KIM HONGDO’S DEPICTIONS OF COMMONERS’ MANUAL LABOR AND THEIR POSSIBLE INSPIRATION FROM ILLUSTRATIONS IN SONG YINGXING’S TIAN GONG KAI WU

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to consider the strong probability that the highly celebrated court artist Kim Hongdo (1745–died c. 1806) received some inspiration from illustrations in the important seventeenth-century technical Chinese book known as Tian gong kai wu (The creations of Nature and Man) written by Song Yingxing (1587–died c. 1666). Although this book is not well known among scholars in Korean art history, it contains the most comprehensive descriptions of virtually all the major industrial techniques of its time. They include subjects such as agriculture, textiles, salt, sugar, ceramics, transportation, paper making, metallurgy, and weapons. Richly illustrated with 152 black-and-white woodblock print engravings, these prints may be regarded as the finest of any prints produced in China on industry and technology. This article will propose a new view that Kim Hongdo came in contact with Song Yingxing’s celebrated book and that he was familiar with the illustrations in this work. In order to show the possible influences of Tian gong kai wu on several of Kim Hongdo’s genre pictures, attempts will be made to identify specific examples of Chinese engravings that the artist might have seen. Subsequently, important aspects of his five album leaves will be analyzed to demonstrate the probability that Kim Hongdo made creative transformation of imported book illustrations, to portray new depictions of commoners’ manual labor conveying a distinctly Korean artistic taste.