The canal is as clear as promised, and only the source of living water comes. --Zhu Xi
The Chinese nation is a big country, not only with a vast territory, a huge population, but also a vast civilization of 5,000 years. In these 5,000 years, China has developed from a slave state to a feudal state, to a semi-colonial and semi-feudal country, and to today it has developed into a socialist country. In the forest of the world's nations, the Chinese nation stands tall, no longer the poor and weak country, no longer need to be bullied by the great powers. Nowadays, China's national status is constantly improving in the international community, and the image of a big country is increasingly displayed, and we are not only an economic power, but also a military power. With the continuous development of people's material life, we must also become a cultural power. Studying the splendid and colorful culture of the Chinese nation for 5,000 years allows us to stand tall in the forest of culture. Today we explore the secrets of the costumes of Chinese emperors, why do most emperors wear yellow dragon robes, and only Qin Shi Huang wears black dragon robes? Why?
The Emperor's exclusive color
In recent years, with the continuous development of film and television drama literature, we can see a variety of costume dramas. For costume dramas, people's evaluations are mixed. Some viewers believe that through the form of artistic performance, it shows people the life of the ancients in the past, and narrows the sense of distance between the present and the past. There are also a large number of viewers who believe that many costume dramas do not care about historical facts at all, make up things in a haphazard manner, violate the socialist concept of history, and are not conducive to the growth and study of young people. I think that costume dramas are different from historical dramas, and for the evaluation of costume dramas, we must ask to start from facts and seek truth from facts. For costume dramas, if the historical background is omitted, then artistic creation can be carried out on the basis of respecting historical common sense. In this way we can gain knowledge in entertainment and have fun in learning.
Many historical dramas appeared on the stage, and indeed let us know more about ancient life. From these historical dramas, we find that yellow is a very special color, only the emperor can use yellow, if the ministers or commoners do not use yellow according to the rules and regulations, then it will bring death to themselves and their families. However, it is not absolutely impossible for civilians to use yellow, and if it is given by the emperor, it can be used. We all know that there have been many emperors in successive dynasties who, in order to reward some meritorious ministers, in order to enable these ministers to work more diligently for themselves, generally choose to give them many things, called holy gifts. Among these objects, we are familiar with the Shangfang Sword and the Yellow Robe horse coat. The yellow robe is actually yellow, but if it is not given by the emperor, it is absolutely not allowed to wear it.
In fact, before the arrival of feudal society, China was still in the period of slavery society, and yellow was not a color that only emperors could enjoy. In primitive society, people are equal to each other, and there is no distinction between them according to their status. Only when two classes, the ruler and the ruled, emerge, will the ruler demand exploitation to be ruled. This kind of demand and exploitation is not only manifested in status, but also in daily food, clothing, shelter and transportation. In slave societies, there were ceremonies, which prescribed rules and regulations to be followed between people of different status classes. If the rules and regulations are violated, it is a failure to obey the etiquette, and the result is a penalty or punishment. However, in the period of slave society, various rules and regulations were not so complete, and in feudal society, the clothing, food, shelter and transportation of various identity levels were more and more specified.
The reason why Qin Shi Huang wore a black dragon robe
Many emperors called themselves the Son of Heaven, the son of heaven, completely unequal to the commoners, and yellow became the emperor's exclusive color. But in fact, China's first feudal emperor Qin Shi Huang did not use yellow, but listed black as the emperor's exclusive color, what is the reason for this? In fact, the reason is very simple, the ancient people believed in the five elements of yin and yang, that is, what we call gold, wood, water, fire and earth, these five elements are symbiotic, then the five colors extended by these five elements are also symbiotic. Gold is white, wood is cyan, water is black, fire is red, and earth is yellow.
The origin of the five elements is to trace back to the period of our emperor, the Yellow Emperor belongs to Tude, advocating yellow, his dynasty was replaced by the Xia Dynasty of the son of Dayu, which is Mu Ketu, the Xia Dynasty has the Rui of Mu De, so it advocates cyan. After that, Shang Kexia, Zhou Keshang, Qin Kezhou, to the Qin generation, according to the order, should be the water virtue of rui, should advocate black, which is why the Qin Dynasty is still black. In fact, the theory of the five elements is not just about mutual survival, but also contains the meaning of the divine right of kings. If one dynasty wants to overthrow another dynasty, it must be agreed by heaven, so the Qin Dynasty also followed the Five Elements theory in order to justify the inheritance of unification.
After arriving at the Han Dynasty, the emperors of the Han Dynasty also believed in the five elements, and the emperors of the Han Dynasty believed that it was the will of heaven to replace the Qin Dynasty, and the earth extinguished the water, so the emperors of the Han Dynasty began to wear yellow dragon robes. So why didn't the dynasties after the Han Dynasty follow the principle of mutual restraint and change the color of their costumes? This is probably because the Han Dynasty ruled for a very long time, and the people already had a sense of identity with the Han Dynasty, which was not only a sense of national identity, but also a sense of identification with the rules and regulations of the Han Dynasty, so later emperors also used yellow as the exclusive color of the nobility.