Dress and etiquette

overview

Dress and etiquette are the most visible signs of a country's long history. The image of the Son of Heaven was created in the Ming and Qing dynasties, making the dragon robe the most distinctive costume of the Qing emperors. According to the etiquette of the Qing Dynasty, the emperor's dragon robe belonged to the auspicious clothes, which were worn during general celebrations and official activities. At important ceremonies, sacrificial altars and temples, and weddings, the emperor wore a higher court dress. The ornaments worn with the court clothes from head to toe include crowns, court belts, court beads, shawl collars and court boots. Different clothing names and different occasions were also different, and there were strict differences at the time.

Four-slit clothes

The Qing Dynasty ruled the Central Plains with foreign races. The Manchus were originally martial nomads, who formed their own way of life during their careers, and the shape of the crown and clothing was very different from the clothing of the Han people. After the establishment of the Qing Dynasty, Qing Dynasty costumes were also able to fully absorb the achievements of Han costumes. Taking the official uniform as an example, the horseshoe sleeves and horse coats are a major feature of the official uniform system in the Qing Dynasty, but the "complement" on the official uniform is directly taken from the Ming Dynasty, and the civil officials embroider birds, and the military attaches embroider animals, respectively, according to the level of grade, embroidered with all kinds of birds and animals, in order to highlight the requirements of officials in terms of function and temperament. Different from the Ming Dynasty, the front chest of the official uniform gown of the Qing Dynasty was placket, and the complement was also divided into two pieces, embroidered on the gown on the outside of the robe, called "mending gown" or "mending clothes", and the patterns of birds and beasts were also slightly different from those of the Ming Dynasty. Since the complement is sewn after the garment, the corners are more delicately processed, often with delicate lace, which highlights the decorative effect. The black gauze hat of the Ming Dynasty was replaced by a flower feather in the Qing Dynasty, and the number of "eyes" on the peacock feathers, that is, the number of "dizziness" patterns, was divided into single-eyed, double-eyed and three-eyed levels. The officials' court clothes and regular clothes, three layers inside and three layers outside, robes, clothes, horse coats, shoulders, and supplementary clothes, overlapping and overlapping, but also to wear a variety of court beads, court belts, jade pendants, colorful silk, flower gold round plates, purse sachets and so on. Chaozhu has jadeite, agate, coral, jade, sandalwood grade limit, even silk has bright yellow, royal blue, stone blue. The style, material and color used must be regulated by etiquette, and those who violate the regulations will be punished as a crime. Emperor Yongzheng gave the year of death to Qianyao, and there was a crime of using a goose yellow knife purse, wearing four-slit clothes, and conniving at family members to wear supplementary clothes, which subdivided the difference in the level of clothing to the extreme. Although the women's clothing is relatively loose, it is meticulously carved, and the edging has the so-called "three inlays and three rolls", "five inlays and five rolls", "seven inlays and seven rolls", and more than "eighteen inlays". In addition to the inlays, the hem, placket, skirt and cuffs are decorated with various colors of pearls and embroidery, and the folds are crossed with silk threads, and even the soles and soles of the socks that cannot be seen are embroidered with dense patterns. Although such a overlapping and ubiquitous decorative effect has a certain aesthetic value, such a cumbersome and delicate packaging is the product of the high degree of refinement of the rule of clothing, which also makes the clothing of the Qing Dynasty difficult to develop again.

Imperial clothes

The court clothes worn by officials in the Qing Dynasty were actually evolved from flag uniforms: round neck, twisted placket, left side, wedged on all sides, corseted waist, buttoned and shackled, narrow sleeves (some with arrow sleeves), warm and easy to mount. The system that began in the early Qing Dynasty stipulated that officials must wear shawl collared robes when entering the court, which is called court clothes. The court dress has arrow sleeves, which are connected to a semicircular cuff in front of the already narrow cuffs. Generally, the longest is half a foot, similar to a horse's hoof, also known as "horseshoe sleeve". Sleeves and shoulders are the distinguishing signs of identity in Qing clothes. The cheongsam with arrow sleeves is the holiday dress that the Manchu nobles usually wear and the banner people, and the general flag people are only allowed to wear shawl collar robes, and when they go to the ordinary people, they are only allowed to wear collar robes without shawls, which is called civilian clothes.