The Journal of Korean Art and Archaeology

Introduction

In the Joseon Dynasty, the king’s eldest son was called the wonja (元子, Crown Prince), and as the heir apparent, he received a special education from a very early age. In fact, the royal court established a special institution specifically for the education of the wonja, called Boyangcheong (輔養廳, Office of Assistance and Nurture), which was staffed by specially appointed teachers called the Boyanggwan (輔養官, Special Mentors to the Crown Prince). Once the Boyanggwan were appointed, they immediately met with the wonja and performed sanggyeonnye (相見禮), a rite to commemorate the first meeting and greeting between the wonja and his teachers. Sanggyeonnye was the most important event organized by the Boyangcheong.

In January 1784, Crown Prince Munhyo (文孝世子, 1782-1286), the eldest son of King Jeongjo (正租, r. 1776-1800), had his sanggyeonnye with his teachers, and details of the event were recorded in the screen painting Munhyo seja boyangcheong gyebyeong (文孝世子輔養廳契屛), which is housed in the National Museum of Korea (Fig. 1). This commemorative folding screen was commissioned by the Boyangcheong officials, and includes a preface describing the nature of the ceremony, a list of participants, and the actual documentary painting itself, showing various scenes from the ceremony. This work is highly significant because it is the only known documentary painting about sanggyeonnye, which was one of the most important rites of the royal court, and it provides precise details about the date of the event and the activities involved. In addition, the painting is noteworthy for its royal subject, Crown Prince Munhyo. The title of the work, as recorded in the preface, can be translated as Screen Painting of Crown Prince Munhyo’s Meeting with the Boyanggwan at Boyangcheong (here after referred to as the Boyangcheong screen).

Fig. 1. Screen Painting of Crown Prince Munhyo's Sanggyeonnye with Boyanggwan at Boyangcheong (文孝世子 輔養廳契屛), Joseon Dynasty, 1784, ink and color on silk, 136.7 x 52.4 cm. (National Museum of Korea).

This paper provides a detailed examination of the background of the production of this folding screen. In addition, I will closely analyze the aesthetics of the screen (e.g., the expression of the figures, composition, perspective, and painting techniques) by comparing it to other documentary paintings of court events produced in the early 1780s. Finally, I will examine the meaning of the folding screen in terms of the history of Korean painting.

Production of the Boyangcheong Screen

Prior to the analysis of the screen painting, the nature of Boyangcheong and the role of the Boyanggwan need to be understood. When king’s eldest son (wonja) or eldest grandson (wonson, 元孫) was born, the royal court established the Boyangcheong and appointed the Boyanggwan or Special Mentors. They were responsible for teaching the wonja or wonson until they were four years old, so the position involved both nurturing and education. The Boyangcheong was a significant institution that took charge of the earliest education of the heir apparent. The concept of the Boyanggwan was introduced by King Jungjong (中宗, r. 1488-1544), who appointed them in 1518 to educate his first son, who later became King Injong (仁宗, r. 1515-1545). When the boys reached the age of four, the Boyangcheong was replaced by the Ganghakcheong (講學廳), and the pupils then received a more systematic education using books like the Minor Learning (小學) and the Mencius (孟子).

Fortunately, the details of the education, rites, ceremonies, and daily life at Boyangcheong were recorded in documents called the Boyangcheong Journal (Boyangcheong ilgi, 輔養廳日記). Currently, four such journals are kept in the Gyujanggak Archives in Seoul National University. They were written about four different wonja: King Gyeongjong (景宗, 1688-1724, r. 1720-1724); Crown Prince Sado (思悼世子, 1735-1762), posthumously endowed with the titles of Crown Prince Jangheon (莊獻世子) and King Jangjo (莊祖); Crown Prince Munhyo; and Crown Prince Hyomyeong (孝明, 1809-1930) posthumously endowed with the title of King Ikjong (翼宗). The Boyangcheong Journal of Crown Prince Munhyo, which is directly related with the screen painting in question, records what happened at the Boyangcheong every day from the eleventh month of 1783 to the seventh month of 1784, until the investiture of the Crown Prince. Obviously, this journal, with its detailed description of the sanggyeonnye in 1784, deserves special attention in the analysis of the Boyangcheong screen.

