Supplementary information

Paintings & screens of the Joseon dynasty

The Lee Ufan Collection in the Musée Guimet, Paris

Art Gallery of New South Wales • 5 March – 8 June 2009

This exhibition presents decorative paintings class of patrons expanded to include minor civil of the latter part of Korea’s Joseon dynasty servants (jungin), merchants and landowners. (1392–1910) when Confucianism was the state The diverse backgrounds and education ideology, and Confucian-infused Ming China of the artists who catered to this growing (1368–1644) was the dream state. Indeed Joseon clientele, from Academy-trained court painters Korea saw itself as the true heir to the Ming to itinerant self-taught craftsmen, resulted in tradition, and sent annual envoys to the Chinese great stylistic diversity in decorative painting. imperial capital. The veneration afforded Popular subjects within this genre include Chinese culture is reflected in painting subjects, landscapes, paintings of books and scholars’ styles, and inscriptions that are in Chinese objects (chaekkori), paintings of Chinese characters rather than the native Korean script characters (munja-do), birds-and-flowers and of Hangeul. animal paintings. Apart from Confucianism, Chinese Daoism and Korean shamanism were sources of All paintings in the exhibition are part of the inspiration for artists, with the emphasis being Lee Ufan Collection in the Musée Guimet, Paris, on the auspicious and the edifying. Initially which has co-organised this exhibition with the the patrons for decorative paintings were the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. court and gentry (yangban), but with time the

This information is supplementary to the exhibition catalogue available at the Gallery shop: www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/shop/browse

© 2009 Art Gallery of New South Wales Photography by Thierry Ollivier © Musée Guimet/Thierry Ollivier 2 Mountains The Diamond Mountains (Geumgangsan) 1700s eight-panel folding screen Landscape painters of the Joseon period drew colour on paper; 65.5 x 37cm (each image) from a range of visual traditions, including those of the court literati, folk art, shamanism, The Diamond Mountains, located on the east coast Buddhism and Daoism. of present-day North Korea, have significance within Daoist, Buddhist and shamanic thought. A potent belief of shamanism, the native The mountains cover some 160 square kilometres religion of Korea, is that mountains, trees and comprise about 12,000 peaks. Famous peaks and rocks are imbued with their own spirits. and sites (such as Buddhist temples) associated with Mountains in particular were revered in shamanism, Daoism or Buddhism are often identified shamanism, as well as in other traditions. in paintings with ‘labels’ inscribed with their name in Chinese characters. Many powerful spirits were Daoism held that mountains were the domain considered to live in the Diamond Mountains, hence of immortals, the source of yang energy and Geumgangsan paintings played an important role at the various elixirs of eternal life. Confucius the time of Tan-O, the festival held on the fifth day invoked mountains in the Analects to illustrate of the fifth month every year to honour the spirits. his notion of happiness, and throughout For Daoists, the Diamond Mountains equated with Chinese history, emperors conducted state the land of the immortals where the sacred fungus of immortality grows. It was also believed that a single rituals at sacred mountain sites. The influence glimpse of the Diamond Mountains could save one of such belief infuses landscape painting, from falling into hell. Together, these ideas have insured with the revered Diamond Mountains being that, from early times, the mountains have been one significant to all traditions. of the most important pilgrimage sites in Korea. The mountains’ name is Buddhist in origin: Geumgang is the Korean pronunciation of the Chinese characters for the Sanskrit word vajra – the ‘diamond thunderbolt’ weapon held by many Buddhist deities, while the word san means ‘mountain’.

