벽화를 통해 본 고구려의 단군신화 인식 – 각저총･장천1호분 벽화 분석을 중심으로 –

Abstract

This study reexamines previous interpretations that have directly associated motifs such as bears, tigers, and trees in the murals of Gakjeochong and Jangcheon Tomb No. 1 with the Dangun myth. By analyzing the pictorial composition of the two tombs, it seeks to reconsider how the Dangun myth was understood in Goguryeo society. Previous studies have tended to directly correlate individual mural motifs with specific narrative elements of the Dangun myth. However, the murals of Gakjeochong and Jangcheon Tomb No. 1 do not explicitly depict such narrative events as transformation, trials, or taboos found in the Dangun story, nor do the individual scenes exhibit clear chronological or causal relationships. It is therefore difficult to regard the two murals as direct representations of the Dangun myth solely on the basis of similarities between individual motifs. Although the accounts of the Dangun myth recorded in the Samguk yusa (Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms) and the Jewang ungi (Rhymed Chronicle of Emperors and Kings) differ in detail, they share a common structure in which divine and human beings encounter one another around the sacred tree, Sindansu (神壇樹), and a new order is established. In the Samguk yusa, the story of the cave, bear, and tiger further develops this structure by describing a process of transformation. The Dangun myth thus contains, alongside the progression of narrative events, a spatial order in which divine, human, and animal beings interact and undergo change around particular places such as Sindansu and the cave. Records concerning Dongmaeng (東盟) and Gukdong Daehyeol (國東大穴) likewise indicate that natural spaces such as caves were closely associated with religious beliefs and ritual practices in Goguryeo society. On the east wall of the main chamber of Gakjeochong, different elements—including a kitchen scene, wrestling, and animals—form a single pictorial composition around a tree. Similarly, on the north wall of the antechamber of Jangcheon Tomb No. 1, the tomb occupant and his wife, attendants, animals, acrobatic and musical performances, hunting, and scenes of everyday life are depicted around a large tree. Rather than presenting a narrative in which particular events unfold sequentially, both murals are characterized by the arrangement of multiple beings and activities within a single space centered on a tree. Thus, even if the animals in Gakjeochong are identified as a bear and a tiger, or if a particular motif in Jangcheon Tomb No. 1 is interpreted as a bear inside a cave, these elements should be understood within the overall pictorial composition rather than directly equated with specific scenes from the Dangun myth. Ultimately, the murals of Gakjeochong and Jangcheon Tomb No. 1 should be understood not as illustrations that reproduce the narrative of the Dangun myth, but as visual sources that embody a spatial order shared with the myth within the visual culture of Goguryeo. In particular, considering that scenes of everyday life were transferred into the funerary setting of the tomb and reorganized there, the pictorial compositions of the two tombs may also be understood as a reconfiguration of perceptions of sacred space within the particular environment of the tomb. Goguryeo’s understanding of the Dangun myth should therefore be sought not in the direct representation of a specific narrative, but in the way different beings relate to one another and form an ordered world centered on sacred places.