526 t h e a n n a l s o f k i n g t’a e j o
lower floors. A bell and a drum hang in the upper story and are used to
indicate the hour in the morning and evening and to keep the palace secu-
rity tight.
On the left and right sides in front of Kanghwamun many public build-
ings stand in a row, and they include the State Council [Ŭijŏngbu; Privy
Council], the Three Armies Headquarters, the Six Ministries, and the Office
of the Inspector-General.Intercalary 9th Month
1st Day (Imsul)
The Directorate for the Relocation of Royal Ancestral Tablets (Ian togam)
was established at the Royal Ancestral Shrine.^27The king held a banquet for the commissioners in charge of the construc -
tion of the Royal Ancestral Shrine and bestowed a royal horse upon each
of them.2nd Day (Kyehae)
A roe deer roamed into the downtown district.3rd Day (Kapcha)
Pak Man, magistrate of Samch’ŏk, captured two Japanese marauders who
invaded our territory. The king sent General Yi Chabun to bestow royal
wine on him.- Right after ascending the throne at Such’ang Palace in 1392, T’aejo began to show
interest in building the ancestral shrine because he believed it was indispensable to his new
dynasty, like the royal palace. If the royal palace was purposed to rule the people while dis-
playing the dignity of the nation to them, the ancestral shrine was designed to promote filiality
and loyalty, which were essential to governing the people. So the first thing he did was to
present posthumous titles to his immediate ancestors of four generations, which was done
twelve days after his ascension to the throne. However, he had difficulty in finding the proper
site for a new ancestral shrine in Kaesŏng. As a result, he demolished the old ancestral shrine
of Koryŏ and constructed a new one there. However, before the building was completed, T’aejo
relocated the nation’s capital to Hanyang (present Seoul) and finished the construction of
another ancestral shrine in the ninth month of 1395. Under these circumstances, the Directorate
for the Relocation of Royal Ancestral Tablets was created in order to carry out the task of
moving the ancestral tablets from Kaesŏng to the new Royal Ancestral shrine in Hanyang.