Sujeongjeon Hall of Gyeongbokgung Palace

Sujeongjeon Hall stands west of Geunjeongjeon Hall, with Gyeonghoeru Pavilion set to its north. The area where Sujeongjeon Hall now stands belonged, in the reign of King Sejong, to the gwollae gaksa, the cluster of government offices inside the palace walls, and was then the site of Jiphyeonjeon, the Hall of Worthies, where scholars researched learning, advised and petitioned the king on major policy, and devised the Korean alphabet, making the area a centre of civil governance. It lay at the point of contact, east of the hall, between the king's domain around Sajeongjeon Hall and the domain of his officials, and the government offices serving the palace were accordingly located here. Sujeongjeon Hall was rebuilt under Emperor Gojong and briefly served as a hall for the king's daily audiences. During the Gabo Reform of 1894 the Deliberative Council on Military and State Affairs of the Korean Empire was housed here, and the hall was later used as a cabinet office. Covered corridors ran along all four sides, with an outer corridor to the south forming an enclosed compound, but these were demolished during the Japanese colonial period, leaving only the main hall standing today. The present building was rebuilt in 1867, the fourth year of Emperor Gojong's reign, together with Geunjeongjeon Hall, Sajeongjeon Hall and Gyeonghoeru Pavilion. At the time of reconstruction it had corridors on all four sides and an outer corridor to the south, but the interior walls and window frames were destroyed during the Japanese colonial period, and the surrounding corridors were entirely demolished in the autumn of 1915, when the Japanese authorities cleared the site as preparatory work for erecting the Government-General building, holding the Joseon Product Exhibition at Gyeongbokgung Palace to mark the fifth anniversary of colonial rule. The name "Sujeong" means "to govern well", and the calligraphy of the hall's name-board was written at the time of reconstruction by Jo Seok-won, a civil official of late Joseon who rose to the post of Deputy Royal Secretary and was accomplished in calligraphy. The Gunggwolji, a record of the palaces compiled in the late Joseon period, describes in some detail the names, scale, style and bay arrangement of Sujeongjeon Hall and its attached corridors. It is a long, imposing single-storey building ten bays wide and four bays deep, facing south, built with a one-high-column, seven-purlin frame, a two-tier ikgong bracket style, and a hipped-and-gabled roof. In front of the hall stands a broad platform, or woldae, built up in four courses of stone. Three flights of steps were set into the platform's front; the central flight alone is flanked by sloping stone slabs to distinguish it from the steps on either side, signifying that this was a hall of daily audience which the king entered and left frequently. On the high foundation, built up in five courses, square wooden columns were set on square plinths, and lattice doors and diamond-pattern transom windows enclosed the building on every side. On the high foundation's left and right sides, fire-boxes were set to heat the ondol-floored rooms within. In plan the hall measures ten bays across the front and four bays in depth; the front outer bay is made wide, so that all ten bays along the ridge direction open into a single continuous wooden-floored hall, with the side and rear outer bays connected to serve as an interior corridor. The bracket sets carry a long, ox-tongue-shaped ikgong bracket arm, above which a block supports an extended beam-head that in turn carries the eave purlin. The ridge and hip ridges of the roof were finished with fired lime plaster and adorned with chwidu, owl-tail ridge-end ornaments, and japsang, rows of guardian figurines. The building's joinery is sturdy and inventive in structure. Sujeongjeon Hall is generally in good condition, both in its exterior and its timber framework, and retains well the appearance it had at the time of reconstruction. It is the only surviving building among the government offices that once stood west of Geunjeongjeon Hall, giving it great historical and architectural value.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Jongno-gu, Seoul

Designation

Treasure · 보물