The Study on the 'Yeonji' Cosmetics and Make-ups I - Focusing on the origin of Make-up and the beginning of 'Yeonji' Cosmetics -

연지화장 연구 I - 화장의 기원(起源)과 연지의 시원(始原)을 중심으로 -

  • 박춘순 (충남대학교 생활과학대학 의류학과) ;
  • 정복희 (충청대학 패션디자인과)
  • Published : 2005.06.30

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the origin of make-up and the beginning of 'Yoenji' cosmetics. The result of this study is as follows: 1. The origin of make-up can be summarized as being originated from the sexual display to maintain tribes and incantatory religion for their existence. The reason for the preference to Yeonji in make-up is that Yeonji has a characteristic of red in color, which seems to hold effective for the sexual display of human beings. 2. The origin of Yeonji (焉支; Safflower) was from Egypt, but its inception as a cosmetic product was with Huns. 'Yeonji' was a term of Hungro race, and was also called Unji (焉支), Yeonji (燕支), Inji (姻支), Urji (閼氏), following the similarity of the sound. These terms were not only the interpretation of the Hunnish sound into Chinese, but also allegorical expression. Unji (焉支), Yeonji (燕支), and Inji (姻支) meant Safflower. Urji(閼氏) meant 'Empress' or 'Wife,' which was pronounced Yeonji (燕支) and Asi (閼氏).

Keywords