“Humanities Building A is the strangest building on our campus, I still get confused on my way to the classroom. But it is indeed the most important building in the school with all the big classrooms,” says Do Jung-yeon (Chinese Literature, 2).
This strange building that confuses many Ewha students, does the Humanities Building A have a mystery surrounding it? In fact, there is a mysterious assumption mystery about this building saying that it may have been designed by Lee Sang, a genius poet who also worked as an architect. Lee Sang was born in 1910 when Korea was annexed by Japan and died young in 1937. He wrote several puzzling poems whose meanings are still unclear. In his poem, The Secret of Architecture Infinite Hexahedron, he describes a building with the phrase, “a person going down from the top going up from the bottom going down from the top going up from the bottom is the person who did not go up from the bottom go down from the top go up from the bottom go down from the top.”
The place mentioned in the phrase is presumed to be the Humanities Building A, since the building has a second and third floor on the same level. In other words, going up the stairs in the building is not actually going up one floor, but staying on the same level. “I first did not believe the mystery, but considering the long history of Ewha, I thought Lee Sang may have designed the Humanities Building A,” says Kim Jung-eun (English Education, 3).
However, a faculty member from Ewha Archives explains that Lee Sang actually has no relationship with Ewha. According to the Ewha Centennial Source Book, the name of the architect who built the Humanities Building A is Ma Jong-yoo. He was a famous architect during the period when Korea was a colony of Japan, which means he and Lee Sang worked as architects in the same period. Then, did Lee Sang actually have some connection to the Humanities Building A?
Walking around the campus, you may hear the sound of a train passing on near certain parts of the campus. This train also has a special story behind it. It is believed that the first love of a person who is on the ground when train passes beneath the bridge near the front gate will come true. “Strangely, the train was there every time I passed the bridge and I remembered to step on the tail. However, my first love did not come true!” said Lee In (English Education, 2).
“Believe it or not” is often the conclusion of mysterious stories. Nevertheless, they all have their origins based on reality and the possibility of being true. They may also be true histories of Ewha. Who knows if you might be the next to discover or experience another incident to add on to the mysteries existing in Ewha while taking a stroll around the campus or studying in the Centennial Library.
Choi Seung-eun
lively88@ewhain.net