Buam-dong: The Poets' Pass

Welcome to Buam-dong.

You should be standing at the gate of Mugyewon, a traditional Korean house.

This little valley used to be called Mugye-dong.

And that name began with one man's dream.

The dreamer was Prince Anpyeong, the third son of King Sejong, the king who gave Korea its alphabet.

People said he excelled at three arts at once: poetry, calligraphy, and painting.

One night, the prince dreamed he was walking a mountain path with a young scholar named Bak Paeng-nyeon.

At the end of the path they found a valley full of peach blossoms, a hidden paradise.

When he woke up, the prince told his dream to the painter An Gyeon.

An Gyeon came back with the painting in just three days.

It is called Mongyu Dowondo, Dream Journey to the Peach Blossom Land.

A few years later, the prince found a real valley that looked like the one in his dream.

It was on the northwest side of Baegaksan mountain, right around here.

He built a pavilion here and named it Mugye Jeongsa.

He is said to have filled it with ten thousand books, and to have written poems here with scholar friends.

So far, this is a story about a dream coming true.

But this dream-like valley later became a weapon against him.

His older brother, Prince Suyang, seized power in a coup.

And a rumor about this pavilion site became the biggest charge against Anpyeong.

People called it land where a prince who was not the eldest son would rise to the throne.

Anpyeong was sent to Ganghwa Island, then to the smaller island of Gyodong, and there he was made to drink poison.

The pavilion fell into ruin.

What remains are three characters, Mugye-dong, carved into a rock nearby, and one painting.

That painting is now in Japan, in the library of Tenri University.

No one knows when it crossed the sea.

Now take a look at the gate in front of you.

This gate did not start life in this valley.

The house was built with the gate, roof tiles, and pillars of an old house called Ojinam, moved here from Ikseon-dong in central Seoul.

So in the prince's dream valley stands a house that moved in from somewhere else.

Anpyeong's dream survived as a single painting.

Over the hill, there is a different kind of writing that also barely survived.

That story begins with a well.

Follow Changuimun-ro up toward the pass. It is uphill, so take it slow.