Joseon Dynasty was a Confucian based society and Jongmyo(宗廟, Royal ancestral shrine, designated as Historic Site of Korea and also UNESCO’s world heritage) was representative architecture of Confucian ideology of Joseon Dynasty. Jongmyo was started with foundation of Joseon Dynasty and grew with growth of Joseon Dynasty and halted with demolition of Joseon Dynasty. As with any building over time, depending on the shape and alters the number of initial repair and modification, and expansion followed. For these changes, I have researched transition process of Jongmyo through 3 different Uigwe(儀軌, records of Royal Protocols in the Court of Joseon Dynasty), and reviewed each of the evolution of architectures, such as historial documents and drawings been investigated as a reference. By doing this, I tried to understand Jongmyo more deeply and thought about its conservational meaning in our times.
Main architecture of Jongmyo are Jeongjeon(正殿, Main hall) and Yeongnyeongjeon (永寧殿). As dynasty flourished along with the increasing tablet should escort, Jongmyo had undergone many repairs and modification. Especially in case of Jeongjeon and Yeongnyeongjeon, their architectural scale went bigger and bigger as increasing tablet should escort based on Confucian manner. And annexed many buildings were changed according to the Confucian manner and geographical characteristics. A review on these transition enables deep understanding of present architectures and can be a very important basic documents of repair or restoration.
Three Uigwe, main material of this review are ‘Yeongnyeongjeon sugaedogam
uigwe(published in King Hyeonjong’s reign 8th year, 1667)’,‘ Jongmyo gaesudogam uigwe(published in King Yeongjo’s reign 1st year, 1725), and‘ Jongmyo yeongnyeongjeon jeungsudogam uigwe(published in King Heonjong’s reign 2nd year, 1836). They have lots of resources about each repair or modification. In case of the uigwe published in King Hyeonjong’s reign is focused on change of Yeongnyeongjeon’s scale. In case of
the uigwe published in King Yeongjo’s reign have contents mainly about extension of Jeongjeon. In case of the uigwe published in King Heonjong’s reign have contents about both extension of Jeongjeon and Yeongnyeongjeon. They also have lots of resources about transition of annexed architectures due to repairs. So they are very important documents to understand transition process of Jongmyo architecture. ‘Jongmyo sugae deungrok(published from 1658 to 1735)’,‘ Jongmyo chinjegyuje doseol byeongpung(published around 1920s, folding screen described in manner of
ritual ceremony in royal shrine)’and other documents which have lots of minute
resources about repair are also referred. Through analysis on these resources, I have totalized foundations and transitions of Jeongjeon, Yeongnyeongjeon and annexed architectures. As result, including transition process of Jeongjeon and Yeongnyeongjeon, it could be possible to know about various transition process of many architectures of Jongmyo.