A Study on Wadding Dresses for Women in the Latter Period of Chosun

조선후기 여자 혼례복에 관한 연구

Wedding ceremony is a most basic and significant rite of religion. Clothing fur the ceremony is also assumed religious in essence. Thus this study focuses on ideas and religious qualities implied in wedding dresses for women in the latter period of Chosen. Among those wedding dresses for women in the public class, in this study, Yeom-Eui(염의), Won-Sam(원삼) in green and Hwal-Ot(활옷) are discussed. Yeom-Eui seemed preferred by only some of the nobel class who still considered manners and customs as very important. The rest people often wore a brilliant Hwal-Ot rather than Yeom-Eui under influences of a loosened social position system and sumptuous moods. Since a wedding is the reflection of social condition and at the same time a religious rite, the above mentioned difference in wedding dresses between the class of scholars obsessed with Confucianism and the rest public seems attributable to differences in values and religious views between the two groups. Of course, Hwal-Ot was also transmitted from the Chinese nation of Tang, so it complied with a contemporary flunkeyism about Chinese culture. Won-Sam and Hwal-Ot were designed with patterns representing the very significance of wedding and those wishing worldly blessings more children and more sons, longevity and wealth and prosperity. The fact that wishes of more children and more sons were more often implied by patterns of wedding dress in the latter Chosen indicates the legitimate oldest son-oriented patriarchical family system at that time influenced to such contemporary dresses. Meanwhile, those patterns used for Won-Sam and Hawl-Ot were influenced mainly by Confucianism, but sometimes based on Buddhism and Taoism. It suggests that the Chosun dynasty emphasized Confucian manners and customs to restore previous values which had been about to be collapsed since wars with the Chinese Ching and Japan, but nevertheless in the public class, Buddhism and Taoism were more deeply prevailed. This was supported by patterns and colors shown in wedding clothing.