A Study on the symbol of the Korean Beak Eui

한국의 백의상징에 관한 연구

The purpose of this study is to clarify the adap-tation of traditional beauty of dress in Baek Eui for the establishment of tradition of dress culture. Especially, the color of the traditional dress rep-resent a symbol which is connedted with the na-tional character and the evvironment. But it is hard to examine closely because color preference are transformend with the times. This study is framed within the limits of the next themes : the origin, history and meaning of the Baek Eui ; the philosophical theory of cosmic Five Elements and the Prohibition of Baek Eui ; the beauty of Baek Eui. As the national character is indicative of the conservativeness and the purity, Koreans have kept up wearing Baek Eui spite of the occasional prohibition. Since the color of the dress represen-tatived the signs of the social class and the power, over the eighty persent of the common people put on the Beak Eui : ramie and flax fabrics that has it's own color in Chosun-Dynasty. I think that the use of natural color harmony is prominent and the beauty of Baek Eui is the naturality and the non-artificiality. The meaning of the symbol on the Korean Beak Eui is the divinity, the holiness, the purity, the cleanliness, the modesty, the frugality, the integ-rity, the constancy, the elegance, the simplicity.