Pyeongsaeng-do, Paintings of an Ideal Life by Chae Yong-sin - Self-fashioning by display of selected memories

Abstract

<i>Pyeongsaeng-do, Paintings of an Ideal Life</i> by Chae Yong-sin, a part of the Lee Kun-hee Bequest now stored at the National Museum of Korea, is a ten-panel folding screen that depicts scenes from the painter’s life: at eight years old, he learns to read from his father; at thirty-one, he marries his wife; at thirty-seven, he passes Kwagŏ, the civil service examination and takes up a government position; at fifty-one, he paints a posthumous portrait of King Taejo; he serves as governor to Ch’ilgok-gun and Chŏngsan-gun; and celebrates his 60th birthday in 1910.</br>On the ten panels, Chae Yong-sin depicted important events of his life such as his successful career and participation in the production of King Taejo’s portrait, to present to and commemorate with his progeny his moments of glory. Important events were carefully chosen, edited, and drawn on each screen. The correspondence of represented events with the record of Chae’s life made by Kwŏn Ch’ŏlsu in 1924, the similarity in style of the people, buildings and other motifs to his other paintings, and the fact that he referred to himself as “an old man of eighty years” since he was seventy years old, all suggest that Chae actively participated in the making of this ten-panel painting around 1920. In addition, the painting faithfully reflects contemporary culture—the white patterns for pŏsŏn, changsŭng that acted as a signpost—, serving as an important visual document to how people lived in early modern Korea.