The sanggyeonnye ritual was intended to teach the wonja, who was only two or three years old, about courtesy and respect. Through this ceremony, wonja learned the basic principles of courtesy between teacher and pupil. Crown Prince Munhyo, whose mother was Lady Seong (宜嬪成氏, 1753-1786), was the first wonja of King Jeongjo. In 1783, he was selected as wonja at the age of two, at an earlier age than on previous occasions where the Crown Prince was selected at the age of three. This shows that King Jeongjo, who had no son before the birth of Crown Prince Munhyo, prepared his son’s succession to the throne shortly after his birth. King Jeongjo appointed two officials as the Boyanggwan: Yi Bokwon (李福源, 1719-1792), the Third State Councilor (右議政), and Kim Ik (金熤, 1723-1790), the Secretary of the Office of Royal Pedigree (領敦寧府事). The record of the 18^th day of the 11^th month of 1783 (lunar calendar) in The Annals of King Jeongjo (Jeongjo sillok) presents a discussion between King Jeongjo and his officials about the appropriate number of Boyanggwan, wherein the state councilors cited two precedents. The first precedent came from the treatise on the posts and ranks of government officials in Reference Compilation of Documents on Korea (Dongguk munheon bigo, 東國文獻備考), which stated that, in the case of a wonja, three Boyanggwan should be selected from officials with posts ranging from first-grade senior to first-grade junior, after consultation with state councilors. The second cited precedent, from Journal of Boyangcheong for the Gapsul Year (Gapsulnyeon boyangcheong ilgi, 甲戌年輔養廳日記), was for King Jeongjo’s own sanggyeonnye in 1754, when two Boyanggwan were selected after discussion between the king and the state councilors. Notably, however, King Jeongjo was a wonson, not a wonja. Since Crown Prince Munhyo was a wonja, the historical records and previous cases indicate that three Boyanggwan should have been selected. However, according to Jeongjo sillok, King Jeongjo decided to follow his own experience by appointing only two Boyanggwan.

Meanwhile, the date of the sanggyeonnye was carefully selected from a list of auspicious days. Crown Prince Munhyo’s sanggyeonnye was originally scheduled for the beginning of the twelfth month, but it was postponed until the first month of the following year. Among the auspicious days of that month—the 15^th, 25^th, and 28^th day of the month—King Jeongjo selected the 15th. Thus, the sanggyeonnye took place in the Daeeunwon (戴恩院) of Changdeokgung Palace in the 15^th day of the first month of 1784. The process of the rite was recorded in detail in the Seungjeongwon Journal (Seungjeongwon ilgi), and the Boyangcheong Journal of Crown Prince Munhyo. Jeongjo sillok records the following:

After the ceremony, officials of Boyangcheong commissioned the production of a gyebyeong (契屛), a commemorative folding screen. The education of wonja, first at Boyangcheong and later at Ganghakcheong, was the most important event in the education of children in the royal court, and has thus been the subject of abundant historical research. However, this screen is the only known example of a screen to commemorate a sanggyeonnye. In order to understand the reasons behind the unprecedented production of this screen, it is necessary to closely examine the preface written on the first panel (Fig. 2), which corresponds with the “Preface to the Boyangcheong screen” (輔養廳契屛序) from Ssanggyeyugo (雙溪遺稿), the collection of works by Yi Bokwon. Of particular interest is the following passage:

Fig. 2. First panel of the Boyangcheong screen, with preface written by Boyanggwan Yi Bokwon.

“…We made a seven-character quatrain (七言四韻詩), and each person composed another quatrain using rhymes from the first one. We also ordered painters to depict the scenes of the event and produce eight folding screens. We gave seven of the folding screens to seven people, and kept one at Boyangcheong. At the request of all the officials, Yi Bokwon wrote the preface. As a poem was not sufficient, we ordered a painting, and as a painting was also not sufficient, we wrote the preface in order to record these three happy events and let them be treasures remembered by every generation.”2

This preface confirms that the sanggyeonnye between Crown Prince Munhyo and his teachers was a national event to be celebrated, and that the officials of Boyangcheong wanted to commemorate this event with poems, paintings, and a preface. The performance of sangyeonnye was the first step toward the Crown Prince’s eventual succession to the throne. For King Jeongjo, Crown Prince Munhyo was the heir apparent through whom he could consolidate his royal power. King Jeongjo’s reign had always been somewhat unstable, due in large part to political circumstances surrounding the death of his father. The instability was heightened by the fact that King Jeongjo did not produce a son until he was 30 years old. Since the birth of Crown Prince Munhyo was of the utmost significance for King Jeongjo, the participants in the prince’s sanggyeonnye wanted to enhance the meaning of the rite, which had previously been performed according to convention. Thus, they produced the visual representation of the event so that the event would be remembered forever.

