Kyoungbok Palace

We kicked off our study abroad with a visit to Kyoungbok Palace (경복궁) where we discussed the concept of monumentalization and how Confucianism played a role in the organization of the royal court.

The large gate is labeled with the Chinese characters which translate to Heungyehmun gate (흥예문). The “예” is defined as “ritual, ceremony, etiquette, etc.” – therefore this is the gate is of “exaltation of ritual, ceremony, etiquette”.

The smaller gate is called Dongjeungmun gate (동정문) which roughly translates as “the gate for the concern of government”. Its three doors lead to three paths, the middle of which is considered the god’s way where the spirits can enter into the palace. No one is to enter through this middle door, but rather people must enter and exit via the two doors to the right and left. Upon entering the courtyard beyond this gate, you find rows of stone plaques spaced evenly from the two side doors all the way to the king’s throne hall. These stones indicate various ranks for court officials and mark where these people are to stand during official ceremonies. The stones to the east indicate civilian officials. Their uniforms bore cranes – one crane for most officials, two cranes for high ranking ones. The plaques to the west indicate military ranks, whose officials wore tigers as their symbol. During ceremonies, the organization of the officials would take on a triangular pattern: the closer the plaque to the throne, the higher the rank and the fewer the number of people who qualified to stand behind it. As the plaques move farther away, more officials fill in the lower ranks.

The officials obtain their ranks via exams. Unlike China, Korea allowed only those who were aristocrats (yahngban = 양반) to take the exams. You had to prove that you were related to ancestors who had passed exams as well. The exams were given every three years. Besides an exam for court officials, there was also a kind of miscellaneous exam called the chapgwa (찹과) which certified those who wanted to become doctors, lawyers, accountants, etc. While both groups were technically part of the aristocracy, those who took the chapgwa were frowned upon by the other aristocrats. They were called joong-een (중인) which translates to “middle class”. However, this wasn’t because they were lower in status, it was because they lived in the middle of Seoul.

Once we got free time a group of us were able to go to both the folk museum and the national museum. The folk museum displayed beautiful garments and art from early Korean history and the national museum displayed swords, official seals, imperial cars, and King Sejong’s (세정) crazy accurate water clock, just to name a few.

We ended the night with an American dinner of taco soup at President Roger’s house – a friend of Dr. Peterson’s and the branch president of the English branch in Seoul. His wife is half Korean, and we had a fun night having Family Home Evening, playing with his kids, and relaxing after a long day on our feet.