A "Dream of Red Mansions", from clothing to accessories, from texture to craftsmanship, from style to color, from dress to scene, shows the achievements of Chinese clothing civilization in an all-round way. According to statistics www.biquge.info 44 of the first 80 chapters of "Dream of Red Mansions" involve clothing and ornaments, and there are 173 entries for clothing and ornaments. In the last 40 episodes, 7 of them are written in 38 places. There are a total of 51 chapters related to clothing or ornaments in the book, mainly distributed in the 3rd (20th), 6th(6th), 8th(9th), 49th(22nd), 51st(6st), 52nd(12nd), 63rd(9th), and 70th(6th).

The materials used in the costumes of "Dream of Red Mansions" are many varieties and high-end and precious, some of which can be said to be rare treasures. The clothing materials that appear in the book mainly include "big red satin", "sprinkled flower crepe", "flowered eight groups of satin", "autumn board mink", "gray squirrel skin", "yellow silk", "feather satin", "white fox armpit", "mink fur", "makeup satin", "python satin", "western cloth", "moon white yarn", "feather yarn", "dora", "foreign thread silk", "sea dragon skin", "jingjing qiu", "heavenly horse skin", "finch gold fur", "lynx big fur", "cloud fox skin", "no fox skin", "fragrant fox skin", "duck skin", There are more than 30 kinds of articles such as "hemp leaf skin", "ash skin", "sheepskin", "mink skin", "feather crepe", "kudzu cloth", "hemp" and so on. In addition to hemp and kudzu materials, a considerable part of the materials are high-end materials, which are not available to ordinary people. Among them, mink, white fox armpits, Pegasus skins, lynxes, finches, etc. are all rare.

Including raw material workmanship requires very high skills and sewing skills. For example, the book reads: "Hundred Butterflies with Gold", "Colorful Engraved Silk", "Plug Vest", "Two-color Golden Hundred Butterflies Wear Flowers", "Colorful Silk Gathers Flowers and Knots Long Spikes", "Drafting Eight Regiments of Row Spikes", "Ink Playing Ink on the Brocade", "Tired Silk Inlaid Treasure", "Chaoyang Five Phoenix Hanging Beads", "Red Gold Pan Yingluo", "Double Balance Ratio", "Two Flower Twisted Beads", "Pine Flower Scattering Flowers", "Saving Beads", "Foreign Crepe Silver Mouse", "Palace Pile Yarn", "Standing Python White Fox Armpit", "Hairpin Silver Wings", "Jiangya Seawater Five-clawed Dragon", "Jasper Red", " Golden python fox armpits", "row of spikes", "fine folding", "musk beads", "red gold Wu cui", "red pattern", "bow", "a bucket of beads", "gold embroidery", "gold digging clouds", "green gold shining green double ring quadrangle", "bucket pattern icing on the cake of the foreign line Fanxi silk", "digging cloud goose gold", "by the color inlaid leader autumn fragrance color plate golden embroidered dragon", "mink full placket", "hundred sons carved silk", "plate gold color embroidery", "carved silk eight regiments", "gold silk weaving chain mail", "tiger head pan cloud colorful", "nine dragon pei", " Pan brocade inlaid flowers", "original brocade edge pipa placket", "a wrap round" and so on. These crafts can only be experienced by imagination in modern times. In "Dream of Red Mansions", the famous story of "Qingwen's illness makes up for the finch gold fur", this finch gold fur "burned a piece on the back placket" and "has a finger-sized burning eye". In the book, it is written that the mother-in-law asked the weavers to weave, but "not only the capable weavers, but even the tailors and embroiderers and women workers did not recognize what it was, and they did not dare to take it." On the one hand, this shows that the finch gold fur is indeed precious and rare, and on the other hand, it also tells the reader that such a costume is very difficult to make in the process. The weavers and tailors in the city have never seen and cannot make up for it, but it was completed by a pretty girl in the Grand View Garden, and it was made up in illness. The book said that Qingwen "looked at it carefully for a while" and said, "This is woven by peacock gold thread, and now we also use peacock gold thread as a boundary, but I am afraid that it can be mixed up." The book describes:

Qingwen first dismantled the lining, nailed it to her back with a bamboo bow with a large teacup, and then scraped the four sides of the hole loosely with a golden knife, and then sewed two with a needle, separating the warp and weft, and changing it into a boundary.

