"Their embroidered silk robes sparkle in the spring sun, and there are a group of golden peacocks and silver unicorns." How particular were the people in the Tang Dynasty about their clothes?

The prosperous Tang Dynasty was the peak of the development of ancient feudal society in China. It has always been world-renowned for its developed economy, flourishing national strength and open society. In the rich and colorful cultural phenomenon in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, clothing is a bright pearl, showing the remarkable characteristics of diverse shapes and styles. In the eyes of Tang people, clothing is a unique embodiment of a country's political atmosphere and cultural characteristics.

Clothing has always been a very important part of Confucian etiquette thought initiated by the great thinker Confucius. He believes that "dressing is no small matter", from princes and nobles to ordinary people, we must dress in strict accordance with the rules of etiquette. Different shapes of clothes can reflect the status of the owner.

In fact, throughout the ancient history of China, the costumes of every dynasty and generation have their distinctive features, which are often inseparable from the national outlook and social atmosphere at that time.

As a multi-ethnic unified country, the Tang Dynasty not only respected Haiyan and Heqing, but also respected the inclusiveness, openness and eclecticism of culture. The Tang Dynasty inherited the northern minority costumes in Wei and Jin Dynasties, and improved and developed them on this basis, gradually forming a unique "elegant" style.

Before the Tang Dynasty, although there were obvious grade differences in people's daily clothes, people could know their owner's identity and occupation at a glance, but most of them had the shortcomings of single style and fixed shape. Since the establishment of the Tang Dynasty by Tang Gaozu Li Yuan, he has made a pioneering improvement on the costumes of the Emperor of Heaven. For the first time, he clearly took bright yellow as a special color, symbolizing the Ninth Five-Year Plan, and explicitly prohibited anyone else from wearing yellow clothes to show the sanctity of imperial power.

As for why Li Yuan used yellow as the color of the emperor's clothes, historians have different opinions. Among them, the most credible one is the "Five Elements Theory", which holds that the replacement of dynasties corresponds to the five elements of "gold, wood, water, fire and earth", while in the Tang Dynasty, it belongs to the earth, so the yellow of the land is regarded as a symbol of imperial power.

The formal attire of ancient emperors is generally called "dragon robe". However, it is worth mentioning that there are no dragons on the clothes of the Tang emperor. This symbol of the supremacy of imperial power did not exist until the Ming and Qing Dynasties. At that time, the clothes that emperors often wore were divided into "regular clothes" and "formal clothes". As the name implies, "secret service" refers to the clothes worn by ordinary men's clothing, food, shelter and transportation. There is no fundamental difference in shape from other ordinary men's clothing, but the color is different. "Dress" is a special dress for large-scale ceremonial activities, and its production process is more complicated. Also called "coronation dress" or "clothes".

The old Tang Dynasty book Yu Fuzhi recorded the composition of the "clothes" of the Emperor of Heaven: wearing a crown with twelve jade beads embedded in it. Red reward on a black background, embroidered with "Twelve Chapters".

In today's film and television works of costume, we often see such a scene, saying that the emperor wears a dragon robe and a crown whenever and wherever, which is obviously unreasonable. In fact, clothes are generally special costumes for major celebrations and special ceremonies, such as enthronement ceremony and ancestral temple sacrifice.

There are obvious differences in the clothes of court officials according to their tastes. Every day, when ministers go up and down to the imperial court and handle official business, they must wear royal clothes, which is also called "provincial clothes". In the eyes of ancient people, purple is the noblest color. Since ancient times, there has been a saying that "purple gas comes from the east and saints pass through customs", so purple official clothes are the most prominent, and only officials with more than three products can wear them. Ministers of Grade Four or Five wear red, officials of Grade Six wear green, and those below Grade Seven can only wear cyan. From the color of grade dress, we can see that people in the Tang Dynasty paid attention to officials' clothes.

The clothing of the civilian class is relatively simple, and most people still mainly use light-colored coarse cloth, and the production process is simple and rough. Wealthy businessmen and nobles prefer clothes carefully sewn with fine silk. In the Tang Dynasty, men's costumes were mostly narrow-sleeved robes with round neck and right collar, which absorbed the advantages of northern minority costumes and made it very convenient to move. Men also wear hoes on their heads. Ordinary men wear soft-footed hoes, while court ministers wear two hoes with hard feet.

Compared with men, women's clothing styles in the Tang Dynasty are more complex and diverse, including skirts, skirts, shirts and so on. , with elegant characteristics.

Women's costumes in the early Tang Dynasty were exactly the same as those in the Sui Dynasty: narrow sleeves with long skirts and a pair of bow shoes. This style of dressing was very popular in Wei and Jin Dynasties, so it also had a far-reaching impact on the early Tang Dynasty. However, with the development of economy, the opening of atmosphere and the deepening of national integration in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, great changes have taken place in social concepts, and women's wear has gradually developed boldly and exposed.

