On the Folk Customs of Liaodong in Ming Dynasty in Jocheonrok

School of Chinese Language and Literature,Tonghua Normal University,Tonghua,China Email：thnuedu@163.com

[Abstract]North Korea often sent envoys to Beijing in the Ming Dynasty,who traveled back and forth between China and North Korea,and frequently saw various local folk customs when passing through the Northeast.As the members of East Asian culture,the North Korean envoys were familiar and open to these folk customs,so they recorded these strange customs in their diaries or notes—Jocheonrok.Comparing the records in Jocheonrok with domestic documents,it is seen that the folk customs of the Liaodong area in the Ming Dynasty include the folk customs of not only the Yuan Dynasty,but also the various ethnic minorities in the Northeast China,as well as the unique customs formed during the Ming Dynasty.

[Keywords]Ming Dynasty;Liaodong area;folk customs;Jocheonrok

Introduction

Jocheonrokis the record of North Korean envoys who go to the royal court of Ming Dynasty and record what they have seen and heard in China.At that time,North Korea regarded China as its suzerain state,and the envoys sent were all officials who knew Chinese and could write poems in Chinese.Their task received from their royal court is to go to meet Chinese emperor and write down what they saw and heard in China,in which some were in the form of poetry,some in the form of essays,and some in the form of diary.These records are collectively referred to asJocheonrok.North Korean envoys often passed through the Liaodong region to travel between the capitals of China and North Korea.Therefore,theJocheonrokrecorded many folk customs in the Liaodong region during the Ming Dynasty.

In the Ming Dynasty,Liaodong designated the area under the jurisdiction of the Liaodong Capital Commander,or called the Liaodong Toshi.In the fourth year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty(1371),Ming Taizu established Dingliao Tohee in the east of Liaoning,and in the sixth year(1373)he set up Liaoyang Prefecture and County.In the eighth year(1375),Dingliao Tohee was changed to Liaodong Toshi.It was governed by Ding Liao Center Commander(now Liaoyang City,Liaoning Province),and its jurisdiction is similar to the most of Liaoning Province today.According toAnnuals of Liaodong:“From the Yalu River in the east,530 li,to Shanhaiguan in the west,1,500 li,to Beijing,1,700 li,south to Lushunkou,730 li,crossing the sea to Nanjing 3040 li,north to Kaiyuan,340 li.”(Bi,1984,p.4)Not only is the strategic location very important,this place is also the intersection of the grassland nomads,forest fishermen and hunters,and plain farming people during the feudal society.It is the place where contemporary culture in the Northeast China was formed.It is worthy of attention in the history of modern Chinese culture.

Etiquette and Customs of Liaodong Folk Costumes

The North Korean envoys paid a lot of attention to the people’s life in Liaodong area,including clothing,food,housing,and transportation,in which the etiquette and customs of the clothing were naturally very important to them and become their focus.Therefore,in the writings of the Korean envoys,there are a lot of clothing customs in the Liaodong region of the Ming Dynasty,which are mainly reflected in the gradual change from the early Ming Dynasty to the middle and late stages,and the specific performance is from frugality to extravagance ,and even the obvious diversified characteristics of clothing.

In the second year of Wanli(1574),North Korean official Zhao Xian went to the Ming Dynasty with the delegation to congratulate the Spring Festival as a Zhizheng official.After returning to North Korea,he madeSealed Memorial to the Throne after Returningto the King of Korea and introduced the Ming Dynasty’s perfect political system,etiquette system,and put forward many social reform suggestions.Among them,the chapter“Noble and Low Costumes”describes in detail the characteristics of costumes and ritual system promulgated in the early years of the Ming Dynasty.It distinguishes clothes of different identities:ordinary people cannot wear crowns or use yellow fabrics,and can only use ordinary materials such as silk,and plain yarn instead of expensive brocade and embroidery;women’s jewelry can only be made of silver,not gold or jewelry,and men’s hats cannot be decorated with jewelry.Later in the 14th year of Hongwu(1382),farmers were allowed to wear silk,plain yarn and cloth,but merchants or peasant families in which there are merchants were not allowed to wear silk.These decrees exactly embodied the Ming Dynasty’s national policy of advocating frugality in dress while emphasizing agriculture and restraining business.

However,such a policy could still be implemented smoothly in the early years of the Ming Dynasty.By the middle of Ming Dynasty,the atmosphere of luxury began to become popular.In the twenty-sixth year of Wanli(1598),as soon as Huang Ruyi went to China as an envoy,he noted that Northeast China experienced a lack of population and resources during the war before the establishment of the Ming Dynasty.Therefore,in the early Ming Dynasty,there was an atmosphere of diligence,frugality and simplicity,but after the Chenghua and Hongzhi years,the long-term peaceful life led to the accumulation of wealth.From the government to the ordinary people,they were accustomed to the cumbersome etiquette and luxurious life,forming a focus on quality of life and contempt funeral atmosphere.

