The Baekje Gilt-bronze Incense Burner of, excavated from the Neungsan-ri site in Buyeo, the capital city of the Baekje Kingdom (18 BCE 660 CE), displays a compositional structure typical of the early Baksan mountain-shaped incense burners of Han Chin...
The Baekje Gilt-bronze Incense Burner of, excavated from the Neungsan-ri site in Buyeo, the capital city of the Baekje Kingdom (18 BCE 660 CE), displays a compositional structure typical of the early Baksan mountain-shaped incense burners of Han China (206 BCE 220 CE) yet simultaneously with form and elements that are uniquely its own. It is a rare example in that it features ornamentation of a number of imaginary creatures and winged animals, as well as human figures including the Taoist monks. This study aims to examine the Baekje Gilt-bronze Incense Burner as a representation of such change in ideals and perfect formative aesthetics, analyzing the symbolic meanings and compositional principles of the overall iconography and moreover the production techniques and design intent of the relic. By providing a step-by-step production process of the lost-wax casting technique, this study explores the excellence of the metalworking culture of Baekje.
The carvings of thirty-nine animals and seventeen human figures on the lid are depicted as components of a sacred mountain. Birds, which occupy more than one-third of the animals featured on the lid, suggest the influence of the practice of totemism toward sacred birds which had been a folk religion profoundly grounded in Korean society since ancient times. The depiction of other animals on the lid - for example, predatory animals such as the tiger and boar signifying the emergence of hunting and those of faraway lands such as the elephant and monkey acquired through conquest of foreign lands, signifying the expansion of the sovereign power of the ruling class - corresponds to the tradition of existing Baksan mountain-shaped incense burners. Such representations suggest that the Baekje incense burner continues the tradition of early Chinese Baksan mountain-shaped counterpart, which had been produced for the purpose of communicating with the heavens by burning incense and performing sacrificial rites in the divine and wild mountains.
The Baekje Gilt-bronze Incense Burner is clearly different from other Baksan mountain-shaped incense burners that had been discovered until now from China, in that the fearful and wild mountainous world has witnessed a transformation into a Taoist mountain of immortals. Among the mountain-shaped incense burners excavated from China, there is yet to be found any representations of Taoist deities nor any practices of Taoist monks to become immortals. Such elements are depicted in the ancient tomb murals of the Han Dynasty and the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties (420-589 CE) of China and the Three Kingdoms Period (57 BCE 668 CE) of Korea. However, the world of the immortals had not been depicted in Baksan mountain-shaped incense burners. Among the unprecedented iconographies of the immortal world represented in the Baksan mountain-shaped incense burners are Cheonchu (千秋, Ch. Qianqiu) and Manse (萬歲, Ch. Wansui), the human-faced birds recorded in Baopuzi (抱朴子, The Master Embracing Simplicity) depicted as enjoying eternal life; Oesu (畏獸, Ch. weishou) or beast-faced monstrous creatures standing upright believed to be a divine presence driving away evil spirits and guiding one toward the immortal roam; and heterogeneous mythological creatures mainly depicted in Shan haijing (山海經, The Classic of Mountains and Seas). These figures are immortals believed to have possessed and displayed supernatural powers in the sacred mountain - in other words, the immortal world of eternity, the eternal dream of humankind. The human figures depicted in the incense burner are Taoist monks who existed after the fourth century, practicing the Taoist techniques of nourishing life (養生). In other words, the incense burner features meditative practices such as abstinence from grains (??) characterized by the consumption of herb-roots and tree-barks instead of cereals, ingestion (服餌) characterized by the consumption of medicines of immortality (仙藥) produced from minerals obtained from rocks, and regulation of breathing (調息) characterized by meditating and taking deep breaths under trees. Scenes expressed on the relic correspond to those described in Taoist books, such as Baopuzi, as if visualizing Taoist monks, secretively climbing mountains and crossing rivers, entering celebrated mountains filled with savage beasts and spirits to perform their ablutions and exercise self-discipline to become immortals. In this way, the lid, featuring the world of immortals and mythological creatures, is symbolic of the Taoist world of immortals pursuing eternity.
The lotus blossoms constituting the bowl of the burner symbolize regeneration and rebirth, necessary for humankind to achieve immortality. The lotus blossom, a symbol of the sun since ancient civilization in India and West Asia, was disseminated in East Asia as a symbol of regeneration and rebirth together with the introduction of Buddhism. Even within the Taoist worldview of the Baekje Gilt-bronze Incense Burner, the Buddhist motif of the lotus blossom was utilized as a powerful motif of regeneration.