In the middle Tang Dynasty, a short skirt was quietly popular among aristocratic women, that is, the skirt was tied with lace above the chest, which was called "high-breasted skirt". Because it shows the graceful figure and graceful appearance of women vividly, it has been sought after for a time, especially a large number of upper-class aristocrats and prostitutes are eager to follow suit.

As we all know, women in the Tang Dynasty took fatness as their beauty. This kind of wide-chested dress, regardless of height or thinness, can reflect women's sexy agility, cater to the aesthetic taste of the society at that time, and also reflect the openness and tolerance of the atmosphere in the Tang Dynasty. It has long been a representative dress for women in the Tang Dynasty.

In addition, women in the Tang Dynasty often wore long sleeves, which were wider than chest-length skirts and were generally special clothes for women to attend important ceremonial occasions.

In the traditional feudal ethics, women can't show their faces outside at will, but only educate their children at home. However, women in the Tang Dynasty were not like this. Their social status is much higher than that of the previous dynasty. They not only enjoy a high degree of freedom, but also dabble in piano, chess and calligraphy. They often go out in groups, and even there is an interesting phenomenon of "women disguised as men". This is rare in the whole ancient feudal society of China.

Princess Taiping, the daughter of Tang Gaozong and Wu Zetian, was a very representative "menswear boss" in the Tang Dynasty. There is a story in the Book of the New Tang Dynasty that Tang Gaozong once held a banquet at the court, but Princess Taiping was surprised by her dress. I saw her wearing a purple shirt, a jade belt around her waist, and a "fish bag" ornament like Guan Bai, performing songs and dances on the emperor's face. Gaozong and Wuhou laughed and shouted: "You are a little girl's family, you are not an official. How did you come out dressed like this? "

It can be seen that the society in the Tang Dynasty was quite tolerant of women's clothing. After Wu Zetian ascended the throne, women's right to speak was higher, and it was more common for women to wear men's clothes. Later, some ministers suggested that this phenomenon violated laws and regulations and was gradually banned.

After the Anshi Rebellion, the prosperous Tang Dynasty gradually declined until the Huang Chao Uprising in 878 AD, which turned the country upside down in the second half of the Tang Dynasty, and the national strength declined greatly in the latter half of the Tang Dynasty. The Central Plains soon entered the great division period of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, and people's clothes and costumes were once again bound and conservative, and the Tang Dynasty costumes with a hundred flowers were gone forever.

Throughout the ancient feudal society in China, the biggest feature of Tang Dynasty costumes, like its social atmosphere and political features, is full of openness and tolerance. Men's wear embodies the advantages of generous stretching, and even women can show part of their skin, which is unimaginable in other dynasties. Loose clothes are more comfortable to wear and easier to move.

In the Tang Dynasty, the national movement flourished and the national integration was greatly accelerated, so it also absorbed the characteristics of a large number of national costumes. Hu people in the north have long lived a life of riding horses on the vast grassland. They are good at riding and shooting, and their traditional costumes are mostly narrow-sleeved Hu clothes with lapels and double-breasted buttons. With the popularity of Hu dance in the Central Plains, the Han people in the Central Plains gradually became interested in this light and neat dress. Influenced by foreign ethnic minorities, many men began to try this kind of narrow-sleeved clothing, especially in Chang 'an City in Kaiyuan and Tianbao years, where streets and alleys can be seen everywhere.

Before the Tang Dynasty, people's clothes were mostly simple and elegant solid colors, and there were few bright and complicated patterns. However, in the Tang Dynasty, the fixed and single style was changed, and various lively and vivid patterns were boldly tried in costumes. Some embroidered flowers, birds, insects and fish into textures, while others absorbed geometric patterns full of Persian style. These innovative designs are more lively and light than the same Xiangyun before, without losing the elegance.

By the Tang Dynasty, this prestigious dynasty had made great achievements in politics, economy and culture, and its influence in various fields was unprecedented. At that time, in Chang 'an, Kyoto, business envoys came to China for business and cultural exchanges every day. In foreign countries, Chinatown, which is specially used to receive people from the Tang Dynasty, is spread all over the country. Aliens brought cultures from all corners of the country to China, and influenced the traditional costumes of the Tang Dynasty imperceptibly.

"There are hundreds of rivers and rivers, and there is great tolerance." Based on the developed social productive forces, the Tang Dynasty widely absorbed the clothing styles of ethnic minorities and foreigners, and made great development and breakthrough in clothing, which has long been called "the country with clothes". A wide variety of gorgeous costumes with different shapes are dazzling and have become a beautiful landscape in the prosperous Tang Dynasty.

References:

new history of the tang dynasty

Zhenguan dignitary

On the Laws of Tang Dynasty