In its most essential sense, a palace is where the ruler of a kingdom resides. Given this capacity, the palace naturally serves as the political epicenter of the land as well as its cultural touchstone. When ancient kingdoms first emerged in Korean history, palaces were built in many cities such as Gyeongju and Gaeseong, but the only city where the buildings remain intact to this day is Seoul, home to the palaces of Joseon (1392–1910), the nation’s last dynasty. Early in the Joseon Dynasty, Gyeongbokgung Palace was built in the center of northern Seoul but it suffered irreparable damage during the Imjin War (the Japanese invasions of the 1590s). After it was left abandoned for nearly three hundred years, the palace was finally rebuilt in the mid-nineteenth century. During the long hiatus, Changdeokgung Palace functioned as the main royal palace in its stead. Changdeokgung was situated within the same perimeter as Changgyeonggung Palace and both were collectively referred to as donggwol (literally, “eastern palaces”) for being located to the east of Gyeongbokgung. Meanwhile, Gyeonghuigung Palace (seogwol or “west palace”) was often used as the ancillary wing to Changdeokgung. Deoksugung Palace, for its part, served as the king’s formal residence for temporary stretches of time such as during the Imjin War or the later years of the Joseon Dynasty.

Palaces were whole cities unto themselves. For the king, the palace was both his workplace and his living quarters; the cramped palace was also home to a substantial number of people, not least of which were the queen, the queen dowager, the princes and princesses, gungnyeo (female servants to the court), and eunuchs. The king saw to the affairs of the kingdom with the ministers and members of his cabinet who daily entered through the palace walls; in various other parts of the palace, a multitude of servants prepared ingredients, cooked meals, dyed clothing, and handstitched royal robes. Added to this, servants also raised dogs for medicinal uses in the naeuiwon (the medical wing of the palace), while some members of the royal family kept pets of their own (King Sukjong was known to have had a cat). Moreover, the palaces weren’t merely for the living. The living and the dead dwelled together within the same palace walls. There were many places outside the palace that were devoted to carrying out ceremonial ancestral rites (jesa), but the palace itself had quite a few dedicated spaces in which the royal descendants could pay tribute to the departed. Since so many people resided in the palace, the buildings also witnessed many deaths; furthermore, compared to commoners, the royals observed a relatively longer period of mourning and observed frequent ancestral rites and rituals. This necessitated a considerable number of halls and spaces given over to the ancestors, the most important ones being the jesil, binjeon, and honjeon. The jesil was a chamber used to prepare for the ancestral rites, and the binjeon was a place where the body of a deceased king or royal personage was kept for a customary four months before it could be entombed. The honjeon was where the kings’ shinju tablets (memorial tablets believed to symbolize the spirit of the deceased ancestor) were kept until the three-year mourning period was completed and then moved to Jongmyo Shrine (the queen’s tablet would be kept in the honjeon for longer until it could be accompanied by her king’s shinju upon his death). Today, the buildings and facilities of Joseon’s palaces are mostly recognized as ancient relics from a bygone era, but admirers can walk away with a deeper, and more colorful, appreciation of the palaces if they imagine the people who lived within their walls.

Donggwol-do (Painting of the Eastern Palaces: Changdeokgung and Changgyeonggung), circa 1830 

© Dong-A University

Palaces were also major literary spaces. Both the inhabitants of the palace and residents of the city proper devoted themselves to creating and enjoying works of literature. The palaces were often important backdrops to the literary works as well. The writings of the kings were collected and bound into books such as Yeolseong eoje (Comprehensive collection of poetry and prose by former kings), while personalities like Lady Hyegyeong—Yeongjo’s daughter-in-law and the mother of King Jeongjo—penned memoirs and other works. In Lady Hyegyeong’s case, she wrote a memoir known as Hanjungnok (The Memoirs of Lady Hyegyeong.) The kings, queens, and members of the court were the most voracious consumers of literature in Joseon society and enjoyed not just poetry and prose written in Sino-Korean hanja characters but fiction written in hangul as well. Feature-length hangul novels such as Yussi samdaerok (A record of three generations of the Yu family) that were devoured by women of the court including the queens, crown princesses, and other palace women, remain to this day a key influence in the history of Korean literature. Such books of fiction were well preserved and passed down by the people of the palace, giving us insight into how much these works of hangul fiction were appreciated in the later period of the Joseon Dynasty.

