A Study on Roads and Wagons in the Goryeo~Joseon Period
Authors:   Korean Ancient Historical Society, Lee Yong wook 
Published: June 2022

Roads and wheeled carts began to be used extensively in Korea during the Three Kingdoms Era. Their use continued, with periods of development and decline, throughout the Unified Silla, Goryeo, and Joseon periods. The bulk of archaeological research on Korean roads and cart use has been focused on the earlier Three Kingdoms and Unified Silla periods. Most of the research on the use of roads and wagons in the later Goryeo and Joseon dynasties has been conducted by studying historical records. However, these records may not be accurate representations of the actual road conditions during these periods. In this study, we will attempt to correlate the limited archaeological data with data from historical records to paint a more complete picture of road and cart use during the Goryeo-Joseon period.
Since the rule of the Goryeo Dynasty, tax collection was centralized in the capital, which allowed for a significant expansion of the road system. As a result, in the early Goryeo Dynasty, 22 provinces were established with 525 stations built throughout the provinces to transfer goods and horses and provide lodging. Historical records and archaeological data confirm that there were regional differences in road systems during this period. Local roads were generally excavated before construction, which is an easier road building technique than the piling method.
Historical records show that roads in the Goryeo Dynasty were divided into three categories: main roads, middle roads, and small roads. The archaeological record from the time shows that the typical main roads were at least 550 ㎝ wide, the middle roads were 350-550 ㎝ wide, and the small roads were 350 ㎝ wide or less. A number of wheel tracks were found at archaeological sites. These tracks usually show an average cart wheel width of 150 ㎝.
The road system continued to develop into the late Goryeo Dynasty, but was largely destroyed during that dynasty’s collapse. Efforts were made to revitalize and reorganize the road system during the Joseon Dynasty. At this time, the roads were listed in the Gyeongguk Daejeon (National Code), divided into provincial roads and outbound roads.
The provincial roads were further classified into main roads (56 cheoks wide), middle roads (16 cheoks), and small roads (11 cheoks). Setting the main roads at 56 cheoks can be interpreted to be an acknowledgement by Joseon itself that it was a princely state of China in pursuant to Juraegogonggi. However, archaeological evidence indicates that royal roads for the king’s passage were wider than the required width in Gyeongguk Daejeon.
In other words, it legally followed the rules of China but did not follow them in reality. The outbound roads were divided into larger arterial roads and smaller branch roads. After analyzing the existing records and archaeological data, it is presumed that the Gyeongguk Daejeon arterial roads were supposed to be similar in width to the provincial main roads, and the branch roads were meant to be smaller than the middle roads. There is evidence that some roads were constructed with a thick infill to meet these standards, but in most cases, the roads were left as they had been.
The average width of cart tracks from the Joseon period archaeological sites is approximately 100-110㎝, narrower than the tracks found in Three Kingdoms and Goryeo era sites. However, there is little evidence of marks in the case of wheeled carts, which is thought to be due to the increasing preference for palanquins over wheeled carts at that time. It is apparent that the attempts to improve and standardize the road system in the Joseon Dynasty were not widely successful.