In the hierarchical feudal society, the dragon robe was used by the emperors as a symbol of their supreme status, as a symbol of power, the dragon robe had strict norms in terms of design, color, standard and ornamentation.
At the same time, the use, replacement and even cleaning of the dragon robe are not sloppy at all, so the heavenly sons of the past dynasties have been extremely luxurious in dealing with the dragon robe.
In other words, what if the emperors' dragon robes are worn for a long time and stink? Today we will talk about this problem, which may refresh your three views and call poverty limits imagination.
From the Qin and Han dynasties to before the Sui and Tang dynasties
The name "dragon robe" comes from the Qin Dynasty, "ancestral dragon" Qin Shi Huang set a precedent for using dragons to represent his identity as a son of heaven, and he ordered people to embroider nine lifelike five-clawed dragons on his own costumes to reflect his identity as the "Nine-Five-Five".
His design concept has been inherited by posterity, and over time, people have called the emperor's robe a dragon robe. In history, the main color of the dragon robe in the Qin and Han Dynasties was relatively unique, because the color of the dragon robe was mainly "xuan color" - black.
So why did the lord of the Qin Kingdom choose black as the main color of the dragon robe? The Qin Dynasty was originally founded in a barbaric land, and the lack of water restricted their development. Among the five elements, black is the representative color of water, so the desire for water makes the monarch of the Qin State choose a black dragon robe.
After Yingzheng swept away Liuhe and established a unified dynasty, it was believed that the Qin Dynasty replaced the Zhou Dynasty. The Zhou Dynasty belonged to the fire in the Five Elements, and the Qin Dynasty must have used water to overcome the fire, so Qin Shi Huang retained the dark color on the main color of the dragon robe.
The Han dynasty inherited the Qin system, and the dynasties after the Han dynasty basically inherited the Han system, and the main color of the dragon robe did not change greatly. During the Qin and Han dynasties, because the textile technology was not qualitatively improved, the production process of the dragon robe in the Qin and Han dynasties was relatively simple, and the textile materials were mainly primary materials such as hemp, silk and wool.
Just as the so-called "smart women are difficult to cook without rice", even the best tailors cannot make the emperors' dragon robes too luxurious in this case, not only is the quality not good, but also limited by technology, and the number of dragon robes is not much.
During the Qin and Han dynasties, what was the problem of cleaning up the dragon robe? Dragon robes made of silk linen can theoretically be washed with water, but dragon robes in this period are often not cleaned, why is this?
On the one hand, it is because it is easy to shrink after washing, and on the other hand, there are few opportunities to wear dragon robes. It turned out that the dragon robes of the Qin and Han dynasties were not used for the emperor's daily wear. Only on important occasions such as ancestor worship and other important occasions when large-scale state affairs were held, did the emperors appear in dragon robes to reflect their identity.
In this way, the number of times the emperor wore the dragon robe was greatly reduced, the possibility of soiling was not large, and the need for cleaning was eliminated. What if the dragon robe is really dirty, of course, it is to change it directly, the emperor will never treat himself badly.
Sui, Tang and Song dynasties
Regarding the fact that the main color of the dragon robe was xuan color, it was not changed until the time of Emperor Wen of Sui. As early as before the Sui Dynasty, the emperors began to have aesthetic fatigue for the dragon robe, at this time, the red and yellow dragon robes, and even various colorful dragon robes began to slowly appear.
However, at that time, it did not replace the status of black as the main color, and in the sui Wendi period, he believed that "heaven and earth Xuan huang", since the xuan color can be used as the main color of the dragon robe, then yellow can also be used as the main color of the dragon robe.
Therefore, starting from Emperor Wen of Sui, yellow replaced black and became the main color of the dragon robe. After the Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin "added the yellow robe to the body", the yellow robe became the symbol of the dragon robe again.
As the social hierarchy became more and more stringent, this kind of yellow cloth on the dragon robe could only be used by the emperor, and the common people dared to use it, which was a major crime of deceiving the king.
Of course, superstitious emperors also allowed the religions they supported to use this color to decorate the gods and Buddhas. Returning to the process of the dragon robe, due to the greater national strength in the Sui and Tang dynasties, the textile industry and textile materials were also continuously upgraded.
