The tour guide gave us some background information on the palace.
Gyeongbok Palace was the first compound built by the Joseon founder. According to Confucian propriety, all the buildings were carefully placed with symmetry overall. The courtyard walls form a square aligned with the four directions. The four main gates also face the four directions. During the Japanese invasion in 1592, 90% of the buildings was burnt down and destroyed.
273 years after, King Gojong rebuilt and expanded the palace. It took 7 years to restore everything, however it was only used for 28 years. When the current queen at the time was assassinated, the court moved to Russian for protection.
King Sejong was the fourth and most famous king of the Joseon dynasty. His face is on the 10000 won bill. He invented the Korean writing system in 1443. The new alphabet was created based on the shape of one’s mouth when speaking Korean.
Even though Hangeul, the Korean alphabet, was already in use when the palace was rebuilt by King Gojong, all the buildings were labeled in Chinese characters. The upper class of Korea could read Chinese and insisted all official language usage to be in Chinese.
A walkway extends from the gate to the main audience hall in the outer court. It is divided into three parts. The centre is for the King and the royal family. The left is for political officials and the right is for military officials. It crosses a river, a symbol for cleansing and purification before stepping into court.
On the stairway up to the outer court is a phoenix. The phoenix is an important symbol. It represents the king and is said to be only seen during peaceful times of good reign. Also on the stairway are two Haetae “fire eater” statues guarding the entrance. They look like dogs with a lion’s mane. This mythical creature is believed to have the ability to determine right from wrong. It is used to symbolize justice and guard against fires.
The whole palace was built with a slight south decline. The ground and even the roof of buildings are a little bit slanted for good drainage. The ground is paved with large slabs of even stone. It was designed in this way so that soldiers would not slip in their leather shoes and the sun would not reflect off the ground when standing in the courtyard. Unfortunately, what might have been a good design for soldiers is just a tripping hazard for tourists now.
The outer court is used for formal occasions such as welcome ceremonies, the King’s coronation, and marriage ceremonies. There are stone markers on both sides of the main compound for the different ranks of political and military officials. It allowed them to line up efficiently and precisely in front of the audience hall.
The audience hall is a single room building. It seems to be two stories high from the outside, but there is no partition in the inside. Surrounding the palace are the four directional animals: The red phoenix (that looks more like a rooster), the white tiger, the blue dragon and the tortoise/dragon (“dusky warrior turtle”). All the zodiac animals excluding the dog and pig (I don’t know why) also decorate the stone fence around the hall.
Inside the hall is a throne for the king. Behind is is a painting of the sun, moon and five peaks. The sun represented the king and the moon (behind the pillar) represented the queen. Only the king was allowed to have a painting like this.
On the floor in front of the king’s chair is a wooden table with four red cushion seats. The King’s secretaries would sit here. Two would write down every word he said. Two would describe everything he did. They followed him to all official events. The King was not allowed to see these records. There are now 1893 of these books in the archives, spanning 500 years of reign.
The tour guide told us an amusing story written about the 3rd King, and I paraphrase, “As soon as the King fell down from the horse, he asked for it not to be written”. I am sure there are many written accounts where Kings have asked secretaries not to record certain things!
On the ceiling of the hall is a magnificent golden decoration of two dragons. Dragons are symbols of the king because they hold the greatest powers out of all animals. The usual dragon has 3 to 4 claws in each hand but these two dragons have 7 claws. It is very unique.
Leaving the audience hall, we passed by a building with large wooden shutters under the first floor. Here is the crawlspace where fires are lit under the rooms to heat the floor. The palace only used charcoal fire. It kept better heat and produced much less smoke. This was better for people breathing but also protected the architecture and art of the buildings.
We walked to Gyeonghue-ru. It is a two story pavilion used for entertaining foreign guests. It is on an island in the middle of a (frozen) pond.
The pavilion was built with Confucian philosophy in mind. On the first floor, the outer pillars are square, representing Earth. The inner pillars are round, representing heaven.
We couldn’t see the second floor from the outside but the tour guide described it as a three tier floor. A “bay” can be described as the space between two columns. There are three bays on the top tier, representing the sky, humans and the earth. The king sat in the middle bay. On the second tier are twelve bays representing the twelve months of the year. The lowest tier has 24 outer pillars. In the old Korean calendar, there are 24 subseasons, each fifteen days long.
There are three gates leading to three bridges that cross to the island. The first gate is taller and bigger than the rest. It is the entrance for the king. The second gate is for the royal family and the third gate is for officials. The wall was built very high so no one can see the pond from the outside.
Next, we walked to the council hall where the King spent most of his days. There are three buildings that used to be connected by corridors in this compound. This is where he studied, managed matters of state and discussed issues with his officials.
All the restored buildings are decorated with chemical paint but the original paint was made from natural pigments. It was very expensive but the colours can remain bright and vibrant even after a hundred years. In one of the buildings, we could see original paintwork from 104 years ago. I was amazed that the quality could be preserved so well.
There was a sundial outside the building. Not only can it tell the time, but it could also measure the 24 subseasons. It has 13 horizontal lines. Each side measured time for two different seasons and the subseasons were clearly divided. The sundial showed 11:40am. It was actually 10:45am on our watches but of course, the sundial does not work on standardized time. In reality, the sundial may be even more accurate than our watches.
The tour guide pointed out netting and metal spikes under the tiled roof tops. These are modern day inventions to keep birds from damaging the architecture.
We finally reached the inner court. We entered the King’s residence first. The three Chinese characters labeling the residence means “physical health, peaceful mind”. It represented the five blessings: longevity, wealth, health, virtue and dying without pain.
There are a couple of buildings with multiple rooms the king can choose to sleep in. The main building has two sleeping quarters. Each sleeping area has nine rooms set up like a tic-tac-toe board. The king would sleep in the middle, surrounded by eight courtier ladies over the age of 45 who have lived in the palace their whole lives.They stay awake all night just in case of emergencies.
The king used a portable toilet. He did not share a public toilet with anyone else.
The queen’s residence was located right behind the king’s residence. Following Confucian customs, the king and queen do not share a bedroom. If the king slept with the queen, it would be in her residence only.
The queen had many roles. He most important duty was to produce an heir. However, she also had to supervise all the courtier ladies, be the state mother, be a mother and also the queen of a country. She could not go outside the palace unless there was a national ceremony or the court was moving palaces. Even to meet with her parents, they had to come to the palace, which was not that often. She was often very lonely so a beautiful garden was made for her behind her quarters.
We passed by the courtyard wall of the king’s mother’s residence. It was decorated with the four seasons.
The tour guide also pointed out the crown prince’s residence. The crown prince is selected when he is 5 to 8 years old. Compared to the rising son, the heir to the throne had his residence placed in the eastern side of the palace grounds.
The King’s other sons lived in the queen’s residence. By the age of 10 to 13, they were married and lived outside the palace grounds.
The tour finished within the hour so we were able to see the changing of guards at noon.
I read a brochure that said the friendly guards are happy and willing to take photos with tourists but they looked so intimidating that I didn’t want to stand very close!
No comments:
Post a Comment