#king gojong

[jojal-jojalkorean]

History Traveling: Trip to Deoksugung Palace

*All of the pictures (unless I add a credit) are taken by me! - Admin Sun :D

*There's a vocabulary list at the end related to this trip and the historical period of the Daehan Empire! 😊

↑ A sidewalk tile near Deoksugung palace, featuring art of the buildings

Recently, I got the chance to visit Deoksugung palace in Seoul. It's actually right next to Seoul city hall! I specifically chose Deoksugung palace because it's very unique. Although the palace is built in a 'traditional' korean style, the palace also has European style buildings! That's because Deoksugung palace (Also called Gyeongungung) was used by king Gojong after he proclaimed Joseon's new status as the 'Korean Empire' (대한제국) This is the late 19th century(1897) while other palaces like Gyeongbokgung(the main one) are famous for Joseon history, Deoksugung is mote famous for its time as the heart of the Korean Empire and its Western styled buildings. Since King Gojong was pretty open to Western culture (unlike his father) there's lots of Western styled buildings, and was equipped with products of the west such as electric lights and telephones. As the guide book says,

"Tradition and Modernity Meet at Deoksugung Palace"

↑ this is a picture of city hall I took right in front of Deoksugung palace! The tents in front of City hall is for events. (There was an event the day I visited Deoksugung. It was some international friendship festival or something? I'm not so sure)

The photo below is the photo of the front gate of the palace, " Daehanmun gate". The entrance fee was about 1000won (for an adult) if you're not an adult you get in for free! (But you need something like a school ID card to prove you're a student if you're tall) also, you can get in with a metro card (교통 카드).

The palace offers guidebooks(Program Brochures) in many languages (of course, including English. You can find them just to your left after entering through the main gate) there's also English, Japanese, and Chinese tours. The Audio Tour device (In Korean, English, Japanese, and Chinese) is available for 3000won.

These four pictures below are the Korean styled buildings of Deoksugung. As you can see, it's night so the lights are very pretty! The palace is open until 9 p.m. I really liked the night view because the lights reflected the palace beautifully! One of the photos have traditional Korean structures, Modern structures, and the European style building in the background. I really like that picture because I got all three aspects of this place in one photo!

Also, I took a picture of the beautiful roof of traditional Korean houses. It's super colorful and pretty, I was staring at it and taking pictures for a pretty long time :D

The two photos below are pictures of the Western styled buildings. The first one is the National museum of Modern and Contemporary art, while the second one is the Seokjojeon hall. I also visited the museum (entrance fee is 2000won for adults, students get in for free) and enjoyed the modern art. If you visit Deoksugung palace, please visit the museum too! It's nice and you get to experience Korean art. I wanted to upload some photos, but the photo limit is 10 per post :/

The Seokjojeon hall was built between 1900 and 1910. It consisted of various public spaces including a reception hall and a dining hall. It was the representative Western style building of the Daehan Empire period. As Deoksugung is the Imperial palace of the Daehan Empire, this palace is the scene of modernization. 

However, the original interior of the building was badly damaged as the buildings were used as museums and for other purposes during the Japanese colonization of Korea. (Many palaces and other historical sites were damaged during this period) 

when King Gojong was forced to abdicate the throne in 1907, “Gyeongungung” palace (경운궁, the other name of Deoksugung) was renamed as Deoksugung. 

Chronology of Deoksugung palace (Credit: From the guide book)

1392 Foundation of the Joseon Dynasty (By the first king, 태조 이성계)

1592 Japanese Invasion of Korea (임진왜란. This war is when the famous general on our 100 won coin, 이순신 fought on the famous boat 거북선. The king during this time was Seonjo(선조). 

1608 King Seonjo(선조) is believed to have died at Seogeodang hall; Prince Gwanghae(광해군) is believed to have been crowned at Jeukjodang hall 

1611 Prince Gwanghae moves into Changdeokgung palace and names the palace “Gyeongungung palace”

1876 The treaty of Ganghwa starts the open-door policy (강화도 조약, 개화 정책)

1896 King Gojong takes shelter in the Russian Legation/Embassy (아관파천/ He took shelter in the Russian Legation Because his wife was murdered, he felt his life was in danger. His wife, queen Min was murdered by Japanese assassins (The Eulmi incident 을미사변). ) Actually, the American,British, Russian, Canadian, Dutch, and Norwegian embassies are near Deoksugung. However the current Russian embassy is not the one King Gojong took refuge in. If you want to visit the old Russian embassy, it’s near the American one. (Sorry for the TMI :)

1897 King Gojong moves into Gyeongungung palace and declares the Daehan Empire.

1905 Eulsaneugyak (을사늑약. It’s kind of a forced treaty signed in the year ‘Eulsa’ which is why it’s called 을사늑약. Usually treaties are called 조약, But as this one was forced we call it 늑약 instead.) is forcefully concluded amid an atmosphere of threats and intimidation at Jungmyeongjeon hall. I’ll talk more about 을사늑약 when I explain the history of the Daehan Empire later on a different post.

