中國 門神 受容 樣相 硏究

Abstract

The guardian deity of the gate had originated from mythical time of China and been imported to Korea, is one of the guardian deities of residence maintaining the oldest and widest religious belief. Even though in modern times we universally pursue the truth which is scientific and rational, the several parts of Korea and China used to attach the pictures of the guardian deity at New Year's Day or national holidays. The origin of the guardian deity-belief had been resulted from primitive worship of the nature. The gate of house was the place dividing the inside and outside of dwelling space, consequently it had been considered as special point. The worship for gate had happened naturally from the oldest times. Even the dwelling spaces for the animals but human being have gates, that gate is one of architectures in the residence for entering, exiting, passing through and isolating of human being and materials. This gate had established for letting the good come in, intercept the bad, and scrape the disrupted out, so called ‘removing the misfortune and requiring the happiness’. Because the guardian deity had been believed that always protecting the whole things of the household, the residents who live in the same space think and respect the guardian deity as the highest position. Especially the front gate is the biggest one and the main entrance of the house. Because the visitor or members of the house, and the many deities go and out using the front gate, considered as the guardian deity had been seated in that point. This paper about the guardian deity, mainly investigated how the original Chinese religious beliefs on those spirits had been transmitted to Korea, and which influences had impacted to the beliefs of the residence in Korea.