Geunjeongjeon Hall

The center of Gyeongbokgung, Geunjeongjeon. From outside it looks like two stories, but looking inside, it is one story. Joseon architecture is different from outside and inside.

Two dragons are hung from the ceiling. Seven claws each. The four-clawed dragon (sa-jo-ryong) was the symbol of Joseon's kings, and the five-clawed dragon (o-jo-ryong) could only be used by the Chinese emperor. Yet in 1867, when Heungseon Daewongun reconstructed Gyeongbokgung, he hung a seven-clawed dragon from the ceiling of Geunjeongjeon. It was a declaration to the heavens of Joseon's independence and pride.

Behind the throne, the Ilwol-Obongdo folding screen spreads out — sun and moon, five peaks, pine tree, waterfall, waves. This screen symbolizes the place where the king sits. Behind the throne, this screen was always spread. In the center of the screen, you can see there is a door. When the king came to Geunjeongjeon, he entered through the back door and opened the door of this screen to come out.

On the platform of Geunjeongjeon sit thirty-six animal sculptures. They serve as guards to prevent evil energy from approaching the king's space. On the roof sit the samjang (three patriarchs) and Son Oh-gong's party as japsang (decorative roof figures). All of them are in pairs. It means yin and yang are in harmony and descendants will flourish.

On the platform are iron bowls called deum. They always held water. There is a reason. Long ago, a fire demon lived on Namsan mountain, and its face was very hideous. Once, the fire demon came to Gyeongbokgung to start a fire, but saw its own face reflected in the deum and was so surprised it ran away in terror. Wooden buildings are helpless against fire. So deum were placed with the meaning of preventing fire.

Standing in the courtyard of Geunjeongjeon today and looking up at the platform, thirty-six guardian sculptures, the seven-clawed dragon, and the deum come into view all at once. Joseon's pride is piled up in layers at this place.

Behind Geunjeongjeon is Sajeongjeon, the king's workplace.

🎧 Audio Guide

Geunjeongjeon Hall

Photo Gallery

Geunjeong means to ‘diligently engage in politics.’ Jeong Do-Jeon, who named Geunjeongjeon, said to the King, quoting a phrase in Seogyeong (Book of Documents): “The diligence of the king is to listen to the state affairs in the morning, search for wise men during the day, modify laws and regulations, and relax your body at night. Furthermore, it is diligence to find and quickly use wise men. I ask for naming with this.”

Woldae is a wide podium in front of an important building such as the jeongjeon (royal audience hall) in a palace. It usually has a square shape with no roof or any other facilities. This name originated from Wolgyeondae, which means ‘a podium for looking at the moon.’ In most cases, the Woldae was used for people to stand on to participate in large events, such as congratulatory and auspicious ceremonies or ancestral rituals at a palace.

Gidan is used to deliver the weight of a building evenly to the ground, to protect the building from rainwater and groundwater, and raise the building from the ground to make it look solemn and dignified. Geunjeongjeon, Injeongjeon, and Myeongjeongjeon were built on two layers of platforms much larger than the floor size, erecting an additional platform around the building site. The bottom two platforms are called Woldae. For Geunjeongjeon, this woldae was surrounded with a stone rail to give it more dignity.

The Geunjeongjeon woldae has stone stairs at four directions, and there are three types of stone statues on the top of the rail pillars. The first one is the statue of four gods (Cheongnyong, Baekho, Jujak, and Hyeonmu), which guards the four directions, the second is the twelve statues symbolizing the directions and times, and the last is the seosu statue.

The twelve zodiacal animals play the role of time deities and direction deities. They are guardians who block evil energies from that direction at that time. In other words, they symbolize the blocking of evil energies from all directions to Geunjeongjeon and realize byeoksagubok (block misfortune and seek fortune) at all times.

The only place where the statues of twelve zodiacal animal deities guarding the kings who went to heaven are placed is Geunjeongjeon. These statues not only protect the sacred world of kings from evil energies, but also raise Geunjeongjeon to the celestial world. The principle of change over time was applied to the arrangement, but the arrangement of these statues on the woldae sometimes does not match the principle of ohaeng (five processes). The positions of the rabbit and cow were reversed and the tiger that must be at the east-north-east is sitting on the top column at the south.
The dog and pig are missing from the woldae.

Blue dragon (Cheongnyong) at the east, white tiger (Baekho) at the west, red bird (Jujak) at the south, and black turtle (Hyeonmu) at the north. The four deities are symbolic animals that represent the east, west, south, and north, and support the order of the universe. They are also called four spirits and four beasts. They are sitting on top of the handrails on the Sangwoldae. The pictures on the arch ceilings of four grand gates are also four deities. Geunjeongjeon is at the center of four grand gates and there is a royal dragon on the ceiling of Geunjeongjeon, which is the apex of the four deities in Woldae. The royal dragon at the center symbolizes the commander of all creation who is supported by the four deities.

Japsangs are decorative tiles and clay figurines (dolls made by baking clay).
Xuanzang, Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie, and Sha Wujing are representative japsangs. Geunjeongjeon, the foremost building of Gyeongbokgung, has seven japsangs, Sungnyemun has nine, and Gyeonghoeru has eleven. They have a decorative effect, but they also play a role of guardians protecting the building from evil. The japsangs are of odd numbers of pairs and the more important palace has more japsangs.

Deumeu is a large container used for storing water. These water containers made of cast iron are at the corners of the east and west woldaes. The water in a deumeu is for reminding people that they should always be prepared for a contingency, rather than for fire fighting. Another theory says that deumeus were always filled with water to make the spirit of fire see its own fearful image reflected on the water and run away.

This is presumed to be a symbol of royal authority and it represents the hope that people would live comfortably and receive fortune from the heavens. This originated from the old story that King Wu in the Xia Dynasty made nine caldrons from irons gathered from nine provinces across the country.

In 1916, the Japanese imperialists demolished Heungnyemun and established Joseon Chongdokbu (the Government General of Korea). It intentionally hid Geunjeongjeon. Even after liberation in 1945 and the Korean War, the Joseon Chongdokbu building was used as a national museum. In 1995, as part of the Gyeongbokgung restoration project, the Joseon Chongdokbu building was blown up. Heungnyemun was built again, even though it was not the same gate that was built by Jeong Do-Jeon. Nevertheless, it is a precious gate that we have maintained for a long time.

Photo Gallery

Videos