Korean dreams: paintings & screens of the Joseon dynasty Supplementary information 7 Genre scenes (Pungsokhwa-do) 1700s-1800s eight-panel folding screen colour on paper; 63 x 27cm (each image)

This screen is rich in content, with each of the eight panels (to be read from right to left) focusing on a classical Chinese scholar-poet or poem fundamental to a Confucian education. Each subject is identified by vertically written Chinese characters. The five willows in the upper right of panel (1) are the key to its subject: ‘Master Five Willows’ is a pen name for the famous Daoist poet Tao Qian (365–427) whose most famous work is a prose/ poem entitled Peach Blossom Spring. Panel (6) is a pictorial version of this famous subject, illustrating a poem written by the celebrated poet Wang Wei (699–761) in emulation of Tao Qian. Panel (2) focuses on the respected pastoral poet Meng Haoran (680-740). Meng, depicted riding his donkey across Ba bridge, was so admired by locals they built a pavilion in his honour in Lushan Mountain (pictured upper left). Panel (3) depicts a popular story emphasing the incorruptibility and virtue of scholar recluses. Xuyou was so respected for his knowledge and wisdom that an emissary was sent by the emperor to persuade him to become a bureaucrat at court. Yiyou not only refused, but was so offended at hearing the word ‘bureaucrat’ that he went to a nearby stream to clear his ears of the offensive word. Panel (4) depicts famous scenic spots around 4 Fragrant Mountain temple in Henan Province Carp against an imaginary landscape (illustrated at the top of the panel) which were 1600s–1700s immortalised in poems Tang dynasty poet Bai Juyi ink and colour on paper; 73.5 x 36cm wrote in retirement. Panel (5) illustrates a poem about Mt Wuyi in This work, which skillfully deploys a symbolic carp Fujian province by an historically important Confucian in a magical, dreamlike landscape, originally would scholar: Zhuxi (1130–1200), considered the most have formed part of a six-panel screen, together notable philosopher of the Song dynasty. It was Zhuxi with the tortoise painting next to it. In the Confucian who created the form of Neo-Confucianism adopted world, the carp is an emblem of perseverance by the Joseon rulers of Korea. because it swims upstream (that is, against the Panel (6) illustrates a version of the famous Tao current) to lay its eggs. Such perseverance equates Qian (panel 1) text Peach Blossom Spring by the great with that required to pass through the Confucian poet Wang Wei (699–761). The scene includes the exam system, so the carp is also a symbol of literary mandatory clues of a lone fisherman and blooming eminence. Chinese legend has it that carp of the peach blossoms. Yellow River that succeed in passing up the rapids Panel (7) illustrates the verse at the top which is are transformed into dragons. This painting has from the poem Song of the fisherman by Zhang Zhihe an inscription and is signed by Jichon (dates (742–782). The poem describes a fisherman enjoying unknown) indicating an artist perhaps associated the beauty of the white egrets flying before Mount with the court. Xisai and the plump perch swimming in the water. Panel (8) depicts the classical theme of ten views of the West Lake, using the verse of Zhangdai (1590–1680), a well-known writer and historian. The West Lake, near Hangzhou, has long been a site famous for its natural beauty and poetic and literary allusions. From the bottom up, the ten scenes, each captioned, include Watching fish in the flower pond; Orioles singing in the willow; Spring dawn on the Su causeway.

Korean dreams: paintings & screens of the Joseon dynasty Supplementary information 4 3 2 1

8 7 6 5

7 Genre scenes (Pungsokhwa-do) 1700s-1800s

Korean dreams: paintings & screens of the Joseon dynasty Supplementary information 8 Mountain god (Sansin) 1700s–1800s colour on silk; 100 x 78.5cm

The banana leaf, symbolising self-education, of its many seeds, a symbol of posterity). The identifies this gentleman as Zhong Liquan, the head bottle-gourd suspended from a tree branch also of the eight immortals of the Daoist pantheon. denotes longevity, a message emphasised by the The immortals, thought to bring health, wealth scattered sprigs of the sacred fungus of immortality and many descendants, often appeared in the (pullocho). In the foreground the exposed seeds guise of mountain gods in Korean iconography. of a watermelon express a desire for prosperous The exaggerated foreshortening of the backdrop offspring, while the positioning of an eggplant, mountainscape conveys the otherworldly realm to thought to have feminine attributes, beside the which Zhong Liquan belongs. He is served by two melon expresses harmony between male and female. pages, one bearing a tray of peaches (symbols of longevity), the other pomegranates (because

