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The National Palace Museum of Korea (Director: Kim In Kyu), an affiliate of the Cultural Heritage Administration of Korea, has selected “Hanging Board Inscribed with King Yeongjo’s Reminiscence about a Time with His Grandson” as its “Curator’s Choice from the Royal Treasures” for the month of November. It will be displayed in the Kings of the Joseon Dynasty gallery located on the second floor of the museum. It will also be presented online in a YouTube broadcast on the channels of the Cultural Heritage Administration and the National Palace Museum of Korea starting November 1.

* National Palace Museum of Korea YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/gogungmuseum

* Cultural Heritage Administration YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/chluvu

The hanging board bears a carved version of a piece of writing that King Yeongjo composed after visiting several places within the palace together with his grandson (the future King Jeongjo) on the twenty-first day of the third lunar month of 1774. Yeongjo, who was eighty-one at the time, paid respects at Gyeongbonggak Hall and then visited the Hongmungwan, Chunbang, and Seungjeongwon. Upon realizing how the duties and polices he carried out as a king corresponded with those of rulers of the past, King Yeongjo was surprised by the similarities and the sense of continuity, and wrote about them the next day.

*Gyeongbonggak Hall: a building at Gyeonghuigung Palace used to store imperial letters from Chinese emperors of Ming Dynasty

* Hongmungwan: Office of Special Advisors

* Chunbang: Crown Prince Tutorial Office, also known as the Sejasigangwon

* Seungjeongwon: Royal Secretariat

Many royal hanging boards bear texts composed by a king or calligraphy he wrote. To pass his thoughts on to future generations, King Yeongjo ordered Yi Jae-gan, a royal secretary-transmitter at the Seungjeongwon, to inscribe them and had the boards hung at the three government offices. Such royal hanging boards were hung inside and outside palace buildings in an attempt to make the messages engraved on them more widely known and ensure that later generations would not forget them.

*Yi Jae-gan (1733–1789): a civil official of the late Joseon era who served as state councilor, minister of Rites, and chief of the Bureau of Judicature

The National Palace Museum of Korea holds 775 royal hanging boards once hung in buildings related to the Joseon royal court, such as the main palace, secondary palace, temporary palace, and Jongmyo Shrine. In addition to the Hanging Board Inscribed with King Yeongjo’s Reminiscence about a Time with His Grandson, other examples such as the Hanging Board from Sillokgak and Hanging Board Inscribed with a Poem That King Gojong Composed Upon Viewing Crown Prince Hyomyeong Attending a Royal Lecture can be viewed in the Kings of the Joseon Dynasty gallery. Moreover, this month’s Curator’s Choice will be presented virtually through a video with Korean and English subtitles on the museum’s website (gogung.go.kr) and on the YouTube channels of the museum and the Cultural Heritage Administration of Korea so that it can be enjoyed by anyone, even without visiting the gallery.

* Hanging Board from Sillokgak: hanging board that was hung at a national history archive situated on Taebaeksan Mountain that stored the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty (Joseon wangjo sillok).