The so-called clothing is a combination of clothing and accessories. "Dream of Red Mansions" attaches great importance to the use of ornaments, and the ornaments written in the book include "Yingluo Picture", "Gong Silk", "Hairpin", "Pei", "Golden Crown", "Wipe Forehead", "Arrow Sleeve", "Pai Sui", "Falling Horn", "Phoenix Crown", "Zhaojun Set", "Lezi", "Purse", "Jin Kuixing", "Prayer Bead", "Chaozhu", "Boots", "Fan Bag", "Fragrance Bag", "Ring", "Auspicious Ruyi", "Ear Pendant", "Qilin", "Sweat Towel", "Shark Pa", "A Stick of Incense", "Chaotian Stool", "Elephant Eye Block", "Fang Sheng", "Lianhuan", "Plum Blossom", "Willow Leaf", "Hand Towel", "Baotou", "Ruyi Tape", "Guanyin Dou", "Shrimp Whisker Bracelet", "Lianhang", "Coral", "Cat's Eye", "Emerald", "Yizhang Qing", "Jasper Pendant", "Lazy Makeup Bun", "Jade Stopper", "Hanyu Nine Dragon Pei", "Bandeau Chest", "Fat Jade Ring Belt", "Miao Chang Bun", "Tail Prayer Beads", ...... It is really as the ancients said: "The decoration of a song, the price of a thousand gold; The clothes of the concubine are also the treasures of the four seas. There are many kinds of these ornaments, not to mention rare in the 18th century, and even today in the 21st century, the vast majority of people, except for billionaires, still go to "jewelry stores".

The styles in the costumes of "Dream of Red Mansions" have four distinct seasons, from head to toe, from the inside to the outside. Even the hats, robes, sandals, and snow hats used in rainy and snowy days are all written one by one. In terms of style, there are "narrow jacket", "silver mouse coat", "crepe skirt", "vest", "water boots", "big jacket", "flower silk pants", "xia veil", "cape", "leather skirt", "cotton skirt", "cloak", "pair gown", "python robe", "king hat", "mink fur", "mango shoes", "folding skirt", "po", "silk jacket", "belly pocket", "sheepskin gown", "sheepskin boots", "crane", "stilt pleat", "eagle shoulder gown", "big fur", "kimono pants", " "A Dream of Red Mansions" not only has detailed static descriptions of costumes, but also expressive "dynamic performances", reflecting the different wears of different characters, different occasions and different seasons. For example, Jia Baoyu's dress attire: "Wearing a purple and gold crown with a bundle of hair on his head, a two-color gold butterfly with two dragons grabbing pearls and gold wiping his forehead, wearing a two-color gold hundred butterflies and wearing flower red arrow sleeves, a long spike palace polyester with colorful silk and flowers, a blue and blue flower eight groups of satin row tassel gowns, and a small court boot with a blue satin foundation." And the image of Wang Xifeng wearing a gown is: "Wearing a gold silk eight treasures beaded bun on his head, a sunrise five phoenix hanging bead hairpin, a red gold pan tassel ring on his neck, a narrow coat with a red satin with a golden hundred butterflies, a colorful carved silk stone blue and silver mouse gown, and a jade flower crepe skirt." ”

In "Dream of Red Mansions", a splendid palace of art, the costumes of the characters also shine and are beautiful. The costumes designed by Cao Xueqin for his characters have high aesthetic value in terms of system, style and color. Through the colorful costumes, we see another aspect of the artistic achievement of this immortal masterpiece. In primitive societies, the skins of human beings were mainly for utilitarian purposes, in order to protect the body and keep warm. With the continuous improvement of human civilization, the aesthetic factors of clothing are increasing day by day. After entering the class society, a set of etiquette systems in terms of clothing was gradually formed. In China's long feudal society, the dress system of each dynasty showed hierarchical differences and etiquette requirements, reflecting the aesthetic ideals of a certain society and class. The costumes of "Dream of Red Mansions" (according to the first 80 chapters, the same below) are no exception. But the clothes depicted in literature are, after all, different from the clothes that people wear in real life. In "Dream of Red Mansions", we do not see the flower feathers on the hats of Qing Dynasty officials marking official ranks, and we rarely see long robes and horse coats, but mostly wide coats and large sleeves of Ming Dynasty, and sometimes there are traces of other dynasty costumes. But whenever the clothing involved the prohibitions of the Qing court, Cao Xueqin did not dare to transgress it. This is the characteristic of the costume of "Dream of Red Mansions".

