Four pictorial ideographs (Munjado)

Munjado stand for the Eight Cardinal Principles of Confucian morality so central in the Joseon period: filial piety, brotherly love, loyalty to the state, trustworthiness, humility, propriety, honor and duty. The four ideographs here, right to left are: trustworthiness (shin), propriety (ye), integrity (yon) and righteousness (ui).
Animals, plants or objects are paired with a decorative rubric to form the Chinese character for each principle. For a set of eight munjado, see Robert Moes, Auspicious Spirits: Korean Folk Paintings and Related Objects, exh. cat. (Washington, DC: International Exhibitions Foundation, 1983), cat. no. 10.