South Korea's Traditional Colors

The five orthodox colours here are yellow, cyan, white, crimson and black, which are based on the theory of yin-yang and five elements. The yin and yang shape the heaven and earth and then evolve into the five elements: metal, wood, water, fire and earth.The five elements correspond to five colours involving with certain geographical directions. Taking the center and other four directions as the pivot, yellow is corresponding to the center, cyan to the east, white to the west, crimson to the south and black to the north.In addition, the intermediate colour of cyan and yellow is green, cyan and white is azure green, crimson and white is red, black and crimson is purple, and black and yellow is brimstone. They are called five intermediate colours or five mixture colours.Yellow is corresponding to the "earth" element in five elements, which is considered to represent the center of the universe and is very privileged. So it was always selected as the colour of the emperors' clothes. Cyan is corresponding to the wood, the colour related to vibrant spring and is considered to be able to repel the devil and bring good fortune. White is corresponding to the metal, indicating the birth, creation, enthusiasm, love and enthusiasm. So it is strongly correlative to something talismanic. Black is corresponding to the water, an element representing the wisdom of human being.So based on the thought of yin-yang and five elements, these five colours turn out to be closely related to our daily life. Brides rouge when they get married to repel the ghost; children wear rainbow-coloured clothes on the hundredth day since their birth and in various festivals to repel the devil and to bless health and long life; The mouth of crock brewing soy is surrounded by a string of chili called "forbidden line" ; noodle in the wedding ceremony is sprinkled with five-coloured decorates, Build houses by loess glimmering red or paste red charm on Spring festival; The painting in the palaces and temples; the fresco in the Goguryeo's ancient tomb of Koguryo dynasty and the handicrafts such as patchworks are good examples all the above are good examples making use of the five colours'principle.