Songseogwon (松石園) is the place name for the area around lot 47, Ogin-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul. The flowing down from Inwangsan ran through this area, and its outstanding scenery made it a popular destination for yangban and jungin from the mid-Joseon period. In particular, the jungin class led a movement here: when built a house called Songseogwon beside the Ongnyudong Valley and hosted poetry gatherings there, the Okgye Poetry Society (also called the Songseogwon Poetry Society) centered on him became widely celebrated. Following the flourishing of the Songseogwon Poetry Society, the name of the area came to be called Songseogwon rather than Okgye (玉溪), the earlier name for the Ongnyudong Valley.
After Cheon Su-gyeong's death, ownership of Songseogwon changed hands several times—passing through the Shin Andong Kim clan (known as the Jangdong Kims) and the Yeoheung Min clan—before came to possess Songseogwon around 1910. Yun Deok-yeong purchased more than half the land in Ogin-dong during the Japanese colonial period and built a mansion called Byeoksusanjang (碧樹山莊) on the Songseogwon site, centered on a French-style Western building known as the Yang-gwan (洋館). The Yang-gwan served as the headquarters of the United Nations Commission for the Unification and Rehabilitation of Korea before and after the Korean War, was destroyed by fire in 1966, and was demolished in 1973. After liberation, many houses were built around the Ongnyudong Valley, and residents still refer to the area as Songseogwon.
History 1600s
is a tributary of Cheonggyecheon, a collective name for the main stream flowing eastward from and the Ongnyudong (玉流洞) Valley, which flows down from the north and merges with the main stream in front of lot 77-15, . The Ongnyudong area was home to the Shin Andong Kim clan known as the Jangdong Kims (壯洞金氏), though they did not originally live in Ongnyudong. The first member of the Jangdong Kim clan to settle near Inwangsan was Kim Sang-yong, who built a villa at in 1608. Kim Sang-yong's younger brother Kim Sang-heon lived west of in what corresponds to the present-day lot 2, . In his essay "Yuseosangi" (遊西山記) in his collected works Cheongeumjip, Kim Sang-heon described a visit in the autumn of 1614 to a spring on Inwangsan, having heard it could cure eye ailments after his mother fell ill; he passed the site of 's former house, Cheongsimdang (淸心堂), in Inwangdong on his way.
It was Kim Sang-heon's grandson Kim Su-hang who first crossed into Ongnyudong in the late 1600s. In 1683, Kim Su-hang built a house called Yukcheongheon (六靑軒) in Ongnyudong. In 1686, he built a pavilion called Cheonghwigak (淸暉閣) in the yard of Yukcheongheon; to celebrate this, the nearby resident sent a poem, to which Kim Su-hang replied with a poem of his own. Yukcheongheon fell into disuse after Kim Su-hang was put to death in 1689 during the Gisa Hwanguk; later his son rebuilt it as a resting place, but when Kim Chang-jip was also executed in the Sinchuk Oksa, his descendants eventually built a shrine there called Dokchungdang (篤忠堂). Cheonghwigak passed to his son Nogajae (老稼齋) , who rebuilt it in 1715. Behind Cheonghwigak was a well called Gajaewumul (稼齋―, Gajae Well) said to have been enjoyed by Kim Chang-eop, which is the very spring that Kim Sang-heon mentioned in "Yuseosangi." The Gajae Well still exists today at lot 47-376, Ogin-dong, but it functions no longer as a well, as the house built over it covers the well with iron bars and a concrete coating. The location of Yukcheongheon is estimated to have been around lot 47-73, Ogin-dong..
Meanwhile, it was in the 1600s—after the Imjin War—that ordinary people began living in the area west of Gyeongbokgung, with the yangban class settling mainly on higher ground and the jungin class—scribes (書吏) and (京衙前, local government functionaries)—gathering on lower ground. These jungin formed poetry clubs called and developed the movement. While the first such gathering in Wihanng literature, the Pungwol-hyangdo (風月香徒), centered on Samcheongdong at the foot of Bugaksan, the Naksa (洛社) founded by Im Jun-won (林俊元) held gatherings not only below Bugaksan but also at the Ongnyudong Valley on Inwangsan and at .
1700s In the 1700s, the Ongnyudong Valley area was dotted with houses belonging to both the Jangdong Kims and jungin residents;. Wihanng poets had already lived in the Ongnyudong area for several generations. Among them, thirteen poets including , , Kim Nak-seo (金洛瑞), Im Deuk-myeong (林得明), Kim Tae-han (金泰漠), and No Yun-jeok (盧允迪) gathered on July 16, 1786 at the Ongnyudong Valley where Cheon Su-gyeong lived, and founded a poetry society called Okgyesa (玉溪社) or Okgye Poetry Society (玉溪詩社). At the time, Cheon Su-gyeong used the pen name Jeog-yeojae (積餘齋). When Cheon Su-gyeong built a thatched cottage beneath a pine tree and a large boulder in the early 1790s and named it Songseogwon (松石園), the Okgye Poetry Society came to be known as the Songseogwon Poetry Society (松石園詩社). Jang Hon also followed Cheon Su-gyeong to Ongnyudong, building a house called Iieom (而已广) and joining the poetry society. Their poetry gathering held on Yudu (流頭) Day in 1791 survives in illustrated form in the Okgye Cheong-yu Cheop (玉溪淸遊帖), with paintings by Yi In-mun and Kim Hong-do.
