• Journal of Korean Historical Folklife
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• no.45
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• pp.263-289
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• 2014

King Munjong(文宗), the eleventh King of the Goryeo Dynasty, was the son of King Hyeonjong(顯宗), the eighth king, and the younger stepbrother(異母弟) of King Jeongjong(靖宗), the 10th king. Although King Jeongjong had four sons, he abdicated the throne to King Munjong. King Taejo(太祖) had opened the possibility for sons other than the eldest son to succeed to the throne. When King Jeongjong died, his sons were children under the age of 10 years. In the early period of the Goryeo Dynasty, when kings had young sons, there were precedents of abdicating the throne to their grown-up younger brothers. In addition, King Jeongjong and Munjong had an identical blood background. During the period, Goryeo people also naturally accepted the fact that a former king's younger brother succeeded to the throne. In this background, King Munjong ascended the throne. However, King Munjong did not ascend the throne after identifying state affairs with politic power. Therefore, he needed to increase his authority as the king. Moreover, as the sons of King Jeongjong had grown up, they could stir up trouble in future succession to the throne. Therefore, King Munjong intended to concentrate power on himself and remove trouble in future succession to the throne by selecting his son as successor to the throne. After the installation of Wangtaeja(王太子, the Crown Prince), King Munjong expanded and organized Donggunggwan(東宮官, the establishment of Secretariat of Wangtaeja) and carried out various rituals related to Wangtaeja. The control system for Donggunggwan was completed institutionally in 1068. At this time, the newly organized Donggunggwan was operated as a miniature version of the central government office. In addition, the ritual for the installation of Taeja, which was held in 1054, complied with regulated procedures. After the ritual of the installation, a ceremony to congratulate on Jangheungjeol(長興節, the birthday of Wangtaeja) was held in 1056. In 1064, the wedding ritual of Taeja took place, and the ritual for Taeja regulated in Yeji(禮志) of "Goryeosa(高麗史)" was carried out. In addition, the installation of Wangtaeja was made known overseas, and the Taeja of Goryeo was proclaimed by the Kitan three times. Such various measures played an important role in strengthening the status of Taeja as the man of authority next to the king. Later, Taeja demonstrated his status as the man of authority following the king by participating in state affairs on behalf of King Munjong who was not able to move about freely in his later years.

• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.80-98
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• 2023

In the late Joseon Dynasty, when the bride would ride a palanquin when she went to live with her in-laws, it was a custom to cover the palanquin with tiger skin to ward off misfortunes that may come her way. The higher classes used tiger skin or leopard skin for this purpose, but the common people had to substitute this expensive item with a tiger pattern painted on a blanket. Such blankets were called hotanja, hogu, hoguyok and the like. The term "hotanja" is a pure Korean word. It is not known when the cover for the bridal palanquin was first used, but it was popular from the end of the 19^th century and then gradually disappeared. This is due to the introduction of new Western style weddings that eliminated the need for a bridal palanquin. The tiger print blanket was used not only to cover the bride's palanquin but also to cover a table or floor during the wedding ceremony. This study ran a material analysis on nine pieces of tiger print blankets. All of the blanket artifacts examined in this study had an outer cover and a lining made of fabric that used cotton thread for the warp and wool thread for the weft. Two kinds of wool were found in the weft thread in the outer covers: fat-tailed sheep hair from China and goat hair for carpets from the Hebei province, China. Records show that "blankets with painted tiger patterns" were imported from Russia, and the imported blankets were from Russia and China. The outer cover can be categorized into six types, and the lining into three types depending on the weave and direction of the thread twist. The hem facing can be divided into four types. The lining and outer cover use the full width of the fabric, which was woven in wide widths of 135 cm or wider. The tiger pattern on the blanket was made by stenciling. The stencil design of the body and tail of the tiger were placed on a red blanket to be painted in white, and then the background color of the tiger, which is yellow, would be painted over the white, and then black stripes would be added. The pattern of the tiger varies, which shows that the blankets were made by various craftspeople. The pattern of the tiger print blanket is usually of a tiger lying down, but there were tiger print blankets with a tiger standing up. The pattern of the tiger grew smaller over time, and flower patterns were added in the background. Decorative elements were gradually added to the tiger print blanket patterns, but its function as a palanquin cover became lost. By taking the features of tiger print blankets into consideration, it can be assumed that there are imported pieces among the remaining pieces, and were produced in various places because it was popular at that time.