朝鮮時代 書畵收藏 硏究

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This dissertation investigates a historical survey of the collecting of calligraphy and paintings by successive kings, royal descendants, yangban class, and middle-people (chung'in 中人) in the Chosŏn dynasty (1392-1910). It was during the late Chosŏn period that each collection was gradually expanded and the construction of special storehouses for art works was resumed. The collection had both political and artistic purposes. Among traditional Korean agents including Buddhist monks, the court was no doubt the most influential in terms of art collection and patronage.

Using the surviving palace records and art works, this study argues that the role of kings as collectors and patrons was essential not only to the maintenance of the collection but also to the strengthening of royal authority in Chosŏn society. The art works were collected in palaces by a king's demand for them, officials' gifts for a king, and the trade to purchase them from other countries. This dissertation deals with royal collection of paintings and calligraphy in the Chosŏn dynasty, specifically, its political and social functions, special storage facilities for art works in the palaces, and royal patrons who contributed to the expansion of art collection.

In the seventeenth century, Sukjong restored the royal collection, which had been lost during the Manchu invasions. Under his reign, the rules for preservation of paintings and calligraphy were elaborated and the collection was enlarged. Sukjong's successors such as Yŏngjo, Chŏngjo, and Hŏnjong greatly expanded the royal collection and developed the archive system. The royal collection in late Chosŏn was composed mainly of the objects that they had commissioned or collected.

At the Chosŏn court, the development of the art collection was related to the preservation of archives and art works. There were two administrative bodies that protected the art; special storehouses and inventories of objects. The most of the royal repositories for paintings and calligraphy were built in the "realm of sleeping quarters" (ch'imjŏn 寢殿), while libraries were placed ubiquitously. Sŭnghwa-ru Pavilion (承華樓) at Ch'angdŏk Palace and Chipgyŏng-dang Hall (緝敬堂) was used as exclusive storehouses for paintings and calligraphy in nineteenth century. Unfortunately, today only the catalogues written since the eighteenth century have survived; the earlier samples were destroyed by water or fire when they passed into private hands. As the collection grew, it was also depleted by theft, fire, and the dispersal of art objects as gifts. In particular, during the reign of King Sunjong (r.1907-1910) and the Japanese colonial period (1911-1945), many art works kept in palaces were damaged by accidental fires or stolen by the Korean eunuchs and Japanese officials who had access to the storehouses. For this reason, the royal collection was almost completely destroyed by the end of Chosŏn dynasty.

King's five-generation-male descendants called as chong ch'in (宗親) played a key role as collectors and patrons with a close relationship with scholar-officials. In succeeding to the earlier artistic tradition of royal descendants, the seventeenthcentury chong ch'in group mainly consisted of King Sŏnjo's sons and grandsons including Ŭich'ang'gun Yi Kwang (義昌君 李珖, 1589-1645), Insŏng'gun Yi Kong (仁城君 李珙, 1588-1628), Innŭng'gun Yi Yŏng(仁興君 李瑛, 1604-1651), Haewŏn'gun Yi Kŏn (海原君 李健, 1614-1662), Nangsŏn'gun Yi U (朗善君 李俁, 1637-1693), and Nang'wŏn'gun Yi Kan (朗原君 李 亻品 , 1640-1699) were the most actively collecting paintings and calligraphy, and publishing albums of royal calligraphic works.
Among them, being naturally interested in arts, Yi U collected a lot of famous art works including those of famed Chosŏn painters and calligraphers. Among them include works by An Kyŏn(安堅), Yi Sang-jwa(李上佐), Yi Chŏng(李楨) and Yi Kyŏng-yun(李慶胤) who were active in both early and middle Chosŏn periods.

He has made several calligraphy albums including Tong'guk Myŏngp'il (東國名筆, Collected Works by Korean Famous Calligraphers), which he selected some parts of works by important calligraphers of successive dynasties. On the other hand, he has gathered ink rubbings from ancient steles and epitaphs throughout the country and made Taedong Kŭmsŏk-sŏ (大東金石書, Collected Rubbings from Korean Steles), as seven volumes in 1668. To date, theses albums have been thought to be one of the influential ink rubbing collections because we can get useful information of various steles both extant and now lost. Despite active commitment to arts by the seventeenth-century chong chin group, their descendants did not have opportunities to succeed to the earlier tradition because their symbolic dignity was not supported by the court due to their political and genealogical declines.

The collecting of calligraphic works and paintings through the generations by yangban group, noble class of Chosŏn, and middle-people works was the strongest means of encouraging artistic relationships, criticism, and connoisseurship in pre-modern Korea. Thanks to the economic basis, they accumulated many art works including calligraphy and paintings both of Korean and Chinese, albums of ink rubbings of steles (古碑搨帖), scholar' stationary, bronze vessels, porcelains, and jade disks, even including Western painting. Such art collections made them possible to be influential in art circles and expert on criticism and connoisseurship. As recorded in documents and catalogues, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, collectors kept a huge number of writings and masterpieces by illustrious artists in the private storehouses. A number of instances quoted in this dissertation present the vast information of the individual collectors and their collections as well as documentary sources of them.

The history of collecting art works in the Chosŏn dynasty enables us to understand the relations between art and society, and patrons and artists, but the connection between patronage and artistic style remains unclear. This issue will be the subject of a forthcoming study of the Chosŏn art collection.