Anonymous "Washing Hands and Viewing Flowers" from the Southern Song Dynasty
"Picture of Two Maid Girls with Their Backs" from the Tomb of Princess Xincheng
With the current "Hanfu" craze, traditional costumes have moved from the screen into people's daily lives. Young people wearing Hanfu can often be seen in the streets and alleys, among which the skirt is the most common.
The underskirt is one of the earliest and most basic clothing forms in the history of Han nationality clothing. It first appeared in the Warring States Period, rose in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, and remained popular until the Sui, Tang, Song and Ming dynasties. A jacket is a short garment, with the top generally reaching the waist. The bottom is usually worn with a skirt. Ruqun is the collective name of the short coat worn on the upper body and the skirt tied on the lower body in Hanfu. It is the traditional embodiment of the two-part dress of the Han people. Therefore, the underskirt is two pieces of clothing instead of one. The length of the underskirt is shorter and generally does not reach the knee. The top is called "Ru".
How did the narrow-sleeved short-sleeved skirt style emerge in China and spread widely? In fact, this style of clothing has already appeared in the Warring States Period. At that time, Hufu was popular in short coats, trousers, and leather boots. This kind of clothing allowed free movement and was easy to wear. It changed the long-sleeved long robes and cumbersome clothing in the past. King Wuling of Zhao was the earliest reformer in the history of Chinese clothing. The top of the little jade figure unearthed from the tomb of King Zhongshan during that period was a short jacket with narrow sleeves and a diagonal front, and the bottom was a long skirt with a checkered geometric pattern and a belt at the waist. This kind of clothing was worn by the ancients. Give it a good name "Ruskirt".
Due to military needs at that time, King Zhao Wuling was determined to reform in order to enrich the country and strengthen the people. In order to facilitate cavalry riding and shooting, narrow-sleeved shorts, long trousers and leather boots were made intoThe introduction of Hu clothing to the Central Plains also caused a wave of short clothing among women. Of course, due to the humidity and heat in Chu, the sleeves of clothes were preferred to be short and narrow. Queen Qin and Emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty were both from Chu and preferred Chu clothing. . With the spread of culture from top to bottom, Chu clothing is bound to have a significant impact on Han clothing. In addition, the flexibility of wearing this type of clothing also made it easier for the ancients to do their daily work. It can be seen that the shape of the underskirt not only conformed to the development of social culture at that time, but also met people's actual wearing needs. It is not difficult for the underskirt to rise and continue. No wonder!
During the Qin and Han Dynasties, dark clothes with a top and a skirt connected together were generally popular. At that time, both men and women, both noble and humble, as well as civil servants and generals, wore dark clothes. The number of people wearing underskirts gradually decreased, but this kind of clothing did not disappear. It is recorded in the Yuefu poems of the Han Dynasty: "The long skirt is connected with the belt, and the wide sleeves are worn on the underside of the skirt." In the Wei and Jin Dynasties, people paid attention to the skirt again, occupying the dominant position in clothing at that time. During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, with the prosperity of the economy, clothing also changed and showed extraordinary splendor. At that time, women's clothing was still mainly about wearing skirts, but there were slight changes in shape. Short skirts with small sleeves appeared. Long tight skirts were worn as bottoms. The waist of the skirt was tied to the armpits, and a silk shawl was added. When wearing the jacket, tie it with a belt, which can highlight the beauty of the body's curves and make it more graceful. Moreover, the belt at the waist can fix the placket and close the gap between the chest and waist, which not only facilitates movement, but also enriches the appearance. It enhances the visual layering and makes the overall shape of the clothing more coordinated and beautiful. The shawl is usually made of light gauze, printed with circular patterns, and is usually more than two meters long. When used, it is draped over the shoulders and wrapped between the arms. With the rise of Buddhism, lotus, honeysuckle and other patterns appeared in large numbers on clothing. Women's skirts pay attention to the material, color, and bright and gorgeous patterns, but plain white skirts without flowers are also popular.
The ladies in "Taiping Lian Tu" by Zhang Xuan, a painter of the Tang Dynasty, all wear short undershirts and long skirts with shawls draped over their shoulders, which is a typical costume style of the prosperous Tang Dynasty. The painting also shows people wearing short undershirts and half-armor clothing, with a half-sleeved short jacket added to the undershirt. Based on the height of the skirt waist, the skirt can be divided into waist-length skirt, high-waist skirt and chest-length skirt. Chest-length skirt is the name given to a unique type of women's skirt during the Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties periods. The general way of wearing it is a double-breasted blouse with a lower skirt, or a cross-collar upper jacket with a lower skirt, which becomes a chest-length skirt, as shown in "Nei Ren Shuang Lu Tu".
The underskirt was still very popular in the Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties, and was mostly worn as casual home wear at that time. As one of the main clothing items for women in the Song Dynasty, short jackets with narrow sleeves were the main ones at that time, and the colors and patterns mostly pursued a simple style. In the Yuan Dynasty, short jackets with full sleeves were worn, which mainly advocated the use of gold and pursued bright colors. The skirts of the Ming Dynasty are not much different from those of the previous dynasties, except that young ladies often like to add a short waist skirt with a ribbon as decoration to modify the figure and enhance visual agility.
In the more than two thousand years since the Ru skirt appeared, with the changes of dynasties, the Ru skirt has evolved into many different styling features, such as waist gussets, half-sleeves and other structural changes., skirts are subdivided into striped skirts, horse-faced skirts and other styles. Although the length and width of the underskirt have changed from time to time, its basic shape has always maintained its original style and has become a typical representative of traditional Chinese women's clothing.
Wen Bingtu/Menglong
