Dong Yi|Yongin Daejanggeum Park Muryangsujeon — The Hill Hall Above the Whole Set

The park tour van drops you at a cafe beside Muryangsujeon, the highest permanent hall on the lot. The building copies the form of Buseoksa’s Muryangsujeon in Yeongju. From the terrace you see the market street, the palace court, and the ridges that hide the rest of Cheoin-gu.

The Korea Herald records that Dong Yi used this hill, along with Queen Seondeok, Moon Embracing the Sun, and Gu Family Book. A high hall is useful when a scene needs air. A water maid looking up at a court she cannot yet enter needs a roof line that sits above everything else on the lot.

The climb is the point. Namuwiki says the internal shuttle costs a few thousand won and ends here on purpose. You arrive slightly out of breath, which is how the cameras wanted the approach to feel. The hall itself is a set, not a temple. Incense is for the photograph, not the rite.

On a clear afternoon the whole of Daejanggeum Park fits in one turn of the head. That is why they put the hall on the hill. Dong Yi’s rise is easier to believe when you can see the distance she had to cover.