Bandit_Tour: 자선당

10.자선당 (동궁전)

'Donggungjeon means royal residence located in the east side of the palace. The east side symbolizes spring when all things in the universe come back to life. That’s why the crown prince’s investiture was held in spring.

(타)회복하다/ 되찾다

'Jaseon' means 'to nurture one's good nature'. In here, King Munjong spent twenty years as the crown prince. Crown Princess Gwon, whose posthumous title was Queen Hyeondeok, gave birth to King Danjong on July 23 in 1441, in the 23th year of King Sejong's reign, and died the next day, If the queen had not died so early, the tragedy of her brother-in-law, King Sejo, usurping her son's throne might have been prevented. Later, after King Gojong restored Gyeongbokgung, his crown prince(later Emperor Sunjong) also resided in here.

Donggungjeon is located in the east side of Geunjeongjeon and Sajeongjeon Hall, and its area was divided into Jaseondang and Bihyeongak Hall, Jaseondang was the crown prince's and princess's residential quarters, and Bihyeongak was the crown prince's office quarters. In front of Donggungjeon, there were two offices which took responsibilities for educating and guarding the safety of the crown prince: one was Chunbang which educated him, and the other was Gyebang which guarded him. Thus the crown prince was well prepared to be the next king.

[]Where is the Palace's Outhouse?

It is not easy to find an outhouse in the palace. Sometimes, when we need to use it while we are touring the plalce, we come to wonder where outhouses were located in the palace long ago. Kings and queens were provided with potable toilets, 'maewooteul', which means a frame of maewoo. Maewoo is a rainy season around the middle of June to the beginning of July, when maehwa(winter plums) are fully ripened, so they are ready to fall like rain drops. What about others who needed to use the toilet? How did they release their physiological necessity? It is one of the frequently asked questions by the tourists.

Long ago, there must have been many outhouses in several places, but during the Japanese occupation, the palace had been so severely destroyed that it is not easy to find their trace. However, we can refer to the Map of the Northern Palace or the Painting of the Eastern Palaces and infer the original appearance of the outhouses. According to the Map of the Northern Palace, there were twenty eight areas of outhouses in Gyeongbokgung. The Donggungjeon area was badly damaged during the Japanese occupation. However, when it was restored in 1999, two outhouses between Jaseondang and Bihyeongak were also rebuilt. Now, not only these two but also four other outhouses were restored in the east of Bihyeongak. But many tourists never notice that these are outhouses because they are colorfully decorated with multicolored painting called 'dancheong'. They don’t look like the outhouses as we usually imagine.

소변은 '지'라 불리는 요강에, 대변은 '매화틀(매회틀, 매우틀)에서 봄/ 왕의 대변을 '매화'라 하여 '매화틀'/ 대변 볼때 냄새와 소리를 나지 않게 재를 넣었기에 '매회틀'/ 왕의 대변과 소변을 '매우'라고 불렀기에 '매우틀'이라고 부름

[] Punggidae(풍기대)

Leaving Jaseondang Hall and walking toward the northwest of the Jagyeongjeon Hall compound, where Hamhwdang and Jipgyeongdang Halls are, in the left side of the road, there is an uncommon stone pillar engraved with an arabsque design; that is Punggidae
Punggidae was one of the scientific measuring tools like a sundial and a rain gauge installed in the palace for the purpuse of astronomical and meteorological observations. These tools show how much effort the Joseon Dynasty put into observing weather changes, as they believed agriculture was the backbone of the nation.
There was a groove on top of Punggidae where a flag was fixed, so that the direction and the speed of the winds could be measured.

ㅇ 무덤

ㅇ 엄숙한, 중대한

ㅇ ...을 새기다

Bandit_Tour