Jeonggwajeong Pavilion Historic Site

Jeonggwajeong is the place where Jeong Seo, a Goryeo-period civil official, built a pavilion and cultivated a melon patch while in exile, composing the Goryeo song Jeonggwajeonggok in longing for his king. According to records such as the Dongguk yeoji seungnam and the Dongnaebuji, Gwajeong ('Melon Pavilion') 'is located ten li south of Dongnae-bu; the pavilion no longer stands, but its site remains.' Based on this record, the present-day site of Jeonggwajeong is thought to lie along the banks of the Suyeong River, in the area between the Suyeong Sewage Treatment Plant and Goryeo Jegang. However, most of this area has lost its original topography to development, and only about 1,240 pyeong of green space around San 6-2, Mangmi 2-dong, retains its original terrain. Here stands a rock called Gyeongam (also known as Yongdugot), together with a protected tree and a poem monument to Jeonggwajeong erected in 1984 by the Tohyanghoe society — a place of fine natural scenery. It is said that, based here, Jeong Seo crossed the stream called Oonggeonnae to tend his melon patch, and also climbed Mangsan ('Watching Mountain', now the site of the Mangmi Jugong Apartments across the urban expressway) to gaze towards Gaegyeong, the capital where the king resided, and to offer a cup of wine in the king's honour towards the mountain opposite — so that the mountain, originally written 背山 ('Back Mountain'), came to be written 盃山 ('Cup Mountain'). Jeong Seo was a Goryeo-period literary figure whose family seat was Dongnae and whose pen name was Gwajeong; his birth and death years are unknown. He was the son of Jeong Hang, who held the post of Deputy Director of the Privy Council, and, as the husband of a younger sister of Queen Gongye, consort of King Injong, he enjoyed royal favour. He rose to the post of Naesi jungnang, a royal attendant office, but in 1151, the fifth year of King Uijong, he was slandered by Jeong Ham and Kim Jon-jung and exiled to Dongnae and then to Geoje, before being released in 1170, the first year of King Myeongjong. He excelled in writing; his works include the Gwajeongjapseo and the Jeonggwajeonggok, composed in exile. The Jeonggwajeonggok, the song Jeong Seo composed in exile at Dongnae, is recorded in the Treatise on Music of the Goryeosa together with an account of its composition and an interpretive verse by Yi Je-hyeon; its Korean-language lyrics survive in the Akhak gwebeom, and the Daeak hubo records both the lyrics and the musical notation. It is the only Goryeo song surviving in the Korean vernacular whose author is known. Because it expresses, with poignant sincerity, a loyal subject's longing for his king while in exile, it became widely known as a 'song of a loyal subject longing for his lord', and for this reason was adopted as a court yaak piece performed at royal ceremonies, studied by court entertainers and scholar-officials alike. It also became the wellspring of later 'songs longing for the lord' such as Jeong Cheol's Sa mi-in gok and Sok mi-in gok of the Joseon period, so that the Jeonggwajeonggok can be regarded as both a model 'song of a loyal subject longing for his lord' and the origin of Korean exile literature. In literary form it consists of a single ten-line stanza; musically it was sung as Samjinjak, the fastest tempo among the popular court music pieces, divided into eleven musical phrases. The Jeonggwajeong Pavilion Historic Site is therefore of great literary and historical importance as the place where Jeong Seo composed the Jeonggwajeonggok while in exile — the only vernacular Goryeo song whose author is known, holding an important place in the study of Korean gasa literature, and regarded as both a 'song of a loyal subject longing for his lord' and the wellspring of Korean exile literature.

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Where it is

Region

Suyeong-gu, Busan

Designation

Provincial Monument · 시도기념물