Intro

History

Vernacular Architecture

High-Style Architecture

Bibliography

Links

Choson Dynasty

The Choson period followed the Koryo period, from 1392 to 1910.  One of the most important developments architecturally of the Choson Dynasty was the rise of Confucianism.  Confucian shrines and public and private academies flourished during this time period.  Pagoda building effectively ended during this time because it was the exclusive domain of Buddhism, with only two notable examples:  the seven-storied pagoda at Naksan-sa Temple, and the ten-storied pagoda in Pagoda Park in Seoul.

While Buddhism never actually "died out" during this period, it was never officially recognized by the royalty.  Because the monks tended to have rural temples set high in the mountains, the state itself rarely bothered to deal with the Buddhist monks.  The commoners, meanwhile, still visited the temples as they had all along.

The Chusimp’o style was used heavily throughout Korea during the early portion of the Choson Dynasty because the relative simplicity of the style was more in tune with Confucianist teachings. Historically, the royalty and Buddhists used the more elaborate Tap'o as an expression of either grandeur (in the case of royalty) or as a symbol of the complex universe (Buddhism), while the Confucian academies used Chusimp'o.

The middle Choson period displayed a very decorative tendency on both the interior and exterior.  This came about because of Anti-Manchurian feelings within the scholarly community; as a result, native Korean elements and expressions began to be fully explored within the architecture. 

The late portion of this Dynasty saw the development of the Ik-kong bracket, in which the bracket complex is reduced to a simple block of wood carved into the shape of a bracket.  This move was based almost entirely on economic reasons: the country was in a state of poverty, and it enabled them to still repair and build buildings.

One of the most important events of the Choson Dynasty was the movement of the capital to Seoul from Songdo (Kaesong).  While the first palace built in Seoul, Ch’ang-kyong Gung, was oriented on an east-west axis, the middle and late Choson palaces all aligned themselves along a north-south axis to provide views of Mt. Pugak (North Mountain) framed by the townscape.	Hyong-hoi Ru in Kyong-bok Palace.  Photograph courtesy of University of Idaho Media Desk. Reconstructed in 1867 as part of the overall reconstruction of Kyong-bok Palace by the Yi Dynasty.
Many of the other important buildings, such as temples, shrines, and government edifices, were also built to align themselves with Mt. Pugak.  It is believed that the alignment of these buildings is a manifestation of geomantic ideals that are culturally ingrained in Korea.