동궁 is on Netflix — And You Have No Idea What Anyone Is Calling Each Other

I’ve been watching 동궁 with my husband. We’re a few episodes in. And at some point in episode one, he pauses the screen and goes, “Wait — why did that guy just call the king three different things in one conversation?” I, a Korean person who grew up watching 사극, had to actually stop and think. Because the honest answer is: it’s complicated, and nobody explains it.

If you’re watching 동궁 and the subtitles keep flashing “Your Majesty” and “My Lord” and “Your Highness” and you’re like — wait, are those the same person? Different people? Why does the court lady say something completely different from the general? — this post is for you.

Korean 사극 (saguk — historical drama) has an entire system of honorifics that’s completely separate from modern Korean. It’s not just formal language. It’s a hierarchy encoded into every single word. Let me break it down.

First: What Is 동궁?

동궁 (The East Palace) is a Netflix original Korean drama that dropped globally on July 17, 2026. Eight episodes, dark fantasy, Joseon-era setting — and genuinely creepy in a way that historical dramas usually aren’t.

The setup: 구천 (Goo Cheon), played by 남주혁 (Nam Joo-hyuk), has the ability to cross between the world of the living and the world of 귀 (spirits/ghosts). 생강 (Saeng-gang), played by 노윤서 (Roh Yoon-seo), is a 궁녀 (court lady) who was born able to hear the voices of those spirits. The 왕 (King), played by 조승우 (Cho Seung-woo), pulls both of them into the 동궁 — the Crown Prince’s palace — to investigate a curse that’s taking hold there.

동궁 literally means “eastern palace” (동 = east, 궁 = palace). In Joseon-era Korea, the Crown Prince’s residential quarters were located in the east wing of the palace complex. So calling the show 동궁 immediately tells you where it’s set and whose domain is in danger.

Now. The titles.

Why Are There So Many Words for the Same Person?

In modern Korean, there’s basically one way to refer to someone politely: use their name + 씨, or their title. Easy.

In Joseon court Korean, every word you use reflects your rank relative to the person you’re addressing. The king has multiple names depending on who’s speaking, in what context, and how formal the situation is. A court lady speaks differently to the king than an official does. An official speaks differently in private versus in a formal audience.

And on top of that — you don’t say “I.” You say a humble version of “I” that signals exactly how far below the other person you consider yourself to be.

The result: one king, five different ways to address him. One court lady, two different words for herself. And nobody explains any of it in the subtitles.

Let’s go through the ones you’ll actually hear in 동궁.

전하 (殿下) — Your Majesty

This is the word for the king. If you hear 전하 in any 사극, someone is talking to or about the king.

The characters are 전 (殿, royal hall/palace) and 하 (下, below/beneath). Literally: “below the hall.” The idea behind it is deeply Confucian — you are so far beneath the king’s station that you address him from below, looking upward at the steps of his palace. You never claim to look him in the eye.

In 동궁, when 구천 or 생강 are summoned by 조승우’s character and have to address him directly, 전하 is what comes out. Every time.

마마 (媽媽) — The Royal Suffix

마마 isn’t a standalone title. It’s a suffix that makes any royal title… more royal.

On its own, 마마 originally meant something like “honored person” in the Joseon court. But in practice, you’ll always hear it attached: 왕비 마마 (the Queen), 대비 마마 (the Queen Dowager), 세자 마마 (Crown Prince). Never just 마마 floating alone.

The closest English equivalent is “Your ___” — like “Your Majesty” vs just “Majesty.” It’s the honorific wrapper that signals: this person is of royal blood, and I am formally acknowledging that right now.

One thing that trips up foreign viewers: 마마 sounds gentle and almost affectionate in modern ears (it sounds like “mama”). In Joseon court context, it’s actually quite formal and carries weight. When a court lady says “왕비 마마” to the queen, she’s not being warm — she’s being precise about her own place in the hierarchy.

주상 (主上) / 상감 (上監) — The King (Other Names)

This is where it starts to feel like you’re learning three languages at once.

주상 (主上) literally means “the lord above” — 주 (master/lord) + 상 (above/upper). It’s used when subjects refer to the king in the third person, or when speaking of him with officials. More formal, often used by high-ranking officials when they discuss the king between themselves.

상감 (上監) is another variant — slightly older-sounding, sometimes used by older characters or in very formal scenes. Same person. Same king.

So in one episode of 동궁, the king might be called:

• 전하 — when someone speaks directly to him
• 주상 — when officials discuss him in a meeting
• 주상 마마 — when referring to him with full honorific

All three: same man. 조승우’s character.

This is also why subtitles just collapse everything to “His Majesty” or “the King” — there’s no English equivalent for these distinctions.

중전 (中殿) / 왕비 마마 — The Queen

중전 (中殿) literally means “middle palace” — 중 (middle/central) + 전 (palace). It refers to the queen consort by naming her residence within the palace complex. In Joseon, the queen’s quarters were in the central part of the inner palace. So calling her 중전 is essentially saying “the one who lives in the middle palace” — and everyone knows exactly who that is.

