As a dynasty of feudal monarchy, the rule of the Li Tang Dynasty was relatively enlightened. In terms of politics, rulers appoint people with meritocracy, make good use of capable people, and accept courtiers, they know that "water can carry boats, but also can overturn boats", and only when there is a people's will can there be a state and political power. At the same time, after experiencing the turmoil, repetition and conflict of culture and ideology in the Southern and Northern Dynasties of the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the rulers of the Tang Dynasty exercised relatively enlightened ideological rule over the people.
Tang Dynasty society was still a feudal society integrating "state" and "family", and the rulers realized the important role of Confucian culture in maintaining their political power and social stability, and vigorously promoted Confucian culture and ruled the country with Confucianism. Through the efforts of the rulers to advocate Confucianism, sacrifice Confucius, scientific expeditions, and revision of the classics, Confucianism achieved rapid development in the Tang Dynasty, which provided fertile soil for the growth of the ethical aesthetic clothing ideas advocated by Confucianism.
The first is the costume that shows the supremacy of the emperor's majesty
Like successive rulers, the rulers of the Tang Dynasty distinguished themselves from their subjects in terms of clothing and clothing in order to maintain their supreme majesty and image among their subjects.
The rulers of the Tang Dynasty not only sanctified themselves from the categories and styles of clothing, formulated a variety of strict clothing systems, and warned the world of the inviolability of power from the aspect of color. From Tang Taizu's use of bright yellow as the emperor's special color on the basis of the Sui system of "Tianzi often serves only yellow robes" to Tang Gaozu's prohibition of the use of yellow by the people, wearing yellow robes gradually became the exclusive right of the emperor, while the Shu people could only make clothes from white cloth. Later, even items such as imperial cases and bed draperies for the emperor were also made reddish yellow.
The second was the maintenance of the feudal hierarchy by clothing
Distinguishing between the inferior and the noble and the inferior through clothing was "reasonable and legal" in Tang Dynasty society and was regarded as a matter of course.
Through a series of orders, officials and ordinary people of all levels of Tang society wore what they should wear, carefully observing the "duty" of the class and class to which they belonged. Whether it is the emperor, the prince, or the minister of culture and military affairs, or even the middle-level officials, it is always cumbersome and amazing, for example, the official dress has a large dress and an ordinary dress, which is insurmountable to each other, and the sacrificial clothes, court dresses, and public clothes in the large dress category are useful, and according to the pattern and decoration of the clothing itself to distinguish the noble and the low; the ordinary dress category mainly has a folded dress and a regular dress, which is distinguished by color differences and clothing accessories.
In addition, the hierarchical order of women's clothing and clothing in Tang Dynasty society was gradually improved, especially the women's clothing at the court was more distinct. From the queen of Beijing to the concubines at all levels, from a piece of clothing to a small jewelry and flower arrangement, there are clear hierarchical order regulations. The Old Book of Tang records that during the tang taizong period, Yushi Ma Zhou, who was advised to be dissatisfied with the Reward of Artists by the Emperor of Jing, Ma Zhou believed that the identity of "Mingyu Trailing" was something that artists should not have, and the emperor now humiliated those who had been officials in the dynasty by rewarding them with official titles.
Tang Dynasty costumes are the embodiment of the ethical relationship between society and society in the Tang Dynasty
Throughout the ancient and modern times, ethics and human clothing culture have always been inextricably linked. To a certain extent, the ethics and morality of human society play a hidden restrictive role in people's clothing, and this restrictive effect often plays a role in controlling people's ideological consciousness. What age, what kind of occasion, what kind of identity, what people wear, what they wear, what they match, what they use... All are subject to ethical constraints.
Ethical function is one of the basic functions of clothing, people's wearing style, style, color, etc. to a certain extent reflects the ethical and moral conditions of an era and a society, and is a reflection of social ethics and morality. Therefore, it is particularly important for a society to deal with the relationship between clothing and ethics that are closely related to people's lives. The harmony and unity of human beings and costumes in social civilization and ethics and morality, that is, the harmonious unity of subject and object, human beings and environment, human nature, sociality and animality, human psychology, spiritual self-esteem and physical dignity.
China has the reputation of "the state of etiquette" and also has the reputation of "the kingdom of clothing". The interpretation of the word "Huaxia" in Kong Yingda's Spring and Autumn Left Transmission of Justice is carried out from the perspective of Fu Zhangmei and Li Yida, respectively. In the process of the development of the Chinese nation's civilization for thousands of years, the issue of ethics and clothing has always been one of the hot topics in society, and a very important thing for successive rulers to do when they ascend to the throne is to stipulate clothing and make it "identity" in order to maintain the ruling order. Therefore, the common people of China's feudal society to a large extent "consciously" abide by the principles of conforming to their class identity in terms of clothing, because once the monks have passed, they will be punished "as they deserve".
