조선 사신들의 눈에 비친 明末 山東의 사회 풍속 일면 고찰

Shandong Social Custom in the Late Ming Dynasty in the Eyes of Joseon Envoys -Using Their Travel Notes and Chinese Poetry for Text

In the late Ming Dynasty, the Joseon Dynasty envoys made their pilgrimage to Beijing by sea and through Shandong, with their “travel notes” presenting a faithful account of clothing, headdress, makeup, and foot-binding at that time. In that record, the Ming Dynasty clothing was of extreme floridity and extravagance, as the changes in the length of clothing and popularity in the “left lapel” style breaking the Confucian ethical code. With the official clothing restrictions in the early Ming Dynasty losing its influence, there emerged an increasingly intensified phenomenon featuring the arrogation of the clothing custom and the advocation of the “Northern style”, beauty and luxury. The Joseon envoys made comparisons between these phenomena and their national clothing culture, leading to a change in the notion that the clothing system of the Ming Dynasty was on the brink of collapse. The economic production custom was characterized by diversity in Shandong in the late Ming Dynasty, featuring the commercial prosperity, money worship and rampant pursuit of commercial profits among scholars, celebrities and high-ranking officials. Markets, taverns, and brothels could be found everywhere in cities like Dengzhou, Jinan and Dezhou. The social climate took on a scenario of prosperity and virtuous custom, while the traditional ethics were under violent strike. Under a social climate of this kind, the traditional clothing etiquette was destroyed. Therefore, the change in the clothing custom and the development of commercial economy were inextricably fused.