White Mulberry of Changdeokgung Palace

The White Mulberry of Changdeokgung Palace stands beside the wall that forms the boundary with Changgyeonggung Palace, near the entrance to Changdeokgung's viewing pond. At 17.2 m tall with a trunk girth of 2.9 m at breast height, it is an unusually large old tree for a mulberry, and the largest and most handsomely shaped of all the mulberry trees within Changdeokgung. Joseon was traditionally an agrarian society, and as the term nongsang (農桑, "farming and mulberry cultivation") suggests, raising mulberry trees alongside farming, to rear silkworms and weave silk, was one of the most important tasks of the state throughout the Joseon period. The court planted and tended mulberry trees in the rear gardens of its palaces to encourage sericulture among the people. The earliest record of mulberry trees being planted in a Joseon palace is found in the Veritable Records of King Taejong (third month, ninth year of his reign): after the construction of Changdeokgung, in 1409, the ninth year of King Taejong, the king ordered mulberry trees to be planted in the palace garden in imitation of the gongsang (公桑, "public mulberry") system of King Cheng of the Chinese Zhou dynasty — the first official record of its kind. Besides the Veritable Records of King Taejong, the Veritable Records of King Seongjong also record that the king spoke to the Royal Secretariat of the importance of sericulture and ordered mulberry trees planted in the rear garden, and that the queen herself reared silkworms there and performed the chinjamnye (親蠶禮, the royal silkworm-rearing rite), offering rites to Seoreungssi, the deity of sericulture said to have first taught humankind how to raise silkworms. Sericulture had long been regarded as a valuable national industry, and the royal court accordingly placed great importance on mulberry trees. In 1911 the Japanese Government-General of Korea converted Seohyanggak Hall, to the left of Juhamnu Pavilion in Changdeokgung's rear garden, into a sericulture facility and held the chinjamnye there; records also show that the ceremony was performed at Juhamnu Pavilion itself on 17 June 1925, 15 June 1929 and 26 June 1939. The White Mulberry of Changdeokgung Palace is an important tree that reflects this facet of the palace's history, including the performance of the chinjamnye, and is a precious natural heritage of great historical and cultural value that must be protected and managed; it is accordingly designated and protected as a natural monument.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Jongno-gu, Seoul

Designation

Natural Monument · 천연기념물