Jangneung Royal Tomb, Paju

Injo took the throne by coup in 1623 and spent his reign paying for it. The Manchus invaded in 1627 and again in 1636; in the winter of 1637, besieged at Namhansanseong, he came down the mountain to the Han river and performed the ritual of surrender — three kneelings, nine prostrations — before the Qing emperor. Korea was a Qing tributary for the next 250 years. He was buried in 1649 in Paju, at a different site from this one. In 1731 the court moved him here, together with his first queen, after reports that the original grounds were infested with snakes and scorpions; the records are specific about it. The move gave the tomb an unusual feature. The screen stones around the mound carry not the twelve zodiac animals of the early tombs but peonies and lotus flowers, a design that belongs to the eighteenth century, not the seventeenth. The stone figures on the terrace, though, came with the coffins from the old site and are of the older style, so the tomb is two periods at once.

Original Text

Where it is

Region

Paju, Gyeonggi

Designation

Historic Site · 사적