It is reported that 25 officials participated in the event, so which of them were the seven who received the folding screens? The answer can likely be found on the first panel, after the preface, where seven verses were written by seven different officials. In addition to the two Boyanggwan, Yi Bokwon and Kim Ik, the other five people mentioned are Kim Chiin (金致仁, 1716-1790), whose post was Bongjoha (奉朝賀, honorary post given to retired high-ranking officials); Kim Sangcheol (金尙喆, 1712-1791), whose post was Yeongbusa (領府事, first-grade senior post of the Privy Council); Seo Myeongseon (徐命善, 1728-1791), whose post was Panbusa (判府事, first-grade junior post of the Privy Council); Jeong Hongsun (鄭弘淳, 1720-1784); and Yi Hwiji (李徽之, 1715-1785). It seems very probable that these seven officials were the recipients of the seven folding screens.

Aesthetics and Artistic Significance of the Boyangcheong Screen

The Boyangcheong screen (ink and color on silk) consists of eight panels each of the same size (136.5 x 57.0 cm). The first panel contains the preface by Yi Bokwon, a seven-character quatrain composed by seven officials, and the seven other related quatrains written by the seven officials mentioned above. Panels 7 and 8 contain the order of the 25 officials present at the ceremony. Scenes of the event are painted on the remaining five panels, 2 to 6. Specifically, the scene of the sanggyeonnye is depicted in panel 4, and the other panels feature depictions of the surrounding buildings and people.

As mentioned, the sanggyeonnye was held at Daeeunwon (戴恩院) of Changdeokgung Palace, which was an annex building situated southeast of Seonjeongjeon (善政殿), the main bureau of state affairs. Daeeunwon originally served as the bureau in charge of selecting civil and military officials. The building no longer exists, but it can be seen in Donggwoldo (東闕圖, Painting of the Eastern Palace) (Fig. 3), which reveals Daeeunwon as a rather small building that was longer east-to-west than north-to-south, not one of the main buildings of Changdeokgung Palace. Interestingly, the sanggyeonnye between Crown Prince Munhyo and the Boyanggwan is the only court ceremony known to have taken place in Daeeunwon. During the Joseon Dynasty, most court ceremonies were performed in major halls in the palace (e.g., Injeongjeon [仁政殿] of Changdeokgung Palace), usually in a spacious area that encompassed the interior and the courtyard of the hall. But Crown Prince Munhyo’s sanggyeonnye, with about 50 participants, was held in the interior of Daeeunwon, on a relatively small scale for a court ceremony.

Fig. 3. Painting of the Eastern Palace (東闕圖), Early 19^th century, ink and color on silk, 584 x 273 cm. (Korea University Museum).

In most cases, the halls where the ceremonies were to take place underwent some temporary alterations in anticipation of the event. For example, temporary wooden floors (補階) might be added to connect the front stairs of the hall to the courtyard. Also, wooden partitions with large awnings might be erected to divide the space. However, since this ceremony was held indoors, apparently none of these alterations were made. Instead, as shown in the fourth panel, the east end of the hall was blocked by a folding screen, and the west end was blocked by a wall.

Panels 2 to 6 combine to show a depiction of the entire hall complex in bird’s eye view, looking down on the roofs and into the courtyards, in combination with a lower frontal view of the façades, with slanting perspectives into the entrances (Fig. 4). Even more strikingly, the upper part of panel 4 depicts the actual scene of the ceremony taking place in the interior of the hall, bringing this scene forward and enlarging it to fill the whole space of the rear courtyard in this panel. Since this arrangement leaves no room to depict the main south-facing façade and roof of the building, the west gable is glimpsed instead through the clouds above, while the side walls of the interior are shown in a converging perspective, from the same lower frontal point of view as the courtyard façades. Both the left and right walls are interrupted by a red column towards the back, dividing the interior into front and back spaces. In front of the column, the left wall has two large lattice panels, with green panels below them (Fig. 4). Behind the column, there is a single lattice panel, edged in green but without a green panel below it. The panels on the right wall, two in front of and one behind the column, are a plain buff color. The people in the interior and in the inner courtyards are depicted larger than those in the outer courtyard and garden, to emphasize their importance (Fig. 5).

