Wen | Zhang Yuhong
After the winter solstice, pedestrians on the street have changed into the thickest winter clothes. In ancient China, clothes for our ancestors can not only play a role in covering the body and keeping cold, the gorgeous crown carries a unique cultural charm, but also creates a beautiful visual enjoyment.
Since ancient times, most of the costumes and cultural relics are difficult to properly preserve. The Ming Dynasty had a very high pursuit of clothing, leaving behind the pioneering costumes of the world such as flying fish costumes and flower and bird skirts, but due to the change of dynasties in later generations, the complete crown of clothing and physical objects handed down was rare. After the rulers of the Qing Dynasty entered the customs, they highly respected Confucian culture, and the Confucius Mansion in Shandong, as a derivative residence, was able to preserve many clothes from the former dynasty, which was collected by the Shandong Museum and the Confucius Museum in Qufu after a hundred generations. The Ming Dynasty Costume Culture Exhibition held by Shandong Museum and Confucius Museum sensationalized the country with its beautiful set and unique collection treasures, and won the "2020 National Museum Top Ten Exhibition Quality" award. Now, let us re-emerge through words, let us once again feel the unparalleled clothing culture of the Ming Dynasty through words.
Poetry immortal Li Bai described Yang Yuhuan's beauty as a poem "Yun wants to dress and flowers to look like", in the minds of the ancients, clothes not only play an intuitive role in decorating the appearance, but also set off the inner character of the wearer, highlighting the identity and taste of the owner. This point is most intuitively reflected in the costumes of Ming officials.
After the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, vigorously emphasized etiquette and system, and officials and people throughout the country must wear matching costumes according to their respective identities. As the first image of the dynasty, the costumes of the imperial court officials and relatives received special attention. In the Ming Dynasty, as a public official, in addition to the ability to work, it is also necessary to keep up with the fashion trend and always maintain the temperament that officials should have, so the cut, quality and ornamentation of the civil and military costumes represent the highest standards of Ming Dynasty clothing. The official clothes of civil servants in the Ming Dynasty are divided into public clothes, court clothes, regular clothes, etc. according to the occasion of use, revealing exquisite beauty in rigor. The Ming Dynasty was strong and powerful, and most of the official costumes were selected from the highest cotton and linen raw materials throughout the country, and made in a way that was not costly by hand, showing the arrogance of a great country between the latitude and longitude.
Outside of the celebrations, Ming officials were required to wear regular clothes embroidered with "patches" on the front and back to handle official duties, which appeared in Ming and Qing film and television dramas. Complements are the labels of official status, which can be used to distinguish the rank of civil and military officials, civil officials embroider birds, military officers use walking beasts, and it is clear at a glance above the hall. The Shandong Museum treasures a large red dark flower yarn embellished with a crane square round neck, and the patch of the dress is embroidered with a crane standing on the tide reef looking up to the sky, which has the courage of the times to make the tide. In the Ming Dynasty, the crane symbolized the great member of the Dynasty Yipin, with the title of "Yipin Bird", and its feathers were as white as snow, which was a metaphor for the white and flawless moral conduct of the wearer. The use of the image of the crane in complements is not only a microcosm of ancient Chinese political culture, but also a condensed embodiment of classical oriental aesthetics.
In addition to men's official clothes, women with high status in the Ming Dynasty also needed to wear dresses on formal occasions. A woman who has a commandment title is generally the wife or mother of a member of the imperial court. Women of the Ming Dynasty needed to wear crown dresses when participating in major occasions, which were mainly divided into two types: dresses and regular clothes. The Ming Dynasty Costume Culture Exhibition once exhibited an ochre red embroidered Luan Fengyuan supplemental women's robe, which is the dress of the lady of the life. It is shaped with a round neck, a large placket, a wide sleeve closure, and a round collar robe decorated with a complement, which is usually uniform according to the grade of the woman's husband or son. The front chest and back of this dress are decorated with colorful embroidered cloud and phoenix round complements, a green bird and a red phoenix are entangled in a group, and the auspicious clouds run through it, and the exquisite dark pattern gives people a sense of grace and luxury, dignified atmosphere. The image of the luan phoenix in ancient times carried auspicious and beautiful meanings, often used in ornaments related to women. This dress is short in front and long in front of the back, and the style is unique, which not only highlights the classical solemnity, but also facilitates the ceremony to perform the ceremony, reflecting the Connotation of Chinese culture carried behind the crown of the costume.
