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Costume art has various styles and characteristics, and people's costumes, aesthetic standards and aesthetic consciousness also change with different style characteristics in various periods. The pursuit of beauty is the common voice of women, and beauty allows people to give full play to their creative talents.
The overall combination, color, and other clothing elements of the women's vests of the Qing Dynasty in a specific historical period reflect a unique clothing beauty, which is unique in the mainland national costume culture and plays a very important role and influence on the development of Chinese clothing. Its beautiful, generous style; The exquisite embroidery patterns and so on show the diligence and wisdom of mainland women.
Generous and dignified style
The traditional vest style is simple and sleeveless. Using linear cutting and flat structural processing, the length of the body changes in the pre-Qing period and late Qing Dynasty, belonging to two-dimensional flat cutting, although it pays attention to "seamless", reduces seams, no darts treatment, but the appearance presents "hugging" (close fit), showing a moderate curve, thus reflecting the wearer's waist round beauty.
It is clearly distinguished from men's vests in color and decoration. The lines are simple, beautiful, simple and generous, and have a natural affinity for the temperament, figure, skin color and appearance of Chinese women, showing a dignified and elegant ladylike style, making it integrated with the female body temperament, and the overall style gives people a simple and exquisite feeling.
A wide variety of styles
In addition to the tactful curves, towering collars, and dignified bodice of the Qing Dynasty women's vest, the placket also has a special charm. The placket is the opening and meeting place of the garment. The placket is located in the longitudinal position in front of the chest and abdomen of the human body and plays an important role in the style of clothing.
In addition to the practical value of convenient wearing and taking off, the placket also plays a role in dividing the structure, breaking the slightly monotonous one-piece structure. The Qing Dynasty women's vest has many forms, and the common forms are ruyi placket, pipa placket, one-word placket, placket and so on.
The placket is also a style of placket in the Qing Dynasty, mostly designed on a vest, which is usually straight or diagonal in the shape of horizontal lines such as the character "one". The "one-liner" vest is a vest with multiple loops.
The placket of the Qing Dynasty vest is generally an asymmetrical right open placket, because of the ancient idea of respecting the right and inferior the left, which is also the traditional habit of the mainland, the appearance is unique, especially the combination of the buckle, making it a unique aesthetic form of this national costume, enhancing the rhythm and rhythm.
In addition, the vest in the late Qing Dynasty is generally worn outside the robe, and the straight line shape of the traditional clothing gives people a smooth and upright feeling, but the vest adopts a partial structure, forming a rotary oblique division on the body, and the overall clothing is slightly dynamic in the smooth change, and the straight line has a slight curve undulation, resulting in the unique effect of dynamic lining and static braking.
Of course, the symmetrical style on the left and right is also accompanied by the high power on both sides of the hem of the robe, and the right mouth opens and closes with the activity of the human body, which has a subtle and natural beauty.
Dignified and elegant collar
The collar is a subtle detail, which can well reflect the noble and charming characteristics of the female neck, and the collar types of the Qing Dynasty women's vest include standing collar, lapel and collarless, but most of them are mainly standing collars.
The collar of the standing collar stands on the collar, keeping a certain distance from the neck, and the collar and the placket often become the visual center of people, most of them have lace for decoration, and the collar also forms the shining highlights of the whole vest, giving people a classical, dignified and elegant style.
This vertical collar has a strong sense of three-dimensionality, simple and straight, which will cause the feeling of elongation of the human neck, and the face is also modified and beautified, highlighting the wearer's graceful posture, and at the same time reflecting the movement of women's heads constrained in the Qing Dynasty, in order to make small-footed women look dignified, so let the collar hold the chin high.
Most of the collarless vests will be inlaid with lace strips along the collar line, or embedded at the bottom of the collar, emphasizing that this clothing part located at the highest point of the clothing and next to the person's face not only plays a role in decoration and beautification, but also the collar part is easier to wear and is for the purpose of protection.
Chic quaint buckle
The buckle is also more distinctive in the decoration of women's vest clothing. The disc buckles of the Ming and Qing dynasties are very rich in materials, shapes and colors, and pay great attention to their own beauty and the overall coordination with clothing.
