Hanfu
Hanfu is a term used for the historical styles of clothing worn by the Han people in China. Earliest record for the term "Hanfu" (漢服) can be traced back to the bamboo and wooden slips (簡牘) buried in the tomb of Mawangdui in the Western Han Dynasty.[1] There are several representative styles of hanfu, such as the ruqun (an upper-body garment with a long outer skirt), the aoqun (an upper-body garment with a long underskirt), the beizi (usually a slender knee-length jacket) and the shenyi (a long, belted robe with wide sleeves).
Traditionally, the hanfu consisted of a robe, or a jacket worn as the upper garment with a skirt commonly worn as the lower garment. In addition to clothing, hanfu also includes several forms of accessories, such as headwear, footwear, belts, jewellery such as yupei (jade pendants) and handheld fans. Nowadays, the hanfu is gaining recognition as the traditional clothing of the Han ethnic group, and has experienced a growing fashion revival among young Han Chinese people in China and in the overseas Chinese diaspora.
Following the Han dynasty, the hanfu developed into a variety of styles using fabrics that encompassed a number of complex textile production techniques, particularly those used to produce silk. The hanfu influenced the traditional clothing of many neighbouring cultures, such as Korean hanbok, the Japanese kimono, the Okinawan ryusou, and the Vietnamese áo giao lĩnh.
History
Many factors have contributed to the fashion of ancient China: beliefs, religions, wars, and the emperor's personal liking. Han clothing comprises all traditional clothing classifications of the Han Chinese with a recorded history of more than three millennia. Each succeeding dynasty produced their own distinctive dress codes, reflecting the socio-cultural environment of the times. Following the Qin dynasty (221-206 BC), colours used in the sumptuary laws of the Han Chinese held symbolic meaning, based on the Taoist Five Elements Theory and the Yin and Yang principle; each dynasty favoured certain colours.
From the beginning of its history, Han Chinese clothing (especially in elite circles) was inseparable from silk and the art of sericulture, supposedly discovered by the Yellow Emperor's consort Leizu (also known as Luozu), who was also revered as the Goddess of sericulture.[2] There is even a saying in the Book of Change, which says that:
"Huang Di, Yao, and Shun (simply) wore their upper and lower garments [衣裳; yī cháng] (as patterns to the people), and good order was secured all under heaven".
Clothing made of silk was initially used for decorative and ceremonial purposes. Common people in the Zhou dynasty, including the minority groups in Southwest China, wore hemp-based clothing. The cultivation of silk, however, ushered the development of weaving, and by the time of the Han dynasty, brocade, damask, satin, and gauze had been developed.
From ancient times, the upper garments of the hanfu were worn wrapped over the front, in a style known as jiaoling youren (交領右衽), the left side covering the right side and extend to the wearer's right waist. Initially, the style was used because of the habit of the right-handed wearer to wrap the right side first. Later, the people of Zhongyuan discouraged left-handedness, considering it unnatural, barbarian, uncivilized, and unfortunate. In contrast, zuoren (左衽), right side crossing left, is used to dress the dead. Zuoren (左衽) is also used by some minority ethic groups in China.[3]
Elements of Han Chinese clothing have also been influenced by neighbouring cultural clothing, especially by the nomadic peoples to the north, and Central Asian cultures to the west by way of the Silk Road.