Jongmyo’s main hall has 19 bays because each time more tablets had to be enshrined, the western 11 bays rebuilt in 1608 were left in place and four bays at a time were attached to the east end

How we checked

Checked October 8, 2026. We compared the video against the original texts of “Jongmyo: Introduction and History” (종묘 소개·역사) on the Korea Heritage Service Royal Palaces and Tombs Center website (the main text and the “Jongmyo History” timeline), the Korea Heritage Service’s Monthly Korea Heritage (월간 『국가유산사랑』) articles “The skill of a carpenter who rose to high office: the precision of Jongmyo’s main hall, a National Treasure” (January 2022) and “The Hwananje at Jongmyo’s main hall: the return of the kings,” and the Korea Heritage Service press release (March 31, 2025). Only one sentence, “Every bay kept the same size,” was confirmed through a researcher’s contributed column posted on the Korea Heritage Service website (△), because we did not find an institutional explanatory text for it.

• The video’s early line that the royal family “attached bays to the east end” as tablets were added describes the building standing today. “Leaving the western 11 bays as they were and extending to the east” refers to the enlargements under King Yeongjo and King Heonjong after 1608 (source 11), and we could not confirm from the sources on which side the 4 bays were added under King Myeongjong in 1546.
• “A front of 19 bays” follows the column’s “counting only the bays visible from the front, 19”; the institutional source says “the present main hall of 19 bays” (source 6). The Korean narration says “19 bays on the front alone.”
• “Each new king pushed one tablet past four generations” is an explanation that follows from the five-shrine system (source 3). The institutional source says that under King Sejong there were “repeated discussions about the tablets of kings more than four generations removed.”
• The point where the ikgong shape changes again is given as the 15th bay (Monthly Korea Heritage) or the 16th bay (the contributed column), so the video says only “from the 12th bay on,” where the two agree.
• The main hall’s length (about 101 meters) and “the longest wooden building in the world” are not used because we found no institutional source for them (source 19).
• No institutional source states the “reason” the hall was extended sideways rather than rebuilt larger, so the video does not assert a reason and goes only as far as the rule that permanently enshrined tablets could not be moved from the main hall (source 5) and the record that Yeongnyeongjeon was also enlarged (source 10).