Gyeong-bok-gung: Palace With a Thousand-Year-Old Legacy.

Geunjeongjeon Hall

Destruction and reform of the Gyeong-bok-gung

Gyeong-bok-gung, built in 1395 by Tae-jo, the first king of Joseon dynasty, was Joseon’s main castle, functioning as a home for many kings until the end of Joseon. Gyeong-bok-gung, meaning “Great blessings palace” was surely a center for the thriving capital of Hanyang (now Seoul), the Gwang-hwa-mun, which is the front gate of this great palace was the start of big roads, that led to Hanyang street and various other place in Joseon. 

Inside the palace, there were many sub buildings that functioned for government affairs, bedrooms for officials, king, queen, and princes, for religious purposes, as aesthetic gardens and ponds, academy for aristocrats, for cooking, and many diverse purposes everytime a new king succeeded. 

As Gyeong-bok-gung was a palace that stood for hundreds of years, it has a complicated history with ups and downs through the Joseon dynasty period. Gyeong-bok-gung started to be built in 1392 and took 3 years until it was finished. According to Confucianism, the popular belief back then, encouraged architects to use simple designs to be humble and calm. As a result, to have a simple design but to show its majestic display Gyeong-bok-gung was mainly colored in black and used green-blue colors to emphasize edges. Gyeong-bok-gung was the biggest palace in Joseon and most early Joseon kings used this Kingdom as their main palace. 

Unfortunately, during Imjin-waeran or Imjin-war, when Japan tried to conquer Joseon, Gyeong-bok-gung was burnt and destroyed. There are two theories to the ruination. First theory is that the people were triggered by Seon-jo, the king of the time who abandoned the palace and ran away, to riotous chaos and eventually made them burn down Gyeong-bok-gung to show their disappointment. The other theory is that the Japanese soldiers had intentionally put the palace on fire.

After the war, there were attempts to revive the palace, however, the abandoned palace was considered ominous, because of this, rather reconstructing Gyeong-bok-gung, the Chang-deok-gung, which was another palace near Gyeong-bok-gung, was chosen to be regeneration. 

The time of Gyeong-bok-gung did not come until the 19th century, when Heungseon Daewongun, the king of time, ordered reconstruction of Gyeong-bok-gung to organize Joseon and centralize royal power. Finally in 1867, after 2 years of effort, Gyeong-bok-gung was revived, even upgraded as it got bigger in size. 

However, the palace didn’t last long, in 1910, the Japan-Korea annexation treaty colonized Joseon as a subordinate country of Japan. To assimilate Joseon spirit out of people, Japan put Gyeong-bok-gung on fire, destroyed many buildings, and even removed Gwang-hwa-mun from the palace Furthermore, they built Joseon-chong-dok-bu or The Japanese Government General of Korea right on where the Gwang-hwa-mun pre-existed. This act marked the complete ruin of Gyeong-bok-gung, the fusion of modernized building and the palace, confirmed the loss of its reputation.

After the Korean independence and as the country normalized and stabilized, Gyeong-bok-gung was once again reconstructed from 1990 to 2010, the Japanese Government General of Korea was dragged down and people tried their best to rebuild the palace based on historical facts. At last, Gyeong-bok-gung regained its former heritage and stood proud in Seoul to be seen by millions of people a year. 

Although many parts of the palace are brought back to life, our actions are not just quite ending yet. Until 2045, the Gyeong-bok-gung would go through more reconstructions to repair lost parts of the castle. 

The big charismatic castle in front of you is not just a palace from the Joseon dynasty, it represents Korean history, the hundreds of year old history, while there were times when Gyeong-bok-gung has been destructed, it has always stood back up, this represents Korea and Korean citizen’s determined spirit.

Works Cited

국가유산청 국가유산포털, www.heritage.go.kr/heri/html/HtmlPage.do?pg=%2Fpalaces%2FpalacesRoyalInfo.jsp&pageNo=2_1_1_1. Accessed 26 Mar. 2025. 

“우리 궁 이야기 : 경복궁 ① 경복궁의 역사.” 네이버 블로그 | “함께하는 문화, 더해지는 행복” 지역문화진흥원, m.blog.naver.com/pccekorea/221033237463. Accessed 26 Mar. 2025.