武寧王妃 誌石을 통해본 백제 여성의 지위

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore women’s status and roles in Baekje through the epigraph or memorial stone(誌石) of Queen Munyong. The epigraph for Queen Munyong was different from the one for King Munyong in that the former does not carry name and year of death, which shows strong indication that women in Baekje were the followers of, or belongings to, the men. Study judged that the epigraph for Queen Munyong followed the tradition of Chinese Eastern Jin(東晋) in which Chinese Baekje officials were involved. Women with their names recorded in written materials of Baekje were in high status with important roles, which means whether a woman’s name was written or not was related with the role which the woman played. In Baekje, the names of Queen were recorded until the early 5th century while noname was recorded in early 6th century for Queen Munyong. Comparison of women’s status in Baekje with those in surrounding countries based on this fact demonstrated that women’s status in Baekje was lower than those in Silla(新羅) and Wa(倭) and similar to that in Goguryo(高句麗). Seen from the temporal perspective, women’s roles were considerably high in the early period after the establishment of state but, with the organization of state systems around the period of King Munyong, settlement of Chinese Confucianism and ‘study of Ye(禮學)’ signaled a change in the status. Especially, during the period of King Uija before the collapse of Baekje, Queen was called and written as ‘enchantress (妖女)’, which illustrates that negative view was strengthened toward women’s political participation and role.