autumn 2018 Vol.24

Another capital city for genuine filial duty - Suwon Hwaseong

Suwon Hwaseong is also known as the city of filial duty. This is because the city embraces the filial minds ofKing Jeongjo who was the famous king in the Chosun Dynasty era. Numerous people regard Suwon Hwaseongas the crystal of King Jeongjo’s filial mind. The reason we call King Jeongjo’s filial mind a crystal is becauseKing Jeongjo tried to move the tomb of his father, Prince Sado which used be at Dongdaemun-gu, to Seouland Hwaseong which was the location of Suwon city protection office (current Annyung-ri, Taean-myeon,Hwaseong city), and to relocate the capital to the vicinity of Suwon Paldalmun Gate mountain. If this is true,King Jeongjo’s filial duty was a bit problematic. This is because it was not a fair thing absolutely to move thecapital city, spending a great fortune of the national budget, just due to the King’s personal filial duty to hisfather, not only in modern perspectives but also the perspectives of two centuries of history before.Then why do Koreans call Suwon the city of filial duty? Did King Jeongjo really try to relocate the capital cityto Suwon? We will dig into the truth of this issue, to find out whether these two issues are mutually connected.

Written by Kim Joon Hyuk. (Hanshin University, King Jeongjo Liberal arts College Professor)

The True Filial Duty of King Jeongjo

King Jeongjo was a great filial son from a modern perspective,in the 21st century. King Jeongjo must be the genuine filial sonnot only in 5 century’s of history of the Chosun Dynasty but alsothroughout the whole Korean history. However, what makesKing Jeongjo a filial son is not the usual concept of a filial son,as we know it, such as cutting off thigh flesh to make soap forhis parents, or to find out the Eastern Shangri-La over severalmountains to collect and bring home peaches in the cold winter.King Jeongjo’s filial duty is merely a recovery the Paldalmun Gatein honor of Prince Sado. He thought it was his filial duty to recoverhis honor for Prince Sado, who died in a wooden rice chest undera false accusation and therefore was unable to resume his father'sposition as king.

Hence, King Jeongjo promoted several special events. Oneof them is wearing a military uniform, like his father did, whentraveling out of the palace. Prince Sado, when he started being aproxy regent on behalf of King Youngjo at the age of 15, rode ona horse in his military uniform. Accordingly, after King Jeongjo’saccession to the throne, he did not wear a king’s costume butwore a military uniform and a soldier’s felt hat, when going out ofthe palace like Prince Sado did. And in 1791(King Jeongjo 15thyear) he had his portrait painted wearing a military uniform, likePrince Sado did. Of course, the portrait was posted in the ritualroom in Hyunneungwon which is the relocated tomb of PrinceSado in Suwon Hwaseong, for the performance of filial duty whichthe king could not offer while his father was alive.

King Jeongjo, in order to emphasize that Prince Sado was agenuine warrior as governor, added 6 kinds of horseback artsand 18 martial arts designed by his father, to make it 24 kindsof arts in total. These martial arts are 『Martial art diagram incommon spirit (武藝圖譜通志)?. At the introduction to『Martial artin common spirit?, the king humbly said that he followed themasterworks of his father. By telling this to all his people and theofficials, that everything related to rearranging the martial artsof The Chosun Dynasty in order to be equipped with a militarysystem on equal footing with China, was the unfinished workof his father Prince Sado, and he was just succeeding with theteachings of his late father, when he sought to recover the honorof Prince Sado. Hence King Jeongjo always practiced Martialarts and archery, like his father Prince Sado did. It is because ofthis that he was reputed as the best master archer, together withKing Taejo Lee Sung-Gye over the entire history of the ChosunDynasty.

When King Jeongjo traveled out of the palace, he always wore amilitary uniform on horseback. The reason was because PrinceSado wore a military uniform on horseback when he traveledto Onyang. Though he could not ride into Paldalmun Gate orwear a royal robe, Prince Sado wore a military uniform on hishorseback. King Jeongjo, considered his thinking and behaviorwas significant, and therefore always wore a military uniform onhorseback, following his father’s tradition. This is the core of KingJeongjo’s filial mind. The base that King Jeongjo selected forfulfill his filial duty was Suwon Hwaseong.

Why did King Jeongjo established a new governmentoffice in Suwon Hwaseong?

In 1789(King Jeongjo the 13th), transferred the tomb of hisfather Prince Sado to the vicinity of the government office inSuwon city’s police office, and relocated the whole governmentoffice town including the government office to east of mountainPaldalmun Gate which is currently Sinpung-dong, Paldal-gu,Suwon Hwaseong city area. In January 1793(King Jeongjo the17the) after 4 years of relocating the city, King Jeongjo elevatedSuwon Hwaseong city’s Police office to Suwon Hwaseong policeheadquarters, and established a strong & fortified remote barracksat Suwon Hwaseong police headquarters. The city’s protectionoffice was a big town governed by a governor of the hierarchy of3-1 grade?, but could not match the police headquarters. Thepolice headquarters is the area governed by 3-1 grade? Or ahigher government bureau as a city second to only Hansung city.King Jeongjo renamed Suwon city as Hwaseong(華城). The letter‘Hwa(華)’ has three meanings, comprising wealth(富), long life withhealth(壽) and an exuberant. He created the city with the namecontaining the letter ‘Hwa’ which has these three meanings, andsought to make Suwon, his new hometown where his father wasburied, as the city of ‘Hwa’.

