The Material Age of China's Clothing

The clothes that prevailed in ancient times are deep clothes, and the clothes that represent the characteristics of the times are also deep clothes, which may be the characteristics of ancient clothes. Those who are convinced by the old saying must arrive first. What is a coat? Confucius said in the Book of Rites: "Therefore, those who call it deep clothes should take the rest clothes, and the upper and lower parts are not connected. This kind of deep coat is connected with clothes and the quilt is deep, so it is called a deep coat. " For details of the system, see Book of Rites Shenfu. The most important thing is "continue to sew and hook the edge." It needs to be sewn halfway. If you are tall, you can move your elbow. The length of the bow is as bad as the elbow ... the bow should conform to the rules, the bending clip should conform to the square, and the negative rope and ankle should be straight ... pure bow, edge, edge and half an inch wide. "..... in short, the system of deep clothes is the first of ancient costumes, and the leader of deep clothes has been popular for the longest time, not only in its system form, but also at the upper and lower levels. Ma Duanlin's "Literature General Examination Wang Li Kao Guan Fu" said: "According to the system of three generations of clothes, although there are different people to take an examination of, except for the crown fu, only (end fu) is the most widely used. Duan Xuan can go from the emperor to the scholar, and the deep clothes can go from the emperor to Shu Ren ... As for the deep clothes, they are cut and sewn, so you can take them cheap and expensive, the court can take them, the emperor can take them, the old-age can take them, the princes can take them, the sacrifices can take them, the doctors can take them, the private affairs can take them, and the guest sacrifices can be covered. The clothes are not cut, evil, round, hidden or extravagant. Its scale is eight feet eight inches, each picture is two feet two inches long and two feet two inches wide, and its four corners are square, so it is called the end. Its petticoats, the first three and the last four, should have countless accumulations, which are called petticoats. The ancients had a "deep evening dress". (Refer to Huang Xianfan's "A Preliminary Study on the Interpretation of Ancient Books")

From the Zhou Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty, the basic features of China's clothing system in China have not changed much in the past three thousand years. It was not until the Qing Dynasty colonized China more than 300 years ago that this clothing system collapsed. 1644 After the demise of the Ming Dynasty, in the war between the Qing Dynasty and China, in order to weaken the national identity of China people and colonize China, the Qing colonialists imposed Manchu hairstyles and Manchu costumes, forbidding people to wear Hanfu, which was called "shaving hair and changing clothes" (also called "shaving hair"). This makes Hanfu gradually die out. At that time, the Duke of Confucius' descendants' feast wrote to Dourgen, asking to keep the clothes of Confucius' family, saying, "A saint is a master of ceremonies ... The most important thing to hold a ceremony is to wear a crown ... but the clothes of ministers have not changed for 3,000 years ...", but Dourgen refused. Today's cheongsam, gown and mandarin jacket are all developed from the improvement of Manchu-dominated national costumes.

After the Revolution of 1911 overthrew the colonial rule of Manchuria, people's thoughts tended to westernize and changed to western-style clothes, but they did not restore Hanfu. But at the beginning of the 20th century, with the development of China's national strength, people began to examine the excellent parts of their traditional culture. Some people once again advocate the restoration of traditional Hanfu and its popularization in Hanfu.

Mandarin jacket and cheongsam are the improvement and continuation of Manchu costumes, which are quite different from the traditional national costumes in China and cannot represent the traditional culture of China. The main features of clothing are round neck and oblique skirt. Although it is similar in appearance, it is quite different from China's national costume in terms of cutting and wearing methods. Most importantly, the aesthetics of mandarin jackets, cheongsam and other costumes are mixed with many non-China traditional aesthetics. Due to compulsory reasons, the simple and elegant China costume aesthetics in the real traditional sense almost disappeared in the Qing Dynasty, and now it is even harder to find traces.

Mandarin jackets and cheongsam are not Chinese clothes (see the history books of the Republic of China for details, saying that cheongsam mandarin jackets are foreign clothes). Hanfu is an authentic China costume! !