Hanfu

Hanfu ( , lit. "Han clothing"), also known as Hanzhuang ( , "Han attire") or traditional Chinese clothing, are historical Chinese clothings worn by the majority Han Chinese people from at least the 2nd millennium BC to the mid-17th century AD — encompassing nearly all of the recorded history of China up to the end of the Ming dynasty — until violent conquest and forced assimilation by the Qing dynasty led to their replacement by the Manchu qizhuang and magua in a historical event known as Tifayifu. Due to the rise of China since the start of the 21st century, there is currently a growing cultural movement among the younger generations in Mainland China and the Chinese diaspora to revive and reinstate hanfu as the genuine, orthodox representative of Chinese culture and aesthetics, as opposed to the Manchu-inspired qipao and tangzhuang and the Japanese school uniform (gakuran)-inspired Mao suit. There are several representative styles of hanfu, such as the (a long skirt worn high over the upper garment), (an upper garment with a long underskirt), (a loose-fitting, open-front coat) and (one-piece robe), and the (an upper-body garment with trousers). Historically, the most common formal style of hanfu consists of a broad-sleeved robe named paofu for men, or the pairing of an upper garment named ru (jacket) with a lower garment named qun (skirt) for women.…

Hanfu ( , lit. "Han clothing"), also known as Hanzhuang ( , "Han attire") or traditional Chinese clothing, are historical Chinese clothings worn by the majority Han Chinese people from at least the 2nd millennium BC to the mid-17th century AD — encompassing nearly all of the recorded history of China up to the end of the Ming dynasty — until violent conquest and forced assimilation by the Qing dynasty led to their replacement by the Manchu qizhuang and magua in a historical event known as Tifayifu. Due to the rise of China since the start of the 21st century, there is currently a growing cultural movement among the younger generations in Mainland China and the Chinese diaspora to revive and reinstate hanfu as the genuine, orthodox representative of Chinese culture and aesthetics, as opposed to the Manchu-inspired qipao and tangzhuang and the Japanese school uniform (gakuran)-inspired Mao suit. There are several representative styles of hanfu, such as the (a long skirt worn high over the upper garment), (an upper garment with a long underskirt), (a loose-fitting, open-front coat) and (one-piece robe), and the (an upper-body garment with trousers). Historically, the most common formal style of hanfu consists of a broad-sleeved robe named paofu for men, or the pairing of an upper garment named ru (jacket) with a lower garment named qun (skirt) for women. In almost all these styles, at least one of the upper garments (either the overgarment or the undergarment), will have crossing collars (known as jiaoling) with the left front panel overlapping the right panel and fastened at the right waist (known as youren), typically by a knotted ribbon. In addition to clothing, hanfu also includes several forms of headwear, footwear and accessories, such as belts and buckles, hand fans, jewellery, jade belt pendants ( ), bracelets, and sachets. As with many traditional Chinese things, hanfu derives its name from the Han dynasty, the first golden age of China with international sphere of influence. The centuries-long prosperity and stability of the Han dynasty allowed hanfu to develop into a variety of styles due to a number of technological advancements in textile production and dyeing, particularly with rapid advancements in sericulture. Due to the historical dominance of China in the Far East, hanfu has also influenced the traditional fashions of many neighbouring countries within the Chinese cultural sphere, including the Korean hanbok, the Japanese kimono, the Ryukyuan ryusou and the Vietnamese áo giao lĩnh. Elements of hanfu design have also influenced Western fashion, especially through Chinoiserie fashion, due to the popularity of Chinoiserie in Europe and North America since the 17th century.

