Qin Shihuang wore black dragon robe, the Han Dynasty emperor also wore black, why later the yellow robe became honorable?

China's ancient dress wear has a very strict hierarchical system, and even wear what color of clothes are clearly defined, this point from the most noble emperor on the wear can be seen. When it comes to "imperial robes", we first thought of "yellow robes", in most people's perception, the golden yellow is the most noble color in ancient China, only the royal family can wear, ministers if you wear a yellow robe, and will even be considered a rebellion.

Yellow robe for the noble this is indeed true, but this is only a period of time to choose, in fact, and then the emperor is not to wear yellow robes, like Qin Shi Huang loved black, Han Dynasty emperors are wearing black robes, and even we go to the Wei and Jin Dynasties in the first and middle, the monarchs are to black robes for the noble. Then why did the emperors give up "black" and choose "yellow"? We may be able to see some clues from a remark by Confucius.

Confucius said: "The gentleman is not hungry for blue silk, red and purple is not profane", that is to say, can not be dark blue through red color or black color through red color cloth to the usual clothes to do decorative, because the black and red are noble color, which in turn is related to an ancient saying, that is, "five virtues". "The five virtues correspond to the five elements, which in turn correspond to the five elements. The five virtues correspond to the five elements, and correspond to the five colors, because the five elements are mutually exclusive reasons, so Qin Shi Huang in the selection of the color should be well thought out, he believes that the Zhou Dynasty belongs to the "Fire Virtue", the fire for the red, and the Qin for the water, the water corresponds to the color of the black.

To the Han Dynasty, water is still expensive, because water represents "virtue", we must have heard of Lao Zi's words: "the good is like water, water is good for all things and do not contend with ......". So water is the closest thing to "Tao", can also be seen as virtue. Under the influence of Confucianism and Taoism, the Han Dynasty emperor naturally chose black imperial robes, and to the Jin Dynasty is not the same, but also not yet to wear "imperial robes" time, Jin Dynasty to red for the noble, the emperor wore a big red, until the period of the Sui Wendi emperor, the yellow dragon robe is considered to be the real stage of history.

It is worth mentioning that the Sui emperor is not the first to wear yellow robes of the emperor, the first documented should be the maverick of the Han emperor, and the Han dynasty also came out of the emperor so he wore a yellow dragon robe.

After the Sui and Tang dynasties are all to yellow for the noble, after all, Tang inherited the Sui system, and the ruling class that the Tang dynasty in the five virtues of the "earth", so wear yellow, but also from Li Yuan began to stipulate that "prohibit the common people shall not be in red and yellow for clothing", that is to say, the ordinary people can not wear yellow clothes, yellow is obviously not the first emperor to wear yellow. Can not wear yellow clothes, yellow has obviously become a symbol of the royal family, Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin "yellow robe" is a reflection of the yellow honor, is a symbol of power, the general public which still dare to wear yellow? And the reason why we believe that our country's ancient yellow most honorable, one of the important reasons should be the two nearest dynasties from us Ming and Qing emperors wear yellow robes, and we are proud of the Shengtang emperor also wear yellow robes.

And since the "emperor system", the yellow robe has occupied most of the history of time, but it does not mean that the yellow color has always been honored, compared to it, black and red also has a distinctive flavor, not worse than the "yellow robe".