Guarding Joseon’s capital, an emblem of the city

The Korea Herald is publishing “Korea’s Cultural Pride,” a 10-part series on the country’s cultural and natural heritage. A total of nine tangible and 14 intangible examples of heritage in Korea have already been designated UNESCO World Heritage items for international preservation. This year,15 cultural properties are on the tentative list, awaiting designation. This installment explores the Seoul City Wall, the Joseon-period city wall that guarded the capital and was also an intrinsic part of people’s everyday lives. ― Ed.


During Korea’s Joseon period (1392-1910), people believed that their capital city Hanyang, today’s Seoul, was protected by the four sacred mountains surrounding it.

The mountains, Baegaksan Mountain to the north, Namsan Mountain to the south, Naksan Mountain to the east, and Inwangsan Mountain to the west, were represented by four mythological and auspicious animals according to their locations. Namsan Mountain, for example, was linked with the Azure Dragon, the animal that symbolized the season of spring and the direction of the east. Inwangsan Mountain, on the other hand, was represented by the white tiger ― the animal of the west and the season of fall.

Built along the ridge of these mountains in 1395 by King Taejo, the founder of Joseon, Seoul City Wall reflects feng shui (“pungsu” in Korean) principles, as well as the beginning of today’s Seoul.

The 18,627 km-long city walls survived a number of wars and the country’s modernization, mostly because of their unique and harmonious presence along the mountain ridges. Its architecture corresponds with the principles of feng shui, yin and yang, and the sense of connectedness with nature. Throughout the more than 500-year history of Joseon, it functioned as a boundary between the capital and the rest of the nation, a landmark closely linked with the everyday lives of the people ― while forming a unified structure with the local topography.

“Many countries in Europe and China demolished their city walls in their process of industrialization,” said local scholar Shin Young-moon.

“Many capital cities have been founded on plains, unlike Seoul. And when the walls became of no use as defensive structures after the invention of gunpowder, they got rid of them and created roads. China’s beltways in Beijing, as well as Vienna’s Ringstrasse, a circular road surrounding Vienna’s Innere Stadt district, are some of the examples.”

For King Taejo, building the walls had a significant purpose. He wanted to stabilize the capital of his newly founded nation, on top of everything else. Korea’s Goryeo Kingdom (918-1392), which was overthrown by Taejo, had its capital in Gaegyeong, which is today’s Gaeseong in North Hwanghae Province of southern North Korea. For the king who used to be a Goryeo general, reinforcing Hanyang’s defense and security was important.

Some 118,000 laborers from different regions of the country were mobilized to build the wall. It took them a total of 49 days to build the structure, which connected the four sacred mountains of the city. The king’s grand project was heavily indebted to the workers, who did not get any place to stay in the harsh winter weather, away from home. Many of them were injured and even died from working day and night. They also suffered severe frostbite from sleeping on the streets.

Among the laborers was the father of a young girl named Dorijang, whose story of filial duty is still told today. The girl from South Jeolla Province famously walked all the way to Seoul, dressed as a man, after hearing her father became ill from days of harsh labor. She managed to bring him home safely, after spending many days of looking after him away from their hometown.

The wall, built by the people, was closely associated with their lives throughout the next 500 years ― along with the four mountains. One of the wall’s four gates, Sungnyemun Gate (the South Gate), was where people of Hanyang greeted their visitors from other regions of the country and saw them off. It was the place of reunions and good-byes. Many aristocrats would also gather in front of the gate, drinking and sharing food with each other.

Up until the Japanese invasion of Joseon, there used to be a pond named Namji in front of the gate, which was created according to the principles of feng shui; it symbolized the people’s wish to protect the gate from fire.

In a folk painting created by Joseon artist Lee Gi-ryong in 1629, 12 old aristocrats, all retired from their official positions, share food and drinks in front of Sungnyemun Gate and the pond.

“These men in the painting were the major force behind the coup of 1623, which dethroned Gwanghaegun and crowned King Injo as the new king,” explained scholar Yun Chin-yong from the Academy of Korean Studies.

“Many of them lived near Namsan Mountain, while some others lived near Donuimun, the West Gate. They’d have social gatherings at Sungnyemun, mostly because the gate was located between those two areas of Seoul.”

Inwangsan Mountain, on the other hand, was often praised for its beauty. Many artists featured it in their works, including well-known landscape painter Jeong Seon (1676-1759). He, along with other scholars and writers at the time, sought ways to break way from Chinese influence and pursue “jingyeong,” or “true view,” of Joseon in his works. One of his most famous paintings is in fact the painting of Inwangsan Mountain, officially titled “Clearing after Rain on Inwangsan Mountain” (1751). The artist painted the mountain after the death his close friend and scholar Yi Byeong-yeon (1671-1751) in the same year.

Meanwhile, today’s Seochon area in Seoul, which stretches from the west of the Gyeongbokgung Palace to the foot of Inwangsan Mountain, was known as the residential community of “jungin.” The skilled professionals, such as medical doctors, painters, astronomers and foreign language translators, belonged in the middle ground between the aristocrats and the commoners. They experienced both caste privileges and discrimination for their ambiguous social status, which created a unique collective culture that reflected their professional caliber and political aspirations. Many of their works, especially poems and paintings, featured exquisite scenery of the mountain they lived near.

The Seoul City Wall can be also found in Joseon’s celebrated painter Kim Hong-do (1745-1806)’s work. The painting, which is currently housed in Guimet Museum in Paris, features a group of aristocrats enjoying a barbecue along with gisaeng, Joseon’s female courtesans, on a snow-covered mountain. Viewers can see the Seoul City Wall in the background of the painting, which blends beautifully with the rest of the surroundings.

“This particular painting is valuable because eating beef was in fact banned in Joseon,” said Shin. “It was mostly because cows were very rare at the time. But many aristocrats ate them anyway in secret. We do not know where this scene was captured by artist Hong; we have yet to identify the mountain in this painting. But the Seoul City Wall in the background shows the link between its presence and the lives of people in Hanyang.”

Scholar Shin recommends hitting the top of Baegaksan Mountain or Inwangsan Mountain to experience the view of Seoul as well as the Seoul City Wall.

“They are the best spots to see how the major palaces, shrines, and gates were planned and placed the way they are,” Shin told The Korea Herald. “One will be able to realize that this is in fact an old city with a long, rich history. The view offers an opportunity to have a grasp of how the early buildings of Seoul were built in harmony with nature, with much philosophy and thought.”

The Seoul walls were included on the tentative list of UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites in 2010. The government is submitting nomination proposals for inclusion on the list on Jan. 31. The selection of new sites will be announced in June 2013.

By Claire Lee (dyc@heraldcorp.com)