Sixteen Kingdoms, Northern and Southern dynasties

tomb Due to the frequent wars in this era, mass migration occurred and resulted in several ethnics living together with communication exchange; as such, this period marked an important time of cultural integration and cultural blending, including the cultural exchange of clothing. Han Chinese living in the south favoured the driving dress of the northern minorities, trousers and xi ( ; a tight sleeved, close fitting long jacket, length reaching below crotch and above knees), while the rulers from northern minorities favoured the court dress of the Han Chinese. Near the areas of the Yellow River, the popularity of the ethnic minorities' hufu was high, almost equal to the Han Chinese clothing, in the Sixteen Kingdoms and the Northern and Southern dynasties period. Liangdang ( ) is a type of undershirt or waistcoat worn in Northern China during the Sixteen Kingdoms period; it is not to be confused with a type of doubled-faced cuirass armour, also named liangdang, which was worn during this period. During the Northern and Southern dynasties, the dressing style followed the style of the Three Kingdoms and Jin dynasty; robes, skirts, trousers, short jackets, sleeveless jackets were worn while fur coats, especially marten coats, were very rare. Young people liked to be dressed in trousers; however, it was not well-perceived for women to wear trousers; women wore skirts. Based on tomb figures dating from the Southern dynasties, it is known that the robes worn during those period continued the long, wide-sleeves, youren opening tradition. The robes continued to be fastened with a girdle and was worn over a straight-neck undergarment. Tomb figures depicted as servants in this period are also shown wearing skirts, aprons, trousers and upper garments with vertical opening or . Servants wore narrow-sleeved upper garment whereas attendants had wider sleeves which could be knotted above the wrist. The court dress was still xuanyi ( ; dark cloth); however, there were regulations in terms of fabric materials used. In the Northern dynasties (386 – 581 AD), ordinary women always wore short jackets and coats. The ethnic Xianbei founded the Northern Wei dynasty in 398 A.D. and continued to wear their traditional, tribal nomadic clothing to denote themselves as members of the ruling elite until c. 494 A.D. when Emperor Xiaowen of Northern Wei decreed a prohibition of Xianbei clothing among many other prohibition on Xianbei culture (e.g. language, Xianbei surnames) as a form of sinicization policies and allowed the intermarriage between Xianbei and Chinese elites. The Wei shu even claimed that the Xianbei rulers were descendants of Yellow Emperor, just like the Han Chinese, despite being non-Chinese. The Wei shu also records that Emperor Xiaowen of Northern Wei promoted Chinese-style long robes and official crowns in the court to display the wearer's rank and his hierarchical position in the court and ritual functions. For example, both male and female patrons appeared in Xianbei-style attire during the 5th century AD, this can be seen particular at the Yungang caves temples near Datong and in the earliest carvings at Longmen, whereas in the first third of the 6th century, the patrons tend to appear in Chinese-style clothing in the majority of Northern Wei caves at Longmen; this change in clothing style has been suggested to be the result of sinicization policies regarding the adoption of Chinese-style clothing in the Northern Wei court. Earliest images of nomadic Xianbei-style dress in China tend to be depicted as a knee-length tunic with narrow sleeves, with a front opening, which can typically be collarless, round-collared, and sometimes be V-neck collared; men and women tend to wear that knee-length tunic over trousers for men and long, ground-length skirts for women. When their tunics had lapelled, the lapel opening was typically zuoren. Xianbei people also wore Xianbei-style cloaks and xianbei hat ( ; xianbei mao). Despite the sinicization policies attempted by the Northern Wei court, the nomadic style clothing continued to exist in China until Tang dynasty. For example, narrow and tight sleeves, which was well adapted to nomadic life-style, started to be favoured and was adopted by Han Chinese. In the Shuiyusi temple of Xiangtangshan Caves dated back to Northern dynasties, male worshippers are usually dressed in Xianbei style attire while women are dressed in Han Chinese style attire wearing skirts and high-waisted, wrap-style robes with wide sleeves. Moreover, after the fall of the Northern Wei, tensions started to rise between the Western Wei (which was more sinicized) and the Eastern Wei (which was less sinicized and resented the sinicized court of Northern Wei). Due to the shift in politics, Han and non-Han Chinese ethnic tensions arose between the successor states of Northern Wei; and Xianbei-style clothing reappeared; however, their clothing had minor changes. At the end of the Northern and Southern dynasties, foreign immigrants started to