What was the dress of the Ming Dynasty like in history? The evolution of official dress in the Ming Dynasty!

What was the dress of the Ming Dynasty like in history? Below I will give you a detailed introduction to the content.

Dress, from its earliest use as a shelter to keep warm and protect against the cold, to its gradual evolution into a decorative object of social etiquette, it marks another great progress of human civilization.

Recently, the popularity of the ancient costume historical drama "Ming Fenghua" has set off a hot debate, in which the characters' dress wear is particularly controversial.

On the whole, the characters in the drama "Ming Fenghua" are beautifully dressed, whether it is from the clothes, fabrics, tailoring, or from the belt, buttons, and crown headdresses, etc., are enough to see the exquisite dress.

However, despite this, it is still pointed out that the costume is not rigorous enough, clothing errors, and history does not match the problem.

So, what was the historical Ming costume really like? Today, we start from the Ming Dynasty's official clothes (complementary clothing), to talk about the characteristics of the Ming Dynasty official clothes and the culture they imply.

First, the historical evolution of the official dress of the Ming Dynasty

As early as in ancient times, people attach great importance to the role of ceremonial communication dress, such as the Han should be Shao "Customs - the loss of the Ye Lingzhi" said: "The emperor only want to call me! Bathing dress, bedding which, the cover will stand cover." The emergence of the official dress, more fully illustrates this point.

Official clothes, the earliest development in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, then through the Qin, Wei, Jin, North and South Dynasties, Tang and Song Dynasties, until the Ming and Qing Dynasties, gradually tended to improve, especially in the Ming Dynasty, the official clothing system has reached the most complete and the most elaborate point.

Ming official dress

1368 AD, the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, in order to maintain the rule, Zhu Yuanzhang put forward out of the "upper Cheng Zhou and Han, the lower take the Tang and Song Dynasty," the concept of the crown, and the official dress system to make more detailed requirements and regulations.

This point in the evolution of the Ming Dynasty dress we wrote earlier in the development of mentioned, interested friends can turn back to see.

From the Ming dress to see the Ming society, talk about the crown system under the Ming dress how to evolve and develop?

The development of the official dress of the Ming Dynasty, before and after a few decades.

Ming Huidian recorded that in the twenty-fourth year of the Hongwu era (1391), it was stipulated that the pattern of the mending son: "Gong, Hou, extra horse harnessed by the side of a team, and Bao: unicorn, white ze; and the embroidered birds of the civil officials as a sign of civilization: first-grade cranes, second-grade brocade chickens, third-grade peacocks, fourth-grade clouded geese, fifth-grade pheasants (bái xián), sixth-grade herons (lù sī), seventh-grade mandarin (xī chì), eighth-grade orioles, and ninth-grade orioles (xī chì), were all made in the Ming Dynasty, and the official dress system was developed over decades. , eighth-grade oriole, ninth-grade quail; military officials embroidered beasts to *** fierce: first- and second-grade lions, third- and fourth-grade tigers and leopards, fifth-grade bear warriors ( pí), sixth- and seventh-grade piao, eighth-grade rhinoceros, ninth-grade seahorses; miscellaneous posts: practicing magpies; wind constitutional officials: xiezhi ( xiè zhì)."

As can be seen from the text, the style of official uniforms at that time is quite complicated, diverse, and the official uniforms of civil and military officials, are equipped with animal patterns.

Note: "patch", refers to the patch on the front of the chest, back of a piece of fabric in the magistrate's patch, which is a notable feature of the Ming and Qing official clothing system.

"Ming Dynasty" stills

According to historical records, the official clothing patch first originated in the Tang Dynasty, Wu Zetian reign, in order to reward the hundred officials, deliberately embroidered on the dress with different brocade patterns, including text and animal designs. By the time of the Ming Dynasty, it gradually developed into a patch style, the text was replaced by the pattern, and finally only the content of the pattern was left.

