뉴스레터

The origins of mural tombs and their spread to surrounding areas

  When and where did the tradition of painting murals inside tombs originate? Originally, the creation of murals in tombs was a funerary tradition that had been prevalent in the central region since the pre-Han Dynasty in China. Those who painted murals depicted the dead person’s appearance and life as well as the ideal he or she aspired to, and people around the mural came and looked at the completed mural for a certain period. At that time, tombs and other funeral spaces were places where families paid their respects to the dead, and the elaborately decorated murals were also a meansof showing off the family’s filial piety and wealth.

  However, toward the end of the Han Dynasty, in the second half of the 2nd century, a large-scale peasant rebellion, the Yellow Turban Rebellion, broke out in the central plains, and national chaos continued. Accordingly, the funeral culture of nobles was gradually simplified, and the number of people migrating to various places to avoid war and chaos increased. As a result, the production of gorgeous murals in the Jungwon region naturally began to decline. However, in the 3rd and 4th centuries, as many immigrants from the Central Plains moved to Liaoyaong in northeastern China, Inner Mongolia in the north, and Gansu in the Hexi region, the tradition of tomb murals from the late Han to the Western Jin Dynasty blossomed again in those regions.

Gorgeous murals in tombs captivate Goguryeo people

  Meanwhile, the mural culture that was popular in northeastern China gradually influenced the nearby Goguryeo region. Originally, the traditional funeral culture of Goguryeo was to build stone mound tombs by piling gravel from mountains and rivers, but as exchanges with Chinese dynasties increased, they gradually became attracted to the funerary tradition of building stone chambers and painting murals inside them.

  In particular, since the mid-4th century, as the central region fell into chaos again, many Chinese immigrants came to Goguryeo. With the permission of Goguryeo, they settled in the current Hwanghae-do and Pyeongan-do areas and created many tombs with murals. Representative tombs include Anak Tomb No. 3 in Anak-gun, South Hwanghae Province, and Deokheung-ri Mural Tomb in Gangseo District, South Pyongan Province. Naturally, these tombs show strong Chinese traditions in their structure, the content of the murals, and the clothing of the painted figures.

Through them, the Goguryeo people adopted these unique and splendid mural tomb construction techniques and mural production techniques, and gradually adopted them as part of their funerary culture. In the end, the creation of mural tombs in Goguryeo was mainly due to mutual exchanges with northern and northeastern China and the migration of immigrants after the late Han Dynasty.

Recreate external culture in its own style

  In 427, King Jangsu moved the capital to Pyongyang, and after that, Goguryeo reached its heyday as the hegemony of Northeast Asia. In the mid-to-late 5th century, many tombs with murals were created in Goguryeo, with dozens of tombs discovered, including Anak Tomb No. 2 in Anak-gun, South Hwanghae Province, Susan-ri Mural Tomb and Ssangyeong Tomb in the Pyongyang region, and Jangcheon Tomb No.1 in the Jian region. Murals painted on tombs from this period show that Goguryeo was growing through east-west exchanges with the region extending into northern and northeastern China and further into the inland Asian grasslands.

  In addition, from the first half of the 6th century, the murals in Goguryeo tombs gradually conceptualized, depicting a blue dragon, white tiger, vermilion bird, and black tortoise (the so-called four gods) on all sides. Even in China, drawings of four gods were drawn in tombs during the Northern and Southern Dynasties. However, they did not use the four gods as a main subject of the mural, such as symbolizing direction or leading the funeral procession at the entrance of the tomb. On the other hand, the Goguryeo people adopted the four gods as their own material by drawing large drawings on the front of their tombs. This probably appears to be based on the belief in four gods based on the theory of the five elements within Goguryeo society. In other words, because the beliefs and ideologies of Goguryeo society were different from those of China, they were able to create a unique mural culture that focused on their preferred materials.

What is ‘ours’?

  In the end, Goguryeo’s mural tomb tradition was originally imported from outside, but it can be seen that they gradually recreated it in their own style by incorporating their own beliefs, ideas, and tastes. Goryeo celadon, which we usually boast of as a traditional Korean culture, is also said to be a unique modification of the celadon culture that originally came to Goryeo through southeastern China in terms of design and color. If we look at the things we believed were ‘ours’ from a broader perspective, we can newly discover the fact that the history and culture of the Korean Peninsula have been formed through constant exchanges with the surrounding area since ancient times.

  BTS, the idol group that led the K-pop legend, is gaining great popularity around the world. Now that the Korean Wave culture, which was formed through cultural exchanges with countries around the world, is once again spreading around the world, aren’t we particularly obsessed with the ‘isolated’ and ‘unique’ aspects of Korae’s ancient history? What is ‘ours’? I think it is time for us to realize that the era in which we must approach and understand this issue with a more open perspective has arrived.