settle in China; most of those foreign immigrants were traders and buddhists missionaries from Central Asia. Cultural diversity was also the most striking feature in China in the sixth-century AD. From the mural paintings found in the Tomb of Xu Xianxiu of the Northern Qi, various types of attire are depicted which reflect the internationalism and multiculturalism of the Northern Qi; many of the attire styles are derived from Central Asia or nomadic designs. The wife of Xu Xianxiu is depicted with a flying-bird bun; she is wearing a Han Chinese cross-collared, wide-sleeves attire which has the basic clothing design derived from the Han dynasty attire with some altered designs, such as a high waistline and wide standing collar. Xu Xianxiu is depicted wearing a Central Asian-style coat, Xianbei-style tunic, trousers, and boots. Some of the female servants depicted from the tomb murals of Xu Xianxiu are wearing what appears to be Sogdian dresses, which tend to be associated with dancing girls and low-status entertainers during this period, while the ladies-in-waiting of Xu Xianxiu's wife are wearing narrow-sleeved clothing which look more closely related to Xianbei-style or Central Asian-style clothing; yet this Xianbei style of attire is different from the depictions of Xianbei-style attire worn before 500 AD. The men (i.e. soldiers, grooms and male attendants) in the mural paintings of Xu Xianxiu tomb are depicted wearing high black or brown boots, belts, headgears, and clothing which follows the Xianbei-style, i.e. V-neck, long tunic which is below knee-length, with the left lapel of the front covering the right; narrow-sleeved tunic which is worn on top of round-collared undergarment are also depicted. High-waisted skirt style, which likely came from Central Asia, was also introduced to Han Chinese during the Northern Wei dynasty. Of note, significant changes occurred to the form of the garments which had been originally introduced by the Xianbei and other Turkic people who had settled in northern China after the fall of the Han dynasty; for example, in the arts and literature which dates from the 5th century, their male clothing appeared to represent the ethnicity of its wearer, but in the 6th century, the attire lost its ethnic significance and did not denote its wearer as Xianbei or non-Chinese. Instead, the nomadic dress had turned into a type of male ordinary dress in the Sui and early Tang dynasties regardless of ethnicity. On the other hand, the Xianbei women gradually abandoned their ethnic Xianbei clothing and adopted Han Chinese-style and Central Asian-style clothing to the point that by the Sui dynasty, women in China were no longer wearing steppe clothing. Although some of clothing in the Song dynasty have similaritiesref name="dx.doi.org" /> In the 7th and 8th centuries, the kuapao, which originated from Central Asia could be worn by men and were also used as main garment for cross-dressing attendants or could be draped across the shoulders like a cloak. with previous dynasties, some unique characteristics separate it from the rest. While most of them following the Tang dynasty style, the revival of Confucianism influenced the women clothing of the Song dynasty; Confucians in the Song dynasty revered antiquity and wanted to revive some old ideas and customs and encouraged women to reject the extravagance of the Tang dynasty fashion. Due to the shift in philosophical thought, the aesthetics of the Song dynasty clothing showed simplicity and became more traditional in style. Palace ladies searched for guidance in the Rites of Zhou on how to dress accordingly to ceremonial events and carefully chose ornaments which were graded for each occasion based on the classic rituals. While women of the Tang dynasty liked clothing which emphasized on body curves and sometimes revealed décolletage, women in the Song dynasty perceived such styles as obscene and vulgar and preferred slender body figure. Donning clothing which looked simple and humble instead of extravagant was interpreted as expressing sober virtue. The Song dynasty clothing system also specified how women of the imperial court had to dress themselves and this included the Song empresses, the imperial concubines, and the titled gentlewomen; their clothing would also change depending on occasions. Song dynasty empresses wear the huiyi; they often had three to five distinctive jewelry-like marks on their face (two side of the cheek, other two next to the eyebrows and one on the forehead). The everyday clothing of the Empresses and Imperial concubines included: long skirts, loose-sleeves garments, tasselled capes and beizi. Imperial concubines like the colour yellow and red; the pomegranate colour skirt was also popular in the Song dynasty. Collar edges and sleeve edges of all clothes that have been excavated were decorated with laces or embroidered patterns. Such clothes were decorated with patterns of peony, camellia, plum blossom, and lily, etc. Pleated skirts were introduced and became the characteristic skirts of