. He was 27 years old. The prince was buried on Mount Baibung San in Yangzhou, and when the burial procession returned,

the king forbade anyone in court from ever mentioning his son, for the rest of his reign, at least. In order to continue the line of succession without technically including Sado, King Yongjo had Sado's son posthumously adopted by Sado's older brother, the deceased prince who had died long before Sada was even born. And though there were some challenges from the court and the country about the legitimacy of the boy, when the king died in 1776, Sado's son, Jongjo, became the next king. king. As soon as he was crowned, Zhengzhou undid the messy, fake adoption nonsense of his grandfather. He proudly declared that he was the son of Prince Sado, whom he posthumously renamed

King Shin-moon Huanghuang-Huan-Joyo the Great. The new king also moved his father's body to a royal tomb some miles outside of Seoul, and when his mother, Lady Yong, died four decades later, she was buried next to her husband. That's the story of the short and incredibly tragic life of Prince Ado of Korea. But keep listening after a brief sponsor break to hear a little bit more about theories surrounding his death. I'm Iris Palmer and my new podcast is called Against All Od, and that's exactly what the show is about, doing whatever it takes to be thoughts. Get ready to hear from some of your favorite entrepreneurs and entertainers as they share stories about defying expectations, overcoming barriers, and breaking generational patterns.

I'm talking to people like award-winning actress, producer, and director, Eva Longoria. I think I had like $200 in my savings account, and my mom goes, what are you going to do? And I was like, I'll figure it out. We got a one-bedroom apartment for like $400 a month, and we all could not afford. Like, I was like, how am I going to make $100 a month? I'm opening up like I've never before. For those of you who think you know me from what you've seen on social media, get ready to see a whole new side of me.

Listen to Against All Odds with Iris Palmer as part of the My Cultura podcast network, available on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. If you are a founder or a freelancer or the friend who always says, hey, you know what, what if I started that? This is for you. I'm telling you I had nothing to my name. I didn't know a single person in New York. And somehow I'm dressed by Oscar de Laurenta walking down that red carpet.

This month, we sit down with entrepreneurs and creators who actually did it, who turned the scary leap into a business, a paycheck, and a life they are proud of. Direct center of our happiness or our regrets is whether or not we're taking action on the things that matter to us. They're not selfish. They're so important. They actually lead to our greatest contributions because when we're living, fulfilled, we actually show up better everywhere. We lead better. We're better friends. We're better relationships and collaborators and all those things because we have passion about the things we're doing. If you're trying to build something of your own this year, join us in these conversations that will make you braver and smarter with your money.

Listen to Dos Amigos as part of the Michael Tutta podcast network available on the I-HeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Our primary source for a detailed account of Prince Addo's madness and his eventual execution murder. are from the memoirs of his wife, Lady Hyangyang, who wrote her reflections several decades after her husband's death. Some historians and political theorists point out the possibility that her account might have been politically motivated, not that the actual events that she described didn't happen, but that the way that she framed them was meant to protect and defend her family.

Some point out that by emphasizing Zaddo's brutality and insanity, Lady Hyagyong is tacitly giving us a defense of her own inaction, of having, in theory, stood by while her husband was killed. Some even go so far as to argue that Sado's death was entirely politically motivated that Lady Hyagyong exaggerated the prince's insanity in her memoirs in order to, in part, cover up what had been a political conspiracy to kill him. The idea is that the prince was an outstance. spoken opponent of the Noron political party, which his wife's family just happened to be prominent

members of. The Noron party had been essential in helping King Yang Jun establish his claim to the throne. And so, some argue that they called in a political debt in order to get the king to eliminate his troublesome son. I think it goes without saying that to some degree, of course, anyone writing their own memoir is going to frame the events in a way that focuses on their own experiences and defends their own actions and thinking. But I also think the strangeness and cruelty of Prince Sado's death sometimes gives modern audiences more sympathy for him than they otherwise might have. The fact of the matter is cruel and unusual as his death was, Prince Sado did murder people. We have multiple his

historical records of the servants who were killed in the Princess Fits of Passion. Even still, in 1890, Sato and his wife were posthumously elevated to the status of emperor and empress. They were given fancy new tombs for people to visit, the type of tombs that people might visit and stand at for a while, and wonder what type of person could be buried there. Noble Blood is a production of IHeart Radio and Grimmin Miles. from Aaron Manky. The show is written and hosted by Dana Schwartz. Executive producers include Aaron Manky,

Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. The show is produced by Rima Ilkeali and Trevor Young. Noble Blood is on social media at Noble Blood Tales, and you can learn more about the show over at Noble Blood Tales.com. For more podcasts from IHeartRadio, visit the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

This financial literacy month, we are talking about the one investment most people ignore, building a business around the life you actually want. It was just us, making happen whatever he said was going to happen and then it happened. On Those Amigos, entrepreneurs like America Sam and Joe Huff get real about money, taking risk, and while your dream might be the smartest move. At the end of my life, what am I really going to care about? And the conclusion I came to is what I did to make the world a better place in whatever way. Listen to those amigos on the IHare radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever.

you get your podcast. This is an I-heart podcast, guaranteed human.