[page 129]
PATTERNS OF FURNITURE DESIGN DURING THE YI DYNASTY
by Pai Man-sill
1. INFLUENCE OF CONFUCIANISM UPON CRAFTSMANSHIP
The five centuries of the Yi Dynasty can be generally divided into two periods. Using the Imjin
Japanese Invasion as a point of division, the early period (1392-1591) covers the two centuries before the
war; the later three centuries (1592-1910) after the war.
During the early period, the Yi Dynasty inherited the Buddhist culture of the Koryo Dynasty
under the overwhel-m-ing influence of the Chinese Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).
On the other hand, creative and original innovations in craftsmanship occurred in the Yi
Dynasty, although there continued to be considerable indebtedness toward the culture of the Ching
Dynasty (1644-1912).
At the commencement of the Yi Dynasty, the government trained prominent artists by
encouraging their activities in painting landscape watercolors.
King T’aejo (the founder of the Yi Dynasty) incurred the contempt of craftsmen because of his
policy of suppression of Buddhism and encouragement of Confucianism.
However, as Confucianism encouraged frugality and simplicity in life, and education achieved
more and more progress in the country, temples of Confucius were established throughout the nation in
conjunction with adoration of Confucius, and consequently craftsmanship was important. [page 130]
Regrettably, most pre-war remains were reduced to ashes, or disappeared at the time of the
Imjin invasions.
During the later period, a gradually declining trend in political and economic power of the Yi
Dynasty can be seen. Confucianism merely stuck to empty formalism, so the people’s interest in arts was
exhausted and their enthusiasm for craftsmanship vanished. Craftsmanship at that time was inclined to be
no more than an outward exhibition rather than deeply-rooted techniques.
The encouragement of a Confucianist policy took a leading role in the contemporary political
and social reforms. Though peace-loving Confucianists paid no attention to national defense, the active
development of Confucianism stimulated the improvement of culture and fostered the creative spirit of
craftsmen.
It was not until the eighteenth century that fine crafts- manship expanded to become not only
the servant of the royal household but also of people in all walks of society.
Even though artisans could not easily achieve development of a new style in craftsmanship
because of the supervision of the Confucianist officials, they did receive an incentive to regain creative
expression out of old styles, and groped for innovation in method.
In other words, the style of art which had been the exclusive concern of the aristocracy became
popular with the general public.
At that time, artisans were trying to cast off the influence of Chinese civilization and exert
themselves toward a national consciousness and expression of their own original and unique culture.
Therefore, religious ceremonies and recreational activities were prevalent among people in all walks of
society, and they were eager to decorate their homes for the reception of their friends. [page131]
Moreover, importance was attached to the handicrafts which could be enjoyed by the
multitudes: their creative impulse, which had been suppressed for so long, was expressed in a variety of
artistic works.
2. MATERIALS AND PATTERNS OF FURNITURE
There was a greater production of furniture during the late period than during the early period.
The most common materials and patterns are as follows.
Metal Work: Brass, copper and steel were generally used, and especially pewter was employed
in decoration of wooden furniture. Copper was used in making braziers, incense burners, and candle
holders, and steel was used in making pencil cases, paperweights, medicine bowls, flower vases, ashtrays,
etc. Typical patterns were inlayed in lattice, animal, bird, and flower designs.
Wood Work: In furniture, wardrobes, chests, desks, cornered desks, chests of drawers,
Kaegaesuri, and dining tables of the late period are found and pear, ginkgo, pine, and paulownia woods
were used. The technique of making such things in the early period was not refined, but was rather
delicate, and the closer one comes to the late period, the more one can catch a feeling of clumsiness. On
the surf ace the wood work, nacre, red-lacquer, bamboo, and net were applied, or some were fashioned
with lattice. The patterns are long-life ideographs, birds and flowers, landscape, fish, plants, a pair of 囍,
the swastika, etc. The padlock and hinges which are made of steel, silver, and white brass have patterns of
bats, fairy peaches, fish, turtles, bees, a pair of 雙囍 (happiness), and the swastika.
Bamboo Work: The surface decoration of wardrobe chests, pencil cases, and arrow cases
belong here with raised relief work and open work. [page 132]
Lacquer Work: Some delicate objects which were decorated with patterns of nacre were
influenced by the Koryo Dynasty. But more picturesque patterns are found in this dynasty than in Koryo,
and the designs are full of freedom and emotion. This lacquer work has its origin in the Three Kingdoms
period, progressed in the Koryo Dynasty, but it is supposed that the most perfect and exquisite lacquer
works were made in the Yi Dynasty.
