The tradition of Jongmyo Jeryeak
The tradition of Jongmyo Jeryeak has been maintained by national musical institutions: the Jangagwon of the Joseon dynasty, the Yi Wangjik Aakbu of the Japanese colonial period, and today's National Center for Korean Traditional Performing Arts. But Jongmyo Jeryeak is widely known not only for its music but for the unique architecture of the Jongmyo Shrine where it is performed.
Although the individual chambers of the main hall are relatively simple in con-struction, each compartment houses the memorial tablet of one king, which makes the facade extremely long and gives the building an unusual form with a strong emphasis on the horizontal dimension. The basic structural unit is the shrine containing one royal tablet and occupying one bay of the building's frame. All the chambers are identical in appearance and very simple in design. The same unit is repeated 19 times. This is the secret of Jongmyo Shrine's architectural gravity and formal impressiveness. The great terrace that spreads before the main hall also adds to the peace and solemnity of the space.
When Jongmyo Shrine was first built it contained only 7 chambers. Later, when there were more ancestral spirits to accommodate, a separate annex called the Yeongnyeongjeon was constructed west of the main hall.This annex housed four generations of the ancestors of the first king, as well as direct lineal descendants who never succeeded to the throne. To distinguish it from the annex, the original structure came to be known as the Jeongjeon or "main hall." It was dedicated to the founder of the dynasty, King Taejo, and his direct lineal descendants who had achieved great works during their reign. The annex contained the tablets of Taejo's ancestors in the middle four compartments, with the remaining compartments housing other tablets arranged in order of age from west to east.
The main hall of Jongmyo Shrine is a single-story wooden building situated at the rear of a huge low square terrace. The terrace is called the Woldae or "moon pedestal," and each side is more than 100m long. During a ceremony it is completely filled with people, since all the activity takes place on the terrace: dancing and playing music as well as conducting the ceremony. The floor of the terrace is formed of rectangular stones which have deliberately been left with a rough and irregular surface and not perfectly aligned in neat rows. It is this roughness and irregularity that gives the terrace its look of vitality.
At Jongmyo Shrine, antiquity lives on in the midst of downtown Seoul. It seems hard to believe that a building with 600 years of history behind it could coexist with skyscrapers at the heart of a bustling metropolis of over 10 million people. That the rites of 600 years ago should still be performed unchanged is surely a cultural marvel. This shrine of the Joseon Dynasty's royal ancestral tablets was designated in 1995 as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site, and in 2001 Jongmyo Jeryeak was singled out by UNESCO as a Masterpiece of Human Oral and Intangible Heritage. The rites are re-enacted at Jongmyo Shrine each year on the first Sunday in May, while the music of Jongmyo Jeryeak can be appreciated through performances and recordings by the National Center for Korean Traditional Performing Arts.
