The Chosn Period SekGh-San Couplet

조선시대(朝鮮時代) 석가산(石假山) 연구(硏究)

We can infer from collections of prose in Cho-sun period that the main period is from King Se-jong's reign to King Yoeng-jo's or between the 15th and the 17th century. The ideological background and the dignity of the rock garden is derived from Taoist hermitism and Nitze and Jeng-je's quietism. The representation of the rock garden as tri-god mountain comprising Bong-lai, Bang-jang and Young-ju is based on the tradition of making the tripartite rock garden in a pond practiced in the three north-eastern countries, Korea, China and Japan. And it's the representation of quietistic world of eternal life that had been sought by the taoism. Making a pond in which they plant lotus and made rock garden. they enjoyed watching immaculately pure lotus flower bloom even in the mud. It is compared to the confucians' seeking for virtue even in the profane or defiled world. Another motive of intellectuals to make rock gardens is their love of nature and its landscapes and their preference of recluse and temperate life to attaching to high public office, which was the tendency of the learned, established by the influence of taoist and quietist tradition. The essays portray the fountain water, ponds, waterfalls. the hilltops, the mountain pass over the ridge. winded lanes, valleys, caverns, and other architectural elements. The technic of building rock gardens includes those of harmonizing each elements of landscapes in the water, that of irrigation, building formation, and those of piling up the mountains and hills. With some comments on planting trees, grass and flowers. The original location of rock garden, esp. in case of taoist Chae-su's rock garden with waterfalls, is Ian-ri, Ian-myon in the city Sang-ju. Since no relics of rock gardens are to be found in any examples of Korea's traditional gardening, the study of rock gardening by analyzing the prose collections of Cho-sun period can be significant for the study of designing water space that has been considered the center of a garden space.