• (The) Research of the performance art and culture
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• no.18
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• pp.413-444
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• 2009

This paper is an analysis of stage and performance elements for the ceremonial procedures and dance featured in bongsudang-jinchan, a feast celebrating the 60th birthday of Hyegyeong-gung Hongssi (Crown Princess Hong of Hyegyeonggung), the mother of King Jeongjo, which took place in Hwaseong haegung palace in 1795. The primary sources used are data on bongsudangjinchan recorded in Wonhaeng-eulmyojeongriuigwe, Jeongjo-sillok, Hongjae-jeonseo, pictorial sources such as Folding Screens of Hwaseong-neunghaeng and Hwaseong Ilgi, which is a journal in Korean by Yi Hui-pyeong. A court ceremony to offer music, dance, flowers, and food, as well as wine and poetry which express the sentiments of chung (fidelity) and hyo (filial piety) was considered a national ceremony and has constituted a unique musical culture during the 500 years of Joseon dynasty. However, after the fall of Joseon dynasty, ceremonial music and dance, which have been organically linked within the overall symbolic system of ye (courtesy), became scattered to become independent 'pieces.' As a result, all of their philosophy, principles, and the time-space interpretation of court music and dance became greatly reduced, leaving only the artistic expression and formal structure of the music and dance to become emphasized. Since the 1990s, there has been many research and events aiming to re-create the court ceremonial tradition, resulting in the increase of the related performance activities. This is especially true with bongsudang-jinchan, which is now being performed on modern stage in various forms. However there are still many problems to be solved, such as the issue of re-creating and restoring the original, and the question of artistic value found in the traditional pieces. Until now, much focus has been paid to the outer re-construction of uiju document as recorded in Wonhaeng-eulmyo-jeongriuigwe. On the other hand, there lacked an in-depth study which analyzes the stage situation and performance elements. Therefore in this paper, after focusing on the stage structure and performance elements, it is concluded that bongsudang-jinchan, the only court feast to be held in Haeng gung, not only consists of the fundamental aspects of court performance principle as 'governing through ye and ak (music),' but also served as an important occasion to bring together the sovereign and the subject. Bongsudang-jinchan had features of both naeyeon (feast for ladies) and oeyeon (feast for gentlemen). It minimized the use of screens and allowed every guest to enjoy food, music, and dance together, but provided a separate tent for foreign guests, maintaining the ideal balance between equality and distinction among different gender and social status. A screen symbolizing the venue for the feast is placed for all of the government officials. The king then pronounces the beginning of the banquet in which the ideal of gunsin-dongyeon (king and officials dining together) is realized. This indicates that bongsudang-jinchan, compared to other court ceremonies that emphasize the principle of yeak (courtesy and music), focuses more on the spirit of harmony and rapprochement. The king played a more active role in bongsudang-jinchan than in any other royal feasts. Examples as recorded in uiju documents are; Jeongjo's conversation with his retainers after the 7th wine, king's bestowing of food and flowers to the officials, writing his own majesty's poems with regard to the festival, and asking the retainers to write replying poems. All these played an important part in making the occasion more rich, extensive, and meaningful. Moreover, as analysis of the structure of orchestral music and court dance featured in bongsudang-jinchan shows, it was like any other court banquet in that it employed minimal use of extravagance in movements and conversation. However, the colors and tonal texture used in the music and dance were more brilliant in this case. Compared to other banquets that took place before king Jeongjo, the dance style was more diverse, which included some of the latest additions. There were past performances arranged anew. Noteworthy are; the incorporation of "Seonyurak (Boat Dance)" and "Geommu (Sword Dance)," traditionally used for local officials and civilians feast, to suit the court taste; and the use of saenghwang (mouth organ), which was a rising instrument in pungnyubang (literati's private salon), for "Hakmu (Cranes Dance)." This especially indicates the nature of the 'open structure' pursued by the court banquets at the time, which strove to break away from the traditional rules and customs and accept something new.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.1-44
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• 1973

