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영어

Examined in this article, is how the space that existed between the center of the city and the royal mausoleums located in the Donggyo area was established as a political space, either in the premodern period or the modern period, during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. There were royal mausoleums standing in the Donggyo area, so during the reigns of kings Gojong and Sunjong and even in the colonial period, royal trips were made to the place to either visit the mausoleums or attend royal funerals held there. Since the 18th century, the places on the path of royal trips outside the palace made by kings were established as political places, where the ruler and the ruled had the opportunity to communicate with each other. The tradition was resurrected with Gojong’s own will to take control of the government, during the early half of his reign. And even during the latter half of his reign, royal trips to the mausoleums of the Donggyo area continued as well. Such trips still managed to serve as windows for mutual communication between the king and the subjects. Yet there wasn’t anything essentially new either, compared to the convention that had been established since the 18th century. Gojong’s wife Myeongseong, who died(murdered) as a queen, was honorably restored as an empress, with a grand ceremony(funeral ritual) which was held three years after her death. After the funeral, Gojong’s trip to the mausoleums tended to concentrate upon visiting the Hongreung mausoleum, and trips to the Dongreung mausoleum nearly ceased. The political importance of Hongrueng was even more emphasized with the implementation of an electric rail car that commuted from the center of the city to the Hongreung mausoleum. Coming into the 1900s, even the funerals of the imperial family started to witness and embrace aspects of new cultures and civilizations. Honored guests of foreign legations were invited to the funeral of the crown princess, and Chopin’s requiem was played outside the palace gate when the ritual of carrying the coffin began. New facets of politics demonstrated through national(state) rituals were more than apparent in formats rather than contents. Gojong abdicated from the seat of emperor in 1907, yet the new emperor was no longer able to have his own political aspiration legitimately recognized by others through rituals. The format of the cortege and guards was entirely modified, and it became difficult to display the sheer authority of the emperor through regular trips to the mausoleums. Sunjong made himself available in front of the public more often and in more various places, yet the shadow of another empire looming behind him with a greedy motive, was more than idly present and also strongly felt. During the colonial period, the Joseon people, recognizing the Korean race as a political community, asked for a right to decide and determine their own political fate, in the occasion of funerals for the last two emperors of the dynasty, Gojong and Sunjong. In the early days of the 20th century, the old road to Donggyo became a place where people bade farewell to their late rulers, and where people shared a new realization of their own obligation, to resist alien oppression which asked the Korean people’s compliance and obedience.

한국어

이 글은 19세기 말~20세기 초 서울 도심에서 동교지역 왕릉에 이르는 공간들이 전통적 혹은 근대적 정치의 장으로서 변화되어 가는지 살펴본 것이다. 동교지역에는 왕릉이 있었기에, 고종과 순종시대를 거쳐 식민지 시기에 이르기까지 능행이나 왕실의 장례식을 위해 행차가 이르던 곳이었다. 18세기 이래로 국왕의 도성 안팎으로의 행차가 이루어지는 공간은 국왕이라는 최고의 지배자와 피치자들이 만나며 소통하는 정치적 장으로서 자리잡았다. 이러한 전통은 고종의 치세 전반기에 국정을 주도하려는 의지와 함께 되살아났다. 고종대 후반에도 격변하는 정세 속에서도 동교지역으로의 능행은 지속되었다. 여전히 능행의 과정은 백성들과 소통할 수 있는 기회였지만, 18세기 이래 관행 이상을 뛰어넘는 새로움을 찾을 수는 없었다. 명성황후의 장엄한 장례식 후 고종의 능행은 홍릉(洪陵)에 집중되었고, 동릉으로의 행행은 거의 중단되었다. 홍릉의 정치적 중요성은 도심에서 홍릉까지 자동으로 왕복하는 전차를 통해 더욱 강화되었다. 1900년대로 들어오면서 황실의 장례식에까지 새로운 문명이 스며들고 있었다. 황태자비의 장례식에 외국 공사관의 귀빈들이 초청되었고, 발인의식이 시작된 궁궐 문 밖에서는 쇼팽의 장송곡이 연주되었다. 이 시기 국가적 의례를 통해 표현되는 정치의 새로움은 그 내용에서보다 형식에서 두드러졌다. 1907년 고종의 양위로 황제가 교체되었지만, 새 황제는 더 이상 의례를 통해 자신의 정치적 지향을 정당화할 수 없었다. 의장(儀仗)과 시위(侍衛)의 전면적인 개편으로 정기적으로 거행되는 능행에서 위엄의 상징들을 내보일 수 없었다. 순종은 백성들 앞에 더 많이 더 많은 곳에서 모습을 분명하게 드러냈지만, 배후에 존재하던 또 다른 제국의 야욕만이 부상될 뿐이었다. 식민지 시기, 고종과 순종, 마지막 두 황제의 장례식에서 조선인들은 조선 민족을 정치공동체의 단위로 여기고 스스로 정치적 운명을 결단할 수 있는 권리를 요구했다. 20세기 초 동교의 옛 길은 군주제의 마지막 통치자들을 영영 이별하며, 새롭게 억압하며 길들여질 것을 요구하는 낯선 권력에게 저항하며 정치적으로 각성해나가는 장이 되었다.