Text/Coco,
Hanfu is known as one of the least picky clothing styles. No matter what your body shape is, you can always choose the one that suits you best among the dozens of Hanfu styles that have evolved over thousands of years.
Among them, Coco’s favorite is the underskirt in Hanfu. Many friends will definitely have questions, "I have heard about the surname of Ruqun for a long time, but I still don't know what the Ruqun means?" Don't worry, Keke will clear up the doubts for everyone right away!
Ruqun is a type of Hanfu and one of the earliest and most basic clothing forms in the history of Hanfu. It usually refers to the upper body short jacket and the lower body skirt. The two are collectively called Ruqun.
This is what the "jargon" calls the upper and lower garments. The so-called "ru" is the short undershirt or shirt of the top, usually no longer than the knee, with a tight skirt, a poncho, and a half-buttocks. Many people think that the skirt appeared in the Tang Dynasty. After all, the chest-length skirt has a high status in the Hanfu circle.
But in fact, undershirts first appeared during the Warring States Period, but they only became popular during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. It was indeed during the Tang Dynasty that they flourished.
So how many styles of underskirts have evolved after the baptism of the underskirts in several dynasties? There are many styles of Hanfu, and there are already seven different styles of single-skirt skirts. Let’s take a look!
Single-layered skirts and double-layered skirts are the most basic forms of skirts, and they can also be said to be the origins of most Hanfu styles.
Since the Warring States Period, which is China's ancient pre-Qin period, the skirt has appeared and has a history of more than 2,000 years.
It’s just that the form of underskirts at that time was very simple. The so-called single underskirts and compound underskirts depended on whether there was a lining inside.
The single undershirt is almost like a shirt, while the double undershirt is more like a coat. The two are completely different in terms of texture.
(1) Waist-length underskirt
Waist-length skirt is a type of skirt. As the name suggests, the waist of the skirt is level with the waist. It was more popular in the Han Dynasty and the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties.
The upper skirt of waist-length underskirts usually has a cross-collar or straight collar. Therefore, waist-length underskirts are divided into two different styles: cross-collar and waist-high underskirts and straight-collar waist-high underskirts.
Moreover, the waist-length skirt is not exclusive to women in ancient times. The Hanfu worn by men is also a waist-length skirt.
(2) High-waisted skirt
During the Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties periods, high-waisted skirts appeared. What is interesting is that the high-waisted skirt was only a unique women's clothing during the Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties periods. No matter in the previous dynasty or later, such clothing was popular in no dynasty.
In ancient times, women's skirts were not tied very high when wearing underskirts. However, during the Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties, a particularly high underskirt with a waistband appeared.
In the history of clothing, people call this style of skirt a high-waist skirt.
However, according to current research, for fear of confusing the public, high-waisted skirts are also called chest-length skirts.
However, high-waisted underskirts and chest-length underskirts are two completely different styles. Strictly speaking, the belt position of high-waisted underskirts is below the chest and above the waist. It is similar in concept to modern high-waisted pants, but whether it is Chest-length or high-waisted skirts have cross-collar or straight collar.
However, let me make a small generalization here.
Many people think that Hanbok was formed from the high-waisted skirt of the Tang Dynasty combined with Korean national costumes, but this is not the case.
Hanbok is based on MingThe making of underskirts was developed at a time when the Korean nation had relatively close contacts with the Han people, so the Koreans brought many high-tech products from the Ming Dynasty of China that were considered high-tech in the world at that time.
(3) Chest-length underskirt
Like the high-waisted skirt, the chest-length skirt is also a unique women's clothing in the Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties periods.
But in the true sense, it should be a "chest-length shirt and skirt" because in the Tang Dynasty, women's plumpness was emphasized as beauty, so the undershirt was made of a single undershirt, with no interlayer and a thin layer. That’s why it’s called a chest-length shirt skirt.
In the Tang Dynasty, it was popular for women to wear a straight-collar shirt with a skirt or a cross-collar top with a skirt, resulting in a chest-length skirt. As mentioned earlier, the high-waisted skirt has the belt tied below the chest and above the waist, while the chest-length skirt has the belt tied under the armpits.
This kind of clothing evolved like this because of the unprecedented openness of folk customs in the Tang Dynasty, because the upper body shirt will hide the woman's skin and also highlight the curve of the woman's chest.
At that time, the country was unified in the Tang Dynasty and the economy was unprecedentedly prosperous. Therefore, social fashions were also relatively open, and a variety of clothing styles competed with each other.
Later, it was discovered that Hanfu in the Tang Dynasty not only had cross collars and straight collars, but also round collars, square collars, and sweetheart collars.
(1) Cross-collar underskirt
Cross-collar skirts were more popular in the Song Dynasty and were characterized by cross-collar upper skirts.
However, if they are distinguished by style, they will be divided into four completely different styles: Tang-style cross-neck skirt, Song-style cross-neck skirt, and Ming-style cross-neck skirt.
At the same time, cross-neck skirts are also divided into men's cross-neck skirts and women's cross-neck skirts.
(2) Straight collar skirt
The biggest difference from the cross-neck underskirt is that the upper underskirt has a straight collar, also called a double-breasted underskirt, and the skirt is symmetrical.
Because of the symmetrical left and right sides of the straight collar skirt, it has the traditional Chinese symmetry beauty, is beautiful and elegant, and is playful and charming, so it is deeply loved by the ancients.
In short, there are many styles of Hanfu, including single jacketThere are seven styles of skirts. If you include the styles of different dynasties, there will be countless styles.
I have to say that as one of the traditional Chinese cultures, Hanfu is quite particular in its techniques.
I don’t know which style of Hanfu is your favorite?