Among the furniture of the Yi Dynasty, red lacquer was used for the royal family, and black
was used among the officials and the common people. Especially, the queen used red-colored chests
which were lined with other colors. They used many materials and made rather garish patterns. Most of
the designs featured lattice, turtle, fret or the lucky-sign patterns, such as ten long-life creatures and
health. This lacquer work became more complicated in the late period than in the early period.
Horn Work: Among the innumerable furniture decorations, horn patterns of the Yi Dynasty had
been a typical Korean design for 1000 years. In those days, women were very fond of extreme colors,
such as yellow, red, coffee-color, and gold. They were used as decorations for closets, boxes, rulers,
spools, sheaths, rings, and vessels. Horn work involves the process of slicing the horn in thin layers like a
piece of paper and placing it on the wood to make a design on it.
The patterns are of ten long-life creatures.
3. INTERPRETATION OF THE PATTERNS
The craftsmen of the Yi Dynasty did not seem to seek to add new ideas in form and pattern of
furniture, or try to achieve an individual fame or reputation. Because they were employed by the royal
family, they tried only to give [page133] satisfaction to the people of the court. This can be seen in
several ways: the patterns of furniture through the early and late periods have almost the same themes and
symbols, and they used one or two designs for several hundred years without changing. Thus, the
repetition of only stereotyped patterns attained the beauty of practice and kept the long tradition, but
failed in expressing talent and individuality.
Those Chinese letters with meanings such as wealth, no-bility, having many sons, or long life
could be found everywhere. The creatures that symbolize long life were elegantly painted on furniture,
and Chinese castles, figure painting, fine landscapes, the fairies of Mt. Bong-Nae, and fairy peaches were
painted. Patterns of the bats that symbolize the five kinds of happiness are found everywhere.
This kind of pattern is mythological, suggestive of long life and happiness, and represents the
popular desire and ideals of the people in that period. The obscurantists those days upheld the idea that
Confucianism drew the people into a life of idle ease. And this idea seemed to appear in the patterns of
the various forms of furniture.
Besides, in the patterns of furniture in the Yi Dynasty, there was a tendency to take an interest
in nature: birds, fish, grass, the rocks in the blue sea; flowers such as peony, lotus flower, plum-blossoms,
chrysanthemum, canna, pome-granate, orchids and bamboo; animals such as deer, turtle, dragon, bat,
tiger; insects such as bee, cricket, butterfly and mosquito; and birds such as mandarin duck, phoenix,
crane, etc. It is interesting that they used these creatures symmetrically. Thus a pair of birds or animals on
the doors of a cabinet face each other with the same pattern. They avoided using only a single one, but
sought polarity. For the frame of the patterns, they used simple designs. For example, swastikas or a
fretted line. These patterns seemed to be [page134] used long before the Yi Dynasty when Buddhism
had been popular.
1. Four True Gentlemen
The symbols of four flowers: plum-blossoms, orchid, chrysanthemum and bamboo. Plumblossoms symbolize courage and bravery; orchid, friendship and elegance; chrysanthemum, abundant
springtime of life; and bamboo, perfect fidelity. Figure 1 is a dining table for the first anniversary of birth.
It is one and a half inches in thickness. On the round wooden top, the patterns of pine tree, crane, deer and
turtle are embossed. Supporters of the table are eight centimeters from the circumference, and on each of
the twelve wooden rectangular supporters, four flowers are usually drawn with patterns with the meaning
of long life (Fig. 1 A).
2. Turtle Design
The turtle usually symbolizes long life. For symbols of the power of destruction, sometimes a
powder-magazine on a battle-field, a bow case, or a warship in the shape of a turtle appeared. But in the
patterns of furniture, the main purpose is to symbolize long life. This was found not only inside the house
but also on the outside; for example, in the patterns of the brick wall of a palace, or a fence. Figure 2 is a
set of beautiful lacquered furniture made as a double chest of drawers with one clothes box. On the front,
the pattern of a turtle is cunningly wrought, and landscapes are lacquered on each side. Figure 3 is also a
double chest of drawers of the Yi Dynasty, and in the middle of the door, we can see the design of a
turtle. [page135]
3. Swastika Pattern of Lightning
This pattern had been used even before Buddhism was popular. When this swastika pattern was
used in the palace, it represented divine right and dignity, but it was also applied elegantly on the furniture
of the common people. Figure 4 is a red lacquered cosmetic case of the Yi Dynasty and on its lid and four
sides there are beautiful swastika carvings. When we open the lid, which is connected with a hinge, we
find small drawers where one could keep cosmetics. The scattered swastika patterns which are seen on the
surface of this case are red lacquered, and a peony-shaped circle in the middle of this case is done in
black. This contrast of red and black adds calmness ana harmony.
