Korean gardens attempt to recreate the natural landscape with hills, streams and fields. They are usually small in scale, but strive towards an ideal harmony of nature and man. The principal idea is to blend the structures into nature with the least possible disturbance of the environment, because, in the Korean mind, nature is already a perfect and absolute entity that regenerates and sustains life.

In the long tradition of garden making in Korea, adding man-made elements to the purest of spaces is considered a violation and something to be approached with utmost care and reservation. The essential idea behind the Korean art of garden-building is to make it look more natural than nature itself. In many cases, what appears to be the work of nature turns out, at a closer look, to be the result of very conscious efforts. Korean gardens are characterized by a submission to nature in an attempt to attain beauty and function.

Korea has a long history of gardens. The oldest records date to the Three Kingdoms period (57B.C.-A.D. 668) when architecture showed notable development. An important early history of the Korean nation, Samguksagi (History of the Three Kingdoms) provides numerous pieces of evidence of royal palace gardens.

The earliest record of a garden in the book is attributed to the Goguryeo Kingdom (37 B.C.-A.D. 668). It says that in the sixth year of the regin of King Dong-myeong, the founder of Goguryeo, mysterious peacocks swarmed into the courtyard of the royal palace. In the second year (414) of the reign of King Jangsu, the same source claims that curious birds flocked into the royal palace, another indication that the palace had a garden to attract such birds.

The book implies that Baekje (18 B.C.-A.D. 660) had gardens of higher aesthetical standards by saying that, during the reign of King Mu (r.600-641), a pond was made to the south of the royal palace with the source of water supply located 8km away. Willow trees were planted along all four banks of the pond, which had in the center a miniature island named after a legendary mountain in China where Taoist immortals were said to dwell. Remains of the pond are found today in Buyeo, the old capital of Baekje. It is called Gungnamji, or the Pond South of the Palace.

There is also the record that in 655, King Uija had the palace of the Crown Prince extensively renovated and a pavilion named Manghaejeong, or the Sea Watching Pavilion, built to the south of his palace. The sea here is assumed to have meant the Gungnamji pond surrounded by willow trees, located to the south of the main palace.

In Silla (57 B.C.-A.D. 935), the founding monarch Bak Hyeokgeose built a palace in the capital city of Geumseong, which is today's Gyeongju, in 32 B.C., according to the Samguksagi. The book also says that, during the reign of King Cheomhae Isageum (r.247-267), a dragon appeared from a pond located to the east of the royal palace, and willow trees that lay to the south of the sp. city rose by themselves.

The best preserved among all ancient palace gardens is Anapji pond in Gyeongju, which was recently drained for excavation and restoration. Built as part of the detached palace of the Crown Prince during the reign of King Munmu (r.661-681), the artificial pond had five buildings along its shore stretching 1,330 meters, each situated to command a full view of the pond. Of the five, three pavilion-like structures have been restored.

Anapji has curved embankments on the northern and eastern sides, somewhat resembling the shoreline of a river. The southern end is perfectly straight while the western side is angular. All of the four sides are lined with dressed stones. In the middle of the pond are three small islands alluding to Taoist sanctuaries.

In an entry dated A.D. 674, the Samguksagi records that" a pond was made with mountain-islands, flowering plants were grown, and rare birds and strange animals were raised in the palace." It is believed that plants such as orchids, peonies, lotus and azaleas, and birds and animals like swans, peacocks and deer were kept in the palace. On the shore and around the islands are simulated beaches made of rocks.

When Anapji was drained and excavated in 1975, many relics dating from the Unified Silla period (668-935) were found. They included a wooden frame which is believed to have been designed to grow lotus in a limited area in the pond. The entire floor of the pond was covered with pebbles to keep the water clear. On the whole, Anapji and the surrounding garden were designed in a microcosmic style to symbolize the dwellings of Taoist fairies. The entire area was so arranged as to create the effect of a landscape painting.

Another important Silla garden in Gyeongju is the one at the site of a detached palace in the southern valley of Mt. Namsan. At the site of its Poseokjeong pavilion, believed to have been built in the eighth century, is a water channel in which wine cups floated around during royal feasts. The channel defines an abalone-shaped area. The garden seems to have been a lovely sight with thick bamboo groves, beautiful streams and dense woods of pine and zelkova trees.

During Goryeo (918-1392), the pleasure-seeking King Uijong had various beautiful pavilions constructed in a royal villa in 1157 as part of a project to build a simulated fairyland. He ordered one of the pavilions to be covered with fine celadon roof tiles, which was criticized as an excessive luxury by offcials.

The art of garden making in the Joseon period (1392-1910) is best exemplified by the Huwon garden of Changdeokgung Palace in Seoul. Comprising some 300,000 square meters of the entire 405,636 square meters of the palace property, the garden is tastefully laid out with picturesque pavilions and halls, lotus ponds, fantastically shaped rocks, stone bridges, stairways, water troughs and springs scattered among dense woods, all essential elements of a traditional Korean-style garden.

Garden seen from Hwallaejeon pavilion at Seongyojang in Gangneoung.

Amisan Garden in the back of Gyotaejeon, once the royal bedchamber of Gyeongbokgung Palace, provides another attractive example of Joseon palatial gardens. It has four brick chimneys adorned with beautiful patterns, stone water holders and fantastic rocks placed among the plants on the terraced flower beds.

Not far from Amisan Garden, in the northern section of the palace, a two-story hexagonal pavilion named Hyangwonjeong stands in the middle of a lotus pond. A beautiful wooden bridge spans the pond to the pavilion.

A lotus pond is one of the most important structures in Korean garden. Hyangwonjeong.

In Damyang-gun, located in Korea's south-western Jeollanam-do province, a woodland garden named Soswaewon (Garden of Pure Mind), built by a 16th century nobleman, offers a fine example of Joseon literati gardens combining Confucian idealism and Taoist naturalism. Approached by a long, arched gateway of a thick bamboo grove, the garden has a rapid stream burbling down a rocky valley by pavilions, a lotus pond and a water mill. It is adorned with a variety of trees and shrubs including paulownias, plums, pines, maples, plantains, gingko trees, orchids, chrysanthemums and lotuses-all favorite plants among ancient Koreans for both their appearances and symbolic meanings. The idyllic atmosphere of the place inspired many writers and poets.

In Gangneung, Gangwon-do province, near the east coast, Seongyojang, or the Mansion of Ferry Bridge, maintains much of the stylishness of the Joseon elite home garden of the early 19th century. The mansion is comprised of the outer quarters for the men of the family, the inner quarters for women and children, and the servant quarters, each surrounded with low stone walls with little landscaping. There is a square lotus pond near the entrance, with a pavilion perched on the shore and a miniature mountain-island in the center, in a style reminiscent of a lotus pond in the Huwon garden in Seoul.