Various ethnic groups in Liaodong area live in a mixed population— immigrants from the Central Plains,as well as local indigenous inhabitants such as Korean,Manchu,Mongolian and Ewenki.Therefore,the local costumes have both typical diversified characteristics.Due to the low temperature in Liaodong,local children do not braid their hair,but hang it behind their heads after a little trimming,and tie their hair behind their heads only after fifteen to make it easier to wear a hat.In the fifteenth year of Wanli(1587),when North Korean envoy Pei Sanyi traveled through Liaoyang,he felt that the local customs were different from the customs of the Central Plains,so in his diary he mentioned that the local married women tied their hair on the top of their heads and braided them into buns.Besides,the locals used barbed wire instead of bamboo nets made by southerners,and They used fur nets called“warm forehead”to cover their hair in winter.It can be seen that decorations of the people in Liaodong area are basically the same as those of the Central Plains except for the slight difference caused by the cold climate.

The costumes and folk customs between Han nationality in Liaodong area and the Korean,Manchu,Mongolian,Jurchen and other ethnic minority influence each other,which is also reflected in the diversification of costumes.When North Korean Zhao Xian visited local officials passed through Liaodong,he found that the dresses of local officials near the county towns in areas where ethnic minorities live are often different from those in the Central Plains.Officials in Central Plains have certain requirements for their clothing,such as wearing different styles of hats,belts,and different grades of official uniforms according to their levels.However,officials in small towns in Liaodong area,such as Funing,Fengrun,and Guangning,often do not wear official uniforms and like to wear hats or hats with local ethnic characteristics.Zhao Xian even ridiculed them as“not as good as human figures”.

Even though official costumes are like this,folk costumes are even more diverse.In the forty-two year of Wanli(1614),the Korean envoy Jin Zhongqing recorded that the Mongols and Jurchens living around Guangningwei had a certain degree of sinicization,but men were dressed like Han,the women were still used to loose their hair.Without combing on the top of the head,the clothes are also“l(fā)eft halves”(that is,the front of the clothes is to the left),retaining the habits of the original nation.In the forty-third year of Wanli(1589),the Korean envoy Xu Yan described in his poems that even though women from ethnic minorities in Liaodong married men of Han,they also learned from Han women—combed their tall buns and put on red rouge,but still have no habit of binding his feet since she was a child.

Folk Funeral Customs

although the traditional Chinese folk custom of funeral and burial has changed with time,it generally follows the form of wooden coffin and burial,and in accordance with the system and folk traditional funeral procedures since the Zhou Dynasty.The etiquette system of the Yuan Dynasty was very different from the original traditional culture of the Central Plains since the emperor of the Yuan Dynasty was a Mongolian,and many popular funeral methods on the grassland also entered the Central Plains.

after the establishment of the Ming Dynasty,the Emperor Ming Dynasty successively promulgated many rules according to the Family Rite written by Zhu Xi for regulating various rituals and restoring traditional funeral rituals.Liaodong is located in a remote area,and its folk funeral customs are relatively complicated.It has mixed characteristics of traditional culture from Central Plains and local minority folk customs.Some Korean envoys also recorded some funeral customs left over from Yuan Dynasty,which are kept inJocheonrok.

The North Korean envoy Zhao Xian recorded that men over the age of 15 in Liaodong usually wear hats,and the tribesmen would wrap their heads with white cloth until the end of the funeral,which is one of the typical characteristics of funeral in the Central Plains in the early Ming Dynasty.In the twenty-sixth year of Wanli(1598),Huang Ruyi’s also recorded the funeral customs in Liaodong— in families where someone died,they should wear white colored flowers during their filial piety.Wearing white during mourning was a traditional funeral system in Central Plains,which lasted from Zhou Dynasty to Ming Dynasty.However,white colored flowers worn in the Ming Dynasty is different from the previous generation.

In addition,it is worth noting that people who have recorded funerals in Yinchalu posted“spring posts”which originally referred to Spring Festival couplets.Since Song Dynasty,couplets were posted at the door or in the room on the day of Beginning of Spring.But Huang Ruyi’s“spring post”actually refers to elegiac couplets.It is common to hang or give elegiac couplets to commemorate the dead after the Qing Dynasty,but its origin has been difficult to verify.There were few recorded elegiac couplets in the Ming Dynasty,but from the Korean records,it can be known that the hanging of elegiac couplets in the Liaodong area in the middle of Ming Dynasty was an important part of the local funeral activities,which undoubtedly filled the gaps in the funeral records in China.

In the middle and late Ming Dynasty,Liaodong still had no unified burial system for funerals.According to Huang Ruyi’s record,the funeral of the Shanhaiguan generation was very various.The locals did not use coffins to converge after they died,and even fewer were buried after they were put in the coffins.Most local people put their dead relatives into the coffin and threw it into the wilderness,and the coffin was just covered with a mat,which is quite different from traditional funerals in Central Plains.Therefore,North Korean envoys believed that the local people must have been influenced by the customs of northern nomads.

In addition,since the rise of Taoism in the Yuan Dynasty,it has become very popular all over the country for families who died to invite monks or Taoists to do things and invite bands to play up the atmosphere.In the twelfth year of Jiajing in the mid-Ming Dynasty(1533),the Korean envoy Su Shirang was surprised and insisted that it is a bad local custom and does not conform to the traditional Chinese traditional culture.

