조선 후기 국장용(國葬用) 모란병[牧丹屛]의 사용과 그 의미

Folding Screens of Peonies for Royal Funeral Rites of the Late Joseon Period : focused on the funeral for King Jeongjo(r.1776-1800)

This essay aims to explore the functions and significance of folding screens of peonies for royal funeral rites in the late Joseon period through examination of the royal protocols(Uigwe) of the Joseon Kingdom. In Joseon, a funeral for the late king was a ceremony to make him a god who would protect his successors and country. Because peonies had been regarded as a symbol of riches and honors in real life, it is surprising that a lot of folding screens of peonies were used at the rites for a dead person. Almost all of the remained peonies painting of folding screens for the Joseon royal court were pictured in a standardized style. A same type of images was copied repeatedly on each canvas in one folding screen. Painter s originative style was excluded on purpose and there are not any signs on the paintings with which we can recognize their painters. The way in which images of peonies were represented is conservative and objects are flat in appearance. The peonies on the screens are in absolute vacuum and silence. These features of peonies painting screens correspond with solemnity of the royal funeral rites. It is assumed that these features made peonies painting screens to be regarded as propitious paintings suitable for ancestral rites such as funerals. The royal protocols on the funeral for King Jeongjo(r.1776-1800) have detailed records about the folding screens of peonies for royal funerals in the late Joseon period. According to the royal protocols, at least 19 sets of peonies painting screen were used for the funeral for King Jeongjo. Some screens were set at the space where the empty coffin was installed temporally. Others were used in the place where a small house shaped box(Changung) in which the coffin with his corpse was installed and also in the place where his ancestral tablet was enshrined after the funeral procession left for the burial place in Suwon city. After the burial ceremony, another peonies painting screens were set at the household shrine(Honjeon) in the royal palace where King Jeongjo s ancestral tablet had been enshrined for three years. Folding screens of peonies has more significant meanings in the ancestral rites than in any other royal rites. Just as the folding screen of the sun, moon and five peaks symbolized king s authority and it s divinity during his reign, peonies painting screens functioned as a visual instrument which made the spaces for ancestral rites to be auspicious after his death.