Bier Belonging to the Goryeongdaek House of the Jeonju Choe Clan, Sancheong

This is a bier (sangyeo), a funeral vehicle used to carry the body to the burial place, made for Choe Pil-ju, the twenty-first generation descendant of the Tongdeongnang-gong branch of the Jeonju Choe clan. Choe Pil-ju was extremely wealthy, and when he died his eldest son invited a woodcarver from Tongyeong in South Gyeongsang Province to make the bier, a project said to have taken six months. It was kept as a private family bier until it was purchased and used by the Jinju Hwadan Friendship Society, and in 1994 it was donated to the state; it is now kept at the National Folk Museum of Korea in Seoul. The bier is named after Goryeong because one of Choe Pil-ju's descendants had served as magistrate of Goryeong, and the bier takes its name from that official post. Used in Jinju, South Gyeongsang Province, this bier is unusual in taking the form of a four-storey tiled pavilion. Above the long carrying poles rises a body built up in four tiers like a tiled-roof house, with a broad cloth stretched over the top to block the sun. Around the lower part of the first and second storeys runs a railing, on top of which stand carved human figures — apparently representing companions accompanying the deceased on the journey to the afterlife so that he would not travel alone, together with Dongbangsak, known as the immortal who guides the dead. The third and fourth storeys each have a roof set above the body. The whole closely imitates traditional wooden building construction, so that it looks as if two tiled houses have been stacked one on top of the other. At the tip of each eave a bird with folded wings is placed, and on the ridge of the fourth storey a bird with outspread wings is set, representing a bird of the afterlife. The carvings and paintings that cover the front are varied in their motifs of dragons, animals, plants and human figures, and rich in colour. Particularly interesting is the carving beneath the third-storey roof showing a lotus flower in the process of withering, a poignant image that seems to trace the course of human life from birth to death. In the funeral procession the bier is moved in time with the bell and songs of the bearer who leads the way. Crossbars are fitted at intervals between the two long carrying poles, and bearers step in between them to carry the bier on their shoulders. Made in the seventh year of King Cheoljong's reign (1856), this bier shows fine, precise carving and assembly in every part. Its clear date of manufacture and its unusual structure make it valuable material for the study of biers.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Jongno-gu, Seoul

Designation

National Folklore Heritage · 국가민속문화유산