Chilsanjeong Pavilion, Miryang

Chilsanjeong, in Michon-ri, Danjang-myeon, was built in 1863, the 14th year of King Cheoljong's reign, as a lodging for ritual observances at the grave of Son Eung-yong (pen name Chilsan, 1741–1822) — a 20th-generation descendant of Son Eung, founding ancestor of the Iljik Son clan, and a 13th-generation descendant of Son Jo-seo (pen name Gyeokjae). It later burned down and was rebuilt in 1906. According to another account, his great-grandson Son Geon built it in September 1868 and gave the hall the names Moseonjae and Guhodang, but it burned down again in 1895, and his fifth-generation descendant Son Gi-hyeong rebuilt it in 1906, renaming it Chilsanjeong. The scale and layout of the present main hall and its side wings correspond closely with the contents of the Moseonjeonggi, a record of the hall's reconstruction, suggesting that the 1906 rebuilding followed the form of the original building; this architectural history is directly reflected in the structure and style of the building. The wooden floor of the main hall appears to have served as a venue for ancestral-rite gatherings, while the ondol (heated-floor) rooms on either side served as lodgings for the officiants. The side wing, which combines ondol rooms with a raised wooden floor, appears to have served the functions of a jeonsacheong (hall for preparing ritual food) and a jikbang (attendants' room), while the kitchen function of preparing the ritual offerings seems to have been carried out in the mill building and in a now-demolished caretaker's house. The main hall has a central-hall-and-side-chamber plan with developed front and rear verandas, and is notable for the storage spaces and open multipurpose areas placed behind the ondol rooms, features not seen in earlier periods. The fact that the column spacing differs between the centre and the two ends of the main hall reflects a departure from structural convention in pursuit of a new floor-plan arrangement, a characteristic of early modern architecture. At Cheongsongnu, the pavilion's upper loft, four-panel lift-up doors were installed so that the wooden floor and the ondol room could be combined into a single space when needed, a feature designed with the clan's ritual gatherings in mind; the plank doors at the rear of the floor and around it show a variation on the traditional plank door. The upper structure and the column-and-beam work of the main hall are simple but solid, and the dimensions, form and joinery of the columns and beams follow traditional methods. The side wing, with its raised floor projecting at the front, is more finely and elaborately built than the main hall; column-head blocks and small corbel blocks were used to finish the raised floor so that it could be spatially joined to the rest of the building. Forming a raised floor at the end of a building by making use of the natural slope of the ground is one of the characteristic techniques found in the pavilions of the Miryang region in this period. The technique of using scroll-shaped members to support the purlin support beneath the ridge purlin also appears in the main hall, and shows a solid, highly decorative character in the upper framework compared with the column-and-beam work. Built in the early 20th century to serve both as a private retreat and as a ritual hall, Chilsanjeong well illustrates the trends and characteristics of ritual-hall architecture built by the local gentry of the Miryang region during the turbulent period spanning the end of the Joseon dynasty and the early modern era.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Miryang, Gyeongnam

Designation

Cultural Heritage Material · 문화유산자료