고구려 고분벽화의 문화유산적 가치와 의미

Abstract

Koguryŏ tomb murals are some of the stellar cultural achievement of premodern East Asia. They contain cultural, aesthetic, religious and social historical virtues and meanings. From a cultural historical perspective, Koguryŏ tomb murals can be assessed as a site that shows the progress of cultural recreation and how cultural uniqueness and universality are consolidated. The tomb murals also embody the process and the result of cultural and artistic exchange that occurred in Koguryŏ. Not only do they enable tracing the archetype and allow multidimensional understanding of Koguryŏ life and culture, but also they represent the achievements of scientific and technological advance. From an art historical perspective, tomb murals exist as a good example of how a foreign cultural element secured a status as a Koguryŏ art genre. Through the tomb murals, we can approach and understand the process through which Koguryŏ people reinterpreted and reorganized artistic subjects in a unique way. They highlight the development of pictorial techniques, styles, and achievements. In regards to the history of religion and philosophy, the tomb murals visualize the cosmography and views on afterlife in Koguryŏ. They also illuminate the religious progress that comprises the views on the world and the afterlife. Tomb murals confirm the close relationship among the Koguryŏ people’s views on afterlife, concepts and representations regarding religion, and the structure of the tombs. From a social historical perspective, tomb murals are meaningful historical resources that provide the basic materials for reconstructing Koguryŏ’s history and culture that can be utilized to reproduce Koguryŏ’s social structure and class system. Tomb murals also facilitate the complex understanding covering Koguryŏ’s social, cultural, art, and religious history.