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Jecheonjeong(濟川亭), a Space of Party for Farewell, Meeting, and National Events
Journal of Korean Classical Chinese Literature
Abbr :
한문고전연구
2012, 25(1), pp.43-74
DOI : 10.18213/jkccl.2012.25.1.002
Publisher : The Classical Chinese Literature Association of Korea
Research Area : Korean Language and Literature
2012, 25(1), pp.43-74
DOI : 10.18213/jkccl.2012.25.1.002
Publisher : The Classical Chinese Literature Association of Korea
Research Area : Korean Language and Literature
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This paper tries to clarify the status of Jecheonjeong in the cultural history by examining poems improvised at parties thrown as parts of national events and at farewell and meeting banquets held in Jecheonjeong, which was placed on the bank of River Han in Seoul. Jecheonjeong, a gazebo possessed by the royal family, which had been built on the bank of the Han River in the present Hannam-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, was used as a space for events concerning the royal family, the entertainment of foreign diplomatic corps, meetings of bureaucrats, and farewell events when a bureaucrat moved to some non-central office or resigned to return his homeland. Despite Jecheonjeon’s well known status, there are justa small number of farewell poems improvised at private farewell parties thrown in this place. One of the reasons for this state of affairs would be that poets were not able to easily throw a farewell party in Jecheonjeong because it was a gazebo belonging to the royal family though the main reason was that places for farewell events mainly included river ports and forks. Gyehoe (契會 bureaucrats’regular meeting) was a gathering playing the role of pivot among administrative officers for their smooth performance and consolidation. Though Gyehoe was actively held in gazeboes on the banks of Han River, Jecheonjeong was far less popular than others because it was a place possessed by the royal family. Thus, among those poems composed at Gyehoe’s, only a few tookJecheonjeong as their setting or subject matter compared with other gazeboes, and the composers mainly consisted of bureaucrats in high positions. Jecheonjeong was used as a space of parties for envoys thrown by the royal family, and envoys themselves also made it a rule to enjoy banquets in this place. At such an occasion, diplomatic corps and accompanying literary men gave and took poems, which they regarded as a great affair. Furthermore, Jecheonjeong was used as a space of parties for consoling national elder statesmen, and Kings also threw parties staying temporarily when they went out of the capital city in order to look at people’s lives and check agricultural yielding. I will leave the classification of the amounts and contents of the poems improvised in this place, and abstract away their significance in the cultural history for future research.
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