Needless to say, the management of national forest in all countries is very important in view of the national mission and management purposes. Korean national forest is also in particular significant in promoting national economy for the continuous increasing of the demand for wood, conservation of the land and social welfare. But there's no denying the fact that the leading aim of the Korean forest policy has been based upon the conservation of forest resources and recovery of land conservation function instead of improvement of the forest productive capacity. Therefore, the management of national forest should be aimed as an industry in the chain of the Korean national economy. And the increment of the forest productive capacity based on rationalized forest management is also urgently needed. Not only the increment of the timber production but also the establishment of the good forest in quality and quantity are to bring naturally many functions of conservation and other public benefits. In 1908 Korean national forest was historically established for the first time as a result of the notification for ownership, and was divided into two kinds in 1911-1924, such as indisposable national forest for land conservation, forest management, scientific research and public welfare, and the other national forest to be disposed. Indisposable forest is mostly under the jurisdiction of national forest stations (Chungbu, Tongbu, Nambu), and the tother national forests are under custody of respective cities and provinces, and under custody of the other government authorities. As of the end of 1971, national forest land is 19.5% (1,297,708 ha) of the total forest land area, but growing stock is 50.1% ($35,406,079m^3$) of the total forest growing stock, and timber production of national forest is 23.6% ($205,959m^3$) of the year production of total timber in Korea. Accordingly, it is the important fact that national forest occupies the major part of Korean forestry. The author positively affirms that success or failure of the management of national forest controls rise or fall of forestry in Korea. All functions of forest are very important, but among others the function of timber production is most important especially in Korea, that unavoidably imports a large quantity of foreign wood every year (in 1971 import of foreign wood-$3,756,000m^3$, 160,995,000 dollars). So, Korea urgently needs the improvement of forest productive capacity in national forest. But it is difficult that wood production meets the rapid increase of demand for wood to the development of economy, because production term of forestry is long, so national forest management should be rationalized by the effective investment and development of forestry techniques in the long view. Although Korean national forest business has many difficulties in the budget, techniques and the lack of labour due to outflow of rural village labour by development of national economy, and the increase of labour wages and administrative expenses etc. the development of national forest depends on adoption of the suitable forest techniques and management adapted for social and economical development. In this view point the writer has investigated and analyzed the status of the management of national forest in Korea to examine the irrational problems and suggest an improvement plan. The national forestry statistics cited in this study is based on the basic statistics and the statistics of the forest business as of the end of 1971 published by Office of Forestry, Republic of Korea, and the other depended on the data presented by the national forest stations. The writer wants to propose as follows (seemed to be helpful in improvement of Korean national forest management). 1) In the organization of national forest management, more national forest stations should be established to manage intensively, and the staff of working plan officials should be strengthened because of the importance of working plan. 2) By increasing the staff of protection officials, forest area assigned for each protection official should be decreased to 1,000-2,000 ha. 3) The frequent personnel changes of supervisor of national forest station(the responsible person on-the-spot) obstructs to accomplish the consistent management plan. 4) In the working plan drafting for national forest, basic investigations should be carefully practiced with sufficient expenditure and staff not to draft unreal working plan. 5) The area of working-unit should be decreased to less than 2,000 ha on the average for intensive management and the principle of a working-unit in a forest station should be realized as soon as possible. 6) Reforestation on open land should be completed in a short time with a debt of the special fund(a long term loan), and the land on which growing hardwood stands should be changed with conifers to increase productivity per unit area, and at the same time techical utilization method of hardwood should be developed. 7) Expenses of reforestation should be saved by mechanization and use of chemicals for reforestation and tree nursery operation providing against the lack of labour in future. 8) In forest protection, forest fire damage is enormous in comparison with foreign countries, accordingly prevention system and equipment should be improved, and also the minimum necessary budget should be counted up for establishment and manintenance of fire-lines. 9) Manufacture production should be enlarged to systematize protection, processing and circulation of forest business, and, by doing this, mich benefit is naturally given for rural people. 10) Establishment and arrangement of forest road networks and erosion control work are indispensable for the future development of national forest itself and local development. Therefore, these works should be promoted by the responsibility of general accounting instead of special accounting. 11) Mechanization of forest works should be realized for exploiting hinterlands to meet the demand for timber increased and for solving lack of labour, consequently it should promote import of forest machines, home production, training for operaters and careful adminitration. 12) Situation of labour in future will grow worse. Therefore, the countermeasure to maintain forest labourers and pay attention to public welfare facilities and works should be considered. 13) Although the condition of income and expenditure grows worse because of economical change, the regular expenditure should be fixed. So part of the surplus fund, as of the end of 1971, should be established for the fund, and used for enlarging reforestation and forest road networks(preceding investment in national forest).