Pnug-su (風水) is a kind of East Asian traditional geomancy. Literally it means wind and water, but in a strict sense its connotations are very profound. People selected building sites and burial grounds and also settlement sites from a geomantical point of view.
It is generally said that location of Korean settlements has been strongly influenced by
pung-su. In particular even capital location was selected by the
pung-su method in the Koryo and Choson dynasties. Therefore it is necessary in studying Korean traditional settlement to understand
pung-su. The influence of
pung-su on settlements appears in the location of settlements and arrangement of buildings within them.
We can identify three kinds of
pung-su. One is the
eum-teak pung-su (陰宅風水), the selection of burial grounds, the
yang-taek pung-su (陽宅風水), the selection of building sites, and the
yang-gi pung-su (陽基風水), the selection of settlement location.
The purpose of
pung-su is to seek human felicity by the help of
ji-ryuk (地力), a composite of ground forces. It is thought that ground forces give good luck to people who select favourable sites for their building, settlements, or ancester's burial grounds. These ground forces come out as invisible
saeng-gi (生気), streams of existence. And
pung-su shows us a method to harness
saeng-gi.
According to Choi's study (1986),
pung-su includes seven methods concerning mountain, water, and orientation. Using these methods, people could select favouable sites where they could tap the
saeng-gi.
Jin-san (鎮山) is a high mountain behind the favourable site according to the
pung-su method. Generally
jin-san was a mountain where the guardian spirit of the village lived. And it was also an important landmark for arrangement of buildings within the settlement. So many
jin-san of settlements were recorded in
Dong-guk-yo-ji-seung-ram (東国輿地勝覧), a topographical book of the Choson dynasty.
The purpose of this paper is to unveil the actual influence of
pung-su on the location of settlements and the arrangement of buildings within settlements in Korea. The author adopted Korean
eup-settlements as the object of this study.
Korean
eup-settlements in the Choson dynasty were established by the government as local administrative centers. They were located under deep
pung-su influence.
Gwan-a (government office.),
eup-sung (castle),
hyang-gyo (national school) were arranged under the influence of
pung-su as buildings within
eup-settlements.
The main results are follows:
1. The influence of
pung-su on the location of settlements is identified in the following points: Two thirds of
eup-settlements are located on the so-called
chang-pung teuk-su (蔵風得水) or
bai-san rim-su (背山臨水) landforms which are ideal places for
pung-su. Most of the
eup-settlements are located at the foot of mountains and only on one side of rivers.
2. The influence of
pung-su on the arrangement of buildings within
eup-settlements is found in the following facts. Important building like castles or goverment offices are located on a ridge line from the
jin-san. And they are built at right angles to the line, keeping the
jin-san behind.
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