The first element is traditionally taken to be 흥청 (興淸, heungcheong), a group of thousands of courtesans who were gathered in 1504 from all over the country by the infamously hedonistic and tyrannical king Yeonsangun, who was later deposed for his crimes. The connection between the first syllable of the ideophone and the Chinese character 興 (heung, “to flourish”) is certain, although the connection to the specific monarch is not unassailable.
The ideophone is a rhyming reduplication involving the Chinese character 亡 (mang, “to be ruined”), establishing a contrast with the first character 興 (heung, “to flourish”). Thus the ideophone sets up a contrast between the decadent flourishing of the present day, and the future ruin that it will inevitably lead to.
| Romanizations | |
|---|---|
| Revised Romanization? | heungcheongmangcheong |
| Revised Romanization (translit.)? | heungcheongmangcheong |
| McCune–Reischauer? | hŭngch'ŏngmangch'ŏng |
| Yale Romanization? | hungchengmangcheng |
흥청망청 • (heungcheongmangcheong)