The Establishment of the National Ritual System in Early Joseon Dynasty and the Compilation of the National Five Rituals in Joseon Dynasty(Gukjo Oryeui)
This study is to examine the purpose of the establishment of the national ritual system in the early Joseon Dynasty by tracking the references of the rituals and the international situation of the time. Immediately after the founding of the Joseon Dynasty, King Taejo announced in his enthronement text that he would correct the Goryeo ritual system. Therefore, it was required to organize a new ritual system based on Sung Confucianism that are clearly distinguished from those of Goryeo. For this purpose, it was necessary to create a new national ritual system with a superior perfection than the old system of Goryeo Dynasty, while having a different reformality from the old one. However, at the beginning of the founding of the country, the government could not afford to carry out a project for a new ritual system, therefore, the system of Goryeo was followed temporarily.
The literature which compiles national rituals of Goryeo, Sangjonggogumnye(詳定古今禮), was made during the reign of King Uijong of Goryeo. Sangjonggogumnye is not left today. The most important material to make an approach the Five Rites of the Goryeo Dynasty is Yeji of Goryeosa. It was not an independent liturgy, but an appendix in the history books, and it is composed of five rituals, although many of the items are missing. The contents of the Goryeo National Ritual were strongly influenced by The Datang Kaiyuan Li(Imperial Ritual Protocols of the Tang Dynasty). Also, rituals showing the influence of Buddhism and Taoism were part of the contents. From the point of view of the literati in early Joseon period, the national ritual of Goryeo was evaluated as lacking in unity, because of several waves of external influences, such as the invasion of the Mongol Empire and contact with the Ming Empire in 14th century. The system lacked consistency. In addition, throughout the Goryeo period, Buddhist and Taoist rituals were strictly part of the national ritual system, which was also a critical factor.
The founders of Joseon Dynasty declared that the Neo-Confucian national ritual system should be fully implemented, which took a long time to established. Their ideological background can be pointed out as Neo-Confucianism, but when they reformed the national ritual system, it was impossible to construct it only by the Neo-Confucianism ritual theory. It was inevitable to establish the ritual system by referring to the national rituals of the past dynasties and the system of the current Chinese regime, the Ming Dynasty. Referring to the system of the past meant that it accepted various elements and symbol systems such as Yin and Yang, which are mixed in it, and Chinese folklore, and in fact, there was such an influence on the national ritual of the Joseon Dynasty.
The important environmental factor in the process of reorganizing the national rituals of the Joseon Dynasty was the position of the Ming Empire. Joseon tried to obtain the ritual book dealing with the Ming Imperial system, such as the DaMing Jili(大明集禮), and confirmed the ceremonial status of the king of Joseon to create a new national system and was consistent with its own.ritual system that was not contradictory to the Ming. However, Ming government refused to give the DaMing Jili, neither give newly created one for Joseon. In the end, Joseon was able to form the royal ritual of the Joseon Dynasty only after confirming that the king of Joseon corresponds to the equal status of the emparial prince, chinwang(親王), of Ming Empire.
The national ritual of the Joseon Dynasty consisted of a system of the Five Rituals originating from the Zhouli(the ritual of Ancient Zhou Dynasty). The style of ‘uiju’, which describes the Five Rituals, was a means of recording and designing the ritual. At 1474, what exactly was the official title of the newly published national ritual book? There is too little data to clear the conclusions to this question. Considering various possibilities, there is no reason that this book has been called the name of the National Five Rituals in Joseon Dynasty(Gukjo Oryeui) since 1474. It is at least after the reign of the King Jungjong(r.1506~1544) that it is confirmed that the title of the National Five Rituals in Joseon Dynasty(Gukjo Oryeui) was clearly recognized. Still, there is also a lack of evidence that the word 'Gukjo(National)' was not attached since 1474. in the 16th century, it was widely used to call this book under the name of Gukjo Oryeui, and it was confirmed that the preface of the printed edition of Gukjo Oryeui also included the word ‘Gukjo’.
In the Joseon Dynasty, there were two main routes to produce ritual protocols. The ritual can be divided into ‘protocols by the Ministry of Rites’ written by the offical in charge of the Ministry of Rites, and ‘protocols by Jiphyeonjeon(the Hall of Worthies, 集賢殿)’ written with the intention of using it for a long time. Of these two, it was the latter, of course, directly related to the maintenance of the national ritual system.
