How the Mongol rule delivered Korean culture to Ming China

 

明朝 高丽样 汉服 服饰 : Korean style Hanfu in the Ming Dynasty, which followed the Mongol rule. <明宪宗元宵行樂圖卷 part of Scroll painting Ming Emperor Xianzong (Chenghua) Enjoying the Lantern Festival, circa 1486 >

     There are many postings in the internet space about the cultural influences between Korea and China especially about the traditional fashions. Hanbok 韓服 is the name of the Korean traditional wears, while the Hanfu 漢服 refers to all the Chinese traditional clothes from Han period of two millennia ago down to Ming Dynasties. The name Hanfu was coined and began to be used in early 2000s by the initiatives of the young generations in China, who were stimulated by the rise of the Korean Wave or Hallyu 韓流, in which the Hanbok was presented as symbol of the Korean traditional beauty. 

     While it was a nice thing for the Chinese to get conscious of their traditions, their commendable new interest in the past cultural assets soon took an unexpected turn. People began to see some Chinese claim on the internet that their clothing culture had been stolen by Koreans and young nationalistic Chinese on-line activists called Shaofenhong 少粉紅 began to call Koreans thief for stealing their culture, uploading the illustrations and photoshop jobs conjured up to show how much the Hanbok was imitation of the Hanfu.

     They tend to believe the Korean fashion must have been influenced greatly by their Ming Dynasty because of its great political influence. But, political influence often has nothing to do with cultural transactions and cultures often exercize their influence by their own quality and power, taking a different course that the political influence takes. And the transfer of the Korean culture into the Chinese society is just the archetypal example of such case.

     The story how the Chinese Ming clothing culture came to be influenced by the Korean culture need to start from the time of the Mongol rule.

-First of all, Mongols were not Chinese, in the sense that they did not speak Chinese and that they did not think they were Chinese and Chinese did not think they were Mongols.

-The Mongols during their rule in the name of Yuan Dysnasty categorized the people in four groups by ethnicity, and placed the Chinese in the third and fourth class.[] So, the Yuan Dynasty and the Mongol Empire can not be defined as Chinese in any perspective, though the Yuan Dynasty employed a lot of the Chinese officials. They employed a lot of Uighurs and Koreans too.

[] As for the four classes they applied, the Mongols and Uighurs came the first and then Koreans, Kithans and Jurchens came the second, Huaxia of the Northern China the third and the fourth came the former Southern Song Chinese, who had resisted until the last.

-So, during the Mongol Empire period, chances were thin for the Chinese culture to affect the Korean society for reasons of the social framework and the move of the people. Koryo fought the 40 year war with Mongols, not with Chinese, and after that the human move was from Korea to China under Mongol rule, not the other way round.

-While the China mainland was under the direct rule of the Mongols, Koryo was in autonomy under the pact with the Mongols, though it can not be said to have been on the equal footing with the Mongols. Still, Koryo entertained an exceptional status from Mongols as in-law country, acquiring the commitment from the Kublai for 不改土風 or No Change of the (Koryo) Customs, which reveals the national consciousness on their culture the Koreans had back then. Koryo princes married Mongol pricesses and Koryo princesses Mongol princes, so once the Koryo king was the No. 6 in the order for the throne inheritance of the Yuan Dynasty and the last Empress of the Yuan Dynasty was Koryo woman. <>

<> The 25th king of Koryo Chungryeol 忠烈王( reign: 1274–1308) married a daughter of Kublai Kahn. The marriage was made at the request of the Koryo king, father of Chungryeol, not by the desire of Kublai. Being the 6th ranker for the throne the Mongol envoys knelt down at him, though the demands from Mongols were none the less harsh. The court lady Ki from Koryo was officially named as the Yuan Empress in 1365, though she had excercised the real power in the court from the late 1330s.

-In the course, a lot of Koryo culture were transferred at first to the Yuan court and then spread to the high society in Beijing. The records of the time describe the craze like following:

宮衣新尚高麗樣, 方領過腰半臂裁.,,,連夜內家爭借看, 爲曾著過禦前來. ==source 張昱, 宮中詞

Translation : The court fashion followed the Koryo style, the square-cut collar and the waist cut (of the Jacket) and half-arm, every night people rush to the palace to take a look because it was worn when they entered the palace before. == Zhang Yu, GongZhongZi

後亦多畜高麗美人, 大臣有權者, 輒以此遺之, 京師達官貴人, 必得高麗女, 然後爲名家. 自至正以來, 宮中給事使令, 大半高麗女, 以故四方衣服、靴帽、器物, 皆仿高麗, 擧世若狂. ==source(續資治通鑒) 卷214 元紀

Translation : (Since Koryo lady became the Empress) the dignataries and high officials could be recognized as of noble family only after getting a Koryo lady. More than half of the staff and managers in the court were Korean ladies, so everywhere the clothes, shoes and caps, living items followed Koryo style and the world seemed going crazy. ==Source: Extended Continuation to Zizhi Tongjian, Records of Yuan period

-The Korean style or 高丽样, which thus became the mainstream in the Chinese society at the time of Yuan Dynasty, especially in the court and higher society, went carried over to the Ming Dynasty and lasted until it came to be partly banned by the decree of Hongzhi 弘治 around 1490. ]] So the Koryo style swept the Ming's high society in its entirety for more than 120 years, without counting in the 100 years of Yuan period. There remain a lot of pictures ( they are not Adobe-drawn ) and records from the time of the Ming Dynasty testifying the Korean influence.