▲The biggest feature of the patch:

Civilian and military officials of the patch pattern is different, the civilian patch on the pattern for the birds, the military patch on the pattern for the beasts, that is, "civil birds and military beasts". For this reason, people use "clothes and beasts" to describe this dress wear.

Second, then, why should the official clothes embroidered patch pattern pattern?

1. Ancient people used the pattern of birds and animals as a long history of decoration

In the long process of historical development, the Chinese people continue to create and enrich their own culture, the totem culture is derived from this.

As early as a long time ago, the ancestors of the Chinese people were accustomed to tattooing patterns of birds and beasts on artifacts and ornaments. For example, a bronze mirror with bird and beast motifs unearthed from the Shangcunling Guo Cemetery in Sanmenxia City, Henan Province, in 1957, is decorated with deer and bird-shaped patterns.

Bird and Beast Bronze Mirror

The reason why the birds and beasts, flowers, birds, insects and fish were decorated on the artifacts, costumes, etc., which reflects the ancient people's reverence for nature, worship and belief in the gods.

In the past, the social productivity is low, people's living environment is relatively difficult, the ancestors in order to pray for peace, good luck, will be the good wishes in the totem, birds and animals on the above. Therefore, the above mentioned "clothes and animals" is not a pejorative term, but has a noble, beautiful meaning.

2, reflecting the ancient Chinese "ritual" concept

Influenced by Confucianism, China's thousands of years of feudal society, has been "don't respect the inferiority and superiority of the noble and lowly" hierarchical concept of "cultivate oneself, The concept of hierarchy has been used to "cultivate one's moral character, align one's family, rule the country, and pacify the world" for thousands of years. On this basis, clothing was also given a political function, and was used as a tool to consolidate the rule and maintain the hierarchy.

According to the evidence, China's crown and dress system, in the Western Zhou period has appeared. In accordance with the provisions of the Zhou Rites, when holding ceremonies or dynasties, emperors and officials must be wearing a bent suit or coronet, depending on the specific wear of different identities, levels and variations. Afterwards, with the change of dynasties and the development of the times, the system of crown and costume was constantly reformed and improved, and gradually solidified into a political means of feudal monarchy.

The History of the Ming Dynasty records: "In the ancient times, when the emperor ruled the world, he made sure to recognize the nobility and the inferiority of the people, and made it clear that they were equal to each other".

The importance of dress in maintaining the feudal hierarchy can be seen from this. And the Ming Dynasty officials on the official uniforms on the patch, that is, the chest and the back of the chapter patch decoration is used to distinguish between the important symbols of official rank.

Third, civil and military officials of the patch pattern why different? These patterns have what cultural meaning?

As mentioned above, the civilian officials filler pattern: a product for the crane, two products of the golden chicken ...... nine quail, military officials a product, two products of the lion, three products, four products of the tiger and leopard ...... nine seahorses.

Different grades of civil and military officials of the patch pattern

From the chart, you can clearly see that the official uniforms of civil and military officials, their respective patch pattern tattoos are consistent with their identity and personality.

We all know that the civil officials are generally more gentle and elegant, good at "getting the paper and ink", the official uniforms embroidered on the filler bird pattern pattern, highlighting the elegance of the civil officials of the spirit of show. The military officials are generally more brave and tough, good at dancing guns and sticks, the official dress patch embroidered on the beast pattern pattern, highlighting the masculinity of the martial arts officer.

Different identities, different grades of officials, their official uniforms pattern ornamentation is different, the significance of the representation is different, but in general, all imply a good hope and trust.

Below, we take two examples from the civil and military officials in the complementary pattern to illustrate.

1. Civilian official uniforms of the patch pattern

① crane

"Poetry - Xiao Ya" cloud: "Crane in the Nine Gaos, the sound heard in the sky", "to answer the JIA Zhi make send a crane", "Rui Yu QiZhi stagger shape, known as the immortal harness over the blue netherworld! "These are beautiful descriptions of cranes.

