Should China's robe be yellow or black? Which is orthodox?

According to some historical records, when Indian monks first came to China, most of them wore red robes, which naturally became a part of Buddhist heritage. "Hong Mingji" quoted the theory of reason and confusion as saying: "Today, the shaman has uncovered the red cloth, said that once he eats, he meets six emotions, and has since died." Until now, for nearly two thousand years, shaman's cassock is mainly red.

However, there was a time in history when the color of monks' robes was quite chaotic. According to the Book of the Tang Dynasty, a monk in the late Tang Dynasty, Farang, retranslated the Great Cloud Sutra and asked the marquis of Wu to be a Maitreya Buddha. At that time, he was the ruler of the Tang Dynasty in Jambu-Di^pa. This attachment naturally helped the marquis of Wu to prepare public opinion for Zhou, so he made great contributions to the dynasty. Wuhou also gave purple robes to nine people, including Samana Farang, in accordance with the regulations of wearing purple clothes for officials with three or more products in the Tang Dynasty. It has been popular for a while since then. In the Tang and Song Dynasties, purple cassock and scarlet cassock were always respected by the imperial court, which led to the chaotic situation of choosing the color of cassock at will regardless of the discipline. But from the Han Dynasty to the present, on the whole, the robes of Buddhist monks are mainly red. Because of the obsession with "red color", scarlet cassock is the most common and respected. As we all know, scarlet is precisely the "coloring" and "pure color" that are not allowed in the precepts. The red clothes worn by ancient monks are red, black or red and yellow.

Because the weather in China is colder than that in India, monks in the village can't keep out the cold only by "three clothes" or "five clothes". Not only the Han people are not used to wearing only "three clothes", but even the great and noble monks from the west can't spend the cold winter in the Han areas only wearing Kosaya. Therefore, according to the regulations of Buddhism, monks in the Han Dynasty added other clothes in addition to the three clothes and according to actual needs, and also formed certain regulations on color.

Before and after the Eastern Jin Dynasty, due to the prosperity of Buddhism, the number of Han monks increased, so there appeared a "garment" different from the cassock. The so-called "hook clothing" is a traditional clothing in the Han Dynasty, with wide sleeves and a big robe, which has changed its style slightly and become the daily clothing of monks, but it is stipulated in color. According to Song Zanning's "A Brief History of the Monks in the Great Song Dynasty", the book Kao Gong Ji is quoted as saying: Q: What color is the person who takes off his clothes? A: Purple is light ink, not a positive color. Seven colors are one color. Dyeing black again is the color of the bird's head, and dyeing black again is the color of "barnyard grass". "Purple" is a faint crimson color, while "purple" is a cyan color, which gradually deepens from "crimson" and finally becomes "purple" color. Now it is called "red-blue" color, but it is actually a reddish black color.

Black clothes have been very popular since the Eastern Jin Dynasty. At that time, monks were called "clothes" or "Liu", which shows that monks have generally worn clothes. According to the Complete Works of Buddhism, which was often written in the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, during the Liu and Song Dynasties in the Southern Dynasties, "there was a monk Hui Lin who learned to be lucky to be an emperor and decided to conduct political affairs, and was called' Prime Minister in Black'". In addition, Hui and Xuan Chang, the eminent monks of Chikulin Temple in Jingzhou in the early Qi Dynasty, were also called "the two outstanding men in black" (Biography of Hui Gao Zang). At this time, "Yi Yi" has become the code name of shaman; Clothes and white clothes became the symmetry of later monks, which was called "Su Yu".

As for the monk's uniform, it is difficult to determine why they chose the color "Man", but it evolved from the traditional religious color "Dark Black" in China.

At first, the color of Taoist costumes was "color". In the Northern Wei Dynasty, Li Daoyuan wrote in Volume VI of Notes on Water Classics: "The land has a solid place, a sparse woman, a copper cloud and a purple fan. Therefore, I am convinced that I am a mysterious person and the husband of Lu Qiu, and I will travel on my behalf. " Praise home herbalists as "people who obey metaphysics", which shows that the color is the ancient religious costume of China. Early Buddhism was greatly influenced by Taoism, so the uniforms of Buddhist monks also chose this color. At that time, the difference between Buddhism and Taoism was only in the use of crowns and towels. The Taoist supported Huang Guan. As a result, "Huang Guan" became the proper name of the Taoist priest, and "Yiyi" became the nickname of the monk. With the development of Buddhism, the number of monks and nuns has increased dramatically, and the number of people wearing clothes has also increased. Therefore, Taoist priests have to change the color of their clothes, while monks' clothes are anti-customer, making Yi Fu a special color for Buddhist monks. But the service of monks is not always smooth. According to "A Brief History of Monks", Emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou Dynasty once banned shamans from wearing clothes and changed them to yellow. Since then, the colors of monks' uniforms have become diverse. Song Zanning's "A Brief History of Monks" said: "Today, the river surface is mostly black and red, sometimes blue and yellow, yellow and brown, and Shi Lian is brown." Tokyo Guanfu is still brown, Youzhou is still black. Another cloud said, "At the end of the Tang Dynasty, a Zen master in Zhang Yu saw that southern Zen people often wore white cups, so he often dyed them with vases. Today, Huang Heng is called Guanyin Heng. " At this time, it can be seen that the colors of monks' clothing are not only black and red, but also yellow and brown, Shi Lian brown and so on, and the colors are much more than before. The development of China culture tends to be conservative in the north, so Youzhou, which is located in the north, maintains the habit of black, which has been affecting until now, and there are still many monks wearing black in the north.

In the early years of Hongwu in Ming Dynasty, the court formally formulated the color of monks. In the Ming Dynasty, the manuscript of the Ministry of Rites said: "In the fourteenth year of Hongwu, monks and Taoists were all colored, and Zen monks were all dressed in brown tea, green sash and jade robes; On the monk's jade color, green sash and light red cassock; Teach monks to wear soap, black sash and light red cassock. " In Yun Qi's Essays on Bamboo Windows, he said: "The clothes of Zen Buddhism are brown, the clothes of the speaker are blue, and the clothes of lawyers are black." According to the "Mountain Hall Examination", "Today's Zen robes are brown, robes are red, and yoga robes are lush. Yoga monks should go to the monastery today. " It can be seen that the monk's clothing system gradually changed in the late Ming Dynasty. At present, Baohua Mountain in Nanjing is the ancestral home of Legalists. Whenever the precepts are spoken, the abbot still wears a black robe, while the master and apprentice wear a yellow robe. This is still the old system of the Ming Dynasty. At present, the uniforms of monks are mostly brown, yellow, black and gray. Yellow-green in the north is called Hunan color. Among these five colors, there are any shades, so there is no specific regulation.

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