• 복식
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• 제50권3호
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• pp.59-72
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• 2000

Dragon robe was defined as a robe on which the principal design consisted of dragon. Dragon patterns have been used on princess robes during T'and Dynasty. In Sung, Dragon-figured robes seem to have an Imperial prerogative. Yuan took over the use of robes with dragons patterns as a definite institition. Ming tried to reject all Yuan innovations, the dragon robe was retained as an unofficial court costume. The Emperor's semiformal robes which at first had four dragon medallions, later had twelve along with the 12 Symbols(십이장문). As Ch'ing dragon robes were only intended fro semiformal use. The Later Ch'ing robes date from after 1719, when the Ch'ien-lung(건륭) introduced 12 Symbols on Ch'ing robes. The Ch'ien-lung laws were disobeyed, notably the ones that specified the number of claws on the dragons. THe Emperor's dragon robe, lung-p'ao, (용포) was described as bright yellow in color, having four slits and horsefoof cuffs. The basic pattern consisted of nin dragons, in addition it had 12 Symbols. The elaborate textile techniques reached their peak in Ch'ing Dynasty-with its Weaving and Dyeing Office in Peking, and this factories at Hangchow(항주), Soochow(소주), and Naking(남경) -helps to explain why the decay of the Ch'ing bureaucracy hastended the decline of dragon robes. In the Ch'ing Dynasty tow terms were used for dragon robe, depending on the number of claws on the dragons. Those with five-clawed dragons were called lung-p'ao, while those with four-clawed dragons were called mang-p'ao(망포). The Court felt compelled to take corrective meausres. It decreeed that Ninisters of State and other officials, who had been bestowed five-clawed lung dragons, must take out one claw. Finally, the sale of ranks and the attendant privilege of wearing dragon robes gradually increased during the 18 th century, reaching its height in the 19 th century, Finally, after the Taiping Rebellion, when the Imperial Treasury was depleted by the wholesale destruction of revenue-producing lands, the Chinese government came to depend on such sales as an important source of revenue and the practice became even more widespread. The ensuing mass production of dragon robes, and the necessity of conforming to the fairly rigid basic pattern established in 1759, resulted in marked deterioration of workmanship, and a comparative monotony of decoration. The patterns on the dragon robes slight changes continued to be made in the ways of representign them. The li shui (입수) portion at the base of the robe become inreasingly wider throughout the 19th century. The background became cluttered with symbols of good fortune, scattered among the clouds and waves. As a result of all this extraneous decoration, the dragons were so crowded that they had to shrink back into the small size that they had originally occupied in the medallons. Kuang-hsu(광저) was a long one, allowing time for the manufacture of numerous robes. Also, it would seem likely that Occidental museums and collections would have a considerable number of his robes, in view of the widespread looting of his palaces during the Allied occupation of Peking in 1900, and the frequent sales of Late Ch'ing imperial textiles by destitute Manchu courtiers in the '20's.