Seoul as the founders of Joseon laid it out between 1394 and 1414: a basin closed by four guardian mountains with the wall on their ridges, Gyeongbokgung under Bugaksan facing south, Jongmyo on its left and Sajikdan on its right, the ministries before the palace gate, the market along Jongno, and tiled and thatched houses sized by the owner’s rank.
When Yi Seong-gye founded the Joseon dynasty in 1392 he looked for a new capital, and the choice was made by pungsu, the Korean form of Chinese geomancy. Hanyang lay in a basin closed on every side: Bugaksan behind, Naksan on the left as the Azure Dragon, Inwangsan on the right as the White Tiger, Namsan in front, a stream running through from west to east and the Han River flowing round outside in the opposite direction. The palace of Gyeongbokgung was placed under Bugaksan facing south, and the city wall, raised in 1396, was run along the crests of the four mountains, with the great gates in the saddles between them.
Within that natural frame the plan follows the Kaogong ji where it can: the royal ancestral shrine of Jongmyo on the king’s left (east) and the altars of soil and grain of Sajikdan on his right (west), both built in 1395; the offices of the State Council and the Six Ministries along the avenue in front of the palace gate as the “court in front”. The market departs from the text: instead of lying behind the palace, the state-built shop ranges of 1412–14 line Jongno, the main street, with the bell pavilion at the crossing. The streets between are irregular, following the ground.
The houses obey the law of 1431 that limited a house to sixty, fifty, forty, thirty or ten bays (kan) according to its owner’s rank: large tiled houses of officials north of Jongno, thatched houses of ten kan in the south. The site is reduced about four times in plan and the mountains less in height, so that they can be read; buildings are at their true size.