Sejong ordered Jiphyeonjeon to be compose the compilation of the National Ritual protocols in 1444, the scholars in Jiphyeonjeon have studied the models of the past dynasties with the current system of Ming and completed the draft of the compilation of the Five Rites Protocols. However, King Sejong's death complicated the situation. When Sejong died before the Uijungbu’s completing the correction, it became a question whether to incorporate the Five Rites Protocols into the Sejong Annals. The Uijungbu insisted on the policy of not being able to be incorporated, but finally, the Five Rites Protocols were incorporated as an appendix to the Sejong Annals.
The Sejong Silok Orye, formerly known as a result of the organization of the rituals of King Taejong and King Sejong, were newly discovered when the details of the compilation were revealed. In the process of compiling the Sejong Annals, the controversy over whether to incorporate Orye into Ji(志), was concluded as an inconvenience, but it finally became an appendix to the Sejong Annals according to the opinions of Jeong Inji and others after Sejo took his legitimacy. However, this is a protocol that has never been implemented as an incomplete edition, and there were many errors such as mixing and omission of contents and the system was not in place. Judging from this condition, it was thought that the Annals of Sejong Orye would never have received a consistent correction before being added to the Annals of Sejong. The Sejong Silok Orye had serious problems such as internal contradiction, missing contents, and gap with the real ceremonies. This book was not able to implement; could not be evaluated as the first completed national ritual book. In that case, the National Five Rituals in Joseon Dynasty(Gukjo Oryeui) should not have been regarded as a simple revision of The Sejong Silok Orye. The Gukjo Oryeui is a part of the Gyeonggukdaejeon(the Code of Joseon Dynasty) system, which was completed around the same time, and they influenced each other for a long time. As a result, the contents of the two regislations were linked to each other, and the contents related to the royal family and state rites were transferred to the Gukjo Oryeui, and the contents related to the rituals held by the literati and even general public were moved to Gyeonggukdaejeon, the king-centered nature of the Gukjo Oryeui became more distinct.
Since then, the work of organizing the the Five Rites Protocols continued at the same time as the Gyeonggukdaejeon. The annals from the Sejo period to the Sungjong period were very stingy in recording the compilation of the Gukjo Oryeui, so it was difficult to know what the state of the rituals of Joseon was until the national rituals we knew in 1474. Recently, an early ptint of Gyeonggukdaejeon(part ig national treasure of Korea n.1521) was found, as the study on the book progressed, it was discovered that this was the ‘Sinmyo Daejeon(辛卯大典)’ printed in 1471. In this print, “Uiju applies Oryeui,” just like ‘Eulsa Daejeon(乙巳大典, 1485)’. Therefore, before the appearance of the Gukjo Oryeui in 1474, it was found that there was already an earlier edition of the Oryeui, which was quoted. In other words, at least before the Yejong period, the Oryeui was completed once, and it was continued to be revisedand printed in 1474 as the Gukjo Oryeui. Although the necessity of revision was mentioned later, no revision of the Gukjo Oryeui was made during the reign of Sungjong, and after the Sungjong’s death, the status was maintained until the end of the dynasty as a basic source of the national rituals of Joseon dynasty.
How was the Gukjo Oryeui structured? Scholars of the Joseon Dynasty studied many references on the national rites of past dynasties. Since the end of Goryeo, Ming Dynasty intervened in the ritual system of Goryeo, based on the Hongwu Lizhi(Ritual Protocols of Hongwu Era). Therefore, during the reign of King Taejong, the elements of the Hongwu Lizhi were accepted for the court conferences and ancestral rituals, and established Uirye Sangjeongso(the Office of Ritual Regislation, 儀禮詳定所) for carring out research on ancient ritual models. The Datang Kaiyuan Li(Imperial Ritual Protocols of the Tang Dynasty, 大唐開元禮) was the most influential document on the national ritual system of Goryeo. The Datang Kaiyuan Li, which was created by a compromise between Jeonggwan Ritual(貞觀禮) and Hyeongyeong Ritual(顯慶禮), was widely referred to as the foundation of the Confucian national ritual system. The distinguishing points of The Datang Kaiyuan Li include the composition of Gilrye-centered preface, the absence of the imperial funeral, the 3 time-partake of sacrificial food and drink in an ancestral ritual, and a consistent performance of bow-twice.
