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- The Origin of ‘No-Won’
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- In ancient times No-Won was a vast field of reeds. The origin of the name No-Won is a combination of the Chinese character
(蘆 pronounced as ‘No’), which stands for reed, and the Chinese character (原 pronounced as ‘Won’), which stands for field. According to historical documents and records, the name ‘No-Won’ has been used since the time of the Goryeo Dynasty, but it was usually written as ‘No-Won Station’ rather than just 'No-Won' because of its important role as a major line of communication.
During the Goryeo and Joseon Dynasties, stations were positioned in important places along traffic routes to accommodate travelers. No-Won was an important traffic route that connected the north and south regions. Especially during the Joseon Dynasty, it was close to Han-yang, which was the capital, and was in important place that led to Kang-won-do and Ham-gyung-do. For this reason the station was built and the area was known as ‘No-Won Station’.
No-Won is often called 'Ma-dul'. Ever since the station was positioned in the vast field of reeds and was officially referred to as 'No-Won', people who weren’t familiar with the name 'No-Won', which was a geographical name written with Chinese characters, came up with a different name. They put together the word ‘Ma’ which was derived from the scene of Horses (‘Ma’) running around the field and ‘Dul’ which was derived from the word field (‘dul’) and came up with the pure Korean name ‘Ma-dul’. Both names of 'No-Won' and 'Ma-dul' well depict the characteristics of the area at the time.
The name 'No-Won' was in use is from early Goryeo to almost the end of the Joseon Dynasty. The name disappeared on the 1st of April in 1914 when it was unified with Dae-deung-chon-myeon and became ‘No-he-myeon’ due to the change of administrative district during the Japanese Colonization. The name No-he-myeon also disappeared when it was transferred to Sung-book-gu of Seoul in 1963 and to Do-bong-gu in 1973 during the process of full-scale urbanization.
No-Won district, after having gone through various transitions, was divided from Do-bong-gu on January 1st of 1988 by readjustment of the administrative districts and became reborn as the present day No-Won-gu. After it became an autonomous district, the name ‘No-Won’, which best describes the characteristics of the area, was selected as the permanent name. No-Won is a familiar name to us all and has been growing successfully since then and it is now the second biggest autonomous district in Seoul, with 640,000 inhabitants.
- History
- No-Won was the property of Bekje during the early period of the Three States, it was invaded by Goguryeo under the reign of King Jang-su (475) and belonged to Me-sung-gun but its ownership returned to Bekje again due to the efforts of the allied forces of Bekje and Shilla,. (551)
Later in 533, No-Won was under Shilla rule and during the reign of King Kyung-duk of unified Shilla (757), and it belonged to Rae-so-gun. The name Rae-so-gun changed to Gyun-ju during Goryeo Dynasty and was transferred to Yang-ju during the reign of king Hyun-jong 9th year (in 1018) and the status remained intact until the end of the joseon dynasty.
According to「Yeo-ji-do-seo」, which is a compilation of each state of government during the Joseon dynasty under the reign of king Young-jo, there were 34 ‘Myeons (subdivision of a county) in Yang-ju-mok of Kyung-gi-do. Among which were No-Won-myeon and Hae-deong-chon-myeon and the present No-Won-gu area was included in the area. These two places became the property of Nohe-myun, Yangju-gun, Kyung-gi-do in 1914.
In 1963, the No-Won area belonged to Sung-book-gu as No-he-myun, and was incorporated into Sung-book-gu, Seoul. And it belonged to Do-bong-gu as it was extended in Sung-book-gu in 1973. No-Won-gu was extended in Do-bong-gu on the 1st of January in 1988 and went through the transition of the administrative district and became the No-Won-gu of today.
