고려 국왕과 관리의 복식(服飾)이 반영하는 국가 위상과 자의식의 변동

Abstract

The Chinese dynasties, such as the Khitan Liao(遼) or the Mandarin Sung(宋), all bestowed clothes and uniforms to the Goryeo kings. This particular act was intended to highlight the fact that the Goryeo king was a local lord who was to serve the Chinese emperor. But in the early half period of the Goryeo dynasty, the Goryeo kings actually wore a different uniform which was designed as a dress for the emperor when they were working with the officials or holding domestic events. They only wore the lord uniform bestowed from China when they had to greet Chinese emissaries or attended installation ceremonies arranged by the Chinese emperor. The Goryeo kings accepted their position as a lord serving China, but at the same time maintained an internal and independent set of institutions which was not that much different from the Chinese system.

Yet the dresses and uniforms of the early half of the Goryeo dynasty period did not continue into the latter half of the same dynasty. With the oppression and intervention from the Mongol Yuan empire, the kings had to abandon the traditional yellow attire, and instead chose to wear the purple attire. By doing so they positioned themselves as lords (serving the emperor), and such status continued into the Joseon dynasty. The late Goryeo and early Joseon people accepted the world order with China at the center, and modified the Korean peninsulas status according to that. Such action signals a fairly weakened state of the peoples independent nature and independent thinking. Then again, unlike the other descendant kings who followed in subsequent periods, the portrait of the Joseon Founder King Taejo (Yi Seong-gye) shows the king wearing a Blue uniform. Such description indicates the existence of a strong self-consciousness in the minds of the Joseon people, who must have wanted to maintain independence and autonomous thinking as residents of a country placed in the East side of China.