In addition to official clothing, a gorgeous costume known as "Jifu" is also a concentrated embodiment of Chinese beauty. This type of clothing is originally intended to be a decorative dress worn by people on auspicious occasions such as festivals, birthdays, weddings, etc., because of its high-profile color matching and fine ornamentation, it is unique in the Ming Dynasty clothing, and it is often also an important gift given by the emperor to the ministers.
In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the world was stable, the people were rich, all the countries came to the dynasty, the song and dance rose to peace, the folk silk trade developed rapidly, the people's love of beauty also grew day by day, and the gorgeous style of clothing quietly rose at this time along with the budding of capitalism, which was most obviously reflected in the costume. There are many styles of gowns, high-profile shapes, decorations with gorgeous and exquisite patterns, and the use of patterns or themes with auspicious meanings, giving the costumes a strong cultural connotation.
Compared with the official uniform, the shape of the yoshinese is more open and the decoration is more ornate, and it is generally decorated with auspicious bird and animal patterns on the shoulders, sleeves and hem of the clothes, and these unique patterns have become the finishing touch of the costumes. Royal costumes are often decorated with mythological beast motifs such as pythons, flying fish, bullfighting, and unicorns, reflecting the contribution of the owner of the clothes to the dynasty.
In the Ming Dynasty, the "flying fish pattern", as a high-grade pattern, would be decorated on clothing or complements, becoming a symbol of honor used by the imperial court as a reward. The famous Jinyi Wei was once known to the world for its image of "flying fish suit and embroidered spring knife". The flying fish here is not what is now called a marine fish, but a sacred beast with a dragon's head and tail, because it is very similar to the dragon, which symbolizes a higher social status in the Ming Dynasty. Although flying fish suits appear frequently in historical texts, because of the difficulty of preserving the characteristics of costumes and cultural relics, the Current Ming Dynasty men's flying fish costumes in the country are only one piece in the Shandong Museum, which is really unprecedented. This flying fish suit is a second product gift given by the imperial court to the derivative gong, representing a very high social status, the whole sticker is based on a slightly low-key fragrance, the auspicious beast of the dragon head and fish tail is vivid, and the eyes of the flying fish are faintly shining, as if they can fly out of the clothes at any time, soaring in the universe, and protecting the cangsheng.
Women's costumes are the brightest stars in the Ming Dynasty costumes, their wide plate shapes, gorgeous embroidery is particularly dazzling, and a women's robe in the Collection of The Shandong Museum is made of cloud shoulders, sleeves and knees. The "cloud shoulder" is a pattern of four clouds around the center of the circle, like a colorful cloud around the shoulder. "Cuffs" refer to the decorative areas from the upper shoulders of both sleeves to the end of the sleeves. "Knee brace" refers to the embroidery pattern at the hem of the front and back plackets. On the shoulders of the clothes there is also a kirin pattern, the unicorn is a high-grade pattern inferior to pythons, flying fish, bullfighting, usually decorated on the gift of clothes and gowns, with the auspicious meaning of praying for the prosperity of heirs and the cultural connotation of dispelling evil spirits, avoiding disasters, and praying for blessings. Decorating the gown with such a noble ornament shows the high status enjoyed by the hostess in the era in which she lived.
Although the Ming Dynasty costume was not as formal as the official dress, because the image of the python, flying fish and other beasts woven on the clothes was very similar to the dragon robe of the emperor himself, the imperial court also had a stricter hierarchy in the reward of the costume. The "Ming Shi Youfu Zhi" recorded an interesting story, in the sixteenth year of Jiajing, when Emperor Sejong was offering spring sacrifices to the mountain mausoleum, he recognized the flying fish suit worn by the soldier Shangshu Zhang Zhan who came to see him as a python suit, and the two forms of divine beasts were indeed very similar, but the python could only be used as a gift for a large member. The Jiajing Emperor was very displeased, and asked xia Yan, a scholar at the university, "How can a Erpin Shangshu wear a python without permission?" Xia Yan explained, "Zhang Zhan is wearing a flying fish suit given by the Emperor, but it is similar to a python." Sejong, who listened to the explanation, was still not satisfied, and said, "What group of two horns does the flying fish have?" It is strictly prohibited. "In the environment at that time, there were indeed some officials who received flying fish and bullfighting costumes to make their clothes look more like python clothes by means of covering and other means, and after the emperor himself became angry, the imperial court began to stipulate that civil and military officials were not allowed to use python clothes, flying fish, bullfighting and other clothing colors, until the late Ming Dynasty.
Ming Dynasty costumes are the most brilliant representatives of the history of the development of Chinese costumes, although the dynasty has gone away, the precious treasures left behind are still shining, silently telling us the way of Chinese culture and guiding future generations to the road of the future.