The knot is simple in braiding, but there are many varieties, it is a unique decorative process of mainland clothing, and the long cultural precipitation makes it contain rich cultural heritage, in addition, it also embodies the wisdom and creative potential of the ancestors.
This kind of disc buckle decoration on a small area of the vest, because of its exquisite craftsmanship often plays a finishing role, it was originally used to connect the placket in clothing, and then developed into a combination of function and aesthetic decoration, also known as "panhua".
There are many ways to weave button knots in Chinese folk: there are animal-like ones, such as dragonfly knots, peacock knots, bow knots, goldfish knots, oolong knots, etc.; Flower-proof are plum blossom knots, pomegranate knots, chrysanthemum knots, grape knots, etc.; There are imitation characters of shou ji, xi ji knot, etc.; There are also symbolic concentric knots, full moon knots, auspicious knots, rich and honorable knots, and so on.
This technique of using Chinese knots; Nature as the theme; Animals and plants are facsimile; The coiled flower buckle, which is made by absorbing other allegorical materials such as oracle bones, Chinese characters, and architectural forms, has a profound meaning in each knot, such as "pomegranate buckle" to represent multiple children; "Peach-shaped buckle" is associated with "Xian Shou" in Chinese folklore; The glyph buckles include blessing, lu, shou, and joy, which have the meaning of blessing, auspiciousness, and prayer.
In short, pan buckle plays an indispensable role in many traditional ethnic clothing and accessories on the mainland, and it is loved by the world as a unique Chinese art.
Pattern theme classification and meaning
In the Qing Dynasty, the gilet trim was rolled, woven with gold satin, different widths and narrowness, and the floral ribbon trim with different clothing color patterns was as few as one, and more than three or four. In the middle and late Qing Dynasty, in addition to the edge of the border, some also used flower tapestry plates to form large ruyi heads at the placket as decorations, adding multiple layers of silk lace, twisted gold satin trim, and some even added beaded tassels to the hem as decorations, tight fit, beautiful and gorgeous.
The traditional Chinese pattern is generally through the meaning and harmony of the image itself to place people's good wishes, the embroidery pattern also fully reflects the nobility and richness of the clothing, highlighting the extraordinary momentum and noble status of the royal family, and has distinct national cultural characteristics and reflects the customs and habits of the nation.
It was particularly popular during the Ming and Qing dynasties, and the design of silk patterns also gave a lot of special meanings, almost reaching the degree that the picture must be intentional and auspicious.
The pattern of vest clothing mainly includes two categories: the pattern formed by the weaving of the fabric itself and the pattern of individual embroidery decoration. This article mainly writes about patterns made of individual embroidery or weaving, and its content is in the same vein as the patterns of previous generations, and has the characteristics of traditional culture.
The patterns are mainly taken from the animals, plants, clouds and other patterns in nature, and these patterns are usually combined to jointly express some traditional auspicious and wealthy or Tengda progressive, life does not stop and so on and other very characteristic meanings.
Plant pattern
Plant pattern is one of the more common patterns in women's vest clothing in the Qing Dynasty, and plants show a variety of forms in nature, and the forms in women's vests are also ever-changing. Its content is mainly based on the theme of plants and flowers, and the traditional pattern symbolizes auspicious and happy meanings such as plum, orchid, bamboo, chrysanthemum, pomegranate, peony, treasure and lotus.
After the inheritance and development of patterns through the ages, most of the patterns are not applied in clothing alone, generally after the combination to express a certain meaning, some combinations are stylized, stylized, fixed and passed down to use in decorative patterns, such as a year, also known as "four seasons flowers".
It is generally composed of peach blossoms (spring), lotus (summer), chrysanthemums (autumn), and plum blossoms (winter) that represent the four seasons. And because the moon season is always open in all seasons, it is also used to symbolize the year; Four gentlemen, that is, composed of plum blossoms, orchids, bamboo and chrysanthemums, gentlemen are ancient honorific titles for people with good cultivation.
Because Mei, Lan, Bamboo, and Ju were not afraid of the cold, or ice and jade, or ethereal and dashing, they were endowed with the character of a gentleman who was noble and upright, and later known as the "Four Gentlemen"; The three friends of the cold year, composed of pine, bamboo, plum (occasionally plum, bamboo, stone) composed of patterns, because pine and bamboo do not wither in winter, Mei Ao wind and snow open, so called "years cold three friends", symbolizing loyal friendship and sentiment.
