Chinese Influences on Traditional Korean Costume

우리 복식에 중국복식이 미친 영향

If we are to define that the traditional costume is a comprehensive expression of the culture, thoughts, and arts of a country, it is needless to say that the traditional costume would have always reflected the social and cultural aspects of the times. In order words, the cultural contemplation of a certain people at some point the history is only possible when we observe the distintive features of the costume worn by the people of respective times. Although the Korean people had the native costume of its own from the times of the Ancient Choson to the Three Kingdoms of Koguryo, Paekche, and Silla, the Chinese influence on Korean traditional costume became somewhat pronounced ever since the Silla strenghtened the political ties with the T'ang dynasty in China, and it came to a climax when the dual structure in Korean native costume, being compounded with the Chinese touch, continued to be prevailed from the era of the Unified Silla to the Koryo and throughout the succeeding Yi dynasty, thereby copying the typical aspects of Chinese pattern in clothing and dresses worn by the ruling classes, namely the goverment officials including the Kings. Therefore, it is our aim to study the pattern of Chinese influence on our traditional costume, as well as social and cultural aspects by way of contrasting and comparing our official outfit system, which had been developing in dualism since the era of the Unified Silla, with that of China, and to trace in part the Korean traditional costume. In comparing our traditional official outfit system with that of China, we have basically concentrated on the comparison of the official outfit systems during the periods of the Three Kingdoms, the Koryo, and The Yi dynasty with that of corresponding era of Chinese history, namely the dynasties of T'ang, Sung, and Ming, and followed the documentary records for the comparison. Koreans had fallen into the practice of worshipping the powerful in China and begun to adopt the culture and institutions of the T'ang dynasty since the founding of the Unified Silla. From this time forth, Korean people started to wear the clothes in Chinese style. The style of clothing during the period of the Koryo Kingdom was deeply influenced by that of the T'ang and Sung dynasties in China, and it was also under the influenced of the Yuan dynasty(dynasty established by the Mongols) at one time, because of the Koryo's subordinative position to the Yuan. At the close of the Koryo dynasty, the King Kongmin ordered the stoppage on the use of 'Ji-Joung', the name of an era for the Yuan dynasty, in May of the eighteenth year of his rule in order to have the royal authority recognized by a newly rising power dominating the Chinese continent, the Mind. Kind Kongmin presented a memorial, repaying a kindness to the Emperor T'aejo of the Ming dynasty in celebration of his enthronement and requested that the emperor choose an official outfit, thereby the Chinese influence being converted to that of the Ming. As a matter of course, the Chinese influence deepened all the more during the era of the Yi dynasty coupled with the forces of the toadyic ideology of worshipping the China, dominant current of the times, and the entire costume, from the imperial crown and robe to the official outfit system of government officials, such as official uniforms, ordinary clothes, sacrificial robes, and court dresses followed the Chinese style in their design. Koreans did not have the opportunity of developing the official outfit system on its own and they just wore the official outfit designated on separate occasions by the emperors of China, whenever the changes in dynasty occurred in the continent. Especially, the Chinese influence had greatly affected in leading our consciousness on the traditional costume to the consciousness of the class and authority. Judging from the results, Koreans had been attaching weight to the formulation of the traditional outfit system for the ruling classes in all respective times of the history and the formulation of the system was nothing more than the simple following of the Chinese system.