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Do you know who Gojong is? He is the first and final emperor of the Chosun Dynasty. So he could use the dragon as his symbol unlike other Chosun kings. Also he made Wongudan which represnts "the emperor." Because of these reasons, we can find lots of symbols that represents the emperor in Gyeongun Palace. He lived in Gyeongun Palace and we can call it Dukso Palace because the Japanese changed the name. Gojong's living quarter is Hamnyeongieon. He died in Hamnyeongieon too. When he was alive he liked to drink coffee in Jeonggwanqheon with his officials. Coffee was rare in Korea in those days so officials didn't know how to drink coffee. They just drank it down even when it was very hot. I can understand this because it's from the western side and it was a very rare drink in Chosun.
There are some buildings with western styles unlike other palaces in Gyeongun Palace such as Seokjojeon and Jeonggwangheon. Seokjojeon is made of stones. It has a reception hall, bedrooms for the king and queen, and a living room for government officials. Jeonggwanghen which was the king's relaxing place shows mixture of architecture designs. This peticuliar difference between the other buildings made me think it's very odd.
In conclusion, the most impressive thing was the colorful and beautiful paintings called "danchung." It has red, black, white, green and yellow and all of the colors represents five materials. For instance red means fire, black means water, white means metal, green means plant or tree, and yellow means earth. I think that's quite interesting and very meaningful.
Good job! Excellent! Just be careful with some sentences as you forget the words "the" such as "the king."  |
