Monday, January 11, 2016

KOREAN DRAMA: EMPRESS QI

Recently we have been watching Empress Qi, the Korean drama. Last night's episode was like the climax of the show because the evil prime minister Yan Tie was put to death in this episode. This prime minister and his family did a lot of harm and evil in the land, killing and framing innocent people just to achieve their wicked aim. In the previous episodes, attempts to thwart his plans were all futile.

We gnashed our teeth in anger and watched in frustration how he managed to get out of the trap again and again. Equally hateful was his proud and wicked daughter, who was the empress. She was the nemesis of Qi Liang, the main character of this drama who would eventually become Empress Qi. She would threaten, taunt and even tried to kill her several times. Once she even put a deadly curse on Qi Liang. But she never succeeded. And the curse went back to haunt her own family members.

Another time she pushed Qi Liang down the stairs but it was then that the imperial physicians discovered Qi Liang was pregnant with the emperor's child. What she meant for harm was turned around for good. It seemed that every attack of the empress would not only be thwarted, it also dealt more harm, heartache and frustration to herself. Every attempt to harm Qi Liang would only cause the emperor to love her more and hate the empress more. Yet she wouldn't give up because of her deep hatred for Qi Liang.

You know what was the biggest irony? The baby that the empress adopted as her own flesh and blood turned out to be Qi Liang's first child, whom she thought was dead! I have great admiration for the character of Qi Liang because she never once retaliated in impulse, no matter how angry she was with the empress. She always held her cool and bided her time. Behind the scenes, she was planning a counterattack which would not only strike out the empress but the root of the evil, who was her father.

Qi Liang was smart enough to know that getting back at the empress wouldn't help so long as the prime minister was around. He was the real backing behind her tyranny. Hence to get back at her, Qi Liang knew she had to eradicate the root, by putting the prime minister to death. That would cut off the source of the empress' power. In order to succeed, Qi Liang had allies helping her outside of the palace. These are governor Bo Yan and his nephew Tuo Tuo. Now I also have great admiration for Tuo Tuo for he was a great military strategist. He was also the wise counsel behind Qi Liang, teaching her how to handle matters in the palace.

And governor Bo Yan also had a powerful ally who was the deposed king of Goryeo called Wang Yu. He was also a valiant and capable man. He was able to win the hearts of people with his sincerity and care. Not only that, he had the uncanny ability to turn losers into winners. The key was that he never gave up, not once on his mission to restore his kingdom nor the people assigned to him. He could work with whatever was given to him, turning a losing situation around. He was the key person behind the prime minister's demise because he was a spy in the palace and worked with Bo Yan to fight against the prime minister from the inside.

I noticed that many a times, the victory was wrought not through Qi Liang or Bo Yan's own means. On the surface it looked that they were going to fail but the situation was turned around because of a victory wrought in another battle unknown to them. For example, Yan Tie's secret to holding the military power was because of his alliance with an underground traders' group. It was through that alliance he managed to amass great wealth to build and raise a powerful army. Wang Yu found out this secret of his and worked with a Turkish warrior who infiltrated into this trading group to find out the exact location of the gold bars. This was all behind the scenes.

As I watched the plot unfolding, I noticed there was a lot of things going on behind the scenes unknown to the main characters. And many of these hidden work by these spies was the key to nabbing the prime minister. The emperor and Qi Liang could never succeed by themselves no matter how hard they tried without the help of Bo Yan, Tuo Tuo and Wang Yu. This taught me a very important lesson. In order to undermine the enemy's power, one has to get to the source of that power. Many a times the location of that power is hidden. What you see on the surface are just manifestations of the hidden power. But to overcome the enemy completely, you got to get to the root of the problem, the source of the power.

It was just like Jesus came to manifest the works of the enemy. Many of the enemy's works to undermine our lives were hidden. We are in the light but he is in the dark. His attacks were all hidden from sight until they manifest. By the time we knew it, it was too late to retaliate or counter attack. Much of the dark powers were operating in the unseen realm and hence we found ourselves suffering damage. The Lord showed me the key to thwarting his plans was to operate in the spirit. Praying in tongues was crucial. Learning to listen to the Holy Spirit's voice and acting on it was another. I will share more of this in my subsequent blog posts.

No comments:

Post a Comment