고려 묘지명 유물의 기초적 검토 = A preliminary investigation into the substance of Goryeo Epitaphs

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The production of Goryeo epitaphs multiplied several-fold as the 12th century rolled in. This high level of production attests to the fact that as the Goryeo bureaucracy was developing and the government administration, centralized in the nobility, was beginning to show aristocratic aspects socially and culturally, the epitaph culture had settled amidst these circumstances and was being widely accepted within the societies of government officials and men of renowned lineages. There was a particular phenomenon that occurred during the 13th and 14th centuries when the production of epitaphs of Buddhist monks became exceedingly rare. In association with this phenomena were the genealogical records that documented the epitaphs of the members of the ruling class. There is a high probability that as a result of the abiding Confucius ideology, the documentation of the epitaphs of ancestors who were Buddhist monks were generally excluded. What also needs to be taken into consideration, in the instances of such documents, is that the writers of these records were men who were generally centered on the dissemination of Sung Confucianism. The only issue left to be solved is whether these men were not at the time trying strongly to eliminate Buddhism.
The greatest majority of the owners of the epitaphs were government officials and their respective wives. Looking at the production trend of the epitaphs, compared to the 12th century, the production frequency of the epitaphs of officials of the highest order decreased to 32.7% during the 13th and 14th centuries. At the same time, the production of middle to lower level officials' epitaphs decreased only to 6 to 7.7%. These decreases are seen as a reflection of the deepening economic polarization that occurred within the ruling class. Due to long-term hostilities with the Mongols and the succeeding Yuan interference for more than 80 years, although the farmlands of the powerful governmental authorities were expanding daily, middle to low ranking officials were hardly able to receive a steady stipend. Within this polarization, it was only natural that the production of epitaphs for middle to low-ranking officials began to dwindle.
Epitaphs can be categorized according to their shape. There are mainly three types: the long widthwise, the square shaped, and the long lengthwise. In comparison with China's case where the square-shaped type was the prevalent choice, there was an overwhelming demand for the long widthwise type during the 12th and 13th century in Goryeo. However, the tide turned in the 14th century when the percentage of long lengthwise type epitaphs became higher than the long widthwise type. This change generally corresponds with the growing trend of placing the title of the deceased at top of the epitaph during this period. The origins of this change in the location of the title needs to be investigated henceforth.
The size of the epitaph differed according to the rank of the deceased official. If the size of an epitaph for a low-ranking official is seen to be the standard, then the epitaphs of middle-ranking officials were 1.5 times larger while epitaphs for high-ranking officials were 2.2 times larger. Therefore, along with the aforementioned frequency of the production of the epitaphs, the size of the epitaph which was proportionate with the owner's governmental rank or the governmental rank of the owner's husband, provides direct evidence of the hierarchical nature of the production of these expensive epitaphs.
It is difficult to determine the whereabouts of all of the Goryeo epitaphs. For example, the epitaphs were placed within the tomb of Gwon Jun from Seogok-ri in Paju, and the tomb of Bak Ik from Gobeop-ri in Milyang which belongs to the early Joseon period. But these men were top-ranking government officials who were buried within a stone chamber tomb with an entrance. Other cases have yet to be excavated to tell where the epitaphs are placed for other government officials. However, some cases where the epitaphs are too large to be placed inside the coffins are of little help. After all, there is a need to take into consideration that the
structure of the tombs varied from one to another. Therefore, it is difficult to give a uniform answer to the placement of the epitaphs.
This paper is only a small first step towards getting a full understanding of the Goryeo period epitaphs as artifacts in and of themselves. Above all, in order to deepen the understanding of the epitaph as an antiquity, and the funeral process during the Goryeo period, excavations are needed on a number of newly discovered Goiyeo tombs that contain epitaphs.