Korean dreams: paintings & screens of the Joseon dynasty Supplementary information 10 The ten symbols of longevity (Shipjangsaeng-do) 1800s six-panel folding screen colour on paper; 63.5 x 40cm

The ten symbols of longevity, commonly used as Sometimes called ‘longevity paintings’, screens decorative motifs, were the sun, moon, clouds, of this type reflected the circulation and merging of rocks, water, cranes, tortoises, deer, pine trees and Daoist thought, ancient Korean myths, local forms the immortals’ fungus (pullocho). Deer, particularly of animism and mountain worship in Joseon society. spotted deer, and cranes are revered as companions Stylised landscape elements reflect indigenous of the Daoist Immortals who ride to and from the painting traditions, while the large scale and rich Islands of the Blessed in the Eastern Sea (where the mineral pigments recall the paradise imagery of sacred fungus grows) on the back of flying cranes. Daoist painting of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). The ten symbols are frequently joined by other Longevity paintings were commissioned from Court auspicious motifs, such as peaches (symbolising academy painters and presented by the king to his immortality), the five peaks (symbolising the subjects on New Years Day. Among the gentry, they sovereign’s rule) and bamboo (a traditional literati were used to celebrate the new year, 60th birthdays symbol of strength since it bows before the wind, and 25th wedding anniversaries. but never breaks).

Korean dreams: paintings & screens of the Joseon dynasty Supplementary information 16 Literati Chaekkori 1800s six-panel folding screen Confucianism, and a related love of learning colour on silk; 119 x 32cm (each image) and study, was the inspiration for two types of painting unique to Korea: chaekkori, paintings of books and other scholarly paraphernalia, and This screen belongs to the ‘isolated’ variety of chaekkori, in which groups of objects are munja-do, paintings of Chinese characters that interspersed in space, unsupported by furniture. The express Confucian moral precepts. jewel-like colours of the flowers, fruit and ceramics The chaekkori genre is thought to have allude to the treasures within the soberly bound derived from Chinese images of shelves of volumes. The bronze incense burner alludes to luxury objects, scholars’ materials and curios. Korea’s ‘aroma culture’ that emerged in the Three Kingdoms period (57 BCE – 668 CE) with the rise of While initially both chaekkori and munja-do Buddhism, which used incense in ceremonies. Aroma reflected the Confucian veneration of learning, culture persisted into the Joseon period, when the instructional messages of the paintings Buddhism was suppressed by Confucianism. Incense gradually weakened as later artists succumbed was used in ancestor worship and to help scholars to more decorative possibilities. Screens like the concentrate on their studies. The connoisseurship ones exhibited here were typically displayed in of fine incense was an accomplishment of the leisured classes, thus the elegant incense burners areas of work and study where they lent an air of in this screen evoked the aesthetic sensibility of the scholarship and social distinction. gentleman-scholar. Other essentials to the scholar’s lifestyle include the wine pot, the narcissus (symbol of true friendship), brushes and scrolls (in this case, accompanied by seals containing the as-yet-unread name of the painter of this fine work).

Korean dreams: paintings & screens of the Joseon dynasty Supplementary information 18 Ideograph painting (Munja-do) (style of Chejudo) 1700s–1800s eight-panel folding screen colour on paper; 97.5 x 48cm (each image)

Showing even further departures from the Confucian origins of munja-do, this screen has been painted in the style of folk painting native to Cheju (now spelt Jeju), the tropical island located to the south of mainland Korea. Conventionally, the Chinese script in munja-do is black while colour is limited to the pictorial elements; however, the artist of this screen has shaped the characters to resemble birds and used bright, earthy tones. The top and bottom quarters of each panel contain depictions of auspicious animals, flowers and fruit, such as magpies, fish, ducks, peonies and persimmons.

