A Study on Black Line Decoration Appeared in East Traditional Clothing

You can see the black line decoration around the collar, sleeve, trimming, slitting, and belt of Korean and Chinese Po and Jeogori. During ancient times, the black line was used for everyone without distinction of gender or status in Korea and China, and later it remains as Confucian or royal court’s uniforms. This study aims to examine the appearance of the black lines in Korean and Chinese costumes, and to prepare academic basic data about detailed elements of Korean and Chinese traditional costumes through analyzing the shapes and meanings of the black lines.For this purpose, literature studies related to Korean and Chinese clothing, culture, philosophy, and religion were examined together with paintings, murals, and relics. In clothing, the line refers to the edge or hem of a garment, and the hem refers to a fabric that is the same as or different from the body fabric attached to the edge. For the East culture, the symbol of the color, black, has been passed down in relation to the sky, the universe, and the Tao. In Confucianism, it means the sky as the original concept of the universe, and in Taoism, it means the Tao, which means the morality or principle of all things. These kinds of black lines decorations symbolize the beginning and end of the connection between the universe and man, and the immaterial and material by wrapping it around all open edges of the garment, and symbolize the close relationship between human beings, who exist as matter, and the universe that exists as non-material. The decorations with the black lines were used as a line in harmony with the Buddhist concept of the relationship in the process of differentiation and development of the concept of black, which corresponds to the universe and sky of Confucianism, the principle of all creations in Taoism. Furthermore, the black line decorations remain as the royal robes and clothes that understand the close connection between the universe and human beings for dealing with heaven and earth, and they remain as the royal uniform for a practical ritual that contains the meaning of training for the unity of mind and body. The value of this study lies in providing basic data that intensively analyzes the formative elements of traditional clothing by examining the historical movement and symbolic meaning of black line decorations containing the shared ideas of the Korean-Chinese worldview.