Cheonse! Manse! Chimney in Gyeongbokgung (이미지 사이테이션)

One of the cultures of Korea that is rapidly spreading its influence all over the world is K-POP. Countless K-POP artists and their songs are being acknowledged for their iconic performances to the public in many countries from Asia to Europe. Among those artists, one of the famous boy groups is Seventeen (SVT) with a large group of 13 members. Since their influence and fandom outside Korea is extremely big, it is not difficult to spot English comments and articles regarding their songs. One of the comments that extremely stood out was questioning the meaning of their song’s title: Mansae from their 2nd mini album Boys Be. This whole article is about the word ‘Mansae’, its root, and Gyeongbokgung's iconic Chimney that has the name of Cheonsae and Mansae Chimney.

Mansae in the Korean dictionary is defined as celebrating or blessing the success or victory. When we dig deeper into the definition of its root in Chinese, Mansae is constructed with two Chinese letters MAN (萬) and SAE (歲). This directly translates into a long life or ten thousand years in English. Originally this word was used to wish for the longevity of important figures of the nation, such as the emperor or king. While the word MAN stands for the particular number of ten thousand, the word doesn’t depict the meaning of hoping figures only to live until ten thousand years; since the Chinese letter MAN (萬) also included the meaning of ‘infinity,’ it blessed figures to live forever.

These days in Korea, anyone can use this word without regulations or limitations. In modern times, Mansae is used without deep meaning regarding numbers and status. Yet, during the Joseon Dynasty, the word Mansae was only allowed to limited figures due to its meaning behind the word. At the time, China was a nation with mighty power, significant military prowess, and a central government. Throughout the Joseon dynasty, until the Japanese grew into an equally significant power in the Pacific, the Chinese were the ones that influenced East Asia the most. As such, Joseon’s culture also received a lot of influence as well as regulations from China. Using Masae was one of the restrictions China imposed in Joseon. Since Mansae was a phrase that the Chinese used towards their emperor, the people of Joseon could not use it to refer to their king.

Accordingly, the people of Joseon used the word Cheonsae instead of Mansae. This word is also a combination of two different Chinese letters CHEON (千) and SAE (歲), where CHEON here stands for the number thousand. Since a thousand is a smaller number than ten thousand, the Chinese allowed Joseon to use Cheonsae towards Joseon’s king and the royal family.

These two iconic phrases of Cheonsae and Mansae can be found in one of the places of the Gyeongbokgung palace. When we walk around the Gangnyeongjeon hall at the front door of Gyotaejeon, there are two stacks of orange-colored pillars. Those are the Chimneys of Gangnyeongjeon with Cheonsae and Mansae engraved on them. When we concentrate on the white part of the pillar, it tends to create a unique shape that represents Chinese letters. These letters can be deciphered into 萬壽無疆 and 千世萬歲, which also wish for the longevity of the King.

Works Cited

국가유산포털. (2025). 국가문화유산포털 |. Heritage.go.kr. https://www.heritage.go.kr/heri/gungDetail/gogungDetail.do?serial_number=164&detail_code=14&gung_number=1

한국민족문화대백과사전. (2025). 경복궁 교태전(景福宮 交泰殿). 한국민족문화대백과사전. https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0002440

이향우. (2021, August). [더오래]자주 불 난 조선 궁궐…굴뚝에 불가사리 많은 이유. 중앙일보. https://www.joongang.co.kr/article/24118607