‘어약용문(魚躍龍門)’에서 ‘어변성룡(魚變成龍)’으로 - ‘급제(及第)’에서 ‘충(忠)’으로 -

Abstract

There are two subjects derived from a Chinese legendary story that a big fish jumped the dragon-gate and became a dragon; one is denglongmen, or entering the dragon-gate, which praises a respectable person who gave a chance of success to youngsters, the other is yuelongmen, or jumping the dragon-gate which blesses a person who passed the state-examination. Yuyuelongmen which has the same meaning to yuelongmen became a title of literary songs and paintings for many centuries in China and Korea, providing a metaphoric image of passing the examination. The painting of Yuyuelongmen which shows a big carp jumping from billowy waves of a river to the sun has been enjoyed from the Goryeo to Joseon period. After the abolishment of the state-examination, Yuebianchenglong which means that a fish transforms into a dragon became popular in painting culture, especially in the Munjado, a folding screen painting of pictorial ideography showing eight characters of moral virtue. The image of the dramatic change into a dragon became a line of a character-chung which means loyalty, one of the eight of the Munjado. Very intriguing is that loyalty is a necessary virtue of the past only in the relationship of a king and the government officials and that being a dragon itself cannot means loyalty. It would be said that this image was a popularized message for a successful life, signifying that passing difficulties and being a great person. It is said parenthetically that the two kinds of image of Korean painting has connection to Chinese painting, in that the images are in the printed book of the Ming China and on the surface of a ceramic of the Qing China.