What does a wide-sleeved robe look like?

Ancient Chinese people for a long time have adopted the dress system of the upper garment and the lower garment, believing that this dress structure symbolizes the order of heaven and earth, and most of the dresses worn on solemn occasions are like this. At the same time, however, there has always been no shortage of clothing styles that are attached to the top and bottom of the garment, ranging from the deep clothes of the Warring States period, the robes that began in the Han Dynasty, the long-sleeved shirts of the Wei and Jin dynasties, and the cheongsam of the modern era, which all belong to the style of the long garment. Chinese clothing thus presents two basic forms.

The "deep garment", which literally means covering the body y with clothes, is related to traditional Chinese ethics. The mainstream thinking of ancient Chinese society emphasized that men and women were different, and that the two sexes should not be too close to each other, and should not interact casually; even couples could not ***use a bathroom, ***use a wardrobe box, and even hangers for drying clothes had to be kept separate; when a woman returned to her mother's house after marriage, her own brothers could not eat at the same table with her; a woman had to be tightly covered when she went out ... ...so on and so forth, all showing a strong tendency towards asceticism. Confucian classics such as the Book of Rites recount these dress code etiquette rules in detail.

The deep garment is made up of an upper garment and a lower garment, and is cut and made with its own characteristics, different from other clothes. The Book of Rites has a special chapter titled "The Deep Garment". The main meaning is roughly as follows: during the Warring States period, the style of deep clothes was in line with the ceremonial system, and its shape was not only in line with the rules, round and square, but also corresponded to the balance; there were certain requirements on the dimensions, short not to reveal the skin, and long not to drag the ground; the front placket was lengthened to become a big triangle, and then the edge of the clothes; the waist was to be disconnected from the tailoring system, i.e., the waist was straight for the clothes on the waist, and the waist took the diagonal width of the clothes, so as to make it easier for lifting the steps; the armpits of the sleeves should be The armpit of the sleeve should be suitable for the movement of the elbow, and the length of the sleeve should be folded back from the hand to the elbow. The deep coat could be worn by both scholars and warriors, and could be worn as a bridesmaid's dress or when marching to war. Shamakiri was the second class of dresses, and it was functional, not wasteful, and simple in style. The image of this period with deep clothes, not only can be unearthed from some of the ancient tombs on silk paintings, the same period of ceramic figurines, wooden figurines, there are many of these figures, not only the style is clear, the pattern can also be seen.

The material of the brocade robe and deep clothes is mostly white linen, and black silk is used for rituals, and there are also added colorful edges, and there are also embroidered or painted patterns on the edges. When wearing a Shamakiri, the elongated, triangular-shaped lapel is wrapped to the right and tied between the waist and hip with a ribbon. This ribbon is known as the "big belt" or "Squire belt", the belt can be inserted according to the need for wutai board, wutai board is not only for the use of ministers to the court, but also the equivalent of a portable notebook for note-taking. Later, with the influence of nomadic clothing on the Central Plains people, leather belt appeared in the clothing of the Central Plains. Leather belts were equipped with hooks and used as knots. The hooks were so elaborate that they became one of the new arts and crafts of the Warring States period. The long hooks could reach about 30 centimeters, and the short ones were also 3 centimeters. Stone, bone, wood, gold, jade, copper, iron and other materials, luxury hooks inlaid with gold and silver, or carved patterns, or embedded with jade and glass beads.

During the Han Dynasty, the deep-train robe was transformed into the curved-train robe, a long garment with a triangular front and a rounded hem. At the same time, the straight-train robe was also fashionable, i.e., a robe with a straight placket, also known as the "gable elm". When the straight-train robe was first introduced, it was not allowed to be worn as a dress or to go out or receive guests at home. In the Records of the Grand Historian, it was said that wearing a gable elm to the palace was disrespectful to the king. The reason why there is such a taboo, because the Han Dynasty before the Central Plains people's pants are crotchless, only two in front of the abdomen connected to the legs, looks like the crotchless pants worn by babies now. Since pants do not have a crotch, it is very easy to show ugly when the outer garment is not tightly wrapped. Confucian classics about the dress code, repeatedly emphasized that although the summer heat shall not lift the coat, not water shall not lift the coat. The standard posture of the Central Plains people sitting is the first kneeling after sitting, called "跽 sit", expressly forbidden "Kei sit" (i.e., can not be stretched out in front of the legs, like a collection of objects with a dustpan), in fact, with the style of the pants at that time, in order to also prevent the ugly. Subsequently, due to the close interaction between the Central Plains people and the horse-riding peoples in the northwest, the crotch pants were gradually accepted by the Central Plains people, and gradually spread.

Whether it is a Han tomb mural, or painted stone, painted brick, or pottery figurines, wooden figurines, Han Dynasty figures almost all wear robes, men are more common, but also includes some women. The so-called robe, is the long coat over the hips, mainly has several characteristics: one is to have a lining with a surface, or wadding to cotton and linen, known as the sandwich robe or cotton robe; two is more for the large sleeves, cuffs part of the tightening, three is more for the large lapel slanting collar, lapel opening lower, the neckline reveals the underwear; four is the robe neckline, sleeve cuffs, the front lapel hem more than one dark cloth rim edge, above the weaving of the kui (a mythological foot and a horn of the dragon) pattern or chequered patterns, and so on. The length of the robes also varies, some are as long as the ankle bone, usually worn by civil officials or elders, while others reach only below the knee or up to the knee, mostly worn by military generals or heavy manual laborers.

After the robe became the most dominant garment, the deep clothes did not disappear completely, especially in the women's clothing to continue. First, the length of the lapel of women's clothing in the Han Dynasty became longer and longer, resulting in the formation of the lapel-wrapped deep garment. In Hunan Changsha Mawangdui tomb excavated silk painting, there are tomb owners wearing lapel deep coat image, around the lapel, triple collar, coupled with the full body of fine embroidery patterns of dragons and phoenixes, show the beauty of Chinese women's clothing.

The development of the robe style to the Wei, Jin and North and South Dynasties (220-589), began to large open sleeves (no tight cuffs), wide lapels and other characteristics of the development of what is known as the "praise of the clothes," that is, the meaning of a wide body and long belt. As a result, the wearer presented a graceful and elegant demeanor. During this period, men's long clothes became simpler and more casual, while women's long clothes became more complicated and more gorgeous. The woman depicted by the great painter Gu Kaizhi (c. 345-409) in the scroll Renzhitu, "Biography of the Ladies," wore a dress with a mixed train and a bun, with the lower edge of the lapel made into several triangles, which were wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, resembling flags, and were embroidered with motifs along the edges of the triangles. When the bodice is wrapped up, these triangles are layered and staggered in a novel and elegant way, permeated with the beauty of decoration. The fat sleeves and wide hemline, together with the fluttering belt tied between the waistband and the garment, make the wearer look ethereal and full of romance. Though it is a painting, the image of the flowing costume calls out.

Deep clothes and robes have the same and different, are up and down attached to the long clothes, but the deep clothes did not continue, robes have been worn to modern times - even the 21st century Chinese, can still recall its appearance - wide and straight robe body, oblique The robe is wide and straight, with a large lapel slanting under the right armpit, and a simple and simple style with some delicate and exquisite embroidery patterns.

The robe style has changed over the generations, the Han Dynasty wide-sleeved deep clothes, the Tang Dynasty round neck tucked robes, straight robes in the Ming Dynasty are typical of the wide body robes, the wearer of most of the literati and the ruling class. Over time, the wide shirt and big robe became the typical dress of the idle class who did not work, and it is also a traditional dress image of the Han nationality.