Hanfu is a general term for the traditional clothing of the Han nationality. It is also one of China’s traditional clothing. In different historical periods, Hanfu presents different styles. The main styles of ancient Chinese Hanfu are Tang Dynasty Hanfu, Song Dynasty Hanfu, and Ming Dynasty Hanfu. Tang Dynasty Hanfu has diverse styles, Song Dynasty Hanfu is simple, and Ming Dynasty Hanfu is gorgeous.
The development of Hanfu has a core-like driving force, which is the research and exploration of the original appearance of Hanfu in various historical periods. In the Tang Dynasty, Song Dynasty and Ming Dynasty, several important historical periods of Hanfu development, the costumes had typical characteristics and exquisite wearing. The production of Hanfu does not need to be completely bound by historical elements. But at the current stage, figuring out the true appearance of Hanfu and understanding the logic of ancient costumes are the premise of our wearing, and also the basis for Hanfu designers to re-create.
Characteristics of Tang Dynasty Hanfu: Diversification
After the short-lived Sui Dynasty fell, the Li Dynasty was established, and the Tang people still followed the style of the late Northern Dynasties and the Sui Dynasty. Women’s clothing is usually a three-piece suit: skirt, shirt, and cape. Sun Ji, an expert in ancient clothing research at the National Museum, has verified that these three pieces are generally indispensable for both civilians and nobles in the Tang Dynasty. The way to wear it is very simple, tuck the shirt into the waist of the skirt, and tie the skirt very high. In addition, the way of wearing a cape on the body started from the Southern and Northern Dynasties, but it did not become widely popular until the Tang Dynasty. As for men’s clothing, it is not as varied as women’s clothing. The most popular men’s clothing style, “round collar robe”, almost runs through the entire Tang Dynasty.
Photo: Tang Dynasty silk painting of a dancer, one of the music and dance screens unearthed from Zhang Lichen’s tomb, wearing a typical three-piece set of skirt, shirt and cape
Before the heyday of the Tang Dynasty, women in the Tang Dynasty were still slender and tall. In the early Tang Dynasty, women’s tops were usually narrow-sleeved, and they often wore colored skirts with high waists close to the neckline. Their makeup was light and overall they were reserved and conservative. The “Stepping on the Buddhist Monastery” depicts the story of Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Shimin, receiving the envoys sent by Songtsen Gampo to welcome Princess Wencheng. The maids carrying Li Shimin to sit on the couch are slender and simply dressed, which reflects the aesthetic style of the Zhenguan period in the early Tang Dynasty.
Photo:The Procession of Emperor Taizong to Meet the Buddhist Monk Xuanzang, Collection of the Palace Museum
During the Wu Zhou period, the exposure of skin began to increase, and “exposed collar dresses” became popular. The chest of this arc-collared top was extremely low, and some were even deep V. Some scholars said that they would be scared when doing research, wondering how to wear it out, and some were even simply “cross-collared and open-fronted”, which was as revealing as today’s low-cut evening dresses.
After Wu Zetian came to power, the aesthetics of women in the Tang Dynasty became extremely open and confident. This was a very eye-catching clothing phenomenon in the Tang Dynasty and even in ancient Chinese history. This can be often seen in Tang figurines, murals and other cultural relics unearthed during this period. If you zoom in and pay attention to smaller details, you can also find that the top that was tucked into the waist of the skirt in the past is now exposed outside, the shawl has become wider, and the way of wearing it is also similar to today. For example, when we wear a low-cut evening dress today, we will also use an extra silk scarf or scarf around our shoulders.
Another popular trend in the Tang Dynasty was “women wearing men’s clothing”. There is a widely circulated story about Wu Zetian’s daughter Princess Taiping, which comes from the “New Book of Tang”. It says that once Emperor Gaozong and Empress Wu held a banquet, Princess Taiping came out in men’s clothing and danced for her parents. The book records that Princess Taiping’s clothing was “purple robe, jade belt, and folded scarf”. There is also the famous “Lady Guoguo’s Spring Outing”, which records an outing of Lady Guoguo, the third sister of Yang Guifei during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong. Most scholars believe that the person wearing men’s clothing on the far right in the painting is Lady Guoguo. It can be said that except for the late Tang Dynasty, women wearing men’s clothing has been quite popular since the early Tang Dynasty.
