<宴飮圖>로 본 북송대 고분벽화의 세속화 경향

Abstract

Chinese funerary art has been known as being conservative to the temporal and social changes. However, the mural tombs constructed in the northern China since the end of the Northern Song Dynasty began to show unprecedented characteristics; this shift was due to the changes in the social status of the mural tomb owners–wealthy middle class, a rising local elite. The middle class led the construction of mural tombs as a desire to emulate the preexisting high-class culture. Still, they did not just follow the precedent forms but customized the styles according to their tastes. This change of tomb owners’ social classes after the Northern Song Dynasty not only changed the form of mural tombs but also affected the way mural tombs were socially recognized and used. In this respect, the mural tombs of the North Song Dynasty show how traditional values were understood and accepted differently in the changing historical and social environment. This study tries to examine how the mural tombs of the Northern Song dynasty reflect the social changes by analyzing the painting of ‘Tomb Owners’ Banquet’ in the mural, which characterizes the mural tombs of the North Song Dynasty. The theme of ‘Tomb Owners’ Banquet’ which this paper pays attention to, generally denotes the scenes of the tomb owner couple enjoying a banquet in their happy house; this was not merely a theme that constitutes a tomb mural, but the long been central theme of the tomb mural that has a function identifying tomb owners and suggesting ideal afterlife. Therefore, in their details, the social status of the tomb owner had been emphasized, and as the privilege of the dead, a luxurious banquet scene was described. However, the banquet scenes in the tomb mural of the North Song Dynasty are different from those of the previous era, from the representation of the tomb owner to the overall atmosphere; these differences are summarized as ‘reinforcement of secularity’ reflecting the new tomb owners’ wishes at the construction and use of the tombs. This study analyzes how such secularity is expressed in banquet scenes in tomb murals of the North Song Dynasty and attempts to show how the long tradition of funerary art came to divaricate from this transitional time.