King's Room and His Symbol Drawing

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There are 2 king's building in Gyeong Bok Goong. The first one is Geun Jeong Jeon which is office building for the official ceremonies and the announcement of the laws.

The other room is daily working room in the name of Sa Jeong Jeon. Sa means 'thinking', Jeong means 'politics', Jeon means 'palace'

So there are some differences between two buildings. The first one is very official as I posted before, so every ornament and decorations are magnificent and have their own specific meaning according to Confucian philosophy.

Let's look at the official building closer. You could see the king's chair at the center of the Geun Jeong Jeon. Behind the chair, you can find a drawing.
That drawing is the symbol of the king. The name of the drawing is 'sun, moon, 5 peak'

This drawing is very unique as a symbol of the king as comparing to different kingdoms. King had to be with this drawing all his life. In this drawing, every object have a multiplicity of meanings. For example, sun and moon means day and night, yin and yang. 5 peaks means 5 representative mountains in Korea, and 5 virtues in Confucianism as well. This drawing was composed of 2 parts. One is Sky, the other is land. So one part should be added to accomplish the drawing. Last part is human, the king. So this drawing could be perfect when a king was sitting in front of the drawing.

Whenever king was moving, the drawing was followed. Even this drawing had been buried with the king in the tomb. The drawing was king's country that he must took a responsible even at the after life

There was a similar drawing in king's working room, Sa Jeong Jeon.

Around the official building, there are many statues which means seasons and months. In oriental society, each month has it's symbolic animal. For example, rat for Jan, cow for feb and tiger for march, etc. You can find these stone animal statues around the official king's building. At that time, seasons and months were very important for king to rule his people.

It is because that Choson dynasty was based on the agricultural economy. So king should know the exact timing of farming.

So I took the pics of stone animals for you my dear Steemians. Among them, only one imaginary animal dragon was included. Nobody could explain me the reason why dragon was included. In my guess, it is because the dragon was believed to control the rain. As you know, in ancient society raining was the most important condition for farming.

dragon for May. season to seed, when raining was most required

rat

rabbit

tiger

horse

Chicken

It seemed like that I missed other animals. Sorry.

Thank you for reading