[KS] Choson period official dress

[gkl1 at columbia.edu]

If Henny says so I guess I must've said something about this once,
but it's easier to repeat it than look up what I said. Yes, ChosOn
dynasty court dress was identical with the court dress of the Ming
dynasty, with the exception that the identical dress and emblems,
etc. were two ranks (in the nine-rank scheme) lower in Korea. That
is, the court dress of a Rank I (the highest rank) ChosOn official
was identical to that of a Rank III official at the Ming court.
This means that the last two ChosOn ranks, VIII and IX, had
distinctive Korean designs.
   When Korean official embassies reached the area just outside the
Chaoyang (East) Gate of Peking, they changed into their formal
court dress and marched in a procession into the city and through
the streets to their residence. It is said that those Chinese who
still nourished pro-Ming (and therefore anti-Manchu) sentiments
would come to secretely enjoy the spectacle. There are many stories
in embassy diaries and other casual literature about emotional
scenes with Chinese begging to touch, or even briefly wear, the
Korean formal clothing. Other than this, the only permitted display
of Ming dress that was permitted in Qing China was in the theatre,
since the Peking Opera was essentially a Ming institution, and the
historical character of the stories made the dress of earlier
dynasties appropriate. One consequence of this is that when Korean
officials went through the streets of the capital on their
business, less sophisticated spectators would point and say, "Look!
Actors!"

Gari Ledyard

Quoting Michael Robinson <robime at indiana.edu>:

> Dear List:
>
> It is a small point but I thought someone out there might be more
> up on this than myself.  Were the robes for Choson officials
> patterned after the regalia of the Ming?  I'm saying this in a
> throw away sentence in my new text...but perhaps this is wrong.
> I'm wondering about the evolution of official dress since we are
> dealing with half a millennium here.
>
> Mike Robinson