Folk Festival Customs

ancient China is a very powerful dynasty in front of North Korea.In ancient North Korea,from the king to the ordinary people,they are curious about Chinese culture.Many officials and people speak Chinese,wear Han clothes,write Chinese poetry and even be proud of celebrating Chinese festivals.The North Korean envoys came to China for the purpose of not only delivering gifts to the emperor of the Ming Dynasty to express the loyalty of the Korean king,but also to understand the local customs of China,and then to advise the king and ministers for reforming the Korean customs.Therefore,many festival customs in the daily lives of the people in Liaodong were recorded in their documents as an envoy.

In the twenty-sixth year of Wanli(1598),Huang Ruyi passed Yongping Mansion in the Liaodong region on his way home.It was the time for the Chinese people to celebrate the Spring Festival.He recorded many customs in his diary,including sacrifices in the first month.At that time,the custom of offering sacrifices to God and ancestors was popular in most parts of China on the Beginning of Spring.And three days later,people would go to the ancestor’s cemetery.After returning,relatives and friends would feast with each other.The customs of keeping the lights on on Spring Festival’s Eve etc.are consistent with the records of Ming Dynasty history books such asA History of Ming Dynasty,Annuals of Liaodong.

InJocheonrokmany Liaodong folk festival celebrations and sacrifices are recorded,which complemented the deficiencies of Chinese history books.For example,on the day before the Beginning of Spring,people must welcome the“Mang god”and whip the“earth cattle”.“Mang God”is actually Jumang who was worshiped as a god in charge of farmland and grazing.The custom of whipping“earth cattle”means to pray for a good harvest.Besides,the celebrations and activities such as siting together to eat moon cakes on the Mid-Autumn Festival,climbing on the Double Ninth Festival and brewing chrysanthemum wine are basically similar to those in the Central Plains.

In addition,some similar customs were held at different times or in different ways in Liaodong and the Central Plains in terms of the different geographical location and climate type.For example,when North Korean envoy Xu Zhu came to Beijing on a mission to Liaodong,he found that local women had outdoor activity of“swing play”around the Dragon Boat Festival,and this activity was held on the first day of the third month of the lunar calendar in the Central Plains.The customs of the Lantern Festival in the Central Plains include viewing lanterns,eating glutinous rice balls,guessing lantern riddles,and setting off fireworks was changed into going to temples or Taoist temples and other places to burn incense and pray in Liaodong region due to the cold climate.

Folk Diet Customs

On account of small number of immigrants from the Central Plains to Liaodong in the Ming Dynasty,the residents of the Liaodong area at that time were mainly local Manchus and Koreans,so their diet had obvious ethnic characteristics.And the rich local products provided residents with diversification of food materials.When North Korean envoys came to Beijing to meet the Emperor of Ming Dynasty,all government offices in Liaodong would entertain envoys with the most distinctive local cuisine.

So after being hospitalized,the deliciousness and variety of food in Liaodong felt by the North Korean envoys were recorded in their diaries and poems.What they like most is hot pot.Hot pot is rumored to have appeared in the Three Kingdoms period,but became popular with the Mongols entering China during the Yuan Dynasty.With the introduction of chili peppers to China during the Ming Dynasty,this way of eating became more popular among people in Liaodong.The North Korean envoys not only recorded the consumption of hot pot in detail,but some even brought the local copper hot pot back to North Korea.

Moreover,the government officials and guards stationed in the Liaodong area were mostly northern Han people who were fond of wheaten food.The staple food was noodles.Therefore,there are many types of cooked wheaten food in the records of the Korean envoys,such as steamed buns,flower rolls,and noodles,which are similar to those of the Central Plains.Steamed buns had been popular in China during the Southern Song Dynasty,but it was the first time for the Korean envoy Xu Changfu to see it,so he transliterated it as“rouboer”for praising their shape like frosted flowers.

North Korean envoys were warmly received wherever they passed,but local officials would not use very high standards to receive them since it was difficult for these remote offices to have more precious ingredients.Therefore,it is inevitable that some envoys were full of envy in their diaries of the Liaodong specialties such as bear paws and sea cucumbers,but because they had no chance to try them,they could only sigh.

Throughout the records of the North Korean envoys on the folk customs in the Liaodong region,especially making a general survey of the social customs of the Northeast in the Ming Dynasty from the perspective of the“other”in the form of diaries and poems provides a new perspective for studying and understanding the social life of the Northeast China.These materials can make up for the lack and insufficiency of historical data in China to some extent,and also help us to deepen our understanding of the social politics,economy,and culture of the Northeast China in the Ming Dynasty from a foreign perspective.

Acknowledgments

This paper is funded byA Study of Folk Customs of Liaodong in Ming Dynasty in Jocheonrok,a Project of Humanities and Social Science Research Planning Project of Education Department of Jilin Province.The Project serial number:JJKH20170448SK;andA Study of Etiquette and Customs of Holding Weddings and Funerals in Liaodong Region in Ming Dynasty Based on Jocheonrok,a Special Project of Application for Master’s Training Qualification in Tonghua Normal University.I would like to express my thanks to everyone who has helped me.