Gungnamji Pond, Buyeo

Gungnamji Pond is a pond built beside a detached palace of Baekje, south of Buyeo. It is thought to have been made in the reign of King Mu of Baekje, and takes its name from a passage in the Samguk sagi (History of the Three Kingdoms) recording that "a pond was dug south of the palace." According to the Samguk sagi, water was drawn in through a channel more than 20 li (roughly 8 km) long, willows were planted around the pond, and an island was made in the middle to represent Mount Bangjang, one of the mythical mountains of the immortals. However, the actual form of the channel, the shoreline and the island within the pond is not known. Stone embankments and willows remaining at the centre of the pond show that an island once stood there, and Baekje pottery and roof tiles have been excavated in the vicinity. The original size of the pond is likewise uncertain, but records of boating parties held there give some idea of its scale. The ancient Chinese believed that in the middle of the East Sea stood the Three Spirit Mountains, three islands inhabited by immortals and regarded as a kind of utopia, and that by recreating these mountains within a garden pond they might hope for eternal youth and long life. Gungnamji Pond was made in imitation of this idea and is known as a "garden of the immortals." To the east of the pond remain the foundations of what appears to have been the detached palace of the time. Today a well and foundation stones thought to have belonged to the palace survive around the pond, and a pavilion and a wooden bridge have been built within it. The site's official name was changed from Gungnamji to Gungnamji Pond, Buyeo, as announced on 28 July 2011.

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Where it is

Region

Buyeo, Chungnam

Designation

Historic Site · 사적