In traditional Chinese culture, the crane has a long life, auspicious, elegant meaning, is regarded as a high-level bird of literature, its status is second only to the royal special dragon and phoenix ornamentation, there is a "bird under the ten thousand birds above" reputation. The complementary clothing of a first-class civil official embroidered crane pattern, symbolizing the high official, auspicious and honorable.

Crane pattern pattern

② brocade chicken

brocade chicken (also known as the "golden pheasant"), one of the most gorgeous types of pheasants. Song Huizong in the "hibiscus brocade chicken map," the chicken has used to promote the five moral character of man, including kindness, trustworthiness, martial arts, bravery, culture, etc.

The "Hibiscus brocade chicken map" is the most beautiful of the pheasant family.

Hibiscus Chicken

Han Shi Wai Zhuan: "Chicken has five virtues: head wearing a crown, Wen; foot wrestling with the distance, martial arts; the enemy in front of the fight, dare to fight, courage; see the food to call out to the person, benevolence; vigilance is not lost, faith," that is, the meaning of this.

The second grade civil official's complementary clothing embroidered on the pattern of brocade chicken, symbolizing the five good character, and these moral character is the monarch of the courtiers of the most basic etiquette and professional quality requirements.

2. The patch pattern of the official uniforms of military officials

① Lion

In traditional Chinese culture, the lion has always been regarded as an auspicious beast. For example, Manjushri Bodhisattva's mount, which is based on the lion as a prototype; another example is the stone piers placed in front of the gates of the dignitaries, but also lions; and then the eaves of ancient Chinese buildings carved inlaid with lions and other sacred animals.

The Chinese believe that the lion is a protective god, is the embodiment of wisdom, a symbol of power. In addition, the lion is also harmonized with "Tai Shi" and other meanings, such as high promotion, high position and other meanings. In addition, the lion, the king of beasts, has the characteristics of courage.

Ming Shen Derfu "wild access to the editorial supplement - the Ministry of War - the military function of the unauthorized service": "Today, the military function of the clothes embroidered chest, do not follow the rank, all served lion."

The lion pattern pattern embroidered on the official uniform, showing the military officer's courage and majesty and other personality traits.

Lion pattern pattern

② rhinoceros

Rhinoceros, herbivorous animals, the ancients believed that the rhinoceros is a kind of auspicious animal. Du Fu once wrote in the "stone rhinoceros line": "Do not see the Qin Shu Tai Shou, carved stone standing as five rhinoceros." According to historical records, when the governor of Shu Li Bing in the construction of Dujiangyan, had carved five stone rhinoceros to suppress the water. It can be seen, in the hearts of the ancients rhinoceros is an auspicious thing.

In addition, the rhinoceros is huge, thick skin, hair is rare and hard, and with a sharp rhinoceros horn, its skin can be used as armor, horn can be used as weapons. Military officials eight products decorated with rhinoceros, expressing a beautiful hope, that is, I hope the military officials can be like the rhinoceros, both spiritually soft side, but also sharp and tough side.

Rhinoceros Pattern Pattern

Of course, in addition to the above mentioned types of complementary pattern pattern, there are a variety of other animal pattern patterns, which are given different symbolism.

Evaluation

All in all, in the thousands of years of China's history, the dress has always been with political color. During the Ming Dynasty, the rulers paid more attention to the political function of dress, and made detailed and strict requirements on the decoration, pattern, and color of the official clothes and wear.

"Patch", a small piece of fabric, both aesthetic function, but also reflects the political function. In the official clothing "patch" on the decoration of birds and beasts and other animals to distinguish the identity of officials, through the "auspicious birds and beasts" pattern pattern to express the good wishes, pray for good luck, highlighting the strict and orderly hierarchical counterparts of the relationship between the embodiment of the feudal society is the inferiority and superiority of the patriarchal hierarchy and the inferiority and superiority of the patriarchal hierarchy and the superiority and superiority of the patriarchal hierarchy and the superiority and superiority of the patriarchal hierarchy of the feudal society. It is a reflection of the patriarchal hierarchy of feudal society and the system of thought.