âThe Swordswomanâ is very exceptional in that its protagonist is a swordswoman. The double-layered plot is also highly unusual: two women, a mistress and her slave, join forces for vengeance, after which the mistress takes her own life, and the protagonistâthe slaveâconceals her identity and becomes the concubine of a well-respected scholar. Some years later, this woman decides to leave the scholar upon realizing that his strengths consist of a handful of trifling tricks and that they fall far short of âgrand enough principles to govern the world and serve as norms for posterity.â This man was So Eung-cheon (1704â1760), a scholar of some note in the mid-18th century. While this work recounts a tale of imaginary retribution and dazzling martial arts, it may ultimately be underhanded ridicule of the aristocracy of the time.
