Koreans, in keeping with Confucian tenets, continue to revere their ancestors and to honor their achievements. This is most clearly evident on the first Sunday of every May when the descendants of the Jeonju Yi Royal Family honor Korea's past royalty in elaborate Confucian rites at Jongmyo, the royal ancestral shrine of the Joseon Dynasty.

Dressed in black robes and colorful aprons embroidered with animals signifying their rank and wearing hats run through with long horizontal pins, elderly men offer libations of food and drink before the spirit tablets of the kings that ruled Korea from 1392 to 1910. While they do so, young, scarlet-clad women perfectly aligned in a square of eight rows by eight rows slowly bend and sway. Each one gently lifts a foot shod in black felt and, turning first to the east and then to the west and the north, bends slightly. They alternately put on a round red cap and a black one according to the sequence of the dances. They strike a symbolic ax against a wooden shield for the military dances and wave a flute adorned with a dragon head and pheasant feathers for the civil dances. The ilmu, as this kind of dance is called, is characterized by a repetition of simple and restrained movements expressing humility and reverence. It is performed to the accompaniment of orchestras of musicians clothed in magenta robes who draw exotic sounds from ancient instruments of stone, metal, wood, leather and silk.

It is a colorful pageant but probably not nearly as grand as in the days of old when the rites, called jehyang or jerye, were performed several times a year and lasted all day. At that time, the day began in the early dawn with the king selecting the food offerings from choice cows, goats and pigs as well as the finest fruits, grains and honey brought to the capital from every province.

Although today's ceremony, which starts around ten o'clock in the morning, is a much-abbreviated form, it is a rare opportunity to experience the pomp and ceremony that characterized the highly Confucian Dynasty of Joseon. In the past, the king, the civil and military court officials, and other lesser nobles performed the rites with the court's musicians and dancers providing the accompaniment. Today the members of the Jeonju Yi Royal Family Association perform the rites to the accompaniment of music and dance provided by musicians from the National Center for Korean Traditional Performing Arts and dancers from the Korean Traditional Music National High School.

As many as 19 different classical Korean and Chinese musical instruments including stone chimes, bronze bells, various drums and other percussion instruments, as well as wind and string instruments are used during the ceremony. They are arranged in two orchestras that perform antiphonally: the terrace orchestra or deungga situated on the terrace of the shrine and the ground orchestra or heonga, situated in the courtyard. During the time of Joseon, the deungga was made up of one singer and 36 musicians and the heonga was composed of 72 musicians, but today these two orchestras number some 50 in all.

The music, called jeryeak, dates to the reign of King Sejong (r. 1418-1450), who ordered the court's music master to restore the ritual music to its original Chinese Zhou Dynasty form because it had changed considerably since its introduction from China around 1116 when King Yejong of the Goryeo Dynasty (918-1392) began using Chinese musical instruments and music at the royal ancestral rites. It is not known what type of music was used before then but historical records indicate that memorial rites for royal ancestors were performed as early as A.D. 6 in the court of the Silla Kingdom (57 B.C.-A.D. 935). King Sejong wanted to replace the Chinese music with native Korean music in the belief that the spirits of the deceased kings would prefer the music they had enjoyed while alive. He revised musical arrangements and ordered new compositions made but he faced opposition from his courtiers who insisted on using Chinese music. In 1464, King Sejo had Botaepyeong and Jeongdaeeop, two pieces composed by King Sejong, included in the score for the royal ancestral rites and they have been a part of the rites ever since. The deungga plays Botaepyeong, which praises the civil achievements of the kings, and the heonga plays Jeongdaeeop, which praises the kings' military exploits and achievements. The songs invite the ancestral spirits to descend from heaven to enjoy the offerings and to grant blessings on their posterity. The songs also recount the kings' achievements in founding the Dynasty and defending the country in order to encourage their descendants to follow in their footsteps.

As the stately, though somewhat ponderous, music is played, the officiants offer wine in brass cups to each spirit three times. An invocation is read for each spirit with the offering of the first cup of wine. The wine and food offerings are placed on tables before the spirit tablets in the cubicles of the shrine. There are two wine cups for each occupant of the cubicles; for example, on the table before King Sungjong's cubicle are six wine cups, two for the king, and two for each of his wives, Queen Min and Queen Yun. During the time of Joseon, the king offered the first cup of wine, the crown prince the second and the chief state minister the third. Upon completion of the rites, the king drank wine removed from the altar of Taejo, the Dynasty's founder, as a gesture of communion with his spirit.