The structural features of the mythical birds bonghwang (鳳凰) on the top and the dragon on the base represent a tradition passed down from Baksan mountain-shaped incense burners of Han China. This combination of the bonghwang and dragon can be seen as having originated from the symbol of the cosmic axis joining the earth with the heavens, the very significance of mountain-shaped incense burners. The bonghwang, to which the cosmic axis points in an upward direction, is the messenger of the celestial powers, symbolizing the heavens. The dragon was placed on the base as a symbol of the only means that could allow people to reach the sacred mountain from the Earth. Since ancient times, the right to communicate with the heavens was solely reserved for the ruler. Early Baksan mountain-shaped incense burners, as models of the cosmos axis and microcosm, are presumed to have been used in offering prayers to the great celestial power and ancestral gods through communication with the heavens; and from the beginning, the production and use of these objects were reserved for the royal court. Communication through rites performed for the heavens and ancestral gods was the right of the sovereign, and this symbolism is also demonstrated through representations of the bonghwang and dragon.
The formative principles of the Baekje Gilt-bronze Incense Burner, demonstrated in its overall composition and arrangement, are grounded in the ideals of a traditional notion of the universe and the Taoist worldview. All the human figures and animals featured on the burner are moving in a clockwise direction, equivalent to the way in which the sun rotates, and such directional nature corresponds with the cosmological principle of all creation, which had existed from ancient mythology of India. The wide range of imaginary creatures adorning the lid are arranged according to their role - for example, some are placed in the northern direction representing their role of driving away evil spirits from the north - whereas gods of longevity and good auspice are arranged in the easterly and westerly directions. Moreover, hermits are absorbed in self-discipline in the southerly and westerly directions, precisely where the sun remains the longest. Horse-riders can be seen hunting in the remaining areas of the north and east. The upper part of the bowl of the burner is mainly decorated with birds, which had been worshipped as the mediators of the sky, traveling between the Earth and the heavens. Moreover, aquatic animals such as crocodiles, lizards, otters, fishes, and dragons are the archetypal symbol of regeneration. Together with these animals are depicted immortals, freely roaming about through both the heavens and the Earth, as symbols of human desire to be regenerated or reborn into immortals from the lotus blossom.
Through records, it can be understood that the people of Baekje possessed a deep understanding of herbal medicine and Taoist medical practice and necromancy with far-advanced technology. In Baekje, Taoism had not developed in an independent, full-fledged manner around particular Taoist orders or temples. Rather, it is presumed to have been spread through Buddhist monks who had acquired Taoist teachings and practices in Buddhist temples. The objects unearthed from the Neungsan-ri site also demonstrate that Buddhist rites and rituals were performed together with those of indigenous religion as well as Taoism. The people of Baekje seem to have enjoyed Taoist religion and spiritual culture embedded in Buddhism, indigenous ancestral worship, the belief in heaven (祭天信仰), the belief in the Five Deities, and also the belief in mountains and rivers (山川信仰). This suggests possible influence from the Shangqing (上淸) Sect Taoism of the Southern Dynasties (南朝, 420-589 CE) of China, which had systemized the teachings of Taoism through Confucianism and Buddhism of the time and added the element of ancestral rites and moreover the fact that the religious culture of Baekje was characterized by a convergence between Buddhism and Taoism. The Baekje Gilt-bronze Incense Burner is presumed to have been produced within the Taoist culture that had developed under the influence of the Shangqing Sect, which had been organized through the teachings and system of Buddhism, based upon the folk religion of the Baekje people grounded on the belief toward the heavens, Five Deities, and the mountains as well as the vision of immortality featured in Baopuzi.
The Baekje Gilt-bronze Incense Burner, embodying newly developed Taoist ideals and methodology, must have been produced with the aim of healing and recovery on a national level, as a religious means to overcome the political turmoil and personal agony that King Wideok of Baekje (r. 554-598) experienced due to the death of his father, King Seong (r. 523-554) in the Battle of Gwansanseong Fortress in 554. The burner was commissioned by King Wideok in honor of his father, as a symbol of the recovery of national pride and the re-establishment of the absolute power of the royal court of Baekje. It is the essence of the culture of Baekje, the most exquisite creation of the East Asia at the time, produced with the most advanced technology and national power of the kingdom as a means to reassert the royal authority and its capability of communicating with the heavens and ancestors.