Photo:The “Chinese Ancient Costume Culture Exhibition” at the National Museum of China restores the “women wearing men’s clothing” look of the Tang Dynasty
The development of clothing culture in the Tang Dynasty ushered in a peak of grand dress. The representative figure of the desire for grand dress is Yang Yuhuan. Emperor Xuanzong of Tang once assigned as many as 700 costume designers to style his beloved concubine and her attendants, responsible for completing crafts including weaving and embroidery. The book “Supplement to the History of the Tang Dynasty” recorded a detail that after the “Anshi Rebellion”, an old woman picked up a silk boot of the concubine at the post station where Yang Yuhuan was executed. The old woman was surprised to find that the price standard of 100 coins for appreciation could not stop people’s interest in it. She happily made a small fortune.
The costumes of the Tang Dynasty were rich and complex, and the fashion changed very quickly. Sometimes new costumes became popular every three to five years, especially the low-cost and easy-to-change parts such as hair buns and makeup. A classic Tang Dynasty makeup, in addition to drawing eyebrows and lipstick, also includes forehead flowers, rouge, and dimples. Throughout the Tang Dynasty, makeup and clothing kept pace, gradually changing from conservative to gorgeous (Wu Zhou period), and further changing from gorgeous to ostentatious and extravagant (late Tang period). But every period has its own trends that amaze us modern people. It can be said that in terms of fashion, Tang Dynasty women will never let you down.
Photo: Restoration of the costumes of the late Tang donors
The change of clothing is not only related to fabrics and weaving techniques, but also to people’s perception of the social atmosphere. In the nearly 300 years of the Tang Dynasty, not only did the economy and culture develop rapidly, but the territory was also expanded spectacularly, and the international metropolis Chang’an had a population of one million. In such an inclusive multi-ethnic country, the people of the Tang Dynasty felt relaxed and free, so they created such a diverse and changing clothing fashion.
Song Dynasty Hanfu: Simple
If you want to understand the real traditional Chinese clothing of the Song Dynasty, you may want to go to the “Chinese Ancient Clothing Culture Exhibition” at the National Museum of China. The restored portrait of a Song Dynasty man in clothing is wearing a purple gauze official uniform with large sleeves that reaches his ankles, with his hands in front of his chest to show respect, revealing the wide sleeves of the inner light blue long back, which shows the plant pattern under the light. Under the shade of the large sleeves, the man is wearing a red leather belt with golden lychee patterns and black shoes, which is in sharp contrast to the image of a Yuan Dynasty man wearing a mantle hat and a yellow-brown silk braided robe with pearl nest patterns beside him.
Photo:Portraits of people in Song and Yuan dynasty costumes at the “Ancient Chinese Costume Culture Exhibition” at the National Museum of China
The basis for restoring this set of clothing comes from the cultural relics unearthed from the tomb of Zhao Boyan in Huangyan, Zhejiang Province during the Southern Song Dynasty. Zhao Boyan was the seventh-generation grandson of Zhao Kuangyin, the founding emperor of the Northern Song Dynasty. Although he was a member of the royal family, there were very few valuables in his tomb. In addition to clothing, there was only a jade bi with a dragon, a crystal bi, and some agarwood. Zhou Yang, deputy director of the China National Silk Museum, was in charge of the emergency protection of the silk clothing in the tomb at that time. She was very impressed by the peaceful mentality of the people of the Song Dynasty. “It was only in the Song Dynasty that we found that they only buried their beloved things, without any gold or silver utensils.” During that archaeological work, Zhou Yang was most impressed by Zhao Boyan’s cross-collar lotus pattern gauze robe. “I found it so light in my hand. It was a very thin and transparent gauze.” After the clothes were washed, the wide sleeves and the sides of the body showed beautiful lotus patterns, which looked very much like the style of Song Dynasty literati. “I think Zhao Boyan must have been a very elegant person,” Zhou Yang said. “Zhao Boyan must have felt very comfortable wearing this gauze gown. His beloved jade disk was worn around his waist, looming in the flowing gauze folds. One can imagine that he must have looked very romantic and suave.”
Photo:The cross-collared lotus-patterned gauze robe unearthed from the tomb of Zhao Boyan of the Southern Song Dynasty in Huangyan and its replica fabric
A breakthrough in the shape of Hanfu men’s clothing in the Song Dynasty was the appearance of a cross-collared back with side slits. In comparison, the back was more prominent in the application of women’s clothing in the Song Dynasty. In the late Northern Song Dynasty, this kind of clothing with a straight collar, a front opening, slim narrow sleeves, a length below the knee, and long slits under the armpits became a popular daily dress in the life of concubines and imperial courts. Similar but shorter shirts also had straight collars and front openings. The narrow and steep cut gradually replaced the wide sleeves and comfortable drooping style inherited from the Tang Dynasty in the early Northern Song Dynasty, forming a new clothing style for women in the Song Dynasty. The shape and style of this clothing are vividly expressed in the silk painting “Yaotai Buletu”. The three noble women all wore backs below the knee, looking very tall and slender.
