역서(曆書)류를 통해 본 택일문화의 변화

Abstract

It is not known exactly when the custom of choosing an auspicious day appeared in Korea. But there is a record of a lady from the Seol family picking an auspicious day for her wedding in the Biographies of Samguksagi, which indicates that there was a custom of choosing an auspicious day for a wedding among common people as early as in the late sixth century. Almanacs are essential for choosing good luck or bad luck days. In Korea, during the Three Kingdoms period, almanacs and calendars from the Tang Dynasty were widely distributed among the people, who practiced the custom of choosing auspicious days on a comprehensive scale. During the Goryeo and Chosun periods, the custom not only continued but also gained more popularity among the government and royal families as well as the public. Despite the rather negative perceptions of the custom in modern days, they still preserve their status as a folk phenomenon close to people’s daily lives. Although it has been obvious that the custom of choosing auspicious days had long been in practice on social and cultural levels beyond the individual one, there have been few studies on the subject in academic circles. There are a wide range of events for which people practice the custom of choosing auspicious days. In this study, they have been categorized into annual events, such as making traditional Korean soy and bean paste, and into major life events such as marriage and moving. Choosing auspicious days for annual events does not require special skills, which means the event organizers personally pick a day. However, you need expertise in choosing auspicious days for major life events, which is why the organizers ask an expert to pick a day for them. Considering these aspects, the investigator suggested a “research model for the culture of choosing an auspicious day according to who actually picks the day.” Choosing auspicious days is the subculture of almanacs, suggesting that a more in-depth study of this subculture is required not only into those who pick a day and those who hold an event, but also into almanacs related to choosing auspicious days. This includes studying the almanacs published by public agencies, books on choosing auspicious days like Cheongidaeyo, calendars for choosing auspicious days published by private individuals, and calendars like the Baejung calendar, a thousand year almanac, and perpetual calendars. For these purposes, a “relational map of the culture of choosing auspicious days” was presented in the study. An examination of the changes to the culture of choosing auspicious days was conducted based on almanacs published by public agencies, books on choosing auspicious days like Cheongidaeyo, and calendars for choosing auspicious days published by private individuals to offer some clues into the study of the culture of choosing an auspicious day. First, the changes to the almanacs published by the public agencies were reviewed in order to understand how people have altered their perceptions of choosing auspicious days. In the old days, some scholars criticized the practice and even some of the publishers of almanacs displaying skeptical views about it. For all that, the rulers did not lose their faith in choosing auspicious days and approved the practice believing it would take many years to change the age-old practice and also that people would resist the attempt to dismiss it. Things started to change in 1937, however, when the almanacs took on a completely contemporary atmosphere. Since then, the almanacs published by public agencies has no longer involved the custom of choosing auspicious days, which was, however, still popular among the public. After Korea took back its independence from the Japanese rulers, the private sector was allowed to publish its own almanacs. They published diverse almanacs related to choosing auspicious days. Thus a shift was made in the role of assisting people with choosing auspicious days by the government institutions, as well as the private sector. Then the calendars for choosing auspicious days, which served as the window to today’s culture of choosing auspicious days, were analyzed in order to understand what the keywords were. A total of three kinds of calendars currently in use were examined. The results reveal that items that either concerned the agricultural society, such as agriculture and raising cattle, or did not fit the contemporary times, were removed from the calendars. Instead, changes were made in place of those items applicable to today’s modern society. Some examples of these changes are marriage, construction, the changing of burial sites, moving, submitting documents, entering schools, religious service, contracts, financial transactions, travel, and opening stores.