1907 Gyeongungung palace is renamed to Deoksugung palace.

1910 Completion of Seokjojeon hall. Korea is deprived of its national sovereignty by the Japanese.

1945 Korean Liberation (August 15th) I have a post about this day here! 

2010 Opening of Exhibition room at Jungmeuongjeon hall

2014 Opening of the Daehan Empire history museum at Seokjojeon hall

Vocabulary List 

궁전: Palace

서양: The west

동양: The east/ The Orient

미술관: Art Gallery

문물: culture, the products of civilization

서구 문물: European civilization

사상: thought/ idea

주장: Opinion

현대: Modern times (today/present)

근대: Modern times (Era) 

시대: time, period, era

제국: Empire

왕국: Kingdom

왕조: Dynasty

황제: Emperor

개항: Opening a port (to foreign trade)

대사관: Embassy

공사관: Legation

시청: City hall

투어/관광: Tour

사변: Incident

조약: Treaty

늑약: Unwilling treaty

정책: Policy

정치: Politics

정치인: Politician

체결하다:to conclude (a treaty or something)

전쟁: war, warfare

전투: battle

독립: Independence

Well that’s it for today’s post! If you ever get a chance to visit Korea, please take the time to visit the palaces! All of them are very beautiful, and you can learn a lot from them. I hope this post was helpful in some way! Have a nice day <3

If there’s any typos, please tell us.

-Written by Admin Sun

-Edited by Admin Seo, Admin Gyu, and Admin Yu

[royal-confessions]

“I feel bad about the lives of some royal ladies like Empress Wanrong (Qing Dynasty) and Empress Myeongseong (Korean Empire/Joseon). It is as if they married the wrong husbands—they are both bright women who clearly outshone their respective husbands—and marrying into the royal family contributed to their sad ends.” - Submitted by Anonymous

[anditendshowyoudexpect]

even the king can’t resist our boi Eugene’s stoic charm - how long do you think a girl in love can stay away?

[anditendshowyoudexpect]

the king's vision was chilling

Lee Seung Joon acts the shit out of his part

[homerhulbert]

Homer Hulbert a Man of the (Korean) People

I started working as an intern at the Hulbert Memorial Society in Seoul, South Korea this past week.  The Hulbert Memorial Society is a Korean nonprofit that is dedicated to gathering resources about Homer Hulbert and disseminating information about his accomplishments to the world.  They have had a few interns in the past, but I am the first one from my university so I didn’t know what to expect other than what I had gleaned from my professor Hope May, and a few short emails to the man in charge Dong Jin Kim.  I also did not know much about Homer Hulbert himself because there are not many resources about him available online, but that all changed after the first week in Seoul.

http://www.hulbert.or.kr/english/sub01.asp

-Hulbert Memorial Society’s website

My first day at the Hulbert Memorial Society I was greeted by a man that helps at the society from time to time named Mr. Jung.  He did not speak much English, which made my first few minutes at the society a little confusing.  After Mr. Kim showed up, we were able to start discussing my internship and a little bit about the society itself.  Once introductions were over we had lunch and talked about Homer Hulbert and why the society works so hard to get resources about him and subsequently why they work hard to get the world to recognize his achievements.  Homer Hulbert was an American that lived in Seoul for a few decades, which begged the question why focus on him and not a Korean from the same period?

-Homer Hulbert

It turns out that Homer Hulbert was a very influential person during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century Korea, and was tasked with several duties of extremely high importance.  Why was a foreigner in a country that had barely opened up to the outside world able to make such an impact on Korean history?  It all started with his first job in Korea as a teacher for the first school to be taught in the western style in Korea.  This is where he taught English among other subjects to a small number of Korean nobles, he even got to meet he king because of this first job.  He spent several years as a teacher in Seoul, and even brought his family over to Korea with him, making the move to Korea semi-permanent as he and his family moved back and forth between the USA and Korea a few times.

After teaching for a few years, Hulbert worked on the Independent, the first Korean newspaper in Hangul, as its English version editor.  He gradually became closer to the King Gojong, as well as the Korean people earning their trust to the point where he served in a special guard to the King after the queen was assassinated in 1895.  Hulbert went on to start the “Korea Review”, which was an English language journal, in 1901 and had subscribers in nineteen countries.  In 1907, he went to The Hague Peace Conference on behalf of Korea to argue against Japan’s moves to take over Korea, and in that, same year went to President Roosevelt on behalf of King Gojong to plead for help with Japan.

http://opil.ouplaw.com/view/10.1093/law:epil/9780199231690/law-9780199231690-e305

-For more background on The Hague Peace Conferences of 1889 and 1907

-King Gojong of Korea

He was subsequently exiled from Korea when the Japanese officially took over as he was a threat to them, but he never stopped opposing Japan writing for many publications and speaking all over the world about Japan’s atrocities.  He was a true Korean Independence Patriot, one of the few foreign ones.  His contributions number much greater than what I listed above as he worked as a teacher and publisher for several decades, working to make Korea better as well as spreading the word about the wonderful country to the entire world.

http://homerhulbert.com/Writings/index.html

-Several of his books, articles, and lectures are listed or available to read here.

I learned a great deal about Homer Hulbert during my first week in the office.  This was done mostly by reading two different autobiographies he wrote during his lifetime, one he wrote for family while the other he published.  They were not very long reads but it gave me a lot of insight into his life and how he came to be the man he was.  Aside from the autobiographies I also learned a little from my boss, Dong Jim Kim, when we got lunch together a few times that week.  Learning so much about Hulbert’s life has me really excited to begin my work at the Hulbert Memorial Society.

[platedesignedna]

Acquiring Discovered the Appropriate Picture

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