Nakseonjae Hall of Changdeokgung Palace Buddhist Paintings of Gaesimsa Temple, Seosan (Five

Nakseonjae Hall stands on the boundary between Changdeokgung Palace and Changgyeonggung Palace. Nakseonjae Hall itself, the largest, occupies the far left, with Seokbokheon Hall and Sugangjae Hall adjoining it to the right; behind them lies a beautiful terraced flower garden adorned with plants, ornamental stones and flower-patterned chimneys, and beyond a flower-patterned wall above it stand Sangnyangjeong Pavilion, Hanjeongdang Hall and Chwiunjeong Pavilion. Nakseonjae Hall was originally built as the king's private sleeping quarters, and the following year Seokbokheon Hall was built as the consort's residence and Sugangjae Hall was renovated, giving the compound its present form. Nakseonjae Hall and Yeongyeongdang Hall are the only buildings within the palace built in the style of a scholar-official's private house. Nakseonjae Hall was prepared by King Heonjong in 1847, the 13th year of his reign, for his queen and grand queen dowager, and he used it as a place to affirm the authority of the Joseon royal house and put his reform ambitions into practice. It served as Emperor Gojong's office immediately after the Gapsin Coup of 1884, and later the last Crown Prince Yeong of the Joseon Dynasty, Yi Eun, lived there from 1963 to 1970, while Yi Bang-ja resided there from 1966 to 1989. Nakseonjae Hall has kept its old appearance comparatively well, but Seokbokheon Hall and Sugangjae Hall have been altered to a considerable extent. Passing through Jangnangmun Gate, the main gate set in the south wing, one crosses a broad courtyard to reach Nakseonjae Hall, a building six bays wide and two bays deep, with a west wing joining the south wing at a right angle to its left. The single bay projecting forward at the far left catches the eye, its floor raised on pillar-shaped foundation stones to form an elevated wooden-floored room. Behind this room is a single ondol-heated room, and to its right are arranged a two-bay wooden-floored hall, two ondol rooms and a one-bay attic room, with an unusual ondol room also projecting from the rear of the attic room. Wooden verandas run along the front of the two-bay hall and the ondol rooms, and a narrow board veranda extends the length of the building's rear, making it easy to move between spaces. The building is fitted with windows and doors of a high standard and varied pattern that display the dignity and authority of the palace; in particular the full-moon-shaped opening, called manwolmun, between the elevated room and the ondol room behind it, is outstanding, revealing the special status of the elevated room. Structurally, the building stands on a foundation built of well-dressed, coursed granite, with square plinths and square wooden columns, and has a mul-ikgong bracket style, double eaves and a hipped-and-gabled roof. The mul-ikgong brackets are elegantly carved with scrolling plant motifs, and the beam-heads and beam-supports are decorated in a matching manner to give the building the dignity befitting a palace. The bays between columns are ornamented with small blocks, and beneath the low sill of the elevated room's balustrade hangs a beautifully carved decorative fascia, which sets the elevated section off to even greater effect. In its upper timberwork the main body of the building has a five-purlin frame and the elevated room a three-purlin frame; on the finely finished main beams stand ornate trapezoidal king-posts carved in relief with scrolling plant motifs, which support the ridge purlin. Unlike the residential halls elsewhere within the palace, Nakseonjae Hall was built without coloured dancheong decoration, in the style of a scholar-official's private house, yet it also draws on the forms of palace residential architecture; its varied decorative patterns, rarely found elsewhere, are especially notable, and the building offers a glimpse of the accumulated skill of late Joseon architectural craftsmen, giving it high architectural value. It is also an important building for its historical significance as the actual residential quarters used by members of the Joseon royal family.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Jongno-gu, Seoul

Designation

Treasure · 보물