Jeongjaedo is a painting of the dance performed at royal banquets. Jeongjaedo is included in Uigwe which is considered to be the essence of the Joseon Dynasty archive. Uigwe is a compiled literature that describes various ceremonies related to the rit ...
Jeongjaedo is a painting of the dance performed at royal banquets. Jeongjaedo is included in Uigwe which is considered to be the essence of the Joseon Dynasty archive. Uigwe is a compiled literature that describes various ceremonies related to the rituals of the royal family and the nation, and it was meant to be used as pragmatic reference. Jeongjaedo contains the record of the 107 year history of dance, from King Jeongjo era(1795) to Gojong era(1902). There are 342 paintings in 44 types of Jeongjae, the dance, included in Uigwe. Jeongjaedo is regarded as another choreographic book because choreographic books such as 『Akhak gwebeom』of the early Joseon and 『Jeongjae mudo holgi(呈才舞蹈笏記)』of the late Joseon are described only in text, allowing us recognize the beginning, change of format, and the position of dancers, but not the movement of body. Jeongjaedo is a supplementary document created for practical use.
Jeongjaedo is divided into Mudong and Yeoryeong, and it provides visual aids for the arrangement, number, direction, position and movement of dancers. Jeongjaedo particularly shows 44 types of dance performed at royal banquets in the late Joseon Dynasty. Considering there are a total of 53 types according to the existing literature, nearly all types of Jeongjae are included in Uigwe Jeongjaedo. Previously the complete study on the interpretation of Jeongjaedo has not been conducted. Most studies only concern the history of each type, background of its creation, record status and factual aspects of the paintings, so they still have not drawn the basis and accuracy of its content. Since some paintings are repeated, the full content can be grasped after all 342 pieces of Jeongjaedo are revealed. And the content of Jeongjaedo is also written in 『Jeongjae mudo holgi』, so the accurate content can be attained when the written and painted versions are compared side by side. Lack of researchers who specialized in such area is one of the drawbacks. Also Jeongjaedo should be studied in the view of dancers, only the Jeongjae dancer can understand the content of the paintings. The matter of its interpretation is also related to the content of all 53 types of Jeongjae, the basis of present reproduction of Jeongjae. Jeongjaedo has a potential to reveal forms and structures of the dance in the late Joseon Dynasty, but it could not be done without full comprehension of its content.
The purpose of this study is to analyze the overall content of the dance among all 44 types of Jeongjaedo recorded in 12 types of Uigwe for an accurate interpretation. To achieve this goal, the study is approached by three steps, unlike the regular research method. The first part explores the aspects of realistic expression, the second one finds the factual basis of the content of Jeongjaedo, and the third one draws an accurate interpretation of the record of Jeongjaedo. Also this study generally explores the composition of 44 types of Jeongjaedo recorded in 12 types of Uigwe. The result of this study is published as 9 papers, and currently those papers are being combined to be published as a whole book.