The government in the early of Joseon dynasty, Korea built ‘Chi-so’, which was an administrative institute to the each of every administrative district (Boo-Mock-Gun-Hyun: Upper level to lower one) for governing and the place with Chi-so was called as ‘Eup-chi’. The ideal place for Eup-chi was selected by the Feng-Shui theory, and the master plan to arrange Chi-so was applied by the principle of arranging in the capital area, ‘Han-yang’.The studies of the Eup-chi are the main parts of studies for understanding of the Joseon cities. Those are, however, mostly focused on a major city, a castle city, or the cities with ruins preserved well.
The purpose of this study is to clearfy of spatial composition to the case of ‘Yeonsan-Hyun Eup-chi’ at the end of 19th century as focusing on its regional township without castles in the suburban districts of ‘Gun-Hyun’.
There is the only map with the arrangements of Chi-so, which illustrates formally in large with Feng-shui elements. On the other hand, there is ‘Ryang-an’, a record of land management in real, and a map in this study is constructed from the one in 1901. To understand the real land uses, it is examined by comparing with the Feng-Shui-map, 1872, the Land-Registration-map, 1914, and the photomap, 1948 and by contrasting with a town chronicles. Moreover, the study uses field investigation with listening local voices to restore master plan of the Chi-so.
To sum up the results, it shows as follows:
First, Yeonsan-Hyun Eup-chi was facing west in spite of the belief to face south in Feng-Shui theory on the geographic conditions and its school, Hyanggyo(a government-run provincial school), was located at the right side among the Chi-so, which is the opposite in the building principle of the capital area. Storehouses, called ‘Eup-chang’, and official guesthouses, called ‘Geak-sa’, were apart from Chi-so, a local administration, and they were in good places to connect with the central administrations of Han-yang.
Second, the Chi-so had only a tiled roof, unlike the surroundings, and gatherd together in front of Zousan(the major symbolic mountain on the back side of Eup-chi, as guarding a town). The Feng-shui axis from Zousan to Ansan (this mountain closes the space in front of the Eup-chi to contain energy from main mountain) was applied to the axis of Chi-so. This axis of the master plan in Chi-so extended outside and gave a distinctive image to the township of Eup-chi.
Third, a main entrance such as a gateway of a castellated Eup-chi was on the entranceway of the symbolic axis(above writen), on which a provincial governor approached to Yeonsan-Hyun Eup-chi.
Fourth, private houses were in cluster around the Chi-so, without illustrated on the Feng-shui map. Another type of road, which was different with the roads surrounding the houses in farmlands, made a structure of Eup-chi. This road was three-way intersection, following the Feng-shui theory to avoid as an X-road.
Lastly, a periodic market was opened next to Eup-chang, a storehouse, on the public lands, because it requires the easy way of accessibility to the other periodic markets in neighbor towns.
Therefore, Yeonsan-Hyun Eup-chi has the central level of ‘Hyun’ township from building Chi-so under the national governing ideology. In doing so gradually, it can take a spatial form of urban shape from housing clusters, road system, and a periodic market to barter. Also, two main springs for water supply and a public square in front of a gatehouse were acting for public space.
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