Sook ju namul and a traitor

 

Sook ju namul is the name of mung bean sprout in Korea. Suk Ju namul is inexpensive and common vegetable in Korea and other far east countries. The photo is stir-fried sook joo namul dish served to us for free in a lamb skewers restaurant. Because we are regular to this place, this food is always given for us even if we do not order and both me and Leo enjoyed its crunchy texture and taste. In Korea, bean sprouts are more common than mung bean sprout, but in other Asian countries, mung bean sprouts are more often used for culinary purpose. One of my favorite Japanese foods is fried beef with mung bean sprout.

Sook Ju namul contains a lot of minerals and vitamins necessary for the human body and helps relieve hangovers. In summer, it easily goes bad much faster than other vegetables such as bean sprouts and spinach thus caution should be exercised in handling.  Because of this nature, some people believe that the word “Sook Ju” stems from the name of the traitor.

Arguably, the name “Sook Ju” originated from the name of 15 century scholar and politician Shin Sook Ju. He was very well-rounded man loving reading books and studying foreign languages. However, he was branded as a traitor by some of his comrades, and I am going to explain why. He had grown up in the Naju County which was in the southern part of the country and later he joined Lee Do (King Sejong)’s group of scholars contributing to invention of Korean alphabet. After demise of the King Sejong, his first son, Lee Hyang (King Munjong) succeeded but he died only after few years then his only son, Lee Hongwi (King Danjong) succeeded, however, this 16 years old king was ill-fated, and his reign lasted very short too. Lee Yu who was uncle of Hongwi and his paramilitary forces came to power by coup. Eventually, Hongwi was abdicated and later executed. Many believe that Shin Sook Ju in some way contributed to this coup and later also was responsible for arrest and execution of a group of politicians attempted to restore kinghood of Hongwi.

At the time of Hongwi’s reign, there are some political factions and Shin did not belong to any of them. it is very likely that Lee Yu (King Sejo) did not propose Shin to join the coup in the first place. There is also no official record indicating Shin joined Lee Yu’s band wagon to overthrow the government. However, after coup, Shin served as the right arm of Prince Lee Yu, participated in activities resulting in juvenile king’s abdication, and eventually Prince Lee Yu ascended to the throne as King Sejo. Shin rose to the top of the new cabinet. Because of these activities, the pro Lee Hongwi politicians considered Shin Sook-ju to the top of the list of traitors along with Han Myeong-hoe, Kwon Ram, and Yoon Sa-ro during the Restoration Movement. One of the Restoration Movement politicians, Seong Sam-mun mentioned Shin Sook-ju, saying, "Shin was my best friend, but he deserves to die." (Sejo Annals 2nd June 2nd) There was an attempt to kill Shin by a member of Pro-Restoration faction, but Seong Sam-mun and Park Paeng-nyeon stopped.

In many K dramas, Shin usually appeared as weak minded or spineless intellectual. As I mentioned earlier, he was an all-around official with a good sense of administration, diplomacy, military, and politics, but in dramas, he seems to take a backseat because of more appealing stories of Han Myeong-hoe, who was a powerful man and played a central role of coup.

Although he was not a guy most of K drama script writers willing to describe as a hero or major villain, there are many interesting stories of him handed down. According to a legend, Shin had a guardian angel called "Boy in blue" who could be seen by Shin only. Boy in blue defended Shin during his lifetime; it is said that this guardian angel helped him a lot by predicting what would happen in the future. And even though he was an angel sort of, he ate like an ordinary person, but the food did not decrease at all. Later, when Shin died, the angel also vanished, and Shin said in his will, "If I die, please set up a ritual table for my dear guardian angel as well as for me." it is said that another small tomb of this guardian angel was built next to the tomb of Shin.

I wish Mr. Shin and his little bodyguard rest in peace, and they are not too unhappy with the current name of the mung bean sprout, “Sook Ju Namul”!