UNSRC Korean Cultural Society

JoongAng Daily

	Imcheonggak Pavillion is Treasure No. 182. By Sohn Min-ho

Andong, North Gyeongsang, was a center for Confucianism at one point in Korean history. At the core of Andong’s long and illustrious past are numerous distinguished scholars, aristocrats and noblemen from clans such as the Kwan, Kim and Jang clans of Andong as well as the Poongsan branch of the Yoo clan, the Jinbo Lees and the Gosung Lees.

While Andong was one of the key cities during the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910), a trip to the historic city reveals that the city gained political and cultural significance in the Goryeo Dynasty (918-1392). It was in the Goryeo period that Andong produced key political and cultural figures and in effect became the second capital city of the kingdom.

	The seven-story brick pagoda known as Sinse-dong stands next to the Tapjongpa Pavillion. Standing at 16.8 meters high, the Sinse-dong pagoda is the tallest of its kind in Korea.

Although the Hahoe Folk Village and Dosan Seowon, a Confucian academy, are well-known tourist sites, a recent trip to the region revealed that Andong has many more historic sights to offer.

In order to understand the history of Andong, one must go back in time to the late Silla Dynasty (57 B.C.-935), which was one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea along with Goguryeo and Baekje.

With Silla’s power on the wane, Wang Geon (877-943), later Taejo of Goryeo, and Kyeon Hwon (ca. 867-936) were struggling for power. The clash came to a peak in 930 at the famous Battle of Byungsan, in current day Andong. Wang Geon eventually won the battle, depriving Kyeon of his once-powerful forces.

Wang Geon’s victory in Byungsan had a lot to do with his allies in the region - Kim Sung-pyeong, Kwon Haeng and Jang Jung-pil. When Wang Geon assumed leadership of Goryeo, which succeeded Silla, he rewarded the three men by recognizing them as the heads of three Andong clans - Andong Kim, Andong Kwon and Andong Jang. It was the start of Andong’s place among the elite and was the first time the city gained recognition.

The Taesamyo Confucian Shrine, Gyeongbuk Memorial No. 15, in Andong was established in memory of the three men. The descendants of the three families take turns caring for the shrine and a live-in guide is available to show visitors around.

The shrine contains a storage space called Bomulgak that contains belts, spoons and other possessions of King Gongmin (1330-1374) of Goryeo.

	The Taesamyo Confucian Shrine was established to pay homage to the founding fathers of the Kim, Kwon and Jang clans of Andong.

The question of why relics that once belonged to King Gongmin are kept at Taesamyo can be traced back to 1361. After the invasion of Honggeunjeok, or the Red Turbans Army from China (1359-1361), Gongmin retreated from the capital city of Kaesong for 70 days. He spent 30 of those 70 days in Andong.

While it is known as a center for Confucianism, Andong also boasts several ancient Buddhist relics. Three of the country’s five brick pagodas are located in the Andong area. These pagodas are commonly found in China but are quite rare in Korea, where stone pagodas are more common. The stacked bricks created more space inside the pagoda for safekeeping of cremated remains and other important items. The cremated remains of the Buddha were said to have been kept in this manner. While Buddhist pagodas are usually placed on temple grounds in mountainous regions, it is unclear why so many brick pagodas exist in Andong.

The seven-story Sinse-dong pagoda, which is National Treasure No. 16, is particularly notable. At 16.8 meters (55 feet), it is the tallest of its kind in Korea.

The pagoda is located next to Imcheonggak Pavillion, Treasure No. 182. Imcheonggak was a sprawling 99-room hanok (traditional house) overlooking the Nakdong River. The locale is considered myeongdang (an ideal place) under the theory of divination based on topography known as poongsu.

Imcheonggak is one of many sprawling jongga (traditional homes of aristocrats) in the city, and was once the home of Seokju Lee Sang-ryong, the head of his clan at the time.

The house is smaller than many of the other jongga homes in the area, but no less majestic. It was built in 1519 in the mid-Joseon period and opened to public view in 2004. Today, it is a guesthouse open for visitors wishing to experience a piece of Korean history.

When the Japanese took over Korea’s national sovereignty and began its colonial rule on the peninsula, Seokju Lee Sang-ryong, the head of the Lee family at the time, buried his family’s ancestral tablet, took his savings and escaped to China. There, Lee became the first prime minister of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea. Nine of Lee’s descendants followed in his footsteps, actively participating in the fight for Korea’s sovereignty against Japanese colonial rule. The Japanese government, seeking revenge against Lee, laid a rail line on the property, blocking the view of the Nakdong River.

*For information, visit www.tourandong.com or call (054) 856-5701.

By Sohn Min-ho [jason@joongang.co.kr]

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KOREA HERALD

Kimchi [Suh Jae-sik]

1. Seoul

Since its designation as the capital of the newly founded Joseon Dynasty in the late 14th century, Seoul has maintained its status as the political, economic, and socio-cultural center of Korea. The city’s high population density is closely related to the over abundance of higher education facilities. The 38 universities in Seoul together account for 21.7 percent of all universities and 23.9 percent of all university students in Korea. The prevailing belief that success in life begins with a graduation from a prestigious university in Seoul has drawn so much geographic attraction that the increasing number of students and graduates has inevitably fueled rise in housing costs, especially in areas near famous high schools and top universities.

