The Yeok Stations

1 · POSITION

The yeok were Korea’s official post stations, the core of the yeokcham, the state’s system of transport and communication, which Joseon inherited from Goryeo. They carried official documents and public goods, and received visiting envoys. The register files them beside the Mongol yam and the Chinese yi: the state fed movement on its own business, and the merchant and the commoner found their beds elsewhere. [1, 2]

2 · HORSES BY CERTIFICATE

An official on duty borrowed horses by showing a mapae, a certificate stating how many horses he was entitled to. Each station kept them in its mabang, its stable — from two or three to dozens — and exchanged a tired horse for a fresh one. Commoners on the same roads stayed at the jumak, the roadside tavern, which the register keeps under a code of its own. [1]

3 · A STATION AND ITS BRANCHES

The system was reorganised in 1485, after the completion of Joseon’s great law code. Angiyeok, on the road from Seoul to the north of Gyeongsang, was set up then as a central station over eleven branch stations; among the officials who served as its administrator was the painter Kim Hongdo. Inns called won once stood beside the stations, and survive in place names. [2]

4 · THE END OF THE SYSTEM

After the Japanese invasions the Ming-style pabal system took over military communication, and the yeok carried the rest. The system was kept until 1895, when it was abolished. At Geombukcham, a station outside the east gate of Namhansanseong, a guardian post still stands, and a restaurant on the site is thought to be the last building showing the scale of a middling station. [1]

5 · ⚑ CANDOUR

⚑ Checked on 22 October 2026. Around 1,300 stations was not found: Goryeo ran 525 stations on 22 routes. Commoners could not use them and stayed at jumak taverns, which spread fast in late Joseon; the system was abolished in 1895, not wound down in the eighteenth century. The note is corrected. [1–3]