Diary entry re My Dearest on Friday, November 10, 2023. While we are waiting for the next episode of the historic drama to be screened tonight, I would like to make a few further remarks with regards to the character GAK HWA.

@kiara has already given details for this character’s most likely real-life inspiration, Lady MAKATA 馬喀塔 of the Aisin Gioro clan. Her full personal name in Chinese ist 爱新觉罗 馬喀塔 — which translates as Aison Gioro Makata (so in reverse order).

Having arrived at episode 18 of My Dearest, I can now understand, why the writer fictionalised this Qing princess as a pivotal (support) character —and it makes now sense to me. It is, in my view, one very valid way to dramatise the story and moved it along as the writer has. It fits the timeline perfectly.

In «My Dearest» out of boredom, this Qing princess hunts escapees. That’s how Jang Hyeon and she cross paths in the first instance, in 1642 approximately. The real-life Makata was half-Mongol (her father, Hong Taji, was Manchu, her mother was Mongol). If you remember what was said in the drama about the Mongol soldiers in the Manchu war, you understand my remark. The Gak Hwa in the drama has a wild and merciless side to her personality. In summer 1642, Makata was 17 years old, and a widow for one year. It is likely that she would have been married off by her father to strengthen his position in the Mongolian Plateau after March 1636, when all Mongol chieftains from a total of sixteen clans and forty-nine subclans gathered at Mukden/Shenyang and gave their allegiance to Hong Taiji. Erke Khongghor —also know as Ejei Khan— had surrended. Makata had been married to Ejei Khan since 1636; he passed in 1641.

Of course a 17-year old Makata does not gel well with the actress’s age who plays Gak Hwa. But that has been a problem with the male and female leads as well. Yet no appropriately young actor/actress would have been able to portray the complexities of these three characters, so I for one, do not mind too much. I prefer the depth of portrayal I find with all actors and actresses.

In the drama Gak-Hwa confides in Jang-Hyeon that she had killed her husband. It is suggested that he had just used her, once, and she had punished him with death for disregarding her and trapping her in a marriage he was not willing to live. (Also, they would not have consummated the marriage before she was 15/16, so in 1639/1640). If this is historically accurate for Lady Makata is, I believe, not known. Yet again, it fits the drama’s character. Once her father dies in September 1643 —Gak-Hwa / Makata is now 18 years old— she sides with the prince Regent Dorgon, who values her support because she has the women of the Qing court under her control, as General Ingūlldai makes clear to Jang Hyeon (in episode 16). In episode 17 Gak-Hwa boasts towards Jang Hyeon that the Prince Regent needs her and (still) relies on her a lot.

However her remark is counteracted by the two Qing nobles on the hunt passing her and Jang Hyeon in the woods. It becomes clear that the (male) Qing court regards her —a mere woman after all— as a nuisance who needs to get married off again quickly. I am quite convinced that this can be a fair interpretation by the writer of Makata’s real-life situation.

Now, in episode 18 we are in May 1645.

Lady Makata was married off in 1645 to the younger brother of her first husband. However, it was again a marriage à la raison d’état : Abunai (阿布奈) was 10 years her junior, so he was 10 years old in 1645! Their first son, Borni (布尔尼), was born in 1654 ; her second son, Lubuzung (罗布藏. With the marriage, Abunai became Prince Chahar of the First Rank (察哈尔亲王) ; he and both his sons with Lady Makata died in 1675, after a failed attempt of him and Chahar Mongols to rebel against the Qing emperor. The Qing dynasty’s punishment of the rebellion was very harsh: all royal males of Chahars were executed, including infants born to Qing princesses, and all royal females of Chahars were sold to slavery except these Qing princesses.

Lady Makata died aged 37/38 in 1663. In 1657, during the reign of Shunzi, she had been granted the title «Princess of the First Rank (固倫長公主)» —something the two Qing hunters mention mockingly in episode 17, that Gak Hwa had demanded that of Dorgon, the Prince Regent.

In 1659, she was named Imperial Princess Yongning of the First Rank (固倫永寧長公主), and posthumously the title Princess Wenzhuang, of the First Rank (固倫溫莊公主) was bestowed.

Lastly, also, a word with regards to her mother : Jerjer (哲哲) of the Khorchin Mongol Borjigit clan became Hong Taji’s married Hong Taji in May 1614 (at 15 years of age) and became one of his many wives. In 1623 Hong Taiji divorced his second primary consort, and elevated Jerjer to the position.

Jerjer gave birth in 1625 to Hong Taiji’s second daughter, Makata (Princess Wenzhuang of the First Rank), on 2 August 1628 to his third daughter, Princess Jingduan of the First Rank, and on 7 October 1634 to his eighth daughter, Princess Yong’an of the First Rank.

After Hong Taji’s death she became Empress Dowager, and when she died end of May 1649 she was posthumously honoured with the title Empress Xiaoduanwen (孝端). The full title is : Empress Xiaoduan Zhengjing Renyi Zheshun Cixi Zhuangmin Futian Xiesheng Wen (孝端正敬仁懿哲順慈僖莊敏輔天協聖文皇后).

«Jerjer» translates in fact as «lady» or «beauty» ; and if you look at the portrait from the 17th century here : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:《孝端文皇后朝服像》.jpg she was really beautiful ! So it is likely that her daughters were too, and it is also likely that this was one good reason why Hong Taji loved his daughter very much (at least if one goes by the interpretation in the drama).