조선시대 왕후의 이름, 휘호(徽號)의 정립 과정과 의의

Abstract

Among all the titles the Joseon dynasty queens were awarded, the title ‘Hwiho(徽號)’ is the one that is examined in this article. How such title was institutionalized, and what was the meaning of this particular title, would be the main focus of this work.BR The Joseon royal family considered awarding a special title to someone as a holy event, and for such task the Joseon government arranged special ceremonies, during which Chaek(冊) and Bo(寶) pieces with special titles inscribed upon them would be awarded to the recipient. Among those awarded titles, Hwiho was a four-lettered honorific title(尊號) provided to the deceased queens, apart from the regular posthumous title that would automatically entail their death.BR This title was given to the late queens throughout the entire Joseon period, but at least in the beginning the practice was yet to be institutionalized. In the middle period of the Joseon dynasty, from the reign of king Jungjong through the reign of king Injo, discussions for the institution gathered momentum, resulting in the establishment of certain details such as the proper time point to award titles to the deceased queens, as well as the nature, format and procedure concerning the entire practice, which continued to be observed in the later periods of the dynasty as well.BR The succeeding king(嗣王, Sawang) would provide this Hwiho when the deceased queen was to be enshrined at the Dynastic Shrine for the first time. The ritual itself effectively displayed the king’s filial piety for the dead queen mother, and it was meant to be that way, as in the Joseon society which considered piety as a paramount virtue, any benevolent king should have embodied that in action.BR Ceremonies for presenting the dead queens a Hwiho title continued, and was even held for the last queen of the Daehan Empire, Queen Sunjeonghyo. It was a constant factor in every royal funeral that was ever arranged for a queen in Joseon, yet it never received adequate attention in Queen funeral studies. The ritual can never be observed in prior dynasties on the Korean peninsula, so this Joseon-specific ritual should be studied more in the future.