Soryeongwon in Paju is a tomb site of the King Yeongjo’s biological mother, Sukbin
Choe. As we know, Sukbin Choe was a self-made woman who rose from a maid of honor
to the position of bin, King Sukjong’s royal concubine, who is a character appearing
frequently in period dramas. However, her son the King Yeongjo’s filial piety is not known
well after her death. At first, Soryeongwon was called simply ‘Sukbin’s Tomb’ without
a special tomb name, but ‘Soryeong’ was recommended as a tomb name, and it was called
as ‘Soryeongmyo’. In the 29th year of King Yeongjo’s reign, after granting his mother
‘Hwagyeong’ as a posthumous epithet, he made a rite of palace-tomb site that enshrined
a spirit tablet in the palace and the dead’s body in the tomb site, and the tomb became
a reference point since then for the funeral rites of Kings’ biological mothers, crown
princes and crown princesses of many generations. Therefore, it may be more appropriate
that we consider Soryeongwon as a place of remembrance for King Yeongjo who had an
affection for his mother all his life, rather than a simple tomb. There is no place without
Yeongjo’s trace everywhere in the tomb site, constructing the ancestral ritual buildings and
adding a tombstone and stone figures in process of worship from the creation of a tomb.
After completing worship of Sukbin Choe, that Yeongjo spoke “Now I can die without
regrets.” may be his humane aspect behind his cold-hearted political aspect that even killed
his son, the Crown Prince Sado. In the 29th year of King Yeongjo’s reign, after granting
his mother’s posthumous epithet as Hwagyeong, he added Hwideok, Ansun, and Subok,
and Sukbin Choe had a long posthumous epithet of Hwagyeong-Hwideok-Ansun-
Subok.
The special meaning of Soryeongwon is not only in the tomb. ‘The ceremonial visit to
a tomb site of royal family’ in the Joseon Period is a kind of governance through a
ceremony. The King Jeongjo’s visit to his father Crown Prince Sado’s tomb after he
moved it to Suwon is known well to the public, but the visit to Soryeongwon by Yeongjo,
a mentor of Jeongjo and his preceding king, is not known well. After his mother was dead,
Yeongjo placed Sukbin’s tomb in Yeongjang-ri through Uijudaero, and he left lyrics of
missing his mother, visiting Soryeongwon 12 times after he ascended to the throne.
This road was used when Yeongjo went to Gaeseong, and now it is called as Uijudaero,
having connection of Seoul-Goyang-Paju-Imjingang(river). Regarding the relevant
historic sites, there are service areas for king’s lunch during his trip, a temporary palace,
station, Hwaseokjeong (pavilion), and Imjin Ferry as well as Je-reung, Hu-reung(King’s
Tomb), and the ancestral rites by the king. An inquiry on station found some remaining
structures able to be presumed as Sinwon and Busuwon.
Consequently, through this writing I suggest ‘restoration of the ancestral ritual structure’
in Soryeongwon and construction of ‘Hyoje Museum’ to let the public know about the
filial behavior, which was the Yeongjo’s state running style. However, if there are not
citizens’ attention and participation, it would be difficult to continue the further study and
development. In order that a historical cultural resource remains as a space for
interpretation beyond the simple presence, it should be left as a space possible to extend
its meaning. To solve this, ‘reproduction of Uijudaero’ used during visit to Gaeseong and
‘ancestral ritual formalities of Soryeongwon’ will be an essential course for revitalization
of the regional tourism. Even though the funeral rites published in the King Yeongjo’s
reign had a great impact on kings of many generation since then, enough to be the
reference book, there is no museum or a memorial hall to inform his achievements.
Therefore, I wish this paper could be the priming water for the effort to restore the
meaning of filial piety and brotherly love in this generation, by changing the closed
Soryeongwon into the restrictively open site, through the ancestral ritual structure, King
Yeongjo’s memorial place.