Choosing Auspicious Dates and Sites for Royal Ceremonies in Eighteenth-Century Korea
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Choosing Auspicious Dates and Sites for Royal Ceremonies 289 Chapter 9 Choosing Auspicious Dates and Sites for Royal Ceremonies in Eighteenth-century Korea Kwon Soo Park 1 Royal Ceremonies, the Bureau of Astronomy, and the Book of State Rituals As Confucian rulers, the Joseon 朝鮮 dynasty performed numerous rituals related to royal life and governmental affairs. The king and his subjects attended regular and irregular rituals such as sacrificial rites to dynastic ancestors in the royal shrine (Jongmyo 宗廟) and the royal tombs (Wangneung 王陵), sericul- ture ceremonies (Chingyengrye 親耕禮) and sericulture (Chinjamrye 親蠶禮) ceremonies, investiture rituals (Chaekbong-uisik 冊封儀式), state marriages (Garye 嘉禮), funerals (Gukjang 國葬), and others. Every phase of royal and governmental life was thus highly ritualized, and the king and his subjects were obliged to take part in the rituals and play the respective roles assigned to them. By organizing and performing these rites, the monarch and the govern- ment constantly imprinted the Joseon dynasty’s values—above all, the dignity of the royal court—in the minds of their servants and the common people. Joseon, then, was a true ‘ritual state,’ a country that placed great emphasis on ceremonies in order to strengthen national cohesion. In some of the rituals, thousands of people were mobilized for several months, and up to tens of thousands of ounces of silver (yang 兩) were spent. The Ministry of Rites (Yejo 禮曹) was responsible for regulating and overseeing the organization and execution of the various ceremonies. The Bureau of Astronomy (Gwansang-gam 觀象監), a third-grade office that was part of the Ministry, was in charge of determining locations and dates for the deployment of the considerable human and material resources involved. The services per- formed by the Bureau were based on official techniques for selecting an auspicious date (taegil 擇日) and selecting an auspicious site (taegji 擇地). We may gain insight into the detailed shape of the rituals and the processes of zeri and zedi as practiced during the Joseon dynasty by studying the uigwe 儀 軌 [Book of State Rites]. In this collection of books, the government recorded and illustrated everything pertaining to royal rituals such as official documents exchanged between the governmental institutions, lists of utensils, sacrificial © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2018 | doi 10.1163/9789004356788_011 290 Park offerings, and dresses as well as the names of officers, thousands of bier-carri- ers, and the participants of funeral processions. This documentation served to sustain the unity of the symbolic system by standardizing the procedures of the rituals. About four thousand uigwe books are kept at the Kyujanggak Institute for Korean Studies (Kyujanggak-hankukhak-yeonguwon 奎章閣韓國 學硏究院) and in other libraries throughout Korea, but these numbers cover just a portion of all the uigwe books produced during the five hundred years the Joseon dynasty ruled Korea. The uigwe books also contain numerous official documents that refer to choosing auspicious dates and sites. Whatever the ritual, its time and place had to be determined beforehand to ensure that it would be practiced appropri- ately. In the early stages of preparing a ritual, the high officers of the Ministry of Rites and some representatives of the Bureau of Astronomy, such as geo- mancers (Jigwan 地官) and diviners (Ilgwan 日官), gathered and discussed the ritual’s auspicious time and place. Accordingly, we can find the records and official documents related to this process on the first pages of the uigwe books. This article examines the process of choosing auspicious dates and places by analyzing a number of uigwe books related to royal funerals in eighteenth- century Joseon, namely three books that provide instructions for the construction of the king’s tomb (Sanneungdogam-uigwe 山陵都監儀軌): – Yeongjo-Wonneung-Sanneungdogam-uigwe 英祖元陵山陵都監儀軌 [The Construction Record of King Yeongjo’s Tomb] (1776)1 – Hyeonryungwon-Wonsodogam-uigwe 顯隆園園所都監儀軌 [The Moving and Construction Record of Prince Sado’s Tomb] (1789)2 – Jeongjo-Geonneung-Sannengdogam-uigwe 正祖健陵山陵都監儀軌 [The Construction Record of King Jeongjo’s Tomb] (1800)3 Beginning in the eighteenth century, the power of the king began to increase and surpass that of Confucian government officers. This political transforma- tion was accompanied by a recasting of the norms for state rituals, reforms of the relevant offices as well as a reorganization of the theory of taegil and taegji. The process reached its climax during the reigns of Kings Yeongjo (1724–1776) and Jeongjo (1776–1800); during these years, the typical forms of the late Joseon 1 King Yeongjo 英祖: 1694–1776, r. 1725–1776. 2 Prince Sado 思悼世子: 1735–1762, a son of King Yeongjo. He died in a wooden rice chest by the order of his father. In 1789, the tomb of Prince Sado was moved to a new place by his son, King Jeongjo (see below). 3 King Jeongjo 正祖: 1752–1800, r. 1776–1800, a son of Prince Sado..