A SANG-NO
The inhabitants of the Hermit Kingdom are peculiarly proficient in the art of doing nothing gracefully. There is, therefore, infinite charm and variety in the daily life of Korea. The natives take their pleasures passively, and their constitutional incapacity makes it appear as if there were little to do but to indulge in a gentle stroll in the brilliant sunshine, or to sit cross-legged within the shade of their houses. Inaction becomes them; nothing could be more unsuited to the character of their peculiar costume than vigorous movement. The stolid dignity of their appearance and their stately demeanour adds vastly to the picturesqueness of the street scenes. The white-coated, white-trousered, white-socked, slowly striding population is irresistibly fascinating to the eye. The women are no less interesting than the men. The unique fashion of their dress, and its general dissimilarity to any other form of feminine garb the world has ever known, renders it sufficiently characteristic of the vagaries of the feminine mind to be attractive.
Women do not appear very much in the streets during daylight. The degree of their seclusion depends upon the position which they fill in society. In a general way the social barriers which divide everywhere the three classes are well defined here. The yang-ban or noble is, of course, the ruling class. The upper-class woman lives rather like a woman in a zenana; from the age of twelve she is visible only to the people of her household and to her immediate relatives. She is married young, and thenceforth her acquaintances among men are restricted solely to within the fifth degree of cousinship. She may visit her friends, being usually carried by four bearers in a screened chair. She seldom walks, but should she do so her face is invariably veiled in the folds of a chang-ot. Few restrictions are imposed upon the women of the middle class as to their appearance in the streets, nor are they so closely secluded in the house as their aristocratic sisters; their faces are, however, veiled. The chang-ot is by no means so complete a medium of concealment as the veil of Turkey. Moreover, it is often cast aside in old age. The dancing-girls, slaves, nuns, and prostitutes, all included in the lowest class, are forbidden to wear the chang-ot. Women doctors, too, dispense with it, though only women of the highest birth are allowed to practise medicine.
WHITE-COATED, WHITE-SOCKED POPULATION
In a general way, the chief occupation of the Korean woman is motherhood. Much scandal arises if a girl attains her twentieth year without having married, while no better excuse exists for divorce than sterility. In respect of marriage, however, the wife is expected to supplement the fortune of her husband and to contribute to the finances of the household. When women of the upper classes wish to embark in business, certain careers, other than that of medicine, are open to them. They may cultivate the silkworm, start an apiary, weave straw shoes, conduct a wine-shop, or assume the position of a teacher. They may undertake neither the manufacture of lace and cloth, nor the sale of fruit and vegetables. A descent in the social scale increases the number and variety of the callings which are open to women. Those of the middle class may engage in all the occupations of the upper classes, with the exception of medicine and teaching. They may become concubines, act as cooks, go out as wet nurses, or fill posts in the palace. They may keep any description of shop, tavern, or hotel; they possess certain fishing privileges, which allow them to take clams, cuttle-fish, and bêches de mer. They may make every kind of boot and shoe. They may knit fishing-nets, and fashion tobacco-pouches.
If some little respect be accorded to women of the middle classes, those of a lower status are held in contempt. Of the occupations open to women of the middle classes, there are two in which women of humble origin cannot engage. They are ineligible for any position in the palace: they may not manufacture tobacco-pouches. They may become sorceresses, jugglers, tumblers, contortionists, dancing-girls and courtesans. There is this wide distinction between the members of the two oldest professions which the world has ever known: the dancing-girl usually closes her career by becoming the concubine of some wealthy noble; the courtesan does not close her career at all.