Fig. 4. Detail of the fourth panel.

Fig. 5. Detail of fifth and sixth panel, showing the difference in scale between the figures in the inner and outer courtyards.

Fig. 5a. Detail of the sixth panel.

In the fourth panel, the mat where the wonja would be seated is in the east, facing west. In accordance with the convention of not depicting the royal image, the wonja himself is not shown but is deemed to be present. There are two mats, the smaller one (a thick cushion covered with leopard skin) for sitting and the larger one (a flat mat woven with a design of flowers) for bowing (Fig. 4). Officials stand to either side and behind the mats, and behind them is a folding screen decorated with the ten traditional symbols of longevity. There are also eight attendants standing, four on each side, close to the wonja’s two mats. The left side of the folding screen shows two cranes, one standing and one flying, as well as a small lingzhi mushroom, and the right side shows two pine trees and two white deer. This folding screen featuring the ten traditional symbols of longevity may have been placed in the hall to express wishes for the health and longevity of the wonja. Meanwhile, the two Boyanggwan are shown in the west, facing the wonja in the east.

Another notable aspect of the work is the expression of the people. In the Joseon Dynasty, the rendering of people in documentary paintings of court ceremonies tended to be rather figurative, and not highly detailed or realistic. The ceremonies depicted in those paintings were large-scale national events that were performed repeatedly, so they often included hundreds of participants and onlookers. Since the painters had to draw so many people in each painting, they tended to represent the people figuratively, instead of trying to depict each person carefully and individually. Therefore, it is interesting to note that the officials in this painting, although standing in a straight row, all have different poses. Furthermore, they are wearing different types of belts, with the officials on the left wearing belts decorated with buffalo horn (犀帶), and those on the right wearing belts decorated with silver or gold (鈒銀帶 or 鶴頂金帶). Each man also has unique facial features, with variations in the beard and the shape of the head. The distinction and detail of the figures contrasts with the simplified expression of people in other court paintings, including Screen Painting to Commemorate the Installation of Crown Prince Munhyo (文孝世子冊禮契屛), produced seven months later in the eighth month of 1784, and Screen Painting to Commemorate the Direct Practice of Politics of King Jeongjo in the Eulsa Year (正祖乙巳親政契屛), produced in the twelfth month of 1785 (Fig. 6).

Fig. 6. Detail of Screen Painting to Commemorate the Direct Practice of Politics of King Jeongjo in the Eulsa Year (正祖乙巳親政契屛), Joseon Dynasty, 1785, ink and color on silk, 136.7 x 52.4 cm. (National Museum of Korea).

The size of the figures is also noteworthy, in that they are larger than figures in other documentary paintings of court ceremonies. This can probably be explained by the fact that the sanggyeonnye rite was smaller and involved fewer people than other official ceremonies, such as jinchan (進饌, banquet) or jinha (陳賀, celebration of joyful state events). The larger size of the figures allowed for a more vivid and diverse expression of clothes, facial features, and gestures. All of the officials in the fourth panel of the painting, whether they are standing or sitting, are performing different actions. The people outside the hall are expressed in the manner that was conventional for genre paintings of the time, and they are expressed so vividly that viewers can almost hear the buzz of their conversation (Fig. 5a). This style of rendering figures appeared in documentary paintings of court ceremonies of the 18^th century, but had disappeared by the 19^th century. The literati outside the building are wearing woolen hats beneath their gat (traditional hats), indicating that the ceremony was held in winter, in the first month of the year (Fig. 5a).

Some aspects of the buildings are also depicted in surprisingly meticulous detail. For example, the furrows between the roof tiles are drawn with elaborately dotted lines, and the ends of the tiles on both sides of the roofs were carefully rounded to represent the circular tile ends, even though these would not in fact be visible from a bird’s eye point of view (Fig. 7). Also, the ends of the tiles nearest the eaves were shaded in a darker tone of ink wash in order to emphasize the downward slope.

Fig. 7. Detail of the fifth panel.

