Among all the kings of the Chosun Dynasty, King Jung-jo had the most visits to royal tombs. During his reign of 24 years, he visited royal tombs 66 times. King Jung-jo tried to have contact with ordinary people during these visits. He solved civil pet...
Among all the kings of the Chosun Dynasty, King Jung-jo had the most visits to royal tombs. During his reign of 24 years, he visited royal tombs 66 times. King Jung-jo tried to have contact with ordinary people during these visits. He solved civil petitions through listening to reports from government officials or from the people in town. He also encouraged people to meet with him in order to listen to their petitions directly. By visiting royal tombs, King Jung-jo wanted to increase the authority of the Royal family and emphasize the legitimacy of the throne. Moreover, he visited the National Capital region where commerce and industry had developed, and he solved conflicts and disputes among the people. In order to encourage stable growth of the National Capital region, he ordered military training and strengthened the strategically important site.
In 1789, after reigning for 13 years, the tomb of King Jung-jo's father (prince Sado) was moved from Young-woo-won in Yang-joo County to Hyul-ryung-won in Suwon. He continued going on long journeys to his father's tomb, Hyul-ryung-won, at the end of his reign. The biggest and longest journey of all 13 visits to Hyul-ryung-won occurred in 1795. It was the year of prince Sado (Jung-jo's father) and Hye-kyung-kyung's (Jung-jo's mother) 60th birthday anniversary. King Jung-jo and his mother, Hye-kyung-kyung, went on a weeklong journey to Hyul-rung-won and celebrated the birthday in Hwa-sung-hang-kung.
Hwa-sung-nung-hang-do (a painting of their journey to the royal tomb in Hwa-sung) describes the major scenes of this long journey from a leap month February 9 to 16 in 1795.
Hwa-sung-nung-hang-do includes eight pieces of paintings (Hwa-sung-sung-myo-jeon-bae-do,Nak-nam-hun-bang-bang-do, Bong-su-dang-jin-chan-do,Nak-nam-hun-yang-ro-yeon-do, Seo-jang-dae-ya-jo-do,Duk-jung-jeong-uh-sa-do, Hwan-uh-hang-ryul-do, Han-gang-ju-kyo-hwan-uh-do), and it is considered the largest and best piece of work among the documentary paintings of the Chosun Dynasty.
King Jung-jo had always been concerned about public welfare when he was a prince. Thus, after he became king, he paid much attention to reducing people's economic difficulties. He thought that the king should be the father of all his people, should be the perfect being, and should be approachable to all of the people in the nation. While he was on a journey to royal tombs, he frequently asked the merchants and elders in town about their concerns and complaints. In a year of famine, he ordered relief for the people and distributed his words with Korean translation to all the people across the nation. Moreover, King Jung-jo thought that presenting a memorial to the king was an effective way to understand the people's difficulties and concerns; thus, he encouraged the people to use that system. That the king met with people and collected their opinions, which were often reflected in state affairs, is regarded as new and progressive.
The policy that King Jung-jo had toward the people was one of paying attention. He enacted many kinds of policies toward the people of Hwa-sung and the people he met during his journeys to royal tombs. His policies were consistently focused on reducing people's economic difficulties. It was not offered temporarily or incidentally during the construction of the new city of Hwa-sung or during the long journey to royal tombs. During his reign of 24 years, King Jung-jo made it possible to accept civil petitions directly from the people while visiting royal tombs and ordered government officials to handle them.
Hwa-sung-nung-hang-do focuses on the details of the ceremony, and it especially describes the scene in which the king and the people were enjoying the ceremony together. This reflects the reality of King Jung-jo's policy of 'enjoy with the people.' Hwa-sung-nung-hang-do also describes the people who were watching the ceremony freely, which contrasts with the serious ceremony. The painting includes women and children bystanders as well as general bystanders, and they are described as sitting together while eating snacks. This provides realism to the painting. The reason that the people are described as they are is due to the trend of the popular genre painting at the time Hwa-sung-nung-hang-do was made in the late 18th century. At that time, the painters who belonged to the Royal family drew paintings based on their own interpretation of the subject. In other words, they described people as individual beings with emotions. This trend started from genre paintings and also appeared in documentary paintings such as Haw-sung-nung-hang-do.
However, in traditional documentary paintings, it was common that only the main characters of the ceremony were described, or that the bystanders were described without any individuality. Therefore, Hwa-sung-nung-hang-do is considered a very different painting compared to the traditional documentary painting. In Hwa-sung-nung-hang-do, the bystanders are not described as background; rather, they are described as participants with individual characteristics.
Therefore, Hwa-sung-nung-hang-do reflects King Jung-jo's policy of wanting to enjoy meeting with people during his visits to royal tombs. Hwa-sung-nung-hang-do also describes the people with individuality, which reflects the trend of describing people in the genre painting of the time.