동아대학교 석당박물관 소장 誌石 연구

Abstract

A memorial stone is a kind of funeral equipment buried in a grave or near it at the last stage of funeral rites and displays personal information or a record of the grave of the buried person carved in a flagstone or plate. The reason why a memorial stone is buried in the ground this way is it is possible to preserve achievements and records of the buried person long. Besides, probably, it is much safer than a tombstone on the ground. A memorial stone showing vivid information of the buried person(the dead), such as birth, pedigree, marriage, passing and burial is a person’s record and history. Elaborate analysis of these records can be highly helpful in figuring out the social circumstances of the time. In Korea, memorial stones appeared starting the era of Three States. During the following Goryeo Dynasty, the consumption of memorial stones was limited to the aristocracy, because there was an absence of various forms and materials of memorial stones. The forms and materials of memorial stones began to diversify during the Joseon Dynasty, and a vast number of memorial stones appeared across the country. Especially, with the universalization of Confucian funeral rites, a lot of normal people were engaged in the manufacture of memorial stones used as funeral equipment, and they started to come to fruition of the memorial stone culture. This study aims to introduce and simply analyze the data regarding 45 forms of 13 memorial stones, which were manufactured during the Joseon Dynasty and are owned by the Seokdang Museum of Dong-A University. Firstly, after introduction of the data, the forms and materials of memorial stones from different times were classified. The analysis result revealed that there were diverse forms of memorial stones, such as a rectangular form, which prevailed the most over the whole period of the Joseon Dynasty, a square form, a Yeonsang form, a Malgakbang form and a Daejeop form. With regard to materials, stone, porcelain and soil were all found. Based on the contents of memorial stones, the ways of recording, composition of contents, numbering methods, production periods and similar memorial stones were briefly analyzed as well. It was found that memorial stones were manufactured from the 15th century to the first half of the 20th century, and it is also interesting that many of memorial stone consumers were high-ranking officials. In particular, some of these memorial stones have not been reported to the academic world yet, and even there has been no basic research on them. It is anticipated that this study can be the starting point of relevant basic studies to provide research data for scholars in the field.