We went to the emperor’s room, where we saw a statue of the first ruler of the Joseon period, King Taejo! He is also wearing a hanbok that is blue, the same as mine! In Korean history, blue is the color of royalty. I also learned that emperors and royalty are represented by the dragon embroidery on their hanbok, and depending on your rank, the dragon has a different number of claws. The emperor’s dragon embroidery has 4 or 5 claws, the prince’s has 3 claws, and lower ranked officers have two. Another symbolic theme we saw were small turtle statues on the palace rooftop that represent protection of the palace from war and disease.
Around many of these different palaces are many panels that describe the life styles within the palaces, varying from the food eaten to the types of employees, such as soldiers and maids. We are lucky to have this information from documents written from people at the time. Whether they are from personal diaries or official government records, written records are able to help us understand the past. Although many inscriptions and literature were lost from this period due to invasion and war when Japan inhabited Korea in the early to mid 1900s, some important historical writings managed to survive because they were saved by heroes that risked their lives to retrieve these documents from fire and war. We are so lucky to be able to learn more about the past from all these records, and from the historic information provided at the palace, and just simply the existence of the palaces themselves still being with us today!
Lastly, I know we’ve covered a lot about the history of Korea from the palaces.