As the cultural hotbed of the nation, the palace was simultaneously where many stories came together and where new ones were created. Everyone’s eyes and ears were directed at the palace as it was the seat of absolute power. Because it received such intense attention, the palace naturally became a popular setting for many literary works. There are quite a few works of literature that are set against the royal palace, but of these, I would like to introduce three that dealt with actual historical events that took place in the palace. Most literary works that are set in the palace deal with the power struggles that often took place within its walls; Gyechuk ilgi (Diary of the year Gyechuk), Inhyeon wanghu jeon (Tales of Queen Inhyeon), and Hanjungnok (The Memoirs of Lady Hyegyong) are no exception. The first two works are closer in spirit to fiction, while the latter is a personal memoir.

Gyechuk ilgi describes the events surrounding Queen Inmok’s confinement to Deoksugung in 1613, the gyechuk year. Queen Inmok was the second queen consort of King Seonjo; she had become queen after the first queen consort died without producing a son for the king. King Seonjo sired several children with different consorts, one of whom—Gwanghae—was specially proclaimed as crown prince for his service to the kingdom during the confusion of the Imjin War. However, when Queen Inmok went on to have a son, Yeongchang, Gwanghae became understandably concerned that his position as crown prince would be threatened as he was the son of a concubine. In Joseon society, children of concubines were afforded a status lower than the queen’s own issues. Gwanghae ultimately managed to be crowned king after Seonjo died when Yeongchang was still a child, but Gwanghae remained anxious about Queen Inmok and Yeongchang, whose very existence threatened to undermine his legitimacy. In the end, he had Queen Inmok confined to another palace and ordered the death of Yeongchang. Queen Inmok remained under house arrest until Gwanghae was eventually deposed by a coup d’état by Injo. These events were recorded in Gyechuk ilgi. Found in the later pages of the book is the statement—”And so the nain (female servants of the palace) has thusly written”—which led many to believe that the book was written by a nain who worked in the palace. However, these sorts of inscriptions were relatively common in works of fiction during that period; it would be difficult to attribute such a statement to a particular author. As such, Gyechuk ilgi remains a historical novel of which the author and date remain unknown.

Compared to Gyechuk ilgi, Inhyeon wanghu jeon is a more fictionalized version of actual recorded events in history. Queen Inhyeon was the queen consort of King Sukjong. Sukjong, for his part, was completely infatuated with his concubine, Jang Hui-bin. In 1689, he deposed his queen and decreed Jang to be his new queen. This behavior on the part of Sukjong—kicking out his wife and naming a concubine as his new wife—was forbidden under law for the general public in Joseon. Later, Queen Inhyeon is reinstated and Jang is sentenced to death by poisoning. The drama surrounding the faithful wife and scheming concubine is a theme that overwhelmingly resonated with many readers, particularly women, not just in the Joseon Period but to this very day. It is not surprising, therefore, that the story of Queen Inhyeon has been adapted not just into books but also for both the small and big screen numerous times over the years. 

While the authorship of Gyechuk ilgi and Inhyeon wanghu jeon are still unknown, Hanjungnok is a memoir with a clear author and date of writing. Lady Hyegyeong’s husband Crown Prince Sado was named the royal heir immediately upon his birth and was slated to be the next in line to the throne. However, he was killed while still in his tender twenties by his own father, King Yeongjo. Yeongjo ordered him locked him inside a rice chest where Sado, who was his only son, starved to death after eight days. Since the later kings of Joseon were all descendants of Sado, this event had explosive political ramifications. In old age, Lady Hyegyeong recorded the events leading up to her young husband’s death and the political drama that impacted her own family after the scandal, in an attempt to inform her family and later kings of what really happened. An excellent English translation of Hanjungnok was published early on, introducing the book to a wider global audience. As with the story of Queen Inhyeon, the events described in this memoir have also been reinterpreted in film and television versions for a wider audience.

Translated by Amber Hyun Jung Kim

Jung Byung-Sul

Professor of Korean Literature

Seoul National University