뉴스레터

  Many people ponder about the afterlife. What happens when we die? Is there any life after death? Then, where do we go? How is life in the otherworld beyond this world? Will it be the same as now? Or will it be different from now? How is life in the otherworld beyond death determined?

  It’s definite from historical records that there was indeed speculation about life after death. It seems to have been generally accepted that there is a life of the otherworld beyond this world and that life is not too much different from that of this world. As confirmed by records and paintings, it was believed that human relationships and social order in the otherworld were similar to those of this world. In this regard, the murals of Goguryeo tombs are a valuable source of informing the life after death of the Goguryeo people and their perceptions and ideas about the world of the dead.

  Anak Tomb No. 3 with the ink writing epitaph in 357 is one of the earliest Goguryeo mural tombs. This tomb, including the passage to the tomb chambers for corpses, the front chamber, the left and right (east and west) side chambers, the tomb chambers for corpses, and an ambulant corridor, is well-known for its structure and murals that seem to depict a Goguryeo noble residence moved underground. In particular, the murals in the eastern and western side chambers attracted the viewer’s attention as they vividly depicted the features of a noble residence's main building and the building of guest rooms, respectively.

  The mural of the eastern side chamber of Anak Tomb No. 3 depicts a kitchen, a butcher shop, a garage, a stable, a cowshed, a well, and a mill, while the mural of the western side chamber depicts the tomb owner and his servants, as well as the tomb owner's wife and maids. It can be seen that the two side chambers serve as a representation of the real life of the Anak Tomb No. 3 owner and his wife in the main facilities of the residence where they lived during their lifetime.

  According to traditional thought in ancient East Asia, the immortal soul of the dead goes to the world of ancestors, while the mortal soul remains in the tomb alongside the deceased’s body. It is this mortal soul that comes to the shrine, built alongside the tomb, to eat food for ancestral rites. When the deceased’s body decays, this mortal soul also disappears. However, as long as the body is intact in the tomb, the mortal soul of the tomb’s owner continues to live as it did before the death, so the belongings of the dead must be in the tomb together.

  All the various objects interred within the tomb are meant for this purpose. The various objects and facilities depicted in the tomb’s murals are for the daily life spent in the tomb, and also for the afterlife that the dead would enjoy. This notion was universally accepted not only among the Goguryeo people but also in ancient societies because it was a belief in a successive afterlife view, in which the human relationships or social systems experienced in real life would reoccur in the afterlife. Therefore, the murals in the tomb should represent the life of the deceased as it was during their lifetime, but presume and depict them in a better state.

  So, would the murals in the tomb change if the afterlife view changed? The answer is “yes”. Not only do the murals change, but the tomb structure changes as well. If life after death is different from one’s real life, there is no need to reproduce the structure of one’s residence underground, and there is no reason to depict the life of one’s earthly life underground. This is why the structure of Goguryeo mural tombs changed over time, and the description of the murals changed.

  Deokheung-ri Mural Tomb, a tomb of Jin with the ink writing epitaph built in 408, half a century after Anak Tomb No. 3, is a two-chamber tomb with no passage to the tomb chambers for corpses, side chambers, or an ambulant corridor. The front room depicts a scene of the tomb’s owner conducting official duties at a feudal government, while the tomb chambers for corpses depict a stable, a cowshed, and an attic storage room to reproduce the life of a noble couple in the main building. The mural also depicts a pond, scenes from a Buddhist seven treasures offering event, and even a representation of a type of sporting event called the horse-riding archery game.

  Jin, a vassal of King Gwanggaeto, was a great nobleman who held a high rank called Governor of Youzhou. According to its ink-writing epitaph, Jin was a devout Buddhist who claimed to be a disciple of Buddha Sakyamuni. This way of thinking, which diverged from the traditional view of the afterlife, led to the construction of simpler two-chamber tombs instead of reproducing the structure of the noble residence underground like Anak Tomb No. 3. The tomb structure, which was originally based on the traditional view of the afterlife, had changed due to the influence of people who adopted the new religion of Buddhism.

  The General Huan Yin’s Tomb of Rice Granary Ditch, which was built later than the Deokheung-ri Mural Tomb, is a two-chamber tomb with a deteriorated front chamber, and the murals were mainly painted in large tomb chambers for corpses. In contrast to the earlier murals, which primarily depicted scenes of daily life, the mural of this tomb features lotus flower patterns that cover the walls with a full array of decorative patterns. The lotus flower, symbolizing the Buddhist paradise of Pure Land, became the subject of the murals because the deceased wished to be born and live in Pure Land in the afterlife.

  Around the middle of the 5th century, during the reign of King Jangsu, Buddhism gained significant popularity in Goguryeo, and many people adopted this new religion. Therefore, it may be considered a natural social phenomenon that mural tombs featuring lotus decorations based on the Buddhist view of the afterlife emerged in this period.

  In the late 5th century and onwards, the structure of Goguryeo mural tombs shifted to one-chamber tombs, and the mural themes became unified as the Four Gods. These tombs continued to represent the deceased’s house, but the new definition was established that the tombs are not for this world but are parts of the otherworld where the deceased would live, guarded by the Four Gods, making only one chamber for them. In such cases, the central space of the tomb chambers for corpses, where the tomb’s owner lies, is the center of the universe, guarded by the gods of the four directions - east, west, south, and north. In other words, they are the Blue Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, and Black Tortoise, which correspond to each of the seven constellations of the Lunar mansions of the ecliptic. In terms of constellations, it corresponds to the Big Dipper, centered on the North Star, and it corresponds to the Purple Forbidden Enclosure, which is called the heavenly palace with a few other stars added.

  If the place where the deceased lies is the center of the universe or the heavenly palace, there is no need for a complex tomb structure. This is because one chamber became one universe. With the new space guarded by 28 constellations, which became the deceased’s house, what more could be needed? The reason Goguryeo mural tombs were constructed as a single chamber in the later period is because the perception of the deceased’s house had changed in this manner.