What are the books about Ming Dynasty official costumes?

The customization of the official uniforms of the Ming Dynasty and the official portrait painting costumes

Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, defeated the Mongol Yuan empire, and also abolished the Yuan Dynasty's dress system, and made large-scale adjustments, from the emperor to the common people. The ministers referred to the Zhou, Han, Tang, and Song forms of dress, modified them, and tried them out for more than twenty years before the basic style was established in the twenty-sixth year of the Hongwu reign (A.D. 1393).

The civil and military officials of the Ming Dynasty, according to the size and rank of the official position, there are different regulations. Wear on the head are:

One, Liang Guan: civil and military officials in the country's major ceremonies, celebrating the completion of the great work, the first day of the first month into the dynasty to congratulate the New Year, the winter solstice, the emperor's birthday, the opening of the reading of the imperial edicts, into the submission of the table and so on, all have to wear the Liang Guan. According to the public, marquis, uncle, one to nine products, to the beam line of more or less to distinguish.

Two, the hat: the Ming Dynasty officials often wear to work official hat. Front low back high, against the back of the head, left and right each have a long oval cap wings, cap inside the net scarf, bundle of hair.

Three, turban head: is in the major court assembly, playing things, thank you when worn, the shape and the Song Dynasty is almost the same, the cap rim left and right there are two like a ruler of the spreading angle, the spreading angle at the end of some of the upward bend, and then to the left and right curved.

Fourth, the four sides of the Pingding scarf: cloth made like a rectangular hat, also known as the square scarf, corner scarf. In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, do this hat, in order to glorify the emperor's achievements in pacifying the four directions, so named "quadrilateral pingding scarf", is often worn by scholars, government officials hat.

Fifth, floating scarf: hat like a triangular roof, cap ridge before and after each has a rectangular cloth Phi, floating with the wind, so called floating scarf. With the Eight Immortals in the hat worn by Lu Dongbin, so also known as the pure sun towel (pure sun is the real Lu Dongbin's Taoist name), but the pure sun towel before and after the cap cap cape cloth Phi have circled rolls of cloud patterns. Some of the cap cape also add a piece of jade, two long bands hanging behind the head.

Six, Dongpo towel: Su Dongpo invented the hat. Rectangular hat, wearing a diamond-shaped, folding line in the center, the two sides of the corner and each attached to a piece of the vertical than the hat shorter than the cap.

Other Confucian scarf, flat-topped scarf, Han scarf, soft scarf, mandarin scarf, two Yi scarf, ten thousand word scarf, Phi cloud scarf, net scarf, corrugated brown hat, melon hat and so on, in all shapes and sizes, and sometimes with a shawl.

The official robe of the patch, but also in accordance with the size of the official rank has a certain image:

One, the public, marquis, extra horse harnessed by the side of a team, with the unicorn filler, white Zephyr filler (white Zephyr, the unicorn, a mythological animal or an ancient extinct species of animals).

Two, civil officials, the first grade painted crane filler. The second grade draws the brocade chicken. Third grade painting peacock. The fourth grade paints the clouded goose. The fifth grade paints white pheasants. The sixth grade paints herons. The seventh grade is for a quail. The eighth is an oriole. Ninth grade, quail. The miscellaneous posts painted practicing magpies. Wind constitutional officer painting unicorn.

Third, the military officials, the first and second grade painting lion. The third and fourth grade paintings of tigers and leopards. Fifth grade painting bear bear. Sixth grade painting puma. Seventh grade also painted puma. The eighth grade painting rhinoceros. Ninth grade painting seahorses.

One, two-grade official clothes in kind

Ming Dynasty official robe round group pattern, in addition to the dragon group pattern, there are python (four claws of the dragon), flying fish (wings and fish tail of the dragon) and bullfighting (head of the two curved horns of the dragon), and unicorn pattern, wear some of these patterns red robe, are one, two-grade to the public, marquis, uncle, extra horse harnessed by the side of a team of the side of a team of high-ranking officials above.

