[Book Sip] Bestselling Author Visits Silla Royal Palace Wolseong Excavation Site

[Asia Economy Reporter Seomideum] Some sentences encapsulate the entire content of a book, while others instantly reach the reader's heart, creating a connection with the book. We introduce such meaningful sentences excerpted from books. - Editor's note

“Walking Through Wolseong,” a new essay collection by Kim Byeora, the author of the bestseller “Misil,” which sold over 200,000 copies and won the 1st World Literature Award, is a work born from her field research and exploration of Wolseong and its surrounding areas in Gyeongju since 2019 to properly meet Gyeongju. The author, who depicted the power struggles of the Silla royal family centered on the woman Misil, who was considered a colorfully divine figure, actually walked and recorded the excavation site of Wolseong, the royal palace of Silla, which was the main stage of the story.

The ancient kingdom of Silla, which ruled the eastern and southern regions of the Korean Peninsula for 992 years from 57 BCE to 935 CE, shared its brilliant capital, Seorabeol-Gyeongju, as both its beginning and end. The people of Seorabeol, especially the royal family who were the rulers of the kingdom, observed stars at Cheomseongdae, prayed at Seokguram and Bulguksa, and were buried in Daereungwon after death. But then, where did they live?
Silla’s thousand-year royal palace was Wolseong (Moon Castle). Wolseong served as the royal palace of Silla for 834 years, from the reign of King Pasa Isageum in 101 CE until Silla’s fall in 935 CE. Except for five kings, including the 5th King Pasa Isageum, who directly led the construction of the palace but did not reside there long, fifty kings from the 6th King Jima to the 56th King Gyeongsun lived there. It was the political center (Jeongcheong) of governance and the heart of the Silla dynasty.

From the Prologue

They did everything that human power could achieve. Yet, what is built collapses. When it collapses, they build again.

Faced with such relentless irresistible forces, ancient people sought to accomplish what human power could not by means that humans should not do. Whether it was the god of the land, the god of water and wind, or any spirit, they offered sacrificial offerings to pray that the walls, bridges, and buildings they painstakingly built would not collapse. The more desperate the prayer, the fiercer the effort; the more tragic the story, the more horrifying the human pillar legend. This was confirmed for the first time in Korea through the excavation of the Wolseong fortress walls.

- From Chapter 2: Tracing the Traces of Life Met Through Time_Two Buried Corpses Beneath the Fortress Wall

The Silla people were neat and tidy. The flush toilets excavated at the Donggung building site were the most advanced type of ancient toilets. The royal family or nobles would pour water from a jar placed beside the toilet hole after using it. The water carrying the waste flowed down a sloped drainage channel and seemed to collect in a facility similar to a modern septic tank. However, the last part of the drainage channel connected under the Donghae Nambu Line railway, so the entire layout of the site could not be fully understood.

Parasite eggs were also examined in the remains of the Donggung toilet. However, unlike the royal palace site, no parasite eggs were found, possibly because they were washed away by water or because Silla had a special method for eradicating parasites.

- From Chapter 2: Tracing the Traces of Life Met Through Time_The Epidemic and Toilet a Thousand Years Ago

Walking Through Wolseong | Written by Kim Byeora | Haenaem Publishing | 272 pages | 17,800 KRW

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.