KOREA HERALD

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KOREA TIMES
01-15-2010 18:22

“Selected Items from the Jangseogak Collection” (Academy of Korean Studies; 319 pp., 45,000 won) published by the Academy of Korean Studies is a compilation of 126 pieces carefully chosen from 100,000 royal documents both in English and Korean. / Courtesy of Academy of Korean Studies

By Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter

The Jangseogak Library is an archive of the nation’s most time-honored records containing the essence of Korea’s cultural traditions. The records and documents stored in the Jangseogak archival collection deal with the full spectrum of activities of the royal court of the Joseon Kingdom (1392-1910), ranging from writings on the culture of the nobility and royal power to edicts and state policies.

The collection encompasses over 100,000 classical texts, formerly held in the royal archives, along with tens of thousands of texts from private collections.

“Selected Items from the Jangseogak Collection,” published by the Academy of Korean Studies, is comprised of 126 pieces carefully chosen from 100,000 royal documents with brief annotations and introductions both in English and Korean.

The Jangseogak Library was relocated permanently from the Cultural Heritage Administration to its present home, the Academy of Korean Studies in 1981.

Since then, the library has performed the dual function of preserving and managing invaluable classical texts from the royal archives of the Joseon Kingdom and carrying out research on those texts in order to disseminate historical knowledge to a broader audience.

Some of the materials in the archives, such as the “Uigwe” (Joseon Kingdom Royal Protocols) and “Dongui-bogam” (The Great Compendium of Eastern Medicine) have earned worldwide recognition with their recent inclusion in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The academy said that the new book was planned last year as 2009 marked the 90th anniversary of the renaming of the Yi Royal Household Archives in Changdeok Palace as Jangseogak, which eventually became the Jangseogak Library of the Academy of Korean Studies. Also, the book is in line with the upcoming completion of the new library building due for completion in 2011 to help extended research and collection for old manuscripts.

The book consists of five sections with distinct themes ― Birth and Education; State Administration and Foreign Affairs; Royal Rites and Ceremonies; Pursuits in the Arts and Literature; and Objects Designated as National Cultural Heritages.

It presents various materials such as those related to the cultural life and royalty of the Joseon Kingdom; the policies and political programs of the rulers which shed light on various periods in its history; sources that testify to the grandeur and dignity of royal events and state rituals; and works of literature, art and culture.

The Birth and Education chapter deals with the birth of royal heirs overseen by the Delivery Room Office for the queens and the Office Assisting Royal Delivery for royal consorts. When the princes were born, they were registered to the royal genealogy and became the members of the royal household. The responsibility of managing and recording the royal genealogy was done by a number of government offices. “Seonwonseongyerok” (Genealogical Table of the Joseon Royal Clan) and “Donyeongbocheop,” (Genealogical Book of the Joseon Royal Clan Published by the Office of Royal Relatives) show the royal genealogical records in detail.

Other documents such as “Records of Delivery Office for Royal Concubine, Choi Suk-won” and “Records of Placing King Sunjo’s Placenta in Burial Chamber” present how the royal families gave birth to babies and conducted the rituals of burying the placentas of baby princes.

Not only the birth rites but also their life-time of learning is explained in the chapter. The kings were expected to have a virtuous personality as well as being morally disciplined and highly cultured, and education as such was the ideal image of a monarch demanded by a literary ethic-dominated society.

The State Administration and Foreign Affairs chapter examines every action taken by the kings during their rule recorded in the Veritable Records, which became an impartial and objective historical source. The antique documents, such as “Markings for King Yeongjo’s Final Decision for Appointment of Military Officers” and “The Album of Painting of the Welcoming Ceremony for Chinese Envoys” are among good examples showing the general landscape of the political and foreign affairs of the Joseon Kingdom.

The Royal Rites and Ceremonies chapter selects documents related to the kings and queens who conducted numerous state protocols and ceremonies over the course of their lives. Royal rites were often carried out examples for vassals and subjects of the kingdom, and precedents for later generations were formalized in the Ritual Codes. Royal rites comprised of five rituals ― “Gilrye” (the worshiping ceremony for royal ancestors), “Garye” (the royal wedding ceremony), “Binrye” (the welcoming ceremony for envoys), “Gunrye” (the military ceremony), “hyungnye” (the funerary ceremony) ― which were conducted according to rules outlined in the book of the Five Rites of State (Gukjo-orye-eui) and Supplemented Volumes of Five Rites of State. In order to establish standards for state rituals and pass them on to posterity, the Records of the Superintendence for Court Events (Uigwe) were produced.

In the chapter titled Pursuits in the Arts and Literature, various documents relating the royal families to the highest level of culture and literature are explored. Royal writings and calligraphic works were imbued with authority and also displayed the artistic abilities of the kings and were thus considered invaluable. Kings were often avid readers and left many personal writings; some achieved a great reputation in learning and calligraphic arts. This section presents the calligraphic works of the kings Jeongjo, Yeongjo, Sunjo and Gojong. King Yeongjo personally produced over 1,000 works of poetry, short letters and essays, while King Joengjo wrote and published over 100 personal volumes.

The last chapter, “Objects Designated as National Cultural Heritages” lists “Daebuljeongdarani” (Darani Sutra of the Great Buddha) and “Dongui-Bogam” (The Great Compendium of Eastern Medicine).

chungay@koreatimes.co.kr

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