Through this article, I investigated how Youngnam reeves performed ritual for rain as a official business. To do this I focused on the rituals of Chaewon Oh Hoing-Mook (1834~?), who was reeve of Youngnam province. Oh`s ritual was official, but dynamic...
Through this article, I investigated how Youngnam reeves performed ritual for rain as a official business. To do this I focused on the rituals of Chaewon Oh Hoing-Mook (1834~?), who was reeve of Youngnam province. Oh`s ritual was official, but dynamic and flexible. In a aspect Oh`s ritual for rain was one of his routine jobs. In other aspect, through his ritual, Oh tried to establish social integration with consideration for the subjects. The ritual for rain was performed when drought kept going on. In this natural crisis. he held the ceremony to meet the subjects face by face. Through two additional ritual, especially, he preserved social order, and took care of the subjects preferentially. All social class people can also meet each other in the ritual. Performing the ritual with highly established form, he also gave great concern to the subjects. He gained sympathy of the subjects`s pain, and paid fruits or money. He also minimized the subjects`s burden loaded to them. In these his routine rituals, I can know that reeves shared their joy with the subjects and communicated each other. It is fundamental procedure to choose ritual place, to prepare things needed in the ceremony, and to write a ritual oration in the official ritual. It is common to prepare ritual place, things needed in ritual, and order of ritual according to law books. The ritual was based on Conficianism, therefore taboos or belief system of official ceremony was less restricted than those of private ceremony. One of remarkable thing is ritual oration. After 13th ritual, the two additional rituals was executed. In those rituals, the formality of orations were less strict than that of previous 13 rituals. He showed his wish for raining with the ritual oration, which had long sentences and flexible contents. Reeves usually understood the Mother Nature in aspect of Confucianism. Eventually, reeves recognized the relationship between God and human as a reciprocal interaction.