There are 19 cubicles in Jeongjeon and 16 in Yeongnyeongjeon, Jongmyo's two main buildings. Jeongjeon, the main hall, houses the spirit tablets of the kings of outstanding achievements and those who left direct heirs to the throne. Yeongnyeongjeon, Hall of Eternal Peace, houses the tablets of lesser monarchs and those who died without direct heirs or who were honored posthumously with the title of king. The spirit of each king is allotted a cubicle. On the far side of the cubicle is a high chair-like table on which the wooden spirit tablet bearing the king's name is enshrined. In front of the table is a space just large enough for a person to make a prostrate, head-to-floor bow. The cubicles also contain a list of each king's achievements and his personal seal and favorite books as well as the spirit tablets of all his ancestors.

Taejo, the founder-king of the Joseon Dynasty; Sejong, who is credited with the invention of the Korean alphabet; and Gojong and Sunjong, the last rulers of Joseon, are among the kings enshrined in Jeongjeon. The child-king Danjong and the last crown prince, Yeongwang, who died in 1970, are among those honored in Yeong-nyeongjeon. The tablets of the father, grandfather, great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather of Taejo are also enshrined in Yeongnyeongjeon, along with those of their wives.

An unusually long building with wings at either side and a straight, uninterrupted roof, Jeongjeon stands on a terrace and is fronted by a large raised cobbled plaza. It was first built in 1395 by King Taejo when he moved his capital from Gaeseong, a city in North Korea, to Hanyang, today's Seoul. In keeping with the traditional Chinese model, it was situated to the southeast of the main palace, Gyeongbokgung, and the altar for the gods of earth and harvest, Sajikdan, to the southwest of the palace so that the ancestral shrine would be on the king's left when seated on the throne and Sajikdan altar on his right. It was enlarged during the reign of King Myeongjong (r. 1545-1567), destroyed during the 1592-1598 Japanese invasions, and rebuilt by King Gwanghaegun in 1608. It was enlarged by King Yeongjo (r. 1724-1776), again by King Heonjong (r. 1834-1849), and finally to its present size by King Gojong (r. 1863-1907). Forty-nine tablets are enshrined here.

Yeongnyeongjeon is similar to Jeongjeon, but the center of the building, which houses the tablets of Taejo's ancestors, is raised higher than the wings. It was constructed in 1421 by King Sejong. After being burnt down during the Japanese invasions, it was reconstructed by King Gwanghaegun in 1608 and later enlarged. Thirty-four tablets are enshrined in it now.

Both buildings are of a simple, austere architectural style marked by thick wood columns and sharply pitched roofs that are covered with traditional gray tiles. Ceramic animal figures, symbolic guardians of the buildings, adorn the ridges of the roofs.

Near the front of the courtyard of Jeongjeon is a structure called Gongsindang. It houses the tablets of 83 ministers of state and others recognized for meritorious service. Other structures inside Jongmyo include a place for the king and crown prince to bathe and dress in preparation for the rites, a building for the musicians to rest and rehearse, and a kitchen to prepare the foods and utensils necessary for the memorial rites. The walkways leading to the various structures are raised in the center. The king would use the center and the lesser nobles the sides but now the chief officiant of the rites uses the center.

Throughout the Joseon period, memorial rites were held five times a year for the spirits of the kings enshrined in Jeongjeon and twice a year for those enshrined in Yeongnyeongjeon. The rites were abolished in the early part of the 20th century when Korea was under Japanese colonial rule but were resumed in 1969, though in the form of one large service. Jeonju Yi Royal Family Association has held the service at Jongmyo on the first Sunday of every May since 1971.

Building shrines to honor deceased rulers was a time-honored tradition in ancient China, Korea, Japan, Vietnam and other East Asian countries that were within the Chinese cultural sphere where Confucianism developed into the fundamental ruling ideology. Royal ancestral rites were of great national importance, especially in China and Korea where centralized monarchies prevailed for centuries.

Jongmyo is the oldest and most authentic of the royal shrines that have been preserved. Consecrated to the Joseon Dynasty and its forebears, it has existed in its current form since the 16th century and ritual ceremonies linking rites, music and dance are still held there, perpetuating a tradition that goes back to the 14th century. Jongmyo's importance is enhanced by the persistence there of important elements of Intangible Cultural Heritage in the form of traditional ritual practices and forms including the jeryeak royal ancestral shrine music. For all these reasons, Jongmyo was added to the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage List, thereby recognizing it as a cultural asset for all humanity.