If there is a land in addition to the three friends, it is called "four friends"; ...... Traditional patterns symbolizing auspicious connotations are numerous examples; The so-called "picture must be intentional, meaning must be auspicious, reflecting people's urgent need for psychological comfort and desire for a happy life."
Baoxiang flower is one of the more prominent patterns in traditional Chinese women's clothing, symbolizing prosperity, wealth and auspiciousness; Often found in women's vests, it was originally a Buddhist term for solemn Buddha statues called "treasure (elephant)".
Baoxiang flowers generally set several flowers (lotus, peony, chrysanthemum, etc.) as the main body, inlaid and combined into different sizes and thicknesses, orderly arrangement, very decorative floral patterns, is a symbol of wealth and auspiciousness.
In addition, the "eight regiments", "hundred children" and "hundred butterfly flowers" patterns are all traditional auspicious patterns of the Han people. "Hundred Butterfly Flower" is the most popular pattern during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, featuring butterflies and seasonal flowers. In order to avoid evil, northerners often embroider some animal shapes on children's clothing, "butterfly is one of them, symbolizing longevity and longevity."
Among them, the four of "hundred" and "seasonal flowers" are full numbers, which have the meaning of full number and auspicious. All three patterns are formed in repetition.
China has an auspicious saying of "full number". "Full number" refers to numbers such as four, six, eight, hundred, etc., which in a certain field represent the maximum value. For example, "eight" is the number of human sensory organs such as eyes, ears, nose, sound, heart, body, mind, and victory. There are "eight auspicious" in Chinese Buddhist patterns and "eight treasures" in Taoist patterns, and these are patterns that contain the meaning of many auspicious patterns.
The Han and Manchu beliefs of numbers such as "eight" resonated culturally and led to a new fashion for clothing patterns in the Qing dynasty. "Hundred" does not mean "hundred" but refers to many, so it can also be called a full number. "Flowers on the ground" are composed of many small patterns, and the flowers are simple and abstract, covering the clothing. In order to save labor, the Qing Dynasty did not often use elaborate and complex patterns such as "folding branch flowers" and popularized simpler patterns.
There is also a "bullet ink", a process developed in China, in which leaves and petals are equal to the top of the fabric, and black dye is dyed. Its simple colors and vivid patterns made it popular with civilian women.
Although the craftsmanship of "Mandi Flower" and "Bullet Ink" are simple and simple, their form is similar to the full number of auspicious patterns, and they are composed of repeating many unit patterns, so they were liked by young women at that time, and vest clothing often used this process.
Animal patterns
Animal patterns are mainly based on the theme of insects, birds and fish, such as butterflies, bats, cranes, deer, unicorns, etc.; or with phoenix birds as the theme; It also expresses the content of auspicious connotations, such as: using deer and "Lu", "Road" and "Liu" homophony to express an auspicious meaning;
The use of bats and "fu" and "fu" homophonies to combine with other patterns to express the meaning of "blessing and longevity"; Or use the beautiful lightness of butterflies to express the meaning of beauty, auspiciousness and the prosperity of offspring...
The butterfly pattern in women's vest clothing is the most common one, appearing frequently, resembling a flower, with aura, easy to change graphics, symmetrical or balanced graphics.
Of course, in many cases, plant patterns and animal motifs are combined to enhance the richness of the meaning, and make the tattoo body more decorative and interesting.
Symbolizing longevity are: Fortune (peony with butterfly), Banquet Fortune (peony with swallow, bamboo), Fortune (peony with goldfish), Shouxiang Fugui (elephant, chrysanthemum with peony), bat and shouju combination, etc.; Symbols of good luck include: joy on the eyebrow (magpies falling on plum trees), peace and ruyi (vase ruyi, quail), etc.
Cloud bats, also known as "good luck" and "blessing from the sky". The pattern is composed of flying bats and clouds. The bat of the bat is homophonic with "fu" and "rich", which means happiness and beauty. Clouds represented the sky in ancient times and were the source of rain and dew that nourished all things; Yun is also homonymous with "luck", so it is regarded as auspicious.