Korean dreams: paintings & screens of the Joseon dynasty Supplementary information Rivers and flowers

‘Birds-and-flowers’, an established subject in the arts of East Asia, was the most ubiquitous theme in Korean decorative painting. Plants and animals of all kinds were depicted, the creatures most often in harmonious pairs, symbolic of the union of female (yin) and male (yang). Amongst flowers, the peony, symbol of abundance, was particularly popular. Plants-and-insects and fish-and-shellfish were other popular genres which, like birds-and- flowers, were used to decorate the room reserved for the lady of the house, as symbols of female wisdom and spirit, or the nuptial chamber. Amongst fish paintings, the carp, signifying the birth of a male child, was the most popular.

25 A pair of peacocks 1700s–1800s colour on paper; 92 x 43cm

Two peacocks dance in courtship beneath pairs of magnificently blooming peonies. Peacocks were one of the many symbols of longevity in Korean culture; thus this image expresses the blessing of the marital bond enduring through passing years. The combination of the feminine forms of the flowers and the masculine rocks evokes a harmonious balance of yin and yang that characterises the ideal marital relationship.

Korean dreams: paintings & screens of the Joseon dynasty Supplementary information 27 Peonies and rocks 1700s–1800s four-panel folding screen colour on paper; 124.5 x 49cm

Because of their heavenly scent and splendid the qi or breath that animates the universe and blossoms, peonies emerged as a popular symbol are thus pure expressions of masculine yang energy. of wealth and nobility in Chinese art and literature, In moran-do this force is paired with the feminine and were the subject of many varieties of Korean yin of the peonies, thus evoking an ideal state of art. One of the most distinctive genres of this theme balance. Mounted on tall screens of eight or in Joseon art paired these magnificent flowers with ten panels, paintings of peonies were used in rocks of grotesque shape and outlandish colour. wedding ceremonies or placed in the newlyweds’ In this screen, the bright and profuse petals and rooms, which suggests they expressed hopes for leaves give a sense of plentitude. In the Daoist marital harmony. symbolic universe, rocks and mountains contained

Korean dreams: paintings & screens of the Joseon dynasty Supplementary information Animals

Paintings of animals depict them in a natural setting, and while early paintings of animals were clearly symbolic, later depictions differ little from those in the birds-and-flowers category. Animal paintings have several sub-categories, such as ‘paintings of animals with feathers and fur’ (reungmo-do). The most popular animal was the tiger, venerated as a benevolent deity which chased away evil spirits. The white tiger of the west was one of the four mythical animals, along with the blue dragon of the east, the red phoenix of the south and the black hyeonmu (a tortoise entwined with a snake) of the north. Amongst mythical animals, the dragon, the symbol of celestial authority and lord over all waters, is the most revered and most illustrated. As the ultimate symbol of yang, it is paired with the phoenix, the ultimate yin symbol.

37 The tiger and the magpie 1700s colour on paper; 103.5 x 63cm

Images of tigers, believed to be benevolent deities, were placed at the entrance of houses at New Year, in the homes of shamans and in Buddhist buildings so that they might repel evil spirits. Depictions of tigers with magpies or sparrows perched in pine trees were popular in Joseon Korea. In early works, the tiger represented a guardian divinity or an ordained ruler, the bird its divine messenger, while the pine is a symbol of longevity and the New Year. Like many Korean images of animals or plants, this painting contains a pun based on the pronunciation of the animals’ names which conveys good luck. Such paintings were thus visually pleasing ways of inviting protection and good fortune in the impending year. In the increasingly stylised paintings that emerged in later years, however, the tiger, teased by the bird, became the object of gentle mockery aimed at the ruling classes.