the upper social class. According to the Song dynasty's regulations, ordinary people were only allowed to wear white clothes; but at some point, the regulations changed and ordinary people, as well as administrative clerks and intellectuals, were able to wear black clothes. However, in reality, the clothing worn by civilians were much more colourful than what was stipulated as many colours were used in the garments and skirts. Ordinary people also dressed differently accordingly to their social status and occupations. One of the common clothing styles for woman during the Song dynasty was beizi, which were usually regarded as shirt or jacket and could be matched with ru, which was a necessary clothing for daily life of commoners, a qun ( ; skirt) or ku ( ; trousers). There are two size of beizi: the short one is crown rump length and the long one extended to the knees. According to the sacrificial and ceremonial apparel system drafted by Zhu Xi, women should wear an overcoat, a long skirt, and the beizi. Women also wore the liangpian qun ( ), a wrap skirt which consist of two pieces of fabric sewn to a separate, single waistband with ties. A painting, called Sericulture, by the painter Liang Kai in Southern Song dynasty depicts rural labourers in the process of making silk. Foot binding also became popular in the Song dynasty at the end of the dynasty. Other casual forms of clothing included: the pao ( ; the gown which could be broad or narrow-sleeved), ao ( ; a necessary coat for commoner in their daily lives), duanhe ( ; a short, coarse cloth jacket worn by people of low socioeconomic status), lanshan, and zhiduo. , Song dynasty. In addition, Neo-Confucian philosophies also determined the conduct code of the scholars. The Neo-Confucians re-constructed the meaning of the shenyi, restored, and re-invented it as the attire of the scholars. Some Song dynasty scholars, such as Zhu Xi and Shaoyong, made their own version of the scholar gown, shenyi, based on The book of Rites, while scholars such as Jin Lüxiang promoted it among his peers. However, the shenyi used as a scholar gown was not popular in the Song dynasty and was even considered as "strange garment" despite some scholar-officials appreciated it. actresses in theatrical clothing playing men, wearing headscarfs with rings, Xiku and Waku trousers and leggings, Song dynasty. In the capital of Southern Song, clothing-style from Northern China were popular. The Song dynasty court repeatedly banned people (i.e. common people, literati, and women) from wearing clothing and ornaments worn by Khitan people, such as felt hats, and from the wearing of exotic clothing. They also banned clothing with colours which was associated to Khitan clothing; such as aeruginous or yellowish-black. They also banned people, except for drama actors, from wearing Jurchen and Khitan diaodun ( ; a type of lower garment where the socks and trousers were connected to each other) due to its foreign ethnic nature. Song dynasty women also wore the Song-dynasty gaitou, when they would ride animals, such as horses and donkeys, to relieve embarrassment and to conceal their bodies. These veils originated from the Tang dynasty women's weimao which covered the head and upper body; they were revived in Song after they fell out of fashion in Tang dynasty and were worn despite its masculine and barbarian origin, probably because Song women were unaware of its origins. Many of Song dynasty clothing was later adopted in the Yuan and Ming dynasties. The silk skirts which are indigenous to Han Chinese women are a representative garment of the Qing dynasty clothing. A popular form of skirts during the Qing dynasty was the mamianqun, a skirt made of two separate pieces of fabric which are not sewn together from the waistline to the hemline; this skirt allowed women with bounded feet to walk with greater ease. The mamianqun had very subtle changes in both the cut and decorations throughout the Qing dynasty. Other Han Chinese women skirts which were popular in the Qing dynasty were the baijianqun ( ; hundred pleated skirt), the yuehuaqun ( ; moonlight skirt) which was popular in the early Qing, the phoenix tail skirt which was popular during the reign of Kangxi and Qianlong, and the ‘fish-scale’ skirt. At the end of the Qing dynasty, a skirt decorated with sword-shaped ribbons with bells hanging at the sharp corner appear. Han Chinese women also wore dudou, which was developed from the Ming dynasty dudou. Outside China in 1911, the magazine Vogue recommended shopping for a set of attire called "boudoir set" which consisted of the Qing dynasty aoqun with wide hems and wide sleeves, and shoes. However, by the Xinhai revolution in 1911, the wide hemmed and wide sleeved Qing dynasty aoqun was no more popular among urban Han Chinese women in China; instead they started to make their clothing narrower. Ready-to-wear Western clothing had little popularity among Chinese consumers as due to proportion misfit of Western clothing.

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