Photo:In the Song Dynasty silk painting “Yaotai Bule Tu” in the Palace Museum, three noble women are wearing knee-length gowns, looking tall and slender.
Shen Congwen once proposed the theory of “changing the ancient” when discussing the clothing of the Song Dynasty. He called the women’s clothing of the Song Dynasty “fashionable clothing” and “the changes in clothing often preceded the trend”. Many styles of women’s clothing in the Song Dynasty looked particularly modern. For example, a pair of wide-legged pants unearthed from the Song Dynasty Tomb in Chayuanshan, Fuzhou, was made of the most representative thin and light flower silk of the Song Dynasty. It has a very important invisible avant-garde design – the two trouser legs are not closed, and the two outer sides are completely open from the waist down to the heels. When wearing it, a pair of silk underpants is worn inside.
Photo:The trousers with gold-printed flowers and lace trim unearthed from the Song Dynasty tomb in Chayuan Village, Fuzhou, show the modernity of women’s clothing style in the Southern Song Dynasty
Zhang Ling, a professor at the School of Drama, Film and Television of Communication University of China, once copied this pair of trousers with completely slits on both sides in class. “The students couldn’t believe that the Southern Song Dynasty was so open. However, this openness is not an isolated case. In the evolution of back and shirt in the Northern Song Dynasty, two straps were added in the middle to tie the front. But in the Southern Song Dynasty, not only did the chest have to be open, but the bra as underwear was also worn directly to the outside. In addition, the folds of the skirt became much less, which gave the overall feeling of being very light. I think this is related to the increasingly rich life scenes of women in the Southern Song Dynasty and the gradual improvement of their social status.”
In addition to being light and simple, the elegant colors of Song Dynasty hanfu clothing are also an important feature. But without any physical colors preserved, how to restore the true colors of Song Dynasty hanfu dress? An important basis is to open up imagination space in the Song Dynasty poems that describe clothing in large quantities, such as “rubbed blue shirt and apricot yellow skirt” and “lotus silk shirt sleeves and tulips”. After the gorgeous and full Tang Dynasty, many intermediate colors with reduced saturation appeared in the Song Dynasty. The combination of these colors of different shades creates an overall feeling of gentleness and elegance of Song Dynasty clothing.
Ming Dynasty Hanfu: Splendid
For researchers of Hanfu, the Ming Dynasty is a dynasty with the richest materials, the most intuitive perception, and the most convenient restoration. This is firstly because there are physical garments handed down from the Ming Dynasty, which are more complete in shape and clearer in color and pattern than the garments unearthed by archaeology.
Photo: The restoration display of Ming and Qing costumes by graduate students of Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology reflects the integration of clothing culture at the transition period between Ming and Qing dynasties.
Among them, the largest batch comes from the costumes left by the Yanshenggong family of the Confucius Mansion in Shandong. Yanshenggong is the title of the eldest descendant of Confucius, which began in the Song Dynasty and lasted through the Yuan, Ming, Qing and Republic of China periods until the National Government changed the title of Yanshenggong Kong De to the Great Sage and Teacher of Great Accomplishment in 1935. The costumes in the old collection of the Confucius Mansion involve the costume materials of the three periods of Ming, Qing and Republic of China. Due to the status of the Yanshenggong family, the costumes of the Ming Dynasty preserved by them were not destroyed due to political events such as “changing clothes and hats”. When the Qufu Cultural Relics Management Committee took over the cultural relics of the Confucius Mansion, many camphorwood boxes were found in the attic of the back hall of the Confucius Mansion to store these clothes, including more than 100 pieces of Ming Dynasty clothes.
Ming dynasty women dress- Horse faced skirt
What is the typical dress of women in the Ming Dynasty? Except for some ceremonial occasions, women need to wear round-necked robes and large shirts, which are outer clothes of formal nature. The most commonly worn clothing style of women in the Ming Dynasty is actually very clear, that is, wearing a jacket on the upper body and a skirt on the lower body.
The skirt is in the shape of the “horse-faced skirt” that has become popular all over the country this year, and “horse-faced skirt” is the name of its image. “Horse-faced” originally refers to a pier protruding from the city wall, and its facade is shaped like a horse face. A scallion green embroidered gauze python skirt in the old collection of the Confucius Mansion is a very important horse-faced skirt in this collection. The pattern on it is a five-clawed python dragon pattern, which is of a very high level. It can be seen that it is a gift from the emperor. The craftsmanship is a combination of embroidered flowers and gold weaving, showing luxury. The scallion green color is similar to the color of the horse-faced skirt worn by women in “The Picture of Emperor Xianzong of the Ming Dynasty Enjoying the Lantern Festival”, which shows that it was a popular color at the time. It is constantly reproduced by today’s Hanfu merchants, especially the python dragon pattern on it fits the zodiac sign of this year’s Year of the Dragon, and the reproduced version has become a “hot item” worn before this year’s Spring Festival.