After the Okgye Poetry Society came to be called the Songseogwon Poetry Society, it was regarded as the representative sisa of Wihanng literature. It was famous enough that poets of the time who had not participated in it considered it a disgrace. The Songseogwon Poetry Society originally held poetry gatherings (詩會, sihoe) on a small scale; as numbers grew, it held baekjeon (白戰, paper battles) every spring and autumn at the Yeongtang (蓮堂) of the Jungsebu (中書府), where anywhere from 30–50 to several hundred jungin composed poetry. The baekjeon—named for fighting with sheets of paper instead of weapons—was so popular that anyone caught by night watchmen claimed to be going to a baekjeon and was let go. As the Songseogwon Poetry Society's baekjeon became so famous as to symbolize Wihanng literature, the entire area around Cheon Su-gyeong's house gradually came to be called Songseogwon. Songseogwon's outstanding scenery of pine trees and boulders also attracted attention from yangban literati. The Seosa (西社), formed by and others in the mid-1700s and gathering at , also exchanged with the Songseogwon Poetry Society from 1791 following an invitation from Cheon Su-gyeong; in September 1792, Seosa members joined Cheon Su-gyeong to re-establish the Gurosi-gye (九老詩契) poetry fellowship.
1800s In the fourth lunar month of 1817, Kim Jeong-hui carved the characters '松石園' (Songseogwon) horizontally on a boulder behind where the Songseogwon Poetry Society had gathered, and added the inscription 'Jeongchuk cheong-hwa-wol soboengnaeseo' (丁丑淸和月小蓬萊書) alongside it. The Songseogwon rock carving was cut as a square with sides of four chon (寸) each.. The current location of this carving is unclear; in Kim Yeong-sang's Seoul 600 Years, it is merely noted as carved on "a fairly large cliff rock at roughly the midpoint inside the Songseogwon enclosure." Residents estimate the carving was at lot 47-253, Ogin-dong. Choe Jong-hyeon, by contrast, believed the carving had been carved on the stepped rock face behind Park No-su's house and is now buried under soil.. Seo Yong-taek testified that it was plastered over with cement along with the boulder and has disappeared.. However, by the time Kim Jeong-hui carved the inscription, the Songseogwon Poetry Society was already in decline; after Cheon Su-gyeong died in 1818, it all but disappeared.
Afterwards, purchased the old site of Songseogwon and rebuilt Cheonghwigak, so that the area around Cheonghwigak came to be called Songseogwon. As the Jangdong Kims lost power in the 1860s and the Yeoheung Min clan rose to the center of monarchical rule backed by Empress Myeongseong, Songseogwon was transferred to and in the 1870s. Kim Hak-jin, a member of the Jangdong Kims, later recorded that Min Gyu-ho had said he wanted to drink the water of the Gajae Well and that there was no choice but to hand over Songseogwon.. Subsequently, Min Yeong-ik, , and each successively owned Songseogwon.
After 1900
The Songseogwon area was sold off in 1904 following the death of Empress Sunjeonghyo. Go Je-ik (高濟翊) purchased it, and it was then acquired by Yang Seong-hwan (梁性煥).. Then , using 460,000 won in grace money (恩賜金) given by Japan, purchased the Songseogwon area around the winter solstice of 1910. Yun Deok-yeong continued buying up land in Ogin-dong, and by 1917 owned 49.5% (16,628 pyeong) of the total land area of Ogin-dong, rising to 53.54% (19,467.8 pyeong) by 1927.
Based on the design of a French aristocratic villa that Min Yeong-chan had seen in France, Yun Deok-yeong commenced construction of a mansion on his Ogin-dong land in 1913. However, importing expensive materials from overseas caused many contractors to go bankrupt, and even as late as 1921 the exterior was complete but the building remained unfinished; it was known as "the most extravagant house in Joseon" and "the Epang-gung" (阿房宮). The Byeoksusanjang Yang-gwan was finally completed in 1935, but was immediately leased to the Korea Branch; after Yun Deok-yeong's death, sold the building and site in their entirety to Mitsui Mining Co., Ltd. in 1945. Yun Deok-yeong officially worked in a small Western-style building behind the Yang-gwan, but as he served as head of the World Red Swastika Society Korea Branch, it is also possible he effectively used the Yang-gwan. After liberation, the Yang-gwan was used as Deoksu Hospital; during the Korean War, it served as quarters for U.S. 8th Army officers; from June 1954, the United Nations Commission for the Unification and Rehabilitation of Korea (UNCURK) used it as its headquarters until it was destroyed by fire during renovation work on April 5, 1966. UNCURK immediately moved its offices to the Diplomatic Research Institute building and the Yang-gwan was managed by the Government General Administration before being demolished in June 1973.
The site left after demolishing the Yang-gwan passed to in 1978 and was subdivided into large lots, developed as an upscale residential area in the late 1970s. The alley running through this residential area, Pirundae-ro 9-gil, is known as 'Eongkeongkeu-gil', a pronunciation shift from 'UNCURK'. In contrast, the rest of lot 47, Ogin-dong—that is, the area around the Ongnyudong Valley—was settled by refugees from the Korean War and people from rural provinces coming to Seoul. The area is characterized by unlicensed substandard housing mostly roofed with corrugated asbestos sheets and an irregular lot numbering system. Lot 47, Ogin-dong was neglected in its deteriorated state: city gas had not yet arrived as recently as the early 2000s, and many houses had collapsed tiles or walls. On December 27, 2007, it was designated the Ogin 1st Residential Redevelopment Improvement Zone,Seoul Metropolitan Government Notice No. 2007-477, December 27, 2007. but this designation was lifted on March 30, 2017 to preserve historical and cultural resources;Seoul Metropolitan Government Notice No. 2017-113, March 30, 2017. as a follow-up measure, a Residential Environment Improvement Project Zone was designated on July 25, 2019.Seoul Metropolitan Government Notice No. 2019-244, July 25, 2019.
Byeoksusanjang