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Today we went to the gyeongbok palace which is the most important palace among the other four palaces. Gyeongbok means 'the great fortune'. There are several buildings in Gyeongbok palace. One of the building named Geunjeongjeon, is the official building for the king. In front of the Geunjeongjeon, there are two types of rock, named 품계석 and 박석.
박석 is unstable rock that under our feet. There are three reasons why 박석 is unstable. First of all if floor is flat, because the reflection of sunshine, king's eye may get hurt. In addition there are many holes between two 박석. So when rain or snow drops they flow through the holes, so they can prevent the slip. Lastly because 박석 is unstable retainers have to walk by looking downside to prevent slip. So by looking the bottom, the retainers may show to the king that they respect thier king.
And another kind of rock 품계석, is the rock that shows the retainer's level. At the east side there are ususally civil officer, and at the west sidethere are military officer. In Jo-seon dynasty they thought east is the better side than west, and civil officer is the better ofiicer than military officer. So when you watch 품계석 carefully, you will see vicil officer's name will wrote at the east side 박석, and at west side 박석 there are military officer's name.
For these two rocks we can imagine that Jo-seon dynasty is based in Yin-and-Yang theory and they thought politeness is the most imporant thing. |