]] One of the reasons the Yuan legacies of the Koryo influence came to be carried over to Ming was because, after about the thirty years of Nanjing as capital by the Ming founder Zhou Yuanzang, the Yongle Emperor 永樂帝 moved the capital back to Beijing, which used to be the capital and cultural center of Yuan Dynasty, in 1405. Among the many possible reasons for the capital move, Yongle's preference for the cultural atmosphere of Beijing may have counted since he had lived in the old capital of Yuan as duke before his usurpation. Since then Beijing has been staying as Capital of China to this day. The Hallu 韓流 that we are witnessing today is not the first phenomenon at least.

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[明朝 高丽样 馬尾裙 汉服 服饰] Ming Dynasty Korean style Hanfu Mawei Qun in the royal palace at the time of Chenghua 成化帝, the predecessor to Hongchi, who banned the Pony tail skirt.<明宪宗元宵行樂圖卷 part of scroll painting Ming Emperor Xianzong (Chenghua) Enjoying the Lantern Festival, circa 1486>

-Following written records describe how sweeping and crazy the Korean fashion fever was among the high society of the early Ming China. ( *Get the full translation at Yandex. )

馬尾裙始於朝鮮國, 流入京師, 京師人買服之, 未有能織者. 初服者, 惟富商, 貴公子, 歌妓而已, 以後武臣多服之, 京師始有織賣者. 於是無貴無賤, 服者日盛. 至成化末年, 朝官多服之者矣. 大抵服者, 下體虛奓, 取觀美耳. 閣老萬公安, 冬夏不脫. 宗伯周公洪謨, 重服二腰, 年幼侯伯駙馬, 至有以弓弦貫其齊者. 大臣不服者, 惟黎吏侍淳一人而已. 此服妖也, 弘治初始有禁例. ==source:(菽園雜記) 卷10

Translation : Mawei Qun came from Korea and became popular in the capital. At first, only rich mechants, nobles, geisha and military officers could affort to wear it, but as the craftmen came to be able to make it, it spread to the whole populace regardless of the social stature. Around the end of Chenghua ( Xianzong ), all the court officials came to wear it. The bottom part of it is empty and its shape and sound pleased the eye and the ear. Some loved it so much as to wear it summer and winter. Some wore it in double layers. In the end, only the lowest ranks and slaves were left not wearing it. So bewitching the wear, Hongzhi issued the decree of prohibition in the beginning of his reign. ==Source: Shuyuan Miscellaneous Notes, Book 10

-It is important to note that what Hongzhi banned by his decree was the fluffy ponytail skirt Mawei Qun, not the whole Koryo styles, which had settled in Beijing for almost two hundred years by then, since the Yuan times.{} So, the Mawei Qun ban by Hongzhi was different in nature from the Korean Culture Ban that the CCP decreed in 2016.  

That way the cultural legacies in Beijing down from the Mongol rule stayed and came to be merged into the Ming Chinese society and culture.

{} Mawei Qun craze caused social problem and practical issues in their cavalry maintenance since it was made of pony tails. 京中士人好着馬尾襯裙, 因此官馬被人偷拔鬃尾, 有誤軍國大計 乞要禁革.==馮夢龍, 古今笑史 According to the records, the ban was pleaded for because it could debilitate the military readiness since the mane and tail of the horses in the government stalls were so often picked off.

-All in all, the time of the Yuan Dynasty of the Mongols was a period that the Korean culture came to hit the Chinese popular culture quite directly, with the direct human inflow from Koryo to the court, later to be merged into the Ming Chinese society and culture, Beijing playing the stage for the cultural amalgamation.

-After the ban of the use of ponytail by Hongzhi, 馬尾裙 ( Mawei Qun or Ponytail Skirt ) gave way to 馬面裙 ( Mamian Qun or Horse Skirt ), a modification that was devised to reproduce the outspreading effect of Mawei Qun without the use of ponytail while the overall Korean style, especially for the women clothes, survived and stayed as the Ming-style Aoqun 明制袄裙 for the upper class women in the Chinese society.

[left] Koryo ladies, granite statues, Sungbuk Museum of Stone-Art Relics, 우리옛돌박물관, Seoul [right] Reconstruction of Ming-style Aokun by Hanfu movement activists in China

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