조선후기 황단악(皇壇樂) 연구

A Study of the Hwangdanak of the Late Chosŏn Period

As its name implies, the Hwangdan was an altar set up in honor of the emperor (Hwangje) of Ming China. It was originally set up in 1704, sixty years after the fall of the Ming dynasty, and intended only for honoring the emperor who had sent reinforcements to repel the Japanese invasion of 1592, but it continued to be used until the late nineteenth century in honor of various Chinese emperors. Following the Mongol invasion of Korea in 1636, Korean intellectuals had come to feel increasingly helpless and frustrated, and when the Ming dynasty fell to the barbarian Ching a few years later, Koreans were reluctant to recognize the new Chinese dynasty and regarded their own country as the legitimate successor of the Ming. It was in this spirit that the Hwangdan altar was set up in an effort to raise moral among Koreans. The ceremonial music performed at the shrine, which included some singing and dancing, was derived from the cheryeak or ancestral shrine music established in the fifteenth century by King Sejong, but was performed with a smaller orchestra.