Official clothing patch in kind

Ming Dynasty official portrait painting preserved the contemporary art form of official clothing. The official uniforms of the Ming Dynasty that have been handed down to the present day have almost disappeared, and the few pieces that have been dug out from the tombs are also worn out, decayed and discolored. But the dresses, shoes and hats in the official portrait paintings, bright colors, complete accessories, coupled with realistic expressions of the characters, can be said to be a record of nearly three hundred years of history of the Ming Dynasty, official-like clothing show, but also to provide a good reference for academic research, costume drama, modern costume design.

The official dress of the Ming Dynasty verified the historical facts recorded in the documents and supplemented the abstraction and insufficiency of the textual narratives, and we can find several features in many examples of the official dress:

One, the crown and hat: it can be seen that the official format is only a declaration of the principle conditions, and the styles are colorful and full of variations. Ancient and modern people are focusing on the head around the body, personality and temperament of the overall performance, in addition to the size of the natural change, the boys crown and hat accessories, such as the hat rim in the middle of the jade ornaments of the shape, carving, size, edging are not quite the same. Girls crown hairpin fine pieces of the form of pattern, is more colorful, Cui Boshan (Cui cover), gold phoenix (Jin Zhai), bead Cui Zhai, bead drops, Baotian; three Bo sideburns (only the Queen), bead plate (pick bead row, pick row knot), bead Cui cloud piece, the crown edge design, and even the hair form, earrings, brooches, etc., are extremely rich in changes in the contents of the ancient handmade society, pay attention to the artistic performance of the crown and hat, as well as personal aesthetics and style of shape-making. taste.

From the official women dressed up gorgeous, can also be seen on Mr. Mrs. cherish and respect, girls love beauty, art requirements of the talent, on the phoenix crown show. There are also some female officials like no phoenix crown, only insert a few hairpins, may be the official plain clothes, or early phoenix crown has not yet formed a system, popular, but also may be related to the size of the official position.

Two, clothing: the performance of the color, may not be as official: one to four officials with big red, five to seven with cyan, eight products below with green. General official civilian clothes are dark blue, azure mostly, but also green. And wear the official hat of the official uniform, is common to big red, such as we see in the costume drama in the scholar or the scholar of the people, are wearing big red official clothes, however, according to the official rank, the scholar, the scholar is the seventh official, however, according to the official rank, the scholar, the scholar is the seventh official, should be wearing green official clothes, probably the Chinese people prefer the red of the joyful, and not completely according to the provisions of the dress. And the official women more to red official clothes more, so we call the girl's embroidery, handicrafts called "female red", is a national cultural characteristics of the Tege.

Ming Dynasty official clothes of fiber embroidery pattern pattern is also quite varied. Some say that only emperors could wear dragon robes with five-clawed golden dragons, but in the portrait of Li Zhen that has survived from the Ming Dynasty, Li Zhen wears a dragon robe with five-clawed golden dragons. Official wives also wore dragon robes, but they were probably larger official women.

The regimental dragon robe of the princes and lords

The official image of the Ming Dynasty, there are many directly embroidered on the chest and abdomen parts of the clothes, there is no additional embroidery to paste a square patch, presumably universal, or the official patch regulations have not been popular across the board. But in the women's official patch performance is very common. And the same family of women, complementary bird-like, sometimes left and right symmetry.

Some of the ancients married more than two wives, from the official image can also be seen, some painted together, some separate to paint. Women's official image of the characteristics of the foot shoes, is not painted, the ancient girl's three-inch golden lotus is not casually exposed, and the folding scene of the skirt, but also painted neatly, elegant patterns rich in change. Belt, jade pendant, knot is also quite impressive

China's civil and military officials in the Qing Dynasty wore a complementary dress, in the dress of the chest and back are decorated with a piece of embroidered birds or beasts of the silk sieve, known as the "filler". It is also due to the silk embroidery skills, dyeing techniques, became a work of art.

Decorated with animal and bird motifs to differentiate between the ranks of officials first originated in the Tang Dynasty Empress Wu Zetian period. Prior to this, the official uniforms are mostly used in the system and color system, is the number of ornaments and the color of clothing to distinguish between levels. Wu Zetian gave embroidered robes decorated with animal prints to civil and military officials as a way to differentiate rank and position. This idea changed the image of the hierarchy of court dress, so that people know at a glance.

