A Study on the Meaning of the Five Elements Colours in the Costume

복식에 나타난 오행색 의미에 관한 연구

Influnced by the official uniform system of China, the colour culture of Korea has changed with time. The ancient colour has included the philo-sophical conception as well as the meaning of thoughts. Forming its tradition, the colour has been accepted in usual life. The philosophy of the Five Element has been developed in the area of Oriental culture and it has influnced to the colour of costume. The five colours(blue, red, yellow, white and black) as the Five Elements colours have disticted the social position. Owing to the fackt, the colour costume has preserved the important meaning. In accordance with the theory of the Five Elements the five colours of costume told its purpose, social position and age. Moreover the relationship among the Five Elements, the direction and the reason have been applied to it with time. Yellow and red have been usually used by kings and high ranking officals, white has been the basic colour for traditional Korean clothes, which hs indicated the integrity symbolizing our race. The Five Elements Colours preserving the theory of Korean the Five Elements have been the conception of Korean traditional colour and they have been developing as the meaning of custom.