Hanfu (simplified Chinese: 汉服; traditional Chinese: 漢服; pinyin:Hànfú; literally: “Han clothing”) is one of the historical/ traditional clothing of the Han people.[1][2][3] The term Hanfu was originally recorded by the Book of Han, which refers to Han dynasty’s dresses: “then many came to the Court to pay homage and were delighted at the clothing style of [the] Han [dynasty].”[4]
Han Chinese clothing is influential to the clothing of East Asia such as the Japanese kimono and Korean hanbok.[3]
History
From the beginning of its history, Han clothing (especially in elite circles) was inseparable from silk, supposedly discovered by the Yellow Emperor’s consort, Leizu. The Shang Dynasty (c. 1600 BC — 1000 BC), developed the rudiments of Hanfu; it consisted of a yi, a narrow-cuffed, knee-length tunic tied with a sash, and a narrow, ankle-length skirt, called chang, worn with a bixi, a length of fabric that reached the knees. Vivid primary colors and green were used, due to the degree of technology at the time.
The dynasty to follow the Shang, the Western Zhou Dynasty, established a strict hierarchical society that used clothing as a status meridian, and inevitably, the height of one’s rank influenced the ornateness of a costume. Such markers included the length of a skirt, the wideness of a sleeve and the degree of ornamentation. In addition to these class-oriented developments, Han Chinese clothing became looser, with the introduction of wide sleeves and jade decorations hung from the sash which served to keep the yiclosed. The yi was essentially wrapped over, in a style known as jiaoling youren, or wrapping the right side over before the left, because of the initially greater challenge to the right-handed wearer (people of Zhongyuan discouraged left-handedness like many other historical cultures, considering it unnatural, barbarian, uncivilized, and unfortunate).
Several styles
Garments
The style of historical Han clothing can be summarized as containing garment elements that are arranged in distinctive and sometimes specific ways. This is different from the traditional garment of other ethnic groups in China, most notably the Manchu-influenced clothes, the qipao, which is popularly assumed to be the de facto traditional Han Chinese garb. A comparison of the two styles can be seen as the following provides[original research?]:
ComponentHanManchuUpper GarmentConsist of “yi” (衣), which have loose lapels and are openConsist of “pao” (袍), which have secured lapels around the neck and no front openingsLower GarmentConsist of skirts called “chang” (裳)Consist of pants or trousers called “ku” (褲)CollarsGenerally, diagonally crossing each other, with the left crossing over the rightParallel vertical collars with parallel diagonal lapels, which overlapSleevesLong and looseNarrow and tightButtonsSparingly used and concealed inside the garmentNumerous and prominently displayedFittingsBelts and sashes are used to close, secure, and fit the garments around the waistFlat ornate buttoning systems are typically used to secure the collar and fit the garment around the neck and upper torso
A complete Hanfu garment is assembled from several pieces of clothing into an attire:
- Yi (衣): Any open cross-collar garment, and worn by both sexes
- Pao (袍): Any closed full-body garment, worn only by men in Hanfu
- Ru (襦): Open cross-collar shirt
- Shan (衫): Open cross-collar shirt or jacket that is worn over the yi
- Qun (裙) or chang (裳): Skirt for women and men
- Ku (褲): Trousers or pants
Hats, headwear and hairstyles
Children playing on a winter day (冬日嬰戲圖), Song Dynasty, by court painter Su, Hanchen (蘇漢臣). National Palace Museum in Taiwan.
Poet Li Bai in Stroll (李白行吟圖). A “減筆畫” (lit. minimalist painting) by Liang Kai (梁楷) of Southern Song Dynasty. Note that Li Bai is depicted with his bun exposed, possibly due to the poet’s heavy Taoist influence. The painting is currently kept in Tokyo National Museum.
Mural painting of a male figure, discovered in a Western Han dynasty (206 B.C. — 8 A.D.) tomb in Chin-hsiang County
On top of the garments, hats (for men) or hairpieces (for women) may be worn. One can often tell the profession or social rank of someone by what they wear on their heads. The typical types of male headwear are called jin (巾) for soft caps, mao (帽) for stiff hats and guan (冠) for formal headdress. Officials and academics have a separate set of hats, typically the putou (幞頭), the wushamao (烏紗帽), the si-fang pingding jin (四方平定巾; or simply, fangjin: 方巾) and the Zhuangzi jin (莊子巾). A typical hairpiece for women is the ji (笄) but there are more elaborate hairpieces.
In addition, managing hair was also a crucial part of ancient Han people’s daily life. Commonly, males and females would stop cutting their hair once they reached adulthood. This was marked by the Chinese coming of age ceremony Guan Li, usually performed between ages 15 to 20. They allowed their hair to grow long naturally until death, including facial hair. This was due to Confucius’ teaching “身體髮膚，受諸父母，不敢毀傷，孝之始也” — which can be roughly translated as ‘My body, hair and skin are given by my father and mother, I dare not damage any of them, as this is the least I can do to honor and respect my parents’. In fact, cutting one’s hair off in ancient China was considered a legal punishment called ‘髡’, designed to humiliate criminals, as well as tattooing ‘黥’, since regular people wouldn’t have tattoos on their skin due to the same teaching.
Children were exempt from the above commandment, they could cut their hair short, make different kinds of knots or braids, or simply just let them hang without any care. However, once they entered adulthood, every male was obliged to tie his long hair into a bun called ji (髻) either on or behind his head and always cover the bun up with different kinds of headdresses (except Buddhist monks, who would always keep their heads completely shaved to show that they’re “cut off from the earthly bonds of the mortal world”; and Taoist monks, who would usually just use hair sticks called ‘簪’ (zān) to hold the buns in place without concealing them). Thus the ‘disheveled hair’, a common but erring depiction of ancient Chinese male figures seen in most modern Chinese period dramas or movies with hair (excluding facial hair) hanging down from both sides and/or in the back are historically inaccurate. Females on the other hand, had more choices in terms of decorating their hair as adults. They could still arrange their hair into as various kinds of hairstyles as they pleased. There were different fashions for women in various dynastic periods.
Such strict “no-cutting” hair tradition was implemented all throughout Han Chinese history since Confucius’ time up until the end of Ming Dynasty (1644 CE), when the Qing Prince Dorgon forced the male Han people to adopt the hairstyle of Manchu men, which was shave their foreheads bald and gather the rest of the hair into ponytails in the back (See Queue) in order to show that they submitted to Qing authority, the so-called “Queue Order” (薙髮令). Han children and females were spared from this order, also Taoist monks were allowed to keep their hair and Buddhist monks were allowed to keep all their hair shaven. Han defectors to the Qing like Li Chengdong and Liu Liangzuo and their Han troops carried out the queue order to force it on the general population. Han Chinese soldiers in 1645 under Han General Hong Chengchou forced the queue on the people of Jiangnan while Han people were initially paid silver to wear the queue in Fuzhou when it was first implemented.[13]
- A lacquerware painting from the Jingmen Tomb (Chinese: 荊門楚墓; Pinyin: Jīngmén chǔ mù) of the State of Chu (704–223 BC), depicting women and men wearing precursors to traditional silk dress) and riding in a two-horsed chariot
- Fresco of a woman from a Western Han dynasty (206 B.C. — 8 A.D.) tomb in Sian, China
reference：https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanfu