Run the city wall along the crests of the four inner mountains, so that the land itself is the rampart, and open the great gates where the ridges dip to let the roads in: east, west, south and north, with four lesser gates between.
c. 18 km of wall (1396) · 4 great gates + 4 lesser gates
The wall was raised in two short campaigns in 1396 by nearly two hundred thousand conscripted labourers, partly in earth and partly in stone, and rebuilt in stone under Sejong in 1422. Following the mountains rather than a geometric figure, it enclosed an irregular basin; the regular plan of the Kaogong ji was kept only in the placing of the palace, shrine and altar within it.
The great gates were named by the Confucian minister Jeong Do-jeon after the constant virtues: benevolence (in) in the east gate Heunginjimun, righteousness (ui) in the west gate Donuimun, propriety (ye) in the south gate Sungnyemun. The south gate was the principal entrance to the city, facing the road from the south.
Lay out the royal city as a square of nine li on each side, with three gates in each wall and, within, nine roads running north–south and nine east–west, each wide enough for nine chariots abreast.
side = 9 li · 3 gates × 4 sides · 9 jing + 9 wei · road width = 9 gui (tracks)
With the palace at the centre facing south, place the ancestral temple on its left (east) and the altar of soil and grain on its right (west); put the court in front and the market behind, each one fu (a hundred paces) square.
Find true north and south with a plumb-lined post and the shadows of sunrise and sunset, checked by the pole star; then turn the principal hall of every compound to face south.
Seat the capital in a basin closed by mountains: a guardian mountain behind (north), a lower range on the left (east) as the Azure Dragon and on the right (west) as the White Tiger, a facing hill in front (south); let a stream cross the basin and a great river flow beyond.
Bugaksan (behind) · Naksan (left, Azure Dragon) · Inwangsan (right, White Tiger) · Namsan (in front) · Cheonggyecheon within, the Han River without
Build long ranges of shops at public expense along both sides of the main east–west street, let them to licensed merchants trade by trade, and ring the bell at the crossing to open and close the city.
Cite this page Chris Paton, “The wall on the ridges, the gates in the saddles”, The Textbook of Architecture, https://textbookofarchitecture.com/rule/hanyang-ridge-wall. Text, drawings and models licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.