A Study on Commoners’ Perception of the Full Moon and Their Cultural Aspects Featured in Yeohangsisado during Late Joseon Dynasty

The purpose of this study is to discuss commoners’ perceptions of the Full Moon featured in their poems and poetic paintings and examine the relationships between their perceptions and the seasonal customs during the 18th and 19th centuries. The Full Moon featured on the paintings during Joseon Dynasty was the object of people’s observation and at the same time, was a conceptual natural phenomenon, but in Yeohangsisado during 18th and 19th centuries, it was an object of savoring, neither a conceptual nor a holy object. This study reviews the peoples’ perceptional changes of the Full Moon through the paintings, and thereupon, discusses people’s perceptions of the Full Moon from the diverse perspectives: Kim Chang Heup’s cosmological view of the nature, Hong Dae Yong’s and Northerners’ theory of equal importance of characters, theory of character equivalence and doctrine of the holy spirit. Through the publications of the various biographies and the collections of essays recording commoners’ ordinary life, their self-awareness would be enhanced. Commoners’ concern with the customs would well be depicted by such books featuring the customs as Jo Su Sam’s ‘Se Si Gi’, Yoo Deuk Gong’s ‘Gyeongdojapji’, Yoo Bon Ye’s ‘Hangyeongjiryak’, etc. The changes of the view of nature and aesthetic theology of the Holy Spirit featured in Yeohangsisado during late Joseon Dynasty would be facilitated as expressions of individual emotions. Such a tendency facilitated the expansion of the base of such popular cultures as poems, folklore paintings and Pansori, ushering in the literary and art Renaissance during late Joseon Dynasty. After all, such literary and art Renaissance would lead to the enhancement of self-awareness and popular consciousness, facilitating the cultural modernization.