The motifs of this combination symbolize the good wishes of praying for happiness to fall from the sky like bats, etc., and the various patterns contain corresponding meanings. This bright land and beautiful and harmonious patterns add a sense of hope and comfort in addition to beauty. Wearing such a delicate vest, it looks dignified and dashing.
Geometric pattern
The geometric pattern in this article refers to some abstract signs or words in addition to the animal and plant patterns described above, and is generally used as a lace decoration part for women's clothing. The following describes several common geometric patterns.
Shouwen, shouben is the text in Chinese characters, but due to people's pursuit of ideal wishes, the Chinese characters of shouji are often decorated and deformed, and directly used in the lace decorative patterns of clothing. Generally, there are two kinds of longevity lines and group life patterns.
Shou pattern is a desire for happy longevity, but also a kind of auspicious pattern, it can be used as a shading in decoration, can also be used as a separate pattern of swing angle, after deformation, the life pattern can also be transformed into a two-sided continuous pattern similar to "5". Ruyi, ruyi is the name of an utensil, the end of the handle is finger-shaped, often used for itching, hence the name.
In modern times, Ruyi is mainly for play, and the seven stages are mostly Ganoderma lucidum or cloud leaf shapes, symbolizing auspicious Ruyi. Ruyi is often associated with happiness, called "happy wishes" or "peace and happiness", "all things are good", etc. Complete ruyi lines often appear in symmetrical positions such as collar lines, posterior middle stitches, and hem angles.
Cloud patterns, the ancients had a mysterious illusion of clouds, reverie gods riding clouds to the world. In the pattern, the moire can symbolize the natural environment, whether it is the sky or the ground. There are one or two cloud patterns next to dragons, phoenixes, and bats, indicating that they are from the sky. As a result, various allegorical pattern decorations have been produced, such as "blessings descend from the sky", "Wanfu flowing clouds" and other meanings, and the cloud pattern is often called "auspicious cloud".
It is also people's wishes and yearning for happiness and beauty. In the late Qing and early Minming dynasties, lace often used moire-like fretwork at the junction of some blouse style lines, or cloth strips were wound into the shape of moiré patterns to form several rhythmic points on clothing styles. In addition, in the late Qing dynasty horse face skirt, the middle of the horse face will also appear on both sides.
In the late Qing Dynasty, moire seems to have become a fixed usage on women's clothing. Hi, in the folk, people call happy things the word joy. The written joy character means double happiness to express joy and joy, which is an auspicious symbol at the time of marriage, and the decoration of women's vests in the Qing Dynasty is also decorated with the word joy.
Vest clothing patterns and people's emotional expression
The women's clothing pattern of the Qing Dynasty is not only a kind of clothing decoration that people added for themselves at that time, but also a kind of vitality that naturally radiates in the female mind to support life and expand life, and it is also the continuation of human wisdom and life.
The patterns of Qing dynasty clothing, whether it is the civilian clothes of noble women, or the embroidery on folk women's clothing, silk or brocade, silk clothing patterns, mostly use visual symbols to convey meaning. For example, patterns such as dragon and phoenix chengxiang and dragon flying phoenix dance not only metaphorically refer to totem worship, but also express the emotions of "heirs of the world".
Patterns such as crane deer with spring, magpie dengmei, and phoenix wearing peony reflect the people's expectations for a happy life. The "Fugui Changchun" pattern is a pattern composed of peony and periwinkle, because it is commonly known as the peony as the rich and precious flower, so it is called "Fugui Changchun" together. The pattern of "Fushou Mianlong" is composed of bats, tuanshou characters, plate lengths, ribbons, etc., with the homophonic "Fu" sound of bats, and the use of disc lengths and ribbons means continuous meaning, so these patterns are called "Fushou Mianlong" together.
The "Four Seasons Peace" pattern is composed of flowers that bloom in all seasons, such as monthly flowers. The symbolism of these motifs can represent the ethical national culture and customs of ancient China.
The patterns in the vest costumes of the Qing Dynasty are the same as other clothing patterns, regardless of identity patterns or auspicious patterns, they pay considerable attention to formal beauty and corresponding meanings, many inherit the traditional culture of the Han people, and attach importance to the inherent development track of the symbolism of the theme, and also formed a new trend of pursuing formal beauty, reflecting the traditional aesthetic factors of the people at that time.