백제 무령왕릉 출토 왕비 두침의 정면과 봉황의 방향

Abstract

The tomb of King Muryeong of Baekje, which had never been stolen since its construction, was found in the Songsan-ri tomb site of Gongju city in 1971. In the excavation of King Muryeong’s tomb, 108 items and 4,687 relics of kings and queens were unearthed, providing an opportunity to look back on the history and art of Baekje dynasty. This article would focus on the front side of the queen’s pillow and the direction of the phoenix placed on the pillow of the queen. The front side of the queen’s pillow excavated from King Muryeong’s tomb is thought as the side where the head could be placed most stably on the pillow. In other words, it was considered that the back of the head was placed on the lower side of the head and the top of the head was placed on the higher side. So the front side of the current queen’s pillow should be the back and the back side should be the front. This is because the structure of pillow of Goguryeo and Silla during the Three Kingdoms period and other pillows of Baekje are the same, so it is thought that the queen’s pillow excavated from King Muryeong’s tomb is also the same. The beasts placed on a pillow of Han dynasty are facing outwards, because the function of the beast decorations placed on pillow is that of protecting body and warding off evil spirit. From this perspective, it seems that the phoenix on the queen’s pillow excavated from King Muryeong’s tomb should also be placed facing outward rather than inward. However, since there was no phoenix among the beasts decorated on the jade pillow of the Han Dynasty, if the phoenix is interpreted as a auspicious thing rather than protecting body and warding off evil spirit, it is possible that the position of phoenix on the queen’s pillow excavated from the tomb of King Muryeong was placed facing the front.