When foreign visitors come to Seoul, many of them visit Gyeongbokgung Palace. In fact, even to Koreans, Gyeongbokgung does not feel like an especially large palace. To be honest, some foreign visitors may feel disappointed when they see it for the first time.
In other countries, there are many palaces that are far more overwhelming in size. Compared with them, Korea’s Gyeongbokgung Palace may appear small.
Gyeongbokgung was built during the Joseon Dynasty. Joseon was a monarchy, but it was also close to a coalition government operated together with officials who valued rule through civil administration and scholarship.
The fundamental idea of the Joseon Dynasty was minbon, or people-centered governance. It was the belief that the people formed the foundation of the nation.
Kings tried several times to build larger palaces. Their purpose was to strengthen royal authority. However, officials opposed such attempts. They argued that farmers had to work their fields, and if they were mobilized to build palaces, it would become difficult for them to make a living.
Officials also sought to keep the palace walls low. The idea was that if a king failed to act like a proper king, the people and officials should be able to rise up and remove him from power at any time. If the walls were too high, they would not be easy to cross, so they were kept as low as possible.
The king had all of his actions recorded by official historians. Those records remain today as the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty, a UNESCO-listed documentary heritage. The Annals of the Joseon Dynasty are known as one of the longest dynastic historical records in the world. The king left everything in writing so that he would not abuse his power. Mistakes were not to be tolerated.
Gyeongbokgung, the royal palace of the Joseon Dynasty, may look small. But in some ways, this smallness is connected to democratic ideas. It is evidence that Joseon was not a country only for the king, but a country that placed the people at its foundation.