This thesis is a study of mechanical puppets on Sandae during the Korean Joseon Dynasty. Since a concept of mechanical puppet had not been established in Korea and materials are also desperately lacking, the materials and documents from China and Jap...
This thesis is a study of mechanical puppets on Sandae during the Korean Joseon Dynasty. Since a concept of mechanical puppet had not been established in Korea and materials are also desperately lacking, the materials and documents from China and Japan, as neighboring countries, were referred to in addition to Korean ones.
A mechanical puppet means a puppet with a power transmission device. It moves with the power device outside differently from a puppet robot which has a power device inside. At the time, the power sources may be not only wheels or water but also a person’s hands. Therefore, the mechanical puppet may be automatically or manually operated. Because the power transmission device is hidden behind a backdrop, the puppet looks like an automatically operated puppet from the viewpoints of audience.
Looking into the mechanical puppet on Sandae in center of China, Baekhuijangchi (百戱裝置) starting from scientific apparatus in the Mediterranean cultural sphere developed into Sujeonbaekhui (水轉百戱) with a waterwheel as a power source by Ma Jun in the Wei, and then called as Susik (水飾) in the Sui Dynasty, Sugoeroe (水傀儡, Water puppet) in the Song Dynasty when it became an art doll on one hand while it also developed into a water-driven astronomical clock tower as a scientific puppet. The principle of the water-driven astronomical clock tower is similar to that of Okrugiryun or a water clock by the amount of dropping water during the Joseon Dynasty. In other words, it is a way of putting on a wheel, and moving, a puppet. King Sejong placed four seasons in “Seventh Month” from the “Odes of Bin” in the <Books of Odes> and King Sejo moved them to the Sandae of Naenongjak (內農作), which was expanded to Daesandae (大山臺) with Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter --- one season placed in each model mountain.
Looking into the Sandae in center of Japan, more forms of Korean Sandae could be guessed. For example, there are Aobayama of Izumo where the people of Silla and Gaya arrived and Mt. Sumeru Stone (須彌山石) of Asuka which the people of Baekje made in the ancient times. In the medieval times, there is Sandae which was made of woven cloth around the wood frames just like Mitsuyama of Itatehyozu Shrine or Oyama of Houkabe Shrine, which could be estimated to have existed even during the Koryo Dynasty. Given Yamakasa in Hakata, Sandae made of woven cloth had gradually developed into that in a form of three-dimensional model mountain. As Sandae developed into a three-dimensional form, a puppet which was once quilted to the flat Sandae developed into a three-dimensional puppet. Three-dimensional puppets on Sandae in Owari gradually developed from simple ornament into mechanical puppets called Karakuri. Since then, Karakuri puppets have been performed not only on Sandae but also in theaters.
More specifically, as regards the principle of the mechanical puppet on Sandae, the mechanical puppet on Sandae could be divided into two: a power device and a puppet. When the power device generates and transmits power to the puppet, the puppet moves. As most simple power devices, a water clock, a south-pointing chariot, a waterwheel, etc. were used. When the force is transmitted to the puppet by the power device, the puppet moves. At the time, to make the puppet move, the body of the puppet must be articulate and have structures such as shoulder plates or a waist plate that might change the motion direction of the force.
There are few documents regarding Korean Sandae and mechanical puppets in relation to the Three Kingdoms of Korea, but it can be estimated from the documents in Japan that customs such as Aobayama existed in Silla and Gaya and the customs of foundations such as Mt. Sumeru Stone or stone statues were in Baekje. In relation to the mechanical puppets on Sandae, there is particularly much attention towards Manbulsan created in the United Silla. Manbulsan was so called from a great number of very small size statues of Buddha enshrined enough to reach ten thousand statues on the model mountain with a height of roughly 3 meters. There are over thousand monks in front of it, which are automatic puppets.
Sandae during the Koryo Dynasty may be a structure in a form of model mountain, but it might be in a form of the flat Sandae covered with the cloth such as Mitsuyama of Itatehyozu Shrine of Japan, which has something in common with a Chinese character expressing “uniting (結)” Sandae during the Koryo Dynasty.
The mechanical puppets became lively entering the Joseon Dynasty and it can be also found through the poets of Na Sik and Park Seung-Im that they have been performed even in a puppet tower. However, it is a pity that the detailed conceptions cannot be known.