Korean dreams: paintings & screens of the Joseon dynasty Supplementary information 39 Dragon in the clouds 1800s colour on paper

Related to water and agriculture, dragons were thought to dwell in rivers, lakes, oceans or deep ponds in mountainous regions. They featured in many East Asian creation myths as life-giving deities and sources of yang (masculine) energy. According to tradition, the dragon was a hybrid of nine animals, nine being the number most strongly associated with yang), having the head of a camel, the horns of a deer, the eyes of a hare, the ears of an ox, the neck of a snake, the belly of a frog, the claws of a hawk, the feet of a tiger and 81 scales resembling those of a carp. In the Chinese cosmic system, the dragon is the guardian of the East,its colour is blue or green, its season spring, and its element wood. Blue-green dragons in the midst of swirling storm clouds are known as rain dragons, and shamans perform rain-supplication rituals involving music and dance in front of paintings of rain dragons.

Korean dreams: paintings & screens of the Joseon dynasty Supplementary information Glossary

Anbang Jujak the inner room of a traditional Korean the phoenix; the mythical animal of the South house – the women’s domain Jungin Chaekkori the middle-class, educated gentry and literati folding screen with the subject of books of the Joseon period; formed the backbone of the Confucian bureaucracy Dohwawon the Academy of Painting at the court Minhwa ‘Art of the People’; folk art Donghak ‘Eastern Learning’; a predominantly peasant- Saranbang based 19th-century uprising against the the outer room of a traditional Korean oppression of landlords and foreigners that house – the men’s domain resulted in a syncretic, nationalisitic religion Silhak Han’geul literally ‘Practical Learning’; a Confucian social the phonetic alphabet of the Korean language, reform movement of the late Joseon dynasty comprising 24 letters, created by King Sejong in the 15th century Yangban the upper class/aristocracy of the Joseon period Hyeonmu a mythical animal that is a cross between a tortoise and a serpent; the symbol of the North

Korean dreams: paintings & screens of the Joseon dynasty Supplementary information East Asian chronologies (from 10th century)

China Korea Japan

Heian period 794 – 1185 Song dynasty 960 – 1279 goryeo period 918 – 1392 Northern Song 960 – 1125 Southern Song 1127 – 1279

Jin dynasty 1115 – 1234 Kamakura period 1185 – 1332

Yuan dynasty 1279 – 1368 Nambokucho period 1333 – 1392 (Mongol dynasty)

Ming dynasty 1368 – 1644 joseon dynasty 1392 – 1910 Muromachi period 1392 – 1568 (National dynasty) taejo (born Yi Songgye) 1392 – 1398 Hongwu 1368 – 1398 Yongle 1403 – 1424 sejong 1418 – 1450 Xuande 1426 – 1435 Chenghua 1465 – 1487 Hongzhi 1488 – 1505 jungjong 1506 – 1544 Zhengde 1506 – 1521 Jiajing 1522 – 1566 Longqing 1567 – 1572 Wanli 1573 – 1619 Japanese invasion (‘Imjin War’) 1592 – 1598 Momoyama period 1568 – 1615 Tianqi 1628 – 1643 Manchu incursions 1620 – 1644 Edo (Tokugawa) period 1615 – 1868 injo 1623 – 1649 Qing dynasty 1644 – 1912 Hendrik Hammel shipwrecked off the (Manchu dynasty) coast of Korea 1653 Shunzhi 1644 – 1661 Hyeonjong 1659 – 1674 Kangxi 1662 – 1722 sukjong 1674 – 1720 Yongzheng 1723 – 1735 yeongjo 1724 – 1776 Qianlong 1736 – 1795 Jiaqing 1796 – 1820 Chongjo 1776 – 1800 Daoguang 1821 – 1850 sunjo 1800 – 1834 Xianfeng 1851 – 1861 Tongzhi 1862 – 1873 gojong 1863 – 1907 Meiji period 1868 – 1912 Guangxu 1874 – 1907 Assassination of Queen Min 1895 Xuantong 1908 – 1912

Republic 1912 – 1949 Japanese rule 1910 – 1945 Taisho period 1912 – 1926 Showa period 1926 – 1988 People’s Republic 1949 to present Republic of Korea in the south; Democratic Republic of Korea in the north 1948 to present Heisei period 1989 to present

These chronologies are selective, with some dates approximate.

Korean dreams: paintings & screens of the Joseon dynasty Supplementary information