Photo:The Hanfu brand “Minghuatang” produced several shirts and skirts based on the old collection of clothing from the Confucius Mansion. Among them, the light green embroidered gauze python skirt and the dark green woven gold gauze cloud shoulder sleeves and flying phoenix pattern women’s short shirt are completely reproduced.
The jacket worn on the horse-faced skirt had a very prominent feature in the Ming Dynasty. Starting from the middle of the Ming Dynasty, in addition to the traditional round collar and cross collar, the vertical collar appeared. The jacket with vertical collar and vertical collar became a common style of women’s tops. The appearance of the vertical collar also provided a stage for a decorative style, that is, the use of buttons. The frequent trade between the Ming Dynasty and Central Asia and West Asia made various foreign gems become the materials for making buttons. If it is a jacket with vertical collar and double-breasted, the gold, silver and gem buttons on it can be decorated with up to seven pieces, and noble women would use this to show their wealth.
Why did the vertical collar appear? One explanation is that the middle of the Ming Dynasty was a small ice age, and the higher collar helped to keep out the cold. Another explanation is that the Neo-Confucianism of the Ming Dynasty had strict requirements for women to maintain chastity, especially in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the taboo concept of the human body was strengthened to an extreme degree.
Photo: Vertical collars and buttons are the characteristics of women’s clothing since the mid-Ming Dynasty. The picture shows a women’s top produced by “Ming Hua Tang
Ming dynasty man dress- Taoist robe
Compared with the combination of jacket and skirt for women, if we choose a set of clothes that represents the common dress of men in the Ming Dynasty, it must be the Taoist robe. As its name suggests, the Taoist robe was originally the dress of Taoists and Buddhists. A typical Taoist robe in the Ming Dynasty is straight from top to bottom, with a large collar and a white or plain collar. It has a “hidden hem” to cover the slits on both sides of the body to prevent the inner clothes from being exposed. When wearing a Taoist robe, you can wear a silk ribbon, a thin cloth belt or a big belt around your waist. Among the old collections of the Confucius Mansion, there is a Taoist robe with blue dark flower gauze. It is dyed with indigo, which cannot be seen in the picture, but there are actually dark patterns on the gauze, woven with cranes holding ganoderma lucidum, longevity peaches, pomegranates and four-in-one ruyi patterns. It looks like what a scholar in the Ming Dynasty looked like.
Photo:This blue dark-flowered Taoist robe is woven with cranes holding ganoderma lucidum, longevity peaches, pomegranates and four-way ruyi patterns. It is collected by the Confucius Museum.
In the encyclopedic work “Heavenly Creations” written by Song Yingxing in the late Ming Dynasty, there are 28 colors that can be dyed with plant dyes and animal dyes. Among them, there are not only examples of one dye dyeing multiple colors, but also examples of one color dyed with multiple formulas. It can be seen that the dyeing technology at that time was superb, and the colors of Ming Dynasty clothing were gorgeous. Among these many colors, if you want to choose a color that best represents the overall impression of Ming Dynasty clothing, it must be red. “Heavenly Creations” mentions six kinds of red: bright red, lotus red, peach red, silver red, water red and wood red. Among them, the bright red dyed by safflower is the most gorgeous. The bright red dark flower yarn embroidered with cloud crane square patch round collar robe in the old collection of Confucius Mansion, its bright red color comes from safflower dye, and after a period of time, the color is still bright and unusual.
A round-necked robe with scarlet floral patterns and embroidered clouds and cranes, from the collection of Shandong Museum
Jiang Yuqiu, the author of “Mingjian: A Study of the Clothing Style of the Ming Dynasty” and a professor at the Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, concluded that the clothing of the Ming Dynasty has the characteristics of “comprehensive integration”. “This ‘comprehensive integration’ style is the result of ‘equal emphasis on both Taoism and tools’. On the one hand, the Ming Dynasty had a top-level design in the clothing system – Zhu Yuanzhang, the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty, adopted the Zhou and Han dynasties and the Tang and Song dynasties at the beginning of the founding of the country, forming the clothing system of the Ming Dynasty and establishing a strict and comprehensive clothing hierarchy system with ‘differentiation between the upper and lower classes and the noble and the humble’; on the other hand, the textile technology of the Ming Dynasty has been greatly improved on the accumulation of previous generations. The continuous revision of the system and the rapid development of technology have jointly created the unique characteristics of the Ming Dynasty clothing.”