Soon after the Qing soldiers entered the customs, the Qing rulers, in order to eliminate the influence of the Ming Dynasty and consolidate their dominance, forced the whole country to shave their hair and change their eyes. After the raid of the house in the early years of Yongzheng, Cao Xueqin certainly did not dare to take the risk, so when the characters of "Dream of Red Mansions" encountered formal ceremonial occasions, such as seeing officials and going to court, they wore them strictly according to the Qing rules. Jia Yuanchun chose Fengzao Palace, and as soon as Jia Zheng got the news, he hurriedly "changed his clothes and entered the court" to thank him. Yuanchun Province was originally to go back to her parents' home, but because she was the imperial concubine, the whole family waited for her mother from Jia's mother. Although it is not written on the front what kind of "clothes" Jia Zheng "more" is, and what the "big makeup" of Jia Mu and others is, it can be sure that they were worn in accordance with the clothing system of the Qing Dynasty. The costume of the King of Beijing is the most telling thing. He "wears a silver-winged hat with a clean hairpin on his head, a five-clawed dragon python robe from Jiangya seawater, and a white jade and red sash." According to the Qing system, the robes and robes are expensive and are used by officials and women. The five-clawed dragon python robe can only be used by princes, princes, county kings, and beizi, and other officials can only wear it even if they are given by the emperor [2]. King Beijing can wear a five-clawed dragon python robe, which shows his royal status. His hat and robe are white, and his belt is red, on the one hand, because King Beijing's trip is a road sacrifice to Qin Keqing, according to the etiquette of the Qing Dynasty, he should wear plain; On the other hand, yellow is reserved for emperors and crown princes, and even princes and princes can only use other colors if they are not imperial gifts. In the Qing Dynasty, there was a rule that the clan (the emperor's main branch) was a yellow belt, and Jueluo (the emperor's uncle and brother's branch) was a red belt[3], so the king of Beijing wore a red belt.

Chinese feudal society used red as a metaphor for beauty. Cao Zhi has the poem "The rotten demon of the husband and the beauty, the red face and the streamer" in "Jing Si Fu". Therefore, women's clothing is beautiful in red, and red is precious[6]. Cao Xueqin seems to be like Jia Baoyu, especially fond of children, so most of the costume descriptions in "Dream of Red Mansions" are owned by young and beautiful women. Most of their costumes are based on red. Wang Xifeng's clothing depictions have appeared three times, and two times red is the main color. The third time I saw Lin Daiyu for the first time, she was wearing a "big red cloud satin narrow jacket"; The sixth time I saw Grandma Liu, I was wearing a "pink sprinkler jacket" and a "big red crepe silver leather skirt". The clothes of the forty-nine young ladies when they gathered in Daoxiang Village to meet the poetry club were simply a red world. Daiyu wears "a crane with a big red feather crepe face from fox skin", Xiangyun is "a big red gorilla felt Zhaojun set", and the three sisters of Yingchun, Tanchun and Xichun are "a color of red gorilla felt and feather satin cloak". These young women are as beautiful as gods and fairies, and they are all registered in the heavenly realm, so they all have beautiful clothes to match them. Red is not only a symbol of beauty, but also a symbol of nobility and auspiciousness. In the eyes of feudal rulers, nobility is beauty, and Cao Xueqin also combined beauty and nobility. On the nineteenth time, Baoyu went to attack someone's house, and saw a girl wearing a big red dress, and when she came back, she sighed when she mentioned it to the attacker. "What are you sighing for, I know the reason in your heart, I want to say where he deserves to wear red." This shows that in feudal society, commoners are not worthy of wearing red. Widows are not allowed to wear red. At the forty-nine-round party in front of her, the girls wore red makeup, but Li Kun wore "a tweed gown". The material is expensive, but it is not gorgeous. This is because Li Kun is a widow, and according to feudal ethics and morality, widows are not allowed to wear bright and auspicious clothes, otherwise they will not be able to observe the festival [7]. "The Preface to the Poem" says: "Therefore, the change of wind is emotional, and it stops at etiquette." Although this is saying that poetry should conform to etiquette, it actually reflects the feudal society's regard for etiquette as an important aesthetic standard. The same goes for Cao Xueqin.