You’ll also hear 왕비 마마 (王妃 媽媽) — 왕비 being “queen consort” and 마마 being the honorific suffix.

Both refer to the same person. 중전 is slightly more informal (like saying “the Queen” in English), while 왕비 마마 is the full formal address (like saying “Her Majesty the Queen”).

The 대비 (大妃) is a separate person entirely — the Queen Dowager, the widow of the previous king, often the current king’s mother. She outranks the current queen in terms of seniority and often has enormous political weight in 사극 storylines. When you hear 대비 마마, that’s her.

세자 (世子) & 저하 (邸下) — The Crown Prince

세자 (世子) is the Crown Prince — the king’s heir. 세 (世) means “generation/world” and 자 (子) means “son.” The heir to the world. In 동궁, the show’s entire setting is the 동궁 — the Crown Prince’s palace — so whether or not the Crown Prince himself appears prominently, his space and his title are everywhere.

When people address the Crown Prince directly, they use 저하 (邸下). Just like 전하 (below the royal hall) is used for the king, 저하 (below the residence) is used for the Crown Prince. One rank below the king, reflected even in the characters of the word.

You’ll sometimes hear 세자 저하 together as the full formal address — “Crown Prince, Your Highness.”

This is the hierarchy in one sentence: the king is 전하, the Crown Prince is 저하. Similar structure, different character, different rank. 사극 writers put thought into every syllable of address.

소인 (小人) vs 소신 (小臣) — “I, This Humble Person”

Modern Korean “I” is 나 or 저. In Joseon court Korean, you do not just say 저. You say a version of “I” that encodes exactly how lowly you consider yourself to be in this conversation.

소인 (小人) — literally “small person.” This is used by commoners and servants when speaking to someone of higher rank. 생강, as a 궁녀, would use this when addressing the king or queen. The word is actively belittling yourself — “this small, insignificant person” — as a way of honoring the other person’s status.

소신 (小臣) — literally “small official/servant.” This one is used by officials and ministers when addressing the king. Same logic: I make myself small to elevate you. But the 신 (臣) character specifically means “subject” or “official,” so this version signals rank within the system even while being humble.

The difference matters: if a general uses 소인 when he should use 소신, it signals he doesn’t know court etiquette, or that something is wrong. 사극 writers use these slips deliberately to show character.

And if you hear someone just say 저 in a 사극? That’s either a child, a scene set outside court, or the drama cutting corners on historical accuracy.

나으리 / 나리 — Lord / Sir

나으리 (or the shorter 나리) is the honorific used for officials and noblemen who are not royalty. Think of it as “Lord” or “Sir” — respectful, but clearly not the top of the hierarchy.

A commoner or servant addressing a government official would use 나으리. A lower-ranked official addressing a senior one might use it. It shows up constantly in 사극 scenes set outside the palace proper — markets, outer courts, travel sequences.

In 동궁, when 구천 moves through spaces where ordinary officials interact with him, this is the word you’ll hear aimed in his direction before his actual status becomes clear.

궁녀 (宮女) — The Court Ladies

Not a form of address, but a word worth knowing because 생강 is one.

궁녀 (宮女) — 궁 (palace) + 녀 (woman). Court ladies. Women who entered palace service, often at a young age, and lived their entire lives within the palace walls. They served the royal family, managed the inner court, and were organized into strict ranks of their own.

궁녀 were not servants in the modern sense — many were educated, skilled, and held significant informal influence. But they were also subject to extremely strict rules: they could not marry, they could not leave easily, and their lives were entirely defined by their position in palace hierarchy.

생강’s ability to hear 귀 (spirits) is what makes her unusual — but her position as a 궁녀 is what puts her inside those palace walls in the first place.

Quick Cheat Sheet

Cera’s Take

I grew up watching 사극 with my parents, so these words feel completely natural to me — I absorbed them the way kids absorb anything that’s always on TV. But watching 동궁 with my husband and thinking about how someone watching it for the first time in English would experience it… it’s genuinely a lot.

Here’s the thing about 사극 honorifics: they’re not just formality. Every word in that system is a power statement. When 생강 says 소인 and 전하 in the same sentence, she is simultaneously making herself invisible and acknowledging the king’s entire existence. That’s two acts of hierarchy compressed into three syllables. Modern Korean doesn’t have anything that dense.

What I find interesting about 동궁 specifically is that the supernatural layer kind of breaks the hierarchy. 귀 don’t care about court titles. Spirits don’t call anyone 전하. And 구천, who moves between both worlds, sits in an uncomfortable middle space — he has to perform court language for the king while existing in a realm where none of it applies.

That tension — between the rigid formality of the Joseon court and the chaos of the spirit world — is a lot of what makes 동궁 compelling. The titles aren’t just background noise. They’re part of what the show is putting under pressure.

Anyway. Go watch it. And now you’ll know why the subtitles keep saying “Your Majesty” even when the characters are clearly saying five different things.

More 사극 K-Drama Content

Historical Korean drama is a whole genre, and the language is half the experience. More breakdowns coming.

전하, 소인 이만 물러가겠나이다. 🙇

(Your Majesty, this humble one shall now take her leave.)