During the reign of King Taejong, the Wenxuan Tongkao(文獻通考) was intensively referred to. The text of the encyclopedia, which was completed in the early days of the Yuan Dynasty by Ma Danlin, had a convenient composition to be used in the field of practice. It added the discussion of the Song Dynasty adjustment and the system maintenance to the era of Song Emperor Ningjong to the Tong Dian, and replaced the former demand of it. The characteristics of the Song ritual in the Wenxuan Tongkao were that the appearance the 1 time-partake of acrificial food and drink, instead of the 3 time-partake of the Tang style, and it started to use the Choushi(丑時) for the sacrifial rituals. In the case of Garye, it was distinguished from the former and the later era, by saying ‘聖躬萬福’ in the ritual.
In order to coexist with the Ming Empire, the Joseon Dynasty requested a ritual protocol of ‘Beonguk Uiju(藩國儀注)’ and tried to acquire the DaMing Jili, but it was unsuccessful. The Joseon government carefully began to identify possible diplomatic problems when creating its own ritual system. The Joseon Dynasty was recognized for its ceremonial status as a King by receiving the Gujangbok robe from Ming Empire by the civil war between Emperor Jianwen and Yingle, but it did not receive any specific protocol. Therefore, Joseon started to create its own ritual protocols by adding and reducing the rank of the Crown Prince and the Kings. Since the DaMing Jili was not received, the framework of the proposition was indirectly identified through the Hongwu Lizhi or the Zhusi ZhiZhang.
The contents of the national rituals are as follows: in Garye rituals, the common elements of the king-centered system established from the Uiju were applied to the whole ceremony, the aspect of consciousness performed in the ceremony was changed. This flow was applied to feasts and weddings, and made the ritual ceremony in a certain form. Gillye rituals strongly influenced by Ming system, partially, during the King Taejong’s realm, was a tendency to refer to the ritual of Tang and Song dynasty. Late Sejong era after 1438, they refered the system of Ming sacrificial rituals again. The Binnye rituals divided into the rituals for Ming envoys and neighboring countries, Gunnye were composed of bow-shot rites and others. The Hyungnye rituals were was divided into two parts before and after Jolgokrye.
The Gukjo Oryeui was created based on the experience of national ritual maintenance and operation for 80 years after the opening of the Joseon Dynasty. The national ritual is based on the existence of a political state, so the nature of the state and the contents of the national ritual were directly connected.On the other hand, national rituals were different from ritual culture such as family rituals. The efforts of the national ritual systems of the past were to confirm the absolute monarchy, and there were many factors emphasizing that they had principles different from the rituals of the family. On the other hand, it was difficult to directly reflect the rituals such as the Zhuzi Jiali(朱子家禮) made in the background of the Song dynasty lineage structure.
The Gukjo Oryeui contains 6 family and village rituals. Among these rituals, rituals such as custom, wedding ceremony and common ceremony were very different from the rituals performed in the royal family. This composition is interpreted as being designed mainly based on the differentiation of national rituals and rituals, rather than trying to create a structure in which national rituals flow down from top to bottom by gradually experiencing the rituals of the national rituals made up of the national rituals.
There are characteristics of the Gukjo Oryeui. The first is that unlike Yeji of Goryeosa and Orye of King Sejong's Annals, as a result, it was intended to be a ritual system in force. In order to this, the preface samples(序例) was advanced and actively utilized. The detailed compilation of the preface made it easy to use in the field, and if it were a history book or an Encyclopedia, there would not have been much need to actively use the preface. In addition, each clause was avoided to reflect the temporary and abnormal conditions, as the was intended to be issued as a written precedent and followed for a long time. It fixed the ideal royal form with the king and queen at the peak, and moved toward securing the universal nature of ritual protocols. The second is the pursuit of differentiation of hierarchy. The hierarchies varied in terms of the hierarchy between men, the hierarchy between rituals, and the hierarchy of time, and at the peak of all hierarchies was the royal authority of the Joseon Dynasty. The third is that as the whole of Orye was prepared at the it was possible to use it through various connections among the whole Orye system. From gillye to garye, from garye to gillye, and from royal rituals to literati’s, it became possible to refer to the other chapter in one chapter. This characteristic was unique to the Gukjo Oryeui, which is rarely found in China's past imperial ritual systems.