Ritual House at Mongneung Royal Tomb, Guri

Mongneung is the tomb of King Seonjo, the 14th king of Joseon, his first queen, Queen Uiin of the Park clan, and his second queen, Queen Inmok of the Kim clan; it is the third tomb built at the Donggureung Royal Tombs in Guri. The tomb takes the form of a dongwon-igang neung, in which a single Ritual House serves burial mounds placed on separate hills within the same precinct. Originally, Queen Uiin's tomb, Yureung, was built first within the precinct now occupied by Mongneung, in 1600, the 33rd year of King Seonjo. When King Seonjo died in 1608, the year King Gwanghaegun acceded to the throne, his tomb, Mongneung, was built west of Geonwolleung, on the site now occupied by King Heonjong's tomb, Gyeongneung. In 1630, the 8th year of King Injo, following a memorial reporting that the site was waterlogged and unsuitable, the tomb was relocated to its present position, and the names Yureung and Mongneung were combined into the single name Mongneung. When Queen Inmok subsequently died in 1632, the 10th year of King Injo, her tomb was built on the hill east of King Seonjo's tomb, forming the precinct as it exists today. The Ritual House is a building with a "T"-shaped floor plan, used for performing ancestral rites. The surviving Ritual House was originally built at King Seonjo's tomb in 1608, then relocated in 1630 when the tomb was moved, and combined with the existing Ritual House of Queen Uiin's Yureung. After its relocation the building was repaired on several occasions; in particular, its pillars were replaced owing to insect damage on three separate occasions, in 1745, 1749 and 1769, the 21st, 25th and 45th years of King Yeongjo. The Ritual House at Mongneung is a five-bay building comprising a three-bay main hall and a two-bay offering hall. In most ritual houses, a single pillar is set into the side wall of the main hall, with a beam spanning from its centre; unusually, however, the Ritual House at Mongneung has two tall interior pillars that directly support the ridge beam. Its bracket sets are of the dapo type, and overall closely resemble the bracket composition of the Daeseongjeon Hall of the Munmyo Confucian shrine, rebuilt in the early seventeenth century, making the building a valuable case for the study of dapo-style bracketing of this period. The Ritual House at Mongneung today retains the form it took when relocated in 1630, the 8th year of King Injo, and is the only dapo-style Ritual House among the Joseon royal tombs. As it reflects the form and structure of the salmi (bracket arms) before this element became more ornamental, it is of great historical, scholarly and artistic value.

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Where it is

Region

Guri, Gyeonggi

Designation

Treasure · 보물