The Tombs of Korean Kings are the World Cultural Heritage designated by UNESCO, which should be protected and passed to the descendants. A lot of in-depth research is also needed to understand the process and cause of construction and transfer of king...
The Tombs of Korean Kings are the World Cultural Heritage designated by UNESCO, which should be protected and passed to the descendants. A lot of in-depth research is also needed to understand the process and cause of construction and transfer of king’s tomb of Joseon Dynasty.
There were 7 cases of the transfer of original tomb to another place. Out of 7 cases, 5 original sites were confirmed. This Study is to compare the first tomb site of Korean Kings of Jeoseon Dynasty with the second one in terms of Feng Shui, the oriental geography, and find the main cause of the transfer of king’s tomb. The choice and transfer of king’s tomb during Joseon Dynasty was considered a big national event which taught the people the national ideological doctrines, like loyalty to the dynasty and filial piety to the parents and at the same time cost too much money.
For analysis and comparison of kings’ tombs, several times of visit to spot of king’s tomb was carried out and historical books written by Joseon Dynasty were referred to, like The Annals of Joseon Dtnasty(朝鮮王朝實錄), Diaries of Secretary Office(承政院日記), Basic Rules for the Construction of King’s Tomb(山陵都監儀軌).
The aims of this study are, firstly, to judge which one is better in terms of Feng Shui, out of two, the first tomb and the second one, secondly, to find the main cause for the transfer of king’s tomb.
For the first aim, this study compared the original tomb site of king with the transferred one in terms of Feng Shui. Several Feng Shui methods were applied to analyze kings’ tombs. They are the analysis of mountain range(看龍法), fixing of the best site in tomb area(定穴法), softening of wind(藏風法), getting the best stream line(得水法), judging of Geographical Form (巒頭, 形局論), finding the best direction by using Compass(坐向法).
The comparison of the first tomb to the second one shows that the 4 transferred tomb sites(tombs of Seonjo, Injo, Hyojong, and Jungjo) are better than the original ones. Joongjong’s transferred tomb site is much worse than the original site.
The second aim of this study is to explain why kings’ tombs were transferred. The causes of the transfer are categorized into 3.
The first one is ‘the politics-driven transfer’which Joongjong’s case belongs to.
The queen, Munjeong, wanted to be buried with her husband, Joongjong, by justifying the transfer of the tomb on the pretext that the original tomb of Joogjong buried just beside the first queen was not good in terms of Feng Shui.
The second one is ‘Transfer by the mix of politics with Feng Shui’ in which both political and Feg Shui factors influenced the transfer of original tomb.
The original tomb site of Saejong(世宗- Korean Alphabet inventor) was criticized by Feng Shui professional when it was constructed. The professional warned that the first son of king would live die young consecutively, which turned out to be true, shown in the cases of Moonjong(Saejong’s first son), Danjong(Moonjong’s firtst son), the prince, Yikyoung(the first son of Saejo), all three of whom actually died very young, which was politically a big threat to Joseon Dynasty.
The third type was ‘Feng Shui-driven transfer’ of the original tomb, in which only Feng Shui was considered for the transfer. 5 cases, the tombs of Seonjo, Injo, Hyojong, and Jungjo belonged to the third type. The lesson from this study is that the transfer of king’s tomb should be decided by the factor of Feng Shui, not by political or private interest and the views of Feng Shui professional should be respected.