A study about pattern and symbol shown in the mural painting of Koguryo dynasty's tomb

고구려(高句麗) 고분벽화(古墳壁畵)에 나타난 문양(紋樣)과 상징성(象徵性)에 관(關)한 고찰(考察)

In this thesis, I examined the mental, philosophical aspects and the aesthetic sense of our ancestors through the study of the patterns pictured in the mural paintings of Koguryo dynasty's old tomb. To view the mode of construction in Koguryo dynasty from present angle, the detailed analysis of the patterns was done. As a result, I could fully understand the formative consciousness of our nation. 1. I defined the process of transition of the mural paintings by putting some 70 mural aintings into the form of a diagram. 2. The cultural aspects of the mural paintings in Koguryo dynasty were characterized by the fusion of our primitive religion and Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism which were introduced from China. From this fact, I could inferred that Koguryo people were giving off the strong desire for the faith by means of the mural paintings. Further more I found that configuration of the patterns such as religious elements. 3. The types of the patterns were classified into four types, this is, geometric type, natural type, cultural type and abstract type, Among these types, geometric type and natural type were nonsymbolic in nature but became cultured and abstracted in course of time. cultural pattern and abstract pattern got the symbolic meaning in the long run. Of all the constitution of the patterns represented in the mural paintings such as repeat constitution, left and right symmetric constitution, top and bottom symmetric constitution and rotary symmetric constitution, the left and right symmetric constitution was mainly used and some monotony of left and right symmetric constitution. The analysis of motif which was got from the mode of the patterns showed that the mixing of symbolic and nonsymbolic patterns made it possible to regard the separate symbol as compound in nonsymbolic patterns and the combination between nonsymbolic patterns ensured the understanding of other patterns in certain cases. Our ancestors made great efforts to transmit certain meaning symbolically. Also to heighten the symbolism, they drew the meangless patterns firstly and then appended meaning to those patterns secondly. Furthermore, they offered the background to the patterns comblined with symbolism, so that meaning transmission was clarified at last. As mentioned above, the patterns shown in the mural paintings of Koguryo dynasty's old tomb were characterized by natural beauty. And natural beauty was found out clearly in the form and constitution of the patterns. Therefore I concluded that our nation's religious, philosophical tradition was acted on the patterns strongly.