Do you know the old name of Seoul? It was called Hanyang and was the capital city of Joseon. But Hanyang was smaller than the Seoul these days. Now I would like to talk about how Hanyang was chose as a capital city and the social status of Joseon.

In 1392, king Taejo established Joseon after Goryeo. After few years in 1394, he chose Hanyang as a capital city of Joseon. There were three reasons why he chose Hanyang: Feng shui, Confucianism, and Korea's tradition. Hanyang had Han river which helped the soil to be fertile. Since Han river made the soil fertile, Goguryeo, Baekje, and silla faught hard with each other to occupy the area of Han river in the past. This means that Hanyang was a good place for people to agriculture because they had Han river flowing. Also Hanyang was surrounded by four mountains. The mountains protected Hanyang from the enemies. These are the advantages of Hanyang, the capital city of Joseon.

In Joseon, they had a strict social status. The status was divided into king, royal families, noble mans, middle class, common people, and the slaves. People lived a totally different life according to their classes. Their clothes, foods, jobs, and many other things were all different. Even the area they lived were seperated.

Royal familes, high level officials and noble mans lived in Bukchon. Bukchon was located between Gyeongbokgung and Changdeokgung. It was the best place to live. Middle class people such as merchants, translators and doctors lived in Jungchon which was a strip between what is Jongno and Cheonggyecheon today. Lastly, in Namchon poor noble mans lived there. I guess common peole lived all over the villages and slaves lived with their masters. And these three villages: Bukchon, Jungchon and Namchon was the neighborhoods of Hanyang.

I think the status in the past was unfair and some of them still exist these days. But fortunately it is not strict as the one in the past. I hope all of the people can be equal and live a happy life.