Lot Essay
The battle scenes of this screen derive from the fourteenth-century Chinese novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The imagery belongs to a class of Korean paintings called solhwado, or illustrations of events from famous tales or novels. Among the novels, Romance of the Three Kingdoms and The Nine Cloud Dream appear most frequently on Korean screens.
China was divided into three kingdoms for roughly sixty years following the collapse of the Han dynasty in CE 220: Wei to the north, Wu in the South and Shu Han in the southwest. They are not to be confused with those of Korea's Three Kingdoms period (first century CE-BCE 668). China's Three Kingdoms period (CE 220-280) was a time of incessant warfare. After supressing a series of peasant revolts, three leading Han Dynasty generals founded dynasties in their respective commanderies, Cao Cao in Wei, Sun Quan in Wu and Liu Bei in Shu Han. The Three Kingdoms period came to be regarded by later Chinese as an exciting and romantic era. A vast cycle of semi-historical legends developed concerning it. One of the losing generals, Guan Yu, was subsequently deified as Guan Di, the God of War. Another general, Zhuge Liang, eventually became the most popular Chinese hero of all time.
The legends were passed along by professional storytellers until the fourteenth century, when they were gathered together in written form to become China's earliest novel, Sanguozhi yanyi (Romance of the Three Kingdoms). Not long afterward, the novel became very popular in Korea as well as in China. Joseon-dynasty (1392-1910) culture was patterned closely on that of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), and Korea's educated elite read Chinese.
China was divided into three kingdoms for roughly sixty years following the collapse of the Han dynasty in CE 220: Wei to the north, Wu in the South and Shu Han in the southwest. They are not to be confused with those of Korea's Three Kingdoms period (first century CE-BCE 668). China's Three Kingdoms period (CE 220-280) was a time of incessant warfare. After supressing a series of peasant revolts, three leading Han Dynasty generals founded dynasties in their respective commanderies, Cao Cao in Wei, Sun Quan in Wu and Liu Bei in Shu Han. The Three Kingdoms period came to be regarded by later Chinese as an exciting and romantic era. A vast cycle of semi-historical legends developed concerning it. One of the losing generals, Guan Yu, was subsequently deified as Guan Di, the God of War. Another general, Zhuge Liang, eventually became the most popular Chinese hero of all time.
The legends were passed along by professional storytellers until the fourteenth century, when they were gathered together in written form to become China's earliest novel, Sanguozhi yanyi (Romance of the Three Kingdoms). Not long afterward, the novel became very popular in Korea as well as in China. Joseon-dynasty (1392-1910) culture was patterned closely on that of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), and Korea's educated elite read Chinese.