Sandae during the Joseon Dynasty can be classified into two forms: fixed Sandae and moving Sandae. The former form includes Daesandae formed on both sides of Gwanghwamun Crossroads, Sandae of Naenongjak after the model of Okrugiryun by King Sejong, and Samsinsan by Prince Yeonsan. Sandae of Naenongjak with puppets made of straw was originally made in imitation of mimic farming. Gradually, Sandae in a form of model mountain that depicted “Seventh Month” from the “Odes of Bin” in the <Books of Odes> as Okrugiryun, even with puppets thereon.
It is expanded to Daesandae (大山臺) with Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter --- one season placed in each model mountain. Samsinsan by Prince Yeonsan indicates three mountains including Mt. Manse, Mt. Youngchung, and Mt. Jinsa, among which the latter two are Sandae with puppets. It can be guessed that the puppets thereon might be simply miscellaneous statues or mechanical puppets such as waterwheel puppets.
The miscellaneous statues of the latter form include Yungeojapsang, Heongajapsang, and Chimhyangsan. Yungeojapsang is Yesandae, which is the simplest form of placing miscellaneous statues on a wagon. There is a record showing that it was a stopgap rushed in for envoy reception during the reign of Prince Gwanghae when Sandae could not be made due to the shortage of personnel and physical resources after Imjin War arising from Japanese invasions. Yungeojapsang is estimated to be same as Heongajapsang through Naryechung Deungrok. Heongajapsang can be found to be clearly a mountain-shaped structure from its name ‘Heongasan’. Given that it was used for envoy reception, even Yesandae of <Fengshitu> is highly possible to be Heongajapsang.
<Fengshitu> is an album of record paintings that depict the journeys of Akedun, an envoy, from Qing to Korea during the regimes of King Sukjong to King Youngjo. In the seventh leaf, Yesandae is drawn and “Dedicate Baekhui and Goeroehui (or a puppet play)” is recorded in its scrapbook. This allows it to be supposed that the mechanical puppets on Sandae are performed on Yesandae, which is a four or five-story structure with the approximate height of 8 meters and has puppets on each floor. There are puppets assumed to be children on the top floor, monkeys on the middle floors, and Chang’e and T’alkung wang on the bottom floor.
The motions and structures of puppets were explained with Yesandae of <Fengshitu> which was restored in a method for scaling down by a culture and art organization called Hongdu I joined in 2009. At the time, the motions of puppets were divided into those at the movement and stop of Sandae, which was designed to have a double structure: Sandae moves like a south-pointing chariot at its movement and a puppet play is performed manually when Sandae stops. To make the puppets move at the movement of Sandae, Sandae is designed to allow puppets on each floor to move by connecting the axis of the wheels and the gears in the same method as a south-pointing chariot when Sandae moves, and allow puppet masters to make a performance by separating puppets from apparatus of Sandae when Sandae stops.
The principle of the puppets on Yesandae of <Fengshitu> is applied even to that on Yesandae of Giwan Byeolrok. Giwan Byeolrok is Gasa literature depicting the appearance at the time of the reconstruction of Gyeongbok Palace. After the construction was finished, a variety of plays were performed on streets and there were five Yesandae including Guwunmong 1, Journey to the West, Guwunmong 2, Sinseonnori, and Sangsansahonori among them. There are various translations, e.g., persons are seen to go up on Yesandae, or puppets are seen to go up thereon. To show a variety of possibilities regarding mechanical puppets at the this time when there are no specific documents other than <Fengshitu>, whether puppets could be restored on assumption that all were Yesandae of mechanical puppets in this study.
As mentioned above, <Fengshitu> designed the motions of puppets by dividing the times of the movement and stop of Yesandae, while Giwan Byeolrok assumed that mechanical puppets did not move at the time of the movement and they were manually operated at the time of the stop. The motions were designed as described by the author in Giwan Byeolrok. The implementation was possible even to the degree of applying mechanical puppets of Yesandae of <Fengshitu> or puppets in Kkokdugaksi Play.
In particular, the mechanical puppets on Sandae had developed before Imjin War during the early Joseon Dynasty. It is a pity that there is no visual document found up to now except Yesandae of <Fengshitu> in the early eighteenth century during the late Joseon Dynasty. I hope visual documents during the early Joseon Dynasty will be found as soon as possible and crossover studies with literature records will be made.