Early Qing dynasty, only the military officials for the complementary service system, and the complementary can be randomly woven in the morning coat, short coat, leather coat, riding coat above. To the Shunzhi nine years later, the production of complementary clothing has changed, almost entirely inherited the customization of the Ming Dynasty, only individual patterns have been deleted. Officials at all levels to fill the dress for the stone green color, style is also consistent, for the round neck, lapel, flat sleeves over the elbow, the length of the body over the knee, the difference lies only in the shape of the filler and the different patterns.

The Qing Dynasty patch directly from the Ming Dynasty, but there are developments and changes, the main difference between the two, first of all, lies in the type of system. Ming Dynasty, the patch applied to the robe, the Qing Dynasty, the patch for the coat. Ming clothing for the group collar shirt, chest patch is a complete piece, Qing clothing is a lapel coat, chest patch was divided into two. The Ming Dynasty patch both individually woven into the patch on the dress, there are also directly woven and embroidered beforehand in the patch on the dress, the Qing Dynasty is individually woven and embroidered and then sewed to the patch on the coat. Ming dynasty patch about 40 cm square, the Qing dynasty patch is slightly smaller, about 30 cm square; and then there is the Ming dynasty patch more to red and other plain colors for the base, gold embroidery, the Qing dynasty patch is to green, black, crimson and other dark colors for the base, colorful embroidery, colorful. Ming Dynasty filler surrounded by more light edge, the Qing Dynasty filler surrounded by fine processing, more lace, and has a decorative effect. Ming dynasty civil officials below the fourth rank of the patch, more embroidered with a pair of birds, the birds and animals of the Qing dynasty are embroidered single.

The Ming dynasty's complement is only decorated in the chest and back, the Qing dynasty clan's round complement of not only decorated chest, there are also decorated in the shoulders above.

Embroidered in the Qing dynasty official clothes on the patch, is to identify the rank of the officials of a mark. It is only the complexity of embroidery and color differences. The patch exists with the official position, and by the court's restrictions, can not be produced in large quantities. Therefore it has extremely high craftsmanship and historical value. Today, it has become a valuable collection of cultural relics.

Officials embellished with embroidered patches of different patterns, mainly civilian officials with flying birds, military officials with beasts, to show the mighty momentum of the military officials. The official's wife for the court, also with the husband's son-in-law rank, can be in the formal cape chest, back part of the patch decorated with.

Supplement round and square supplement two kinds. Round patch for the Prince of the Emperor above, on the five-clawed golden dragon pattern, respectively, decorated on the left and right shoulders and chest and back. Square patches are used for civil and military officials.

Civilian officials embellished with embroidered patches were: first-class cranes, second-class brocade chicken, third-class peacock, fourth-class wild goose, fifth-class white pheasants, sixth-class herons, seventh-class (bac + chicken) (bac + bundle + bird), eighth-class quail, ninth-class practice sparrow.

Warlord embellished with embroidered patches were: first-class unicorn, second-class embroidered lion, third-class embroidered leopard, fourth-class embroidered tiger, fifth-class embroidered bear, sixth-class embroidered puma, seventh-class embroidered rhinoceros, eighth-class and seventh-class embroidered rhinoceros, ninth-class embroidered seahorses.

The Qing dynasty's complementary clothing system is strict, no one shall overstep. Nian Juan Yao's son for wearing four groups of dragons patchwork clothing item, in the conviction of Nian Juan Yao, there is this item: "not his people, shall not be served in their clothes, and to comply with the ritual."

At that time, there were also officials due to their low position, in order to improve their status, privately looking for embroidery production. Processing plant Qing court three orders prohibit private production of higher than their own official position of the patch, but for the sake of profit there are still counterfeiting things happen. The production of these patches of institutions, is the royal specializing in the weaving of silk and brocade weaving Yamen. The Royal Weaving Office gathered the world's skilled craftsmen, who used and inherited the exquisite weaving and embroidery techniques with various kinds of embroidery silk and color materials to weave and embroider traditional costumes that were famous all over the world. These patches have now become precious cultural relics and art treasures.