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Plate 24.1 Portrait of Taejo 太祖御眞 in Yeongheung Junweonjeon Plate 24.2 Portrait of Taejo 太祖御眞, dated 1872, Jeonju
永興 濬源殿, photograph taken in 1913. National Museum of Korea Gyeonggijeon 全州 慶基殿. Hanging scroll, colour on silk, height
218cm, width 150cm. Royal Portrait Museum, Jeonju City

Kingdom (57 bce–935 ce). By 1405, a portrait of Taejo had paintings and statues of the Goryeo dynasty. When Taejo
also been enshrined in Pyeongyang, the capital of the became the first Joseon king in 1392, he ordered the statues
Goguryeo kingdom (37 bce–668 ce). After Taejo passed of the kings of the Goryeo dynasty to be moved from
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away in 1408, portraits of him were enshrined in Hanyang, Gaeseong to Majeon in Gyeonggi province. The number of
the capital of the Joseon dynasty, and Jeonju, his ancestral ceremonial enshrinements of Goryeo royal portraits was
seat. The only extant portrait of Taejo is in Jeonju. It is a copy then gradually reduced. In 1426, Sejong ordered the
dated 1872, produced by court painters based on the original incineration of all the preparatory drawings of the portraits
image that no longer survives (Pl. 24.2). 6 of kings and queens of the Goryeo dynasty that were stored
At the beginning of his reign, Sejong considered the use in the Bureau of Painting (Dohwawon), and the half-length
of portraiture in ancestral rituals to be misguided. Sejong’s royal portraits kept in Jeongneung. Although burning can
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policies, however, shows that his attitude towards royal be interpreted as a conventional way of disposing sacred
portraits and their halls gradually changed. In particular, he objects, Sejong’s act was more of a symbolic severance of
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began to consider the importance of the Portrait Halls of the legitimacy of the Goryeo dynasty. According to the
King Taejo, and ordered the production of new portraits of Veritable Records of the Joseon Dynasty, in 1427 and 1428, Sejong
the former king, as well as copies of existing ones. During further ordered the burial of the portraits and the statues of
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the first year of his reign in 1419, Sejong oversaw the King Taejo Wang Geon 王建 (877–943; r. 918–43), founder
completion of the final Portrait Hall of King Taejo, which of the Goryeo dynasty, and King Hyejong (912–45; r. 943–5),
his father Taejong had begun in the previous year. as well as portraits of those who contributed to the former
Significantly, this hall was located in Gaeseong, which was dynasty in proximity to the king’s royal tomb in Gaeseong.
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the capital city of the vanquished Goryeo dynasty. Thus, the Finally, Sejong finished this task with the burial of 18
portraits of Taejo were distributed and enshrined in portraits of Goryeo kings in ‘enclosed and pristine lands (屛
locations of particular political significance to the king and 處潔地)’ in 1430. 14
the history of Korea. Moreover, the enshrinement ceremony One of the royal images buried near the tomb of the
of Taejo’s portrait in Gaeseong was recorded in detail, founder of the Goryeo dynasty in Gaeseong has been
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setting it apart from previous enshrinements that were not excavated. It is a bronze statue that is believed to be a
well documented, which suggests the likelihood that the representation of Wang Geon that was buried near his tomb
event was politically motivated. (Pl. 24.3). Remnants of a silk belt were found together with
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Once Sejong completed the project of enshrining Taejo’s the bronze statue, suggesting that the statue may have
portraits, he turned his attention to the royal portrait originally been dressed in a silk garment. According to Ro
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212 | Ming China: Courts and Contacts 1400–1450