"their embroidered silk robes in the spring sun are gleaming, with a mass of golden peacocks and silver unicorns", how particular were the people in the Tang Dynasty in dressing?

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, prosperous flowers, strong national strength and open society. In the rich and colorful cultural phenomena in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, clothing is a bright pearl, showing the remarkable characteristics of diverse shapes and styles. In the eyes of the Tang people, clothing is a unique embodiment of a country's political atmosphere and cultural features.

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

In fact, throughout the ancient history of China, the clothing of each dynasty and each generation has its distinctive characteristics, which are often inseparable from the national outlook and social atmosphere at that time.

as a unified country with many nationalities, the Tang dynasty not only praised Haiyan and Heqing, but also praised the tolerance, openness and eclecticism of culture. The Tang Dynasty inherited the northern minority costumes from the Wei and Jin Dynasties, improved and developed them on this basis, and gradually formed a unique "elegant" style.

Before the Tang Dynasty, people's daily clothes had obvious grade differences, which could make people 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 Tang Dynasty was established by Tang Gaozu Li Yuan, he made a pioneering improvement on the costumes of the Emperor of Heaven, and for the first time clearly defined bright yellow as a special color, symbolizing the ninth five-year plan, and explicitly prohibited anyone else from wearing yellow clothes to highlight the sacredness of imperial power.

Historians have different opinions about why Li Yuan used yellow as the color of Emperor's costume. Among them, the most credible one is the "theory of five elements", which holds that the change of dynasties corresponds to the five elements of "gold, wood, water, fire and earth", while in the Tang Dynasty, the Chinese angelica belonged to the earth, so the yellow of the land was taken as a symbol of imperial power.

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

The Book of the Old Tang Dynasty, Yu Fu Zhi, records the composition of the "clothes" of the son of heaven: wearing a crown with twelve jade beads inlaid on it. Red reward in black, embroidered with "Twelve Chapters".

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

The costumes of court officials are clearly distinguished according to their tastes. Ministers must wear court uniforms, also known as "provincial uniforms", every day when they go up to the lower court and handle official business. In the eyes of ancient people, purple is the most noble 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 three or more products can wear them. Ministers with four or five grades wear red clothes, officials with six grades wear green, and those with seven grades or less can only wear cyan. From the colors of the hierarchical costumes, we can see how particular people in the Tang Dynasty were about the clothes of officials.

The clothes of the civilian class are relatively simple. Most people still use light-colored coarse linen clothes, and the manufacturing process is simple and rough. The wealthy merchants and nobles prefer clothes carefully sewn with fine silk. Men's costumes in Tang Dynasty were mostly narrow-sleeved robes with round neck and right neck, which absorbed the advantages of northern minority costumes and was very convenient to move. Men also wear hoes on their heads. Ordinary men wear hoes with soft feet, while court ministers wear hoes with two stretched hard feet.

Compared with men, women's clothing styles in the Tang Dynasty are more complex and diverse, including skirts, draperies, shirts, etc., which have the characteristics of elegance.

Women's clothing in the early Tang Dynasty was exactly the same as that 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 profound impact on the early Tang Dynasty. However, with the development of economy, the opening of atmosphere and the deepening of ethnic integration in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, great changes have taken place in social concepts, and women's clothing has gradually developed boldly and exposed.

In the mid-Tang Dynasty, a kind of blouse and skirt was quietly popular among aristocratic women, that is, the skirt was tied above the chest with a lace, which was called "chest-high skirt". Because it showed the graceful figure and graceful appearance of women vividly, it was greatly sought after for a time, especially a large number of upper-class aristocrats and prostitutes rushed to follow suit.

As we all know, women in the Tang Dynasty took fatness as their beauty, and this kind of broad chest-length skirt, regardless of height or thinness, can reflect women's sexiness and agility, cater to the aesthetic taste of the society at that time, and also reflect the openness and tolerance of the ethos in the Tang Dynasty, which has become the representative dress of women in the Tang Dynasty for a long time.

In addition, women in the Tang Dynasty often wore a large sleeve shirt, which was wider than a chest-length skirt and was generally a special dress for women attending important ceremonial occasions.

In the traditional feudal ethics, women are not allowed to show their faces in the outside at will, and they can only teach their children at home. However, women in the Tang Dynasty were not like this. Their social status was much higher than that in the previous dynasties. They not only enjoyed high freedom, but also dabbled in piano, chess, calligraphy and painting. They often went out in groups and even had an interesting phenomenon of "women dressed in men's clothes". 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 "men's wear boss" in the Tang Dynasty. A story is recorded in the Book of the New Tang Dynasty, saying that once Tang Gaozong gave a banquet at the court, but Princess Taiping was surprised by her dress. I saw her wearing a purple shirt and a jade belt around her waist, wearing the same "fish bag" ornaments as Baiguan, and performing a song and dance performance on the face of the Emperor. Emperor Gaozong and Wu Hou laughed and cried: "You are a little girl's family and you are not an official. How did you come out dressed like this?"

It can be seen that the Tang society was quite tolerant of women's clothing. After Wu Zetian ascended the throne, women's right to speak was higher, and the phenomenon of women wearing men's clothes became more common. Later, some ministers suggested that this phenomenon violated the laws and regulations, and it 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 last half of the Tang Dynasty, and the national strength declined greatly in the late Tang Dynasty. The land of the Central Plains soon entered the great division period of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, and people's clothes and costumes were bound and conservative again, and the Tang Dynasty costumes with a hundred flowers were gone forever.

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

In the Tang Dynasty, the national movement was prosperous, and ethnic integration was greatly accelerated, so it also absorbed the characteristics of a large number of ethnic costumes. Hu people in the north have long lived a life of riding and horses on the vast grassland. They are good at riding and shooting, and most of the traditional clothes are narrow-sleeved Hu clothes with lapels and double-breasted. 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. Many men, influenced by foreign ethnic minorities, began to try this kind of narrow-sleeved clothing, especially in Chang 'an City during 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, with 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 auspicious clouds before, without losing the characteristics of elegance.

the Tang dynasty, a prestigious dynasty, achieved great achievements in politics, economy and culture, and its influence in all fields was unparalleled. At that time, in Chang 'an, Kyoto, you could see business envoys coming 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. The foreign people brought the cultures of all corners of the country to China, and also exerted a subtle influence on the traditional costumes of the Tang Dynasty.

"All rivers run into the sea, and tolerance is great." Based on the developed social productive forces, the Tang Dynasty widely absorbed the dress styles of ethnic minorities and foreign people, and made great development and breakthrough in clothing, which has long been called "dressing up for the country". The gorgeous clothes with various categories and shapes are dazzling and have become a beautiful landscape in the prosperous times of the Tang Dynasty.

References:

The Book of the New Tang Dynasty

Zhenguan dignitaries

On the Laws of the Tang Dynasty