Aspect and Trend of Recognition on Choi Chi-Won in the Goryeo Era -Focused on keeping the ancestral tablet in Munmyo (文廟, the Confucian shrine)-

Abstract

It is not enough to define Choi Chi-Won as a representative of one era and region, given that he was evaluated on his past with praise in many ways, not only during the Silla period, but also during Goryeo and Joseon. In particular, since the aspect of Choi Chi-Won’s future recognition was discussed around the propriety of the Confucian Shrine (文廟) canonization, one can look at the background and meaning of the canonization of the Confucian Shrine as well as process of going out and returning to the Confucian Shrine in order to observe the aspects and trends of Choi Chi-Won’s recognition. However, research until today has shown that Choi Chi-Won’s the Confucian Shrine canonization in the Goryeo Dynasty continued until Joseon Dynasty without any change, so the aspect of Choi Chi-Won’s perception did not show any change. However, in the late Goryeo period, Choi Chi-Won’s godship is lost once. And records show that Choi Chi-Won, along with Seol Chong (薛聰) and An Hyang (安珦), were enshrined in the Confucian Shrine shortly after the founding of the Joseon Dynasty. In this paper, focusing on the canonization of Choi Chi-Won, we show that the Goryeo royal family established a foothold for the praise of Choi Chi-Won by using Choi Chi-Won in writing the theory of ‘Milchanjoup(密讚祖業)’ or ‘Dapgyunhwonseo(答甄萱書)’ from the period around the founding of the Goryeo dynasty until the canonization in the Confucian Shrine during the period of King Hyenjong and that this acted as a background for the Silla scholars, who were taken over and became a Confucian bureaucracy in Goryeo, to canonize Choi Chi-Won in the Confucian Shrine in the early days of King Hyeonjong. At the same time, as the period of King Hyeonjong was a time when invasion and exchange coexisted externally, we also considered that external confidence would have influenced the of Choi Chi-Won’s canonization. On the other hand, we regard the Yuan (元) dynasty as the subject of Choi Chi-Won’s expulsion from the Confucian Shrine the during the late Goryeo dynasty, and see that the Yuan dynasty took Choi Chi-Won out from the Confucian Shrine as they recognized that the canonization could inspire the Goryeo people’s national consciousness since Choi Chi-Won showed the level of Silla culture equivalent to that of China. However, since it was recorded that this proceeded without the approval of the King of Goryeo, we consider that he was soon reinstated. Here, we consider that the background behind the reinstatement was based on the anti-Yuan stance that was held during the period of King Gongmin. In this way, by examining the process and background of Choi Chi-Won’s departure and return from the Confucian Shrine during the Goryeo Dynasty, it was possible to grasp the patterns and trends of the perception on Choi Chi-Won.