I’ve been reading some Korean history books / books on Korean culture as of late, so primarily due to the fact that I want to work on some simple translating, and secondarily because I want to occassionally provide some insightful information about Korean culture outside of the realm of indie rock and 1980’s ice cream commercials you are going to occassionally be subjected to poorly translated passages about various aspects of traditional Korean culture.
Today you are getting a passage from 김경훈’s book 「뜻밖의 한국사.」 I translated another passage from this book many moons ago, and I’m electing to do so again primarily because it deals more with strange and unusal aspects of history (particularly daily life) as opposed to simply bellowing about dates, politics, and battles. Today we are going to take a look at the origin of 연지곤지 (from this point on known as yeonjigonji), the red dot make-up traditionally used by brides.
“Today I Can’t Be Of Service To The King”
Yeonji is a kind of make-up that is used to give red color to the lips and cheeks. If this make-up was applied to the forhead that dot was known as gonji. It is clear that yeonjigonji didn’t mix well with ancient Koreans’ traditionally simple tastes and style, as the color is very vivid and the shape is very pronounced. So why did they use this make-up?
There are several theories, and among them, the most interesting theory is that yeonjigonji was originally used to indicate that a woman was having her period. Middle class women most likely would not have needed to indicate this, but women of the royal court would use yeonji on their cheek to indicate, “Today I can’t be of service to the king.”
Since these women could not boldly declare, “Sorry, but today I’m having me period,” to a strict king they would use yeonji as an indication of that very thing. That way, the king could look upon the woman’s face with dignity and be reminded of a period simply be seeing the red mark on her face. This practice of applying yeonjigongi to the face spread to the middle class where it became all the rage. It is likely that if these middle class women knew of the fact that yeonji make-up was used to represent a period, they did not believe it.
Ruddy Cheeks: The Symbol Of Youth And Virginity
We have all seen countless traditional weddings in historical dramas broadcast on TV in which the bride sits quietly with yeonjigonji applied. Interestingly enough, in this old custom, women who were remarrying were not allowed to paint their cheeks or forehead. Accordingly due to the differences in first in second marriage customs we seem to be able to find the original meaning of yeonjigonji. If this is the case, then isn’t yeonjigonji a manifestation of virginity?
Young virgins’ cheeks would appear red without make-up. Furthermore, a little shame would also cause cheeks to become ruddy. Therefore ruddy cheeks are a symbol of the freshness and youth of a virgin. It is unknown if yeonjigonji was applied to the cheeks and forehead due to this association.
The Korean people traditionally prefered clean, white faces. It is recorded in the Song Chinese text, “Goryeodogyeong 高麗圖經” that noblewomen of the Goryeo royal court did not often apply yeonji, yet it was standard for them to apply facial powder. It wasn’t dark make-up, but rather faint make-up with a light tone that these women liked to use. Due to the opposition towards dark make-up, there was resistance towards applying this kind of facial make-up. Therefore yeonji was a special make-up that was only used on special occassions, namely weddings when people needed to give a symbol of their youth. Yeonji make-up began to be used in earnest during the Shilla dynasty. It is therefore the case that yeonji is a Shilla invention.
If we look to ancient records we will find that there were two methods by which yeonji was produced. One method utilized a natural dye while the other method made use of a chemically produced material. The natural dye used was the safflower. The petals of a 1-2 year old safflower, originally yellow would turn slightly red. These safflowers if ground up and soaked in water would have the yellow pigment melt away and only the red pigment would remain. If this red pigment was further treated, red yeonji would be formed. On the other hand, chemically produced yeonji was created using cinnabar. With mercury as the primary ingredient of cinnabar, yeonji was created by mixing an egg yolk with the cinnabar in a boiling cauldron. Cinnabar yeonji was both redder and glossier that safflower yeonji. However much like the current problem with overdosing on some types of make-up, people that used this cinnabar yeonji for extended periods of time ended up suffering from mercury poisoning. But instead of being sensibile, place ladies and kisaeng used cinnabar yeonji frequently.
