조선후기 왕실의 출산문화에 관한 몇 가지 실마리들 - 장서각 소장 출산관련 ‘궁중발기[宮中件記]’를 중심으로 -

Abstract

This study tries to provide some clues to the childbirth culture of the Joseon royal family. For this, it notices the historical value of the old documents ‘Gungjungbalgi’ and analyses the documents of them that are related with the birth of the king Sunjong(純宗). I expect it to help reconstruct the childbirth culture of Joseon royal family in the mid-19th century. The 'Gungjungbalgi' are the kind of lists written in Hangul(Korean alphabet) by court ladies who are the attendants to the royal family members. We can get a sense of everyday life of the royal family through them. Up to now, Gungjungbalgi have been used as historical materials that show the royal family’s daily life about foods(食), costumes(衣) and beliefs(信仰) etc. But as they are the old documents written in Hangul, most of Historian have somewhat neglected them. This study have sorted out nineteen documents of Gungjungbalgi from the Jangseo-gak library which are related with the births of the royal family. There is one of them that contains the birth of the king Heonjong(憲宗), fifteen the birth of the king Sunjong and three the birth of crown prince Yeong wang(英王). It is through the documents which deal with the birth of the king Sunjong that we can clearly see all the process from his pre-birth to his first birthday. The documents refer to the people who received foods, money and stuffs for the works that they had done to help the birth of the king Sunjong. And the foods, money and stuffs given to those people are from the royal family members and its relatives. The documents also get a list of the people who received seaweed soup and a cake given to the one hundredth day. We can concretely understand the roles of and the hierarchy system among the people who are related with the birth and child care in the royal family. We can also see the family structure, the kinship system and the social networks in the royal family in the mid-19th century. I want this study to help us understand the fact that the birth as human behavior is the cultural construction in specific community and so, in order to concretely interpret the behavior, we should be able to go beyond each separate knowledge and thin descriptions into the childbirth system that is whole and integral.