HERE BE DRAGONS

URBAN MOUNTAIN RANGES

The following is an article by Mr J. S. Gale written in 1900. He was a presbyterian missionary who spent eleven years in Korea, and also wrote the Korean-English Dictionary (Yokohama, 1897)

Mountains are all personified in Korea. They are dragons usually, and according to their formation, graves situated on them are propitious or unpropitious. It never does to build a house upon a moving or flying dragon. If the personal influences of a hill site be too strong, there will be many goblins, and the house will come to destruction...There is always associated in the native’s mind the idea of guardianship with the mountains. Seoul, the capital, has to its north its guardian mountain Sam-kak-san the three-horned mountain... Graves too must have their guardian peaks or the family will not prosper. A common saying in geomancy, “Dragons do not see stones, me do not see dust (in the air), dogs do not see snow, tigers do not see paper.”

People are born according to the formation of the hills on which their ancestors’ grave are situated. A craggy geomantic formation brings forth warriors, a smooth well-rounded formation brings forth scholars - a pointed formation brings forth writers - an opposing formation brings forth robbers - jade peaks bring forth beautiful women. Of course all of this must be viewed and tested by a geomancer, to know what forms are destined to appear.

Mr. Sin-Ki-Sun, the present prime minister of Korea, remarked recently that Korea could never be independent, because she had so many mountains. “Mountains,” said he, “depending as they do on each other, denote dependence.”

The mountains are unavoidable in Seoul, and no matter how far the city spreads, there will always be the tip of a mountain looming in the skyline. Few cities have such an available opportunity to look back at itself. Given this, and the importance of mountain to the culture of Korea, it no wonder that so many people choose to climb them every weekend. In doing so you are given the chance to see yourself within the city, where your home is, and where your friends and family are - your place within the world. They may be a heterotopia unique to Korea, a antithesis to disorienting effects of travel by subway.

URBAN MOUNTAINOUS

In recent times, new shapes has risen out of the ground obscuring the old mountains and perhaps creating new ones - the APTs. It is doubtful that these have the same resonance.

MOUNTAINOUS URBAN

The view of man to mountain and mountain to man has always been an important one. It is a shame the view of man back to mountain is becoming increasingly rare.