4. Bat Design
Since the character for bat, 蝠 (Korean pronunciation bok), is pronounced the same as the
character 福 bok, which means good fortune, it was widely used in the patterns of the Yi Dynasty. Five
bats symbolize five kinds of happiness, and this was popular not only in furniture, but in fabric designs
and industrial products. Figure 5 is a design formed of bats that were applied in various beautiful farms.
Figure 6 is a chest of red lacquer, with patterns of birds and flowers, with ornamental parts decorated with
bat patterns.
5. Good Fortune Characters
This is a pattern that was used among the people in the Yi Dynasty who desired long life and
health from the Taoist point of view. Not only in furniture, but in everything concerning ordinary life,
they used designs of letters that symbolize good fortune and luck with the combination of some other
patterns. Figure 7 is a pattern of such symbols, with designs of Chinese characters. [page136]
6. Phoenix Pattern
Also called the sun-bird, it symbolized immortality. And it also has a symbolic meaning of the
queen or the empress, who actually had the second rank next to a king or emperor. Figure 8 is a black
lacquered nacre box with the pattern of the phoenix.
7. Arabesque Design
The arabesque design of the lotus flower in Figure 9 and also the pattern of the lotus flower in
Figure 1o show beauty of contour and delicate nacre work, and give us a taste of the splendid civilization
of the Koryo Dynasty. The lotus flower was originally from India, and symbolized unity. White has the
meaning of purity and coolness, and pink means fertility and passion.
8. Peony Design
Since the peony has the meaning of wealth, it was widely used in furniture. Figure 11 is a peony
pattern, ana is a beautiful work of carving on red lacquered wood.
9. Plum-Blossom Design
This was used as a signature of the Yi Dynasty, and symbolizes courage and purity. This is one
of the most popular designs, along with patterns of birds and flowers.
10. Dragon Pattern
Since the dragon symbolizes the divine character, it was [page137 applied to the throne and
the clothes of kings, but later it came to be used in furniture generally. When symbolizing the divine right
of China, they drew five claws on the dragon, and for the Yi Dynasty, they drew seven. The dragon is a
symbol of change, but by depicting the dragon in pearl, it had the meaning “eternity.” Figure 12 is a piece
of furniture made of the skill of the whale, using the pattern of the dragon.
11. A Pair of 囍
These symbolize good fortune, and were used in furniture, fabric design, interior decoration and
so forth, and still are so used in many ways.
12. Taeguk Design
The Taeguk represents the principle of polarity, as in man and woman, good and evil, light and
shadow, or life and death. It also symbolizes the creation of the world, and all the principles of rival
actions which are found in our ordinary life. In China, man is represented as light, or black color, and
woman, shadow, as red. Since Korea emulated China, blue is used in our national flag.
At each corner of the flag, the lines mean heaven, fire, water, earth. This Taeguk pattern
can be seen in the Taeguk fan, furniture decoration, and elsewhere, (cf. Figures 13, 14)
13. Ten Long-Life Symbols
These symbolize the ten things that are connected with long life: sun, mountain (or bamboo),
water, stone, cloud, pixie tree, the herb that confers eternal life, turtle, crane [page138] and deer.
These can be seen in furniture, architecture and industrial products. Figure 15 is a double chest of
lacquered drawers. The splendid pattern of nacre emphasizes these ten long-life symbols.
14. Long-Life Design
This is a symbol from Taoism, and also represents long life. Among the ten things mentioned
above, two or three were omitted here and some other things added. For example, long-life grass, antler,
fairy peach, or views of a landscape were sometimes added (Figures 16, 17).
15. Nature Design (Birds, Flowers and Landscape)
Bird and flower designs were among the most popular among the people of the Yi Dynasty,
who loved nature. They engraved these things as in an emotional and fantastic dream. Figure 18 is a
three-sectioned chest of drawers, using symbols of long life. This is a pattern of birds and flowers. It has
austere nobility and elegance. Figure 19 is a landscaped box in which one can put colored thread. They
ground the mother of pearl and worked with it very delicately, as if painting with a brush.
Figure 1
Dining table for the first birthday of baby.
Figure
1A