A Song of Sprouts and Vegetables

Many of us who have dined at a Vietnamese restaurant at one point in our lives will probably be familiar with the dish known as "pho." We will also most likely know that this exquisite noodle-and broth dish is usually accompanied by a side of vegetables. Included among these vegetables is a food item that I am especially fond of, known as "bean sprouts" in English.

I learned something very curious as I was conversing with my friend one day. He is of Korean descent, and in South Korea, he told me, most people call this vegetable the "Sookju sprout." However, what many people don't know, he added, is that the actual word for this particular vegetable is "Nokdu sprout." Curious is it not? Well, as it happens, the origins are even more fascinating, where one must descend into a world of political plotting and swaying loyalties akin to an episode of Game of Thrones to get to the bottom of why the humble bean sprout has an alternate identity in present day South Korea.

Let us go back to the 1400s, across the Pacific Ocean to the Korean peninsula, to the ruling dynasty known as Joseon. Residing on this peninsular kingdom was a king named Sejong the Great. Up until this time, the Korean people and nobility had no written language of their own, and so they used the characters from the larger nation to their north and west, the Chinese, to fit their needs. Though these characters were numerous and difficult to master, up until this time in history the Korean people had continued to utilize this system of writing, though their actual spoken language made the Chinese writing system ill-suited for them, due to the differences in grammar, language structure, etc.

Here enters Sejong the Great. This king is credited with having personally created the Korean alphabet and system of writing which is used in both Koreas to this day, called Hangul. He was a genius in many fields, and this linguistic achievement of his is still widely praised for its simplicity when learning to read and write the Korean language.

This genius king had various scholars who aided him in the creation of a document containing instructions on how to read and write this new alphabet, which would be distributed among the illiterate common populace. His personal linguistic expert who was deeply involved in the creation of this document and the writing system itself was none other than this aforementioned Sookju, family name Shin. In fact, Sookju was so trusted by the king, that the ruler often told his son, the Crown Prince Munjong, that here was a great man with vast ability who would aid the future king greatly in the governance of his kingdom once he came to the throne. So how exactly did a great scholar, a personal advisor to a genius king, who was involved in the creation of an alphabet used by over 75 million people today, become equated to a bean sprout? The tragedy and downfall begins with the death of King Sejong the Great.

After the king's death, the Crown Prince Munjong rose to the throne. However, he was a victim of ill fortune and died of disease a mere two years into his reign. After his untimely passing, Munjong's young son Danjong, only twelve years of age, was crowned king. However, this young boy's place as ruler was not widely accepted by those close to him, and a shadow in the royal court whispered into the ears of officials and scholars, convincing them to aid in a sinister plot to overthrow this boy king.

One year after his coronation, the young king's own uncle rose up in rebellion to depose him. Loyal followers were slaughtered, and the boy was exiled to a deserted island where he was executed three years later at the age of sixteen. Chief among the usurper's supporters was the scholar who had been so loyal to the boy king's grandfather, none other than Sookju Shin.

Throughout the ages, because the people could not place the blame of the boy king's cruel death directly onto the king's shoulders for fear of being charged with treason, Sookju became the scapegoat for the plot, as well as the symbol of treason and betrayal, a dark lesson of how a friend so loyal in life could just as quickly turn against your wishes and your descendants for his selfish gain in the blink of an eye.

So why exactly is the name of the man who became the ultimate symbol of betrayal in the eyes of a whole kingdom now used to refer to bean sprouts? It all comes down to the bean sprout's brief shelf life. Anyone who has dealt with bean sprouts will know that the fragile vegetables will retain their signature crispiness for a maximum of 5 days, even if they are refrigerated, after which they will become soggy and begin browning in color. These vegetables are quick to turn, unhesitating to go from good to bad, just as our poor, infamous Sookju Shin was quick to turn his coat and betray his old master's wishes. And so even now, Koreans will call the bean sprout the "Sookju sprout" as opposed to its true name, "Nokdu sprout."

A comically fitting end for a traitor, in my opinion. But why was this so interesting to me? It was because it showed just how much of a nation's, a people's, a group's culture and history are peppered and sprinkled throughout even something so widespread as everyday language, in words as mundane as "bean sprout", and how language then provides links in learning how these cultures associate phrases with concepts and abstract ideas which then form particular ways of thinking.

Take for instance, our own English language. So many sayings we use every day come from Shakespeare. The color green was never associated with jealousy, until Shakespeare chose to make it so by creating and popularizing the phrase green-eyed monster. And if we really want to go down the rabbit hole, the phrase break the ice, also created and popularized by Shakespeare, is derived from wordplay taken from translations of the ancient Greek philosopher Plutarch's works, which then implies a whole load of other things concerning the English-speaking world and its connections to Greek and Roman civilization. But those are fun facts for another day.