At the same time, the structure of the harem tends to be perfect, and there are relatively many garment talents in the Shangyi Bureau. The quality and quantity of the dragon robes have been greatly improved. At this time, the dragon robe was mainly based on top silk fabrics, and the printing and dyeing of the dragon robe, the workmanship and the ornamentation on the dragon robe were becoming more and more exquisite.
In addition, the wealthy Sui and Tang emperors often liked to use jewelry to inlay dragon robes to show their identity as the son of heaven. This top-of-the-line dragon robe used to take a long time to be sewn by skilled craftsmen to make one, but now it can be mass-produced.
Therefore, the emperors of the Sui and Tang dynasties achieved the "small goal" of wearing dragon robes up and down the dynasty every day. With the dailyization of the dragon robe, the cleaning of the dragon robe is imperative, but ordinary water washing is definitely not OK.
The first reason is that the dragon robe is mostly silk fabrics, and the wrinkles will shrink through washing and rubbing, affecting the overall appearance of the clothes; the second reason is that the patterns on the dragon robe and the embedded ornaments are very easy to damage under ordinary cleaning, and once damaged, it is extremely difficult to recover.
At that time, the palace people who cleaned the dragon robe faced this problem and exerted their wisdom, and they divided the cleaning of the dragon robe into two parts: "deodorization" and "decontamination".
In addition to the odor part, no longer rely on cleaning to solve (at that time there was indeed no detergent with both functions), they used the method of aromatherapy, using ambergris and other precious spices to smoke the dragon robe, the odor on the dragon robe diluted or even covered.
The manpower and material resources consumed by this process are very large, but the aromatherapy method can remove the "dragon smell" of the heavenly son on the dragon robe while the dragon robe is intact.
For cleaning up the stains on the dragon robe, these palace people took it into account when making the dragon robe, and they woven the dragon robe into sections from the beginning. When an area of the dragon robe is stained, they will dismantle the stained area individually.
Either carefully clean or replace the old part with a new part, this restoration technique is so skilled that people can't see the slightest trace, of course, the energy spent is unimaginable.
Dragon robe culture in the Ming and Qing dynasties
The development of dragon robes in the Ming and Qing dynasties reached its peak, and regarding the materials used in dragon robes, the production process of dragon robes in the Ming Dynasty was recorded in detail in the "Tiangong Kaiwu", and the emperor's dragon robes must be made of the best silk in the country.
In order to avoid problems in the printing and dyeing process, resulting in inconsistent color of the dragon robe, all silk must be dyed ochre yellow before textile. In terms of workmanship, the silk reeling process has been used in the production of dragon robes, which is much more complicated than embroidery.
On the ornaments, the requirements of these emperors are even more exaggerated, for example, the Wanli Emperor changed the original 9 dragons on the dragon robe to 12 dragons and became the "Twelve Chapters of Silk GongFu".
In addition to the conventional "complement" (the Qing Dynasty referred to the traditional ornaments on the back of the chest as the complement), the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty also embroidered the "Twelve Chapters": Sun, Moon, Stars, Mountains, Dragons, Worms, Zong Yi, Algae, Fire, Powder Rice, Yellow, and Yellow.
The production of dragon robes during this period was simply more complicated than the construction of the Great Wall, and each dragon robe was made of more silk than the city bricks of the Great Wall, and many excellent tailors only put one or two dragon robes on it for a lifetime.
Therefore, the cleaning and maintenance of the dragon robe cannot be ignored. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the emperors also used to wear as little as possible to avoid staining the dragon robe. In addition to the traditional cleaning methods such as the aromatherapy method and the dismantling method, the workers have also added an "alcohol" cleaning method.
This is because in the process of historical development, people have found that alcohol has the effect of removing some stains. The palace people who maintain the dragon robe will mix alcohol with some special spices to wash the dragon robe.
The alcohol method takes into account the decontamination and odor removal, and has become the preferred method of cleaning the dragon robe. However, this method is still extravagant and expensive, and the sake used for cleaning is extremely difficult to brew "imperial sake". Every drop of imperial wine is worth a lot, and this cleaning work is also quite "money-burning".
Through the above introduction, it can be seen that it is only a "cleaning" of a dragon robe, and over time, its technology is constantly improving, and it has to be said that the ancient emperors were really luxurious, and poverty also limited many people's imagination of it.
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