KOREASCHOLAR

The food used in the royal palace of Chosun dynasty(朝鮮王朝) are viewed from various aspects of the dishes for ordinary meal, royal banquet, reception for the foreign representatives, wedding feast, and ancestral rites. Unfortunately most of knowledge on the food used in the royal palace is not accurate as it had been delivered orally and includes only that of the late Chosun dynasty era. Accordingly more accurate knowledge on its historical change could be illustrated by the ancient literature, including uigue(full account, 儀軌), dungrok(memorandum, 膳錄) or balgi(list, 件記). Though it is different from the preparation of King´s dinner table in kitchen, the uigue on ordinary meal, while King Jungcho(正祖) and his troupe visited the Hwasung(華城) has been handed down as the literature on the ordinary meal of the royal palace. Twenty seven kinds of uigue and dungrok on royal banquet for a celebration, from the 45th year of Sook Jong(肅宗, 1715) to the 6th year of Kwang Moo(光武, 1902), remain & reveal the change of features on dishes and food materials for royal banquet. Twenty kinds of uigue and dungrok on foods for reception of Chinese representatives, from the first year of Kwang Hae Koon(光海君, 1609) to the 21st year of Injo(仁祖, 1643), remain and antedate those on foods for royal banquet approximately 100 years. These have been precious materials for historical view on foods used in the royal palace. Twenty kinds of dungrok and uigue of karaedogam(嘉禮都監), in which dishes, food materials, and table setting diagram for dongrae feast (同牢宴) were put on record, remain as the litherature of wedding feast. Wangchosilrok(dynastic record, 王朝實錄) and numerous kinds of uigue have been helpful for study on foods used in ancestral rites. Detailed kinds and cooking procedures of foods for ancestral rites were clearly explained in Taesangji(太常志). A full view on foods used in the royal palace will be reproduced only through analytic study of these ancient litheratures.

• 이성우 | Lee, Sung-Woo