As one of the most prestigious dynasties in China's feudal history, the rulers of the Tang Dynasty also had strict institutional rules for clothing. We mainly interpret the differences in the costumes of various classes in Tang Dynasty society.
Take the Tang Dynasty civilian official costume system as an example. The first is the "color suit".
In the first year of the first century (674), it was stipulated that three pins or more served purple, four pins served deep rows, five pins served light green, six pins served dark green, seven pins served light green, eight pins served dark green, and nine pins served light green. The taste and rank of the official position can change with promotion, but the role of the clothing color is unchanged.
The rulers of the Tang Dynasty also achieved the purpose of distinguishing between the status of officials by stipulating the patterns and accessories of official clothes, for example, in the official clothes of the Tang Dynasty, it was often seen that the ornaments and patterns such as the long silk of the luan, the crane royal lingzhi, the bird_ruicao, the goose royal weiyi, the junhe royal flower, the tiger, the leopard and so on were often seen. Among them, the bird pattern is the civilian official clothing, and the animal pattern is the military officer clothing.
There were also strict regulations on accessories for Tang Dynasty officials
For example, fish charms and fish bags were the main ornaments of officials above the Tang Dynasty. The New Book of Tang Dynasty Records of Chefu records that more than three pins are decorated with goldfish charms, and more than five pins are decorated with silver fish charms, and different fish symbols are used to distinguish the nobles and lowly officials of different status. When officials are confronted or summoned by the king, only the ornamental fish charm is allowed to enter. Another important thing for Officials in the Tang Dynasty was the leather belt, which was divided into jade, gold, rhinoceros, silver, iron and other grades due to the different belts, and officials wore leather belts consistent with their identity according to different grades. For example, the accessories of the gold and jade belt must be officials with more than three pins, the fourth and fifth grade officials must be decorated with gold belts, the accessories silver belt indicates that they are six or seven pin officials, the eight pin officials and the nine pin officials can only wear stone belts, and the symbol of the Shu people is the copper and iron belt.
As a special group of feudal society, court women have sufficient material conditions to pay attention to their own dress, and their clothing styles, styles, and colors can best represent the overall aesthetic trend of a society. Of course, these women in the deep palace also have different ranks, and dressing on different occasions should also pay attention to the ethical order that is consistent with their identity.
The first is the dress code for the empress and the crown princess on important occasions. For example, on the occasion of canonization, offering, and pilgrimage, the queen's dress is dark blue at the bottom of the dress, and the pattern painted on the dress is the twelve lines of the white-bellied golden chicken with two wings spreading out. With a motch collar, a vermilion trim in plain yarn, a dark blue background, red and black edges and painted with three lines of white-bellied brocade chicken knee covering, the same color as the cardigan large belt, tsing yi leather belt, green mist, as well as white jade double wear, Xuan Group double silk.
In terms of jewelry, the upper end of the bun is inserted with twelve trees of large and small flower iron, and the left and right are symmetrically arranged in a row. The crown princess's costume is a dress of Zhai Zhai, with a blue background and painted with nine lines of beautiful pheasant patterns. In terms of accessories, except for the Yuyu Double Pendant and pure Zhu Shuang Dashou, the rest are equivalent to the Empress.
The size of the bun inserted in the bun is lower in number than the ghost queen, which is nine trees. One to five products of internal and external women are registered, and the costumes worn at the pilgrimage are flower fork Zhai clothes, which are painted with different rows of pheasant patterns according to different grades of one to five grades, and the pei silk aspect also has different materials due to different grade orders, and the jewelry from one to five products are flower iron, baodian nine trees, eight trees, seven trees, six trees, and five trees. In the Tang Dynasty, the clothing of the Shu people, Emperor Taizong stipulated, "The soldiers' clothes are short brown, and the Shu people are white", "the Shu people do not obey Aya, Luo, Grain, five-color thread boots, shoes"... The clothing style is mostly narrow sleeves, tights, short clothes, etc.
bibliography:
Huang Shilong's "History of Chinese Costumes"
Shen Congwen's Research on Ancient Chinese Costumes
Zhou Xun and Gao Chunming, "Ancient Chinese Costume Customs"
Guan Jie, "A Brief Analysis of the Cultural Connotation of Tang Dynasty Costumes"
Wu Gongzheng's Aesthetics of Tang Dynasty Costumes