周代 宗廟의 기능과 그 의미에 대한 儒敎經典의 이해

Abstract

For a long time while it going through many dynasties from Han(漢) dynasty to the last century, the idea that ‘the Jongmyo Shrine(宗廟) is a king's shrine’ had been fixed. In this paper, the argument that ‘the Jongmyo Shrine had been originally a king's ruling place’ was developed through the records related to the Jongmyo Shrines in 『the Analects of Confucius(論語)』, 『Mencius(孟子)』, 『Xunzi(荀子)』, 『Book of Rites(禮記)』 and others. And at the same time, it was explained that the later confucian scholars from China and Korea have incorrectly interpreted the meanings and symbolism of it that contained in the classic, because of the functional changes of Jongmyo Shrines experienced since the Han Dynasty. Jongmyo Shrines in the pre-Qin Dynasty era(先秦時代) were the Myo(廟, a house of the upper class) building of a ruler who had inherited a title of nobility and territory, and the place where a king resided, preformed a diversity of rituals and issued political orders. In other words, it played the same role as a ruling place where a king, feudal lords and furthermore, noblemen owning bestowed land governed and have an audience. A number of generations of kings, feudal lords and noblemen who had been inherited noble titles and land from the first king were those who were raised to their 'position' as the leader of their nation, so they performed ancestral rituals for their late king in their Myo(廟) buildings. Accordingly, the Myo(廟) building as their ruling place came to have the name of 'an Jongmyo Shrine(宗廟)', which means 'the Myo(廟) for the one, who is a leader of his nation.' In addition, the specific Myo(廟) rather than such an Jongmyo Shrine of that age ruler and Taemyo Shrine(太廟) of the first ruler was called by appending the name of the person who was the owner of the Myo.