He upgraded Hwaseong police headquarters and this was thepreparatory work for the construction of The Hwaseong Fortresswhich commenced after one year. The construction of HwaseongFortress was the project to establish the groundwork for thelong term operation of politics, for King Jeongjo who soughtto strengthen his royal power and to stabilize a public welfaresystem. For this purpose, it was necessary for King Jeongjo tomake Hwaseong police headquarters as the strongest politicaland military vicinity. Hence, he established the Strong & fortifiedremote barracks concurrently with the upgrade of Hwaseongpolice headquarters

In fact, the reason why King Jeongjo selected Suwon’s PaldalmunGate mountain area was because he read 『Bangye compilationswritten by Bangye Yoo Hyung Won who is a reputed founder ofthe Korean Realist School of Confucianism. Bangye Yoo HyungWon predicted that the Paldalmun Gate mountain area wouldbe the most important place for nationwide traffic at the streetcorner, leading to the capital city from the southern provinces ofChungchung, Jeolla and Gyungsang, and a fortress establishedhere would be the grand place for protecting the capital city.Having read this book, King Jeongjo has closely researched thePaldalmun Gate mountain area since ancient history. Eventually,he had his time after Hyojong passed away. He moved his father’stomb to Suwon Hwasan which is known as the propitious site(land in good location) of the world, and ordered the governmentoffice, various public institutions and peoples’ home to the vicinityof Paldalmun Gate mountain area.

King Jeongjo established these Strong & fortified remote barracksin Hwaseong police headquarter and let Hwaseong and permittedthe police protection headquarters to take a dual position as headof these remote barracks. This was a very unconventional eventin the political history of the Chosun Dynasty, whereby a regionaltown was reborn as the city directly under the King’s supervision.King Jeongjo, upon establishing Hwaseong police protectionheadquarters, emphasized the importance of the defense theHwaseong Suwon area and the appropriateness of upgradingthe status of it thereby, as the area is an important place like thehometown for the royal family including himself.

The fact that King Jeongjo nominated Choi Je Gong who was theonly prime minister with another position vacant since 1790, asthe initial head of Hwaseong confirms the meaning of establishingHwaseong police protection headquarters and the Strong fortifiedremote barracks in all of the known world. In other words, thereason why the highest government official other than king wasnominated as the head of Hwaseong was due to the intention byKing Jeongjo to strengthen the royal power to in order to pursuenew policy. Hence the weightiest person in the cabinet shall benominated to the position of the head of the newly establishedHwaseong police protection headquarters, in order to achievevarious policy support accordingly.

Build Hwaseong as another capital city!

King Jeongjo, after establishing the strong fortified remotebarracks at Hwaseong police protection headquarters, preparedfor a long term subsequent plan. He was making Suwon anothercapital city. Suwon would be another capital city where hewould stay and pursue innovation, together with Hansung cityas the existing capital city. For this purpose, he promoted largescale Hwaseong construction. While King Jeongjo was able tocommence Hwaseong construction, it was in 1794(King Jeongjothe 18th) when he commenced the work. This was due to thehidden intention of King Jeongjo. King Jeongjo earned his son’sreputation after relocating the tomb of his father Prince Sado toSuwon. The year of the birth of the prince, who would becomeKing Sunjo was in 1790. King Jeongjo wanted to hand over thethrone to the prince when the son reached the age of 15, and tostay at Suwon as a former King. The reason was for a renaissanceof the honor for Prince Sado.

After Prince Sado died in the rice chest, King Youngjo banned anytalk regarding Prince Sado. He was so stubborn that he judgedany praise for Prince Sado by anyone who was loyal to the princeas a conspiracy to revolt. And Youngjo ordered his grandson KingJeongjo never to release the Prince Sado from the crime of hisrebellion and to the honor of a king, when he comes to throne later.Due to such a decree from his grandfather King Youngjo, KingJeongjo could not honor his father Prince Sado as a king, eventhough he ascended the throne. During the Chosun Dynasty era,there were cases of honoring deceased fathers of incumbent kingsas honorary kings. King Injo honored his father ‘Jungwon-gun’ asKing Wonjong and established an ancestral tablet in the royal ritualhouse. King Jeongjo also wanted to honor Prince Sado alike, butstrict order from Grandfather King Youngjo prevented him from whathe wanted to. Accordingly, King Jeongjo devised a clever scheme. Itwas handing over the throne to his own son when the son reachedthe age of 15 and he became a former king. His idea was letting theprince upon mounting the throne to honor his grandfather PrinceSado as a former king. That was why he commenced buildingSuwon’s fortress where he would stay, in 1794. He never thoughtthe fortress would be completed within 3 years, but thought it wouldtake more than 10 years. After commencing construction 1794, thecompletion of it would be until 1804, which would be the year whenhis prince reached the age of 15. So King Jeongjo would completeall of his plans.

Accordingly, King Jeongjo expanded the scale of HwaseongFortress greatly, with elaborate plans to make Suwon as the formerking’s capital. Hanyang would be the incumbent king’s capital,and Suwon Hwaseong would be former king’s capital. The formerkingdom, planned by King Jeongjo would be exercising a muchstronger power. The former king would retain the authority overgovernment officials, judicial powers and the supreme commandof the army in the Chosun Dynasty. There was a case in ChosunDynasty already. When King Taejong handed over the throne toKing Sejong, the same situation occurred. King Jeongjo wouldlike to succeed in history from the era of King Taejong and KingSejong. Additionally, the capital Hanyang was the area controlledby the vested rights represented by the ‘arguments of the agedgroup’. However hard King Jeongjo pursued innovation, if suchvested rights refused to follow and face off against the king, thenKing Jeongjo may see as an abject failure. Hence, King Jeongjosought to create another capital where he would innovate the wholeChosun Dynasty, with Suwon as his innovative base where he couldstart completely again.