This study started with my curiosity about the Chinese sources for the Korean screen painting theme depicting Guo Fenyang’s Enjoyment-of-Life(郭汾陽行樂圖), a considerable number of examples of which have survived from the late Joseon period (1392-1910). My research resulted in the publication of “A Study on the Painting of the Birthday-Celebration of Guo Ziyi(郭子儀祝壽圖) of China” in the journal, Art History Forum(no.33, 2011. 12), and my work has revealed that despite the different titles they are paintings of the same subject matter but with distinct national traits evident in their iconographic interpretation and stylistic presentation.
The present study is a sequel to the above-mentioned publication. This paper first surveys Korea’s historical development of Guo Ziyi(郭子儀 697-781)-related subject matter in historical records, art, and literature. Special attention is given to the didactic purpose of the theme that can be seen in references written before ca.1700, and also explored is the added dimension of the auspicious symbolism imbued in the theme in the later period, which is particularly apparent beginning from the reign of King Jongjo(1776-1800). Unlike the rich iconographical variation seen in presentations of the theme in China, absolute consistency is noticeable in the Korean examples. In the Korean version of the theme, Guo Ziyi and his wife appear together and enjoy a banquet; the elderly master is seated leisurely beneath a temporary, portable tent set up in the rear garden and his wife appears on the 2nd floor of a building adjacent to the garden. This homey, domestic setting is strikingly different from the stately presentation of the main scene in Chinese versions. The Chinese paintings are configured so that the scene is centered on a raised main building in which the master is seated (with or without his wife) while receiving guests.
Stylistic analysis reveals the Korean version incorporated many influences from the genre of 18th-century auspicious paintings that were popular at the Joseon court academy. The incorporation of these influences was instrumental in the process of a Koreanization of the Guo Fengyang theme. Kim Hongdo (1745-1806), the most eminent academy painter in service of the court of King Jongjo at the time, can be assumed to have been instrumental in this remarkable transformation of the original Chinese iconography of the subject. This conclusion is based on the existence of a draft painting of the subject which bears his seal and signed inscription as well as reveals his characteristic traits in the presentation of figurative and architectural elements. Standing somewhere between the Chinese version and the fully Koreanized version, this draft painting offers a glimpse into the transformation of the pictorial interpretation and the symbolic purpose of the subject and these changes mark a move towards embedding the expression of Korea’s own life values and sense of auspiciousness and beauty into the theme.
In conclusion, the study of Chinese works entitled Painting of the Birthday-Celebration of Guo Ziyi and Korea’s works called Painting of Guo Fenyang’s Enjoyment-of-Life presented an interesting opportunity to trace the development of a story centered on one of China’s historical figures, tracing the changes from a historical approach to mythology and the process of transmission of the subject from China to East Asia’s neighboring countries, namely Korea, Japan, and Vietnam, where it stimulated the receipient country’s own unique imagination and ended up engendering distinct national pictorial presentations based on cultural sensitivities. One remarkable result of this transmission and transformation is undoubtedly Korea’s Painting of Guo Fenyang’s Enjoyment-of-Life. Left out of this discussion due to limited space, are the Japanese and Vietnamese versions of the subject in art and literature, which in the future deserve exploration.