Jongmyo Shrine

Jongmyo Shrine is the shrine where the spirit tablets of the kings and queens of the Joseon Dynasty, together with those of kings and queens honoured posthumously, are enshrined. It comprises Jeongjeon, the original main hall, Yeongnyeongjeon Hall, a separate shrine, and several auxiliary buildings. Construction began in 1394, the third year of King Taejo's reign, when the capital was moved to Hanyang, and it was completed the following year, the fourth year of King Taejo. King Taejo enshrined in Jeongjeon the spirit tablets of four kings honoured posthumously — Mokjo, Ikjo, Dojo and Hwanjo — but when King Jeongjong died during the reign of King Sejong there was no spirit chamber available for him, so, following the system of the Chinese Song dynasty, Yeongnyeongjeon Hall was built in 1421, the third year of King Sejong, and the spirit tablets of the four posthumously honoured kings were moved there. Jeongjeon and Yeongnyeongjeon were burned down during the Japanese invasion of 1592 and rebuilt in 1608. Jeongjeon has since been extended several times and now comprises nineteen bays, housing the spirit tablets of nineteen kings and thirty queens. In the courtyard in front of Jeongjeon stands Gongsindang, a shrine holding the tablets of eighty-three meritorious subjects of the Joseon period, and Chilsadang, a shrine to seven deities associated with folk belief and Confucian thought. Yeongnyeongjeon Hall has sixteen chambers housing the spirit tablets of fifteen kings, seventeen queens, and Yi Eun — son of Emperor Gojong and the last crown prince of Joseon — and his crown princess. Jongmyo has the largest total floor area of any single wooden building of its era anywhere in the world, and yet it is unadorned, embodying Confucian frugality. Whereas the Chinese imperial ancestral shrine, the Taemyo, has nine bays, Jongmyo's nineteen-bay façade, with its emphasis on the horizontal line, is a uniquely striking building without parallel anywhere in the world, and it is a valuable resource for studying the character and features of ancient East Asian culture. Jeongjeon, Yeongnyeongjeon and their surrounding setting have been preserved in their original form, and the original forms of the Jongmyo Jerye rite and its music and dance have also been well transmitted; Jongmyo was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995, and Jongmyo Jerye and Jongmyo Jeryeak were inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2001.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Jongno-gu, Seoul

Designation

Historic Site · 사적