A final compelling aspect of this work is the use of the baechae technique (背彩技法), wherein colors are applied to the reverse side of the painting. In most of the panels, the baechae technique was employed together with the jeonchae technique (前彩技法), which involved adding extra colors to the front of the painting to soften the overall color. The photographs of the front and back sides of the work (Figs. 8 and 8a) show that white pigment was applied to the reverse side of all the figures, probably to soften and brighten the blue-grey and rose-colored robes on the front. In the case of the figure in a red robe, red pigment has been applied on both front and back. The use of these two techniques in a documentary court painting is particularly interesting, since they were more often combined in portraiture, wherein the overall faces were painted with the baechae technique, while the facial features and details of official attire were painted with the jeonchae technique. Figures 8 and 8a also show how blue pigment was applied on the reverse of the whole of the area of grey rooftiles, pale green on the back of the plaster wall area, and a brighter green on the back of the window and door frames, which appear a darker green on the front. White pigment was apparently applied to the back of the columns and horizontal beam behind the eaves, while the red color on the front shows through as a very pale pink (note the difference between the red of the columns and that of the single figure wearing a red robe). White pigment was also applied on the back of the painting to the floors of the Daeeunwon, in order to differentiate them from the ground in the courtyards outside the building.

Fig. 8. Front side of the sixth panel.

Fig. 8a. Reverse side of the sixth panel, showing the use of the baechae technique for figures and buildings.

The baechae technique was frequently employed in various types of painting (e.g., Buddhist painting, portraits, and documentary court paintings). In particular, documentary paintings of court ceremonies show diverse examples of the baechae technique. In 2010, special conservation techniques were used to analyze Screen Painting of a Banquet in the Gichuk Year (Gichuk jinchando, 己丑進饌圖屛, 1829, in the collection of the National Museum of Korea), and the researchers found that the baechae technique was only sparingly employed for that painting. Then in 2011, the painting technique of the Boyangcheong screen was analyzed for comparison. The research revealed that the baechae technique was used extensively in this painting, particularly for the expression of official attire and buildings. This study laid the foundation for multifaceted research into the various uses of the baechae technique in documentary paintings of the Joseon Dynasty.

Conclusion

In 1784, King Jeongjo designated his first son, who was less than two years old, as wonja, and then appointed the Boyanggwan and ordered the performance of sanggyeonnye between the wonja and the Boyanggwan. The Boyangcheong officials produced eight folding screens to commemorate this special event, one to be kept in the building and seven for the principal participants. The birth of the heir apparent, Crown Prince Munhyo, was clearly a momentous occasion. In addition to the performance of sanggyeonnye in the first month and the installation of Crown Prince Munhyo in the eighth month in 1784, a residence building Junghuidang (重熙堂) was constructed especially for Crown Prince Munhyo in 1782. Furthermore, in 1785, King Jeongjo used Junghuidang to handle his political affairs (chinjeong, 親政). This series of events were visually represented in three screen paintings: the Boyangcheong screen (National Museum of Korea), Screen Painting to Commemorate the Installation of Crown Prince Munhyo (Seoul National University Museum), and Screen Painting to Commemorate the Direct Practice of Politics of King Jeongjo in the Eulsa Year (National Museum of Korea). The significance of these events is attested by the mere existence of these screen paintings, which were made to commemorate these joyous royal ceremonies for generations to come.

Although Crown Prince Munhyo never succeeded to the throne due to his early death, he participated in many important rituals as the heir apparent, including his sanggyeonnye and the installation rite. Among these events, the sanggyeonnye was especially important, because it was the first ceremony. Thus, the officials who had participated in this event produced this commemorative folding screen to demonstrate King Jeongjo’s special affection for Crown Prince Munhyo and the King’s wish that his first son would succeed him to the throne.

The Boyangcheong screen is the only known example of a documentary court painting depicting sanggyeonnye between a wonja and his Boyanggwan. But besides this status, there are several additional reasons why it deserves special attention in the research of the history of Korean painting. The composition of the building and the expression of the individual people are distinct from other documentary paintings of court ceremonies. Since the size of the people is quite large in proportion to the surrounding buildings, they could be depicted with an unusual amount of detail, and performing various gestures. Also, the figures were depicted as wearing winter clothes, reflecting the season, and the baechae technique was employed throughout the painting.