Preface
The dragon has represented the particularity of imperial power many times in Chinese history, so in ancient times, ordinary people were not allowed to use the dragon pattern, and the dragon robe was only worn by the emperor.
But most of the time the dragon robe in history is bright yellow, only the Qin Dynasty did not follow the usual path, Qin Shi Huang's dragon robe is black, which is very intriguing, why is there such a difference?
1. What was the imperial robe like in the pre-Qin period
In fact, the emperor's preference for embroidering dragons on the clothes he wore was still a tradition that only existed after the Sui Dynasty, and when Qin Shi Huang first established the feudal imperial system, there was no such thing as a dragon robe.
When the kings before the Qin Dynasty ascended the throne, they would wear formal clothing, that is, "gunfu", and wear "crowns", which were the symbols of the king.
After Qin Shi Huang established the Qin Dynasty, in order to highlight the difference between the emperor and the previous Son of Heaven and the princes, he abolished the crown dress system.
This kind of dress is actually a kind of clothing that is black all over the body, which is much simpler than the crown dress, which can save a lot of trouble, but it is also formal and solemn enough to support the atmosphere of a formal occasion.
But why did Qin Shi Huang make the emperor's clothes black? This has something to do with the five elements, and people in ancient times not only fixed the attributes of the five elements for things, but even dynasties had this kind of treatment.
For example, the Qin Dynasty belongs to the water virtue, and the representative of the water virtue is black, so the Qin Dynasty respects black, whether it is the emperor or the court ministers, they are the top group of people in the country, so their formal clothing is black.
In addition, there is another reason, from the pre-Qin to the Qin and Han dynasties, the technology of cloth dyeing was not developed enough, and the lighter color of the cloth was relatively easy to make, but if the color was too dark, it was not so easy to get.
Therefore, people who have no status may not be able to buy dark fabrics even if they have money, and black clothes have gradually become a status symbol.
After the fall of the Qin Dynasty, the Han Dynasty established by Liu Bang inherited the system of the Qin Dynasty in order to save a series of troubles and demonstrate its legitimacy.
In addition, Liu Bang believes that the Han Dynasty "when the Han Dynasty is a water virtue, the black is the same", and the Qin Dynasty belongs to the same water virtue, so the emperors of the Han Dynasty in previous generations also wore "Xuanxuan" like the Qin Dynasty.
By the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Liu Che believed that according to the principle of mutual growth and restraint of the five elements, the Han Dynasty should not follow the water virtue of the Qin Dynasty, but should be Tude because it destroyed the Qin Dynasty.
Therefore, during the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, yellow gradually began to be honored, but because the formal clothing of Yuan Xuan has been used for several generations, it has not been changed.
It was not until the establishment of the Eastern Han Dynasty and the transmission of the second emperor, Emperor Ming of the Han Dynasty, that the crown dress system of the pre-Qin period was restored, so that the emperor's formal clothing at this time changed back to a complex and ornate style.
Later generations also continued to use this crown dress system, but gradually evolved from the emperor's daily clothing to formal clothing, which was only worn on important occasions, and even wore the crown dress when the emperor of the Ming Dynasty ascended the throne.
Second, the change in the color of the dragon robe
With the passage of time, after hundreds of years of turmoil, although the people's livelihood withered during this time, the craft technology is still developing, and the black fabric is gradually no longer as rare as before.
In addition, in the chaos during this time, the regime changes continued, so that the gold content of the emperor's status fell again and again, and Xuanyi was no longer considered to be an extremely noble clothing.
So when Emperor Yang of Sui unified the whole country and established the Sui Dynasty, this was equivalent to a new historical period, and Emperor Yang of Sui also knew that he had opened a new era, and he must be a little different to show his particularity.
So he made improvements on the imperial robe, most of the previous imperial robes were dark, but he did the opposite, using yellow as the background color of the imperial robe, and then embroidering the dragon pattern on it, so the imperial robe is also called the dragon robe.
Why does the dragon robe have to be yellow? In fact, it is because the fabric used to make the imperial robe not only has silk threads, but also gold threads are mixed with gold threads in order to show the dignity of the emperor, and the color of the gold threads is very conspicuous.
If you weave it with other colors, it will look chaotic and will not show the luxury of gold, but if you weave the whole piece of cloth with gold thread in yellow, not only will the gold thread be hidden, but the whole piece of cloth will appear as if it is made of gold, and the gorgeousness will be visible to the naked eye.
But at this time, the royal family had not banned the people from wearing yellow clothes, not only the emperor could use yellow cloth to make dragon robes, but the people could also wear yellow clothes at will, but the dragon pattern could not be used casually.
After Li Yuan established the Tang Dynasty, he changed this rule again, and the familiar bright yellow color was only worn by members of the royal family, and the rules that the people were not allowed to use began at this time.
So after that, bright yellow gradually became the representative color of the royal family, and in the Song Dynasty, there was even an allusion to the Song Taizu yellow robe being supported as the emperor, so the yellow robe gradually became the name of the dragon robe.
It may be relatively rare for people to have emperors wearing bright yellow clothes in the portraits of emperors in the Song Dynasty, because the Song Dynasty was a relatively restrained dynasty, and even if the emperor is called, he will not be directly called "emperor", but "official".
In the Ming Dynasty, the style of the dragon robe was more obvious, which I believe everyone has a very intuitive feeling, and people can easily see the difference with the portraits of the Song Dynasty.
At this time, the dragon robe was not only a yellow dress, but also embroidered with a dragon-shaped pattern on it, and generally nine dragons, representing the emperor is the noble "Ninety-Five".
However, according to the real dragon robe of Emperor Wanli unearthed from the Ming Ding Mausoleum, in the late Ming Dynasty, the number of dragons on the dragon robe gradually increased, becoming 12.
And slightly different from the previous emperors, the dragon pattern is more important to the emperor, which may be because after the Yuan Dynasty, which experienced foreign rule in the middle, the Han rulers also had a greater need to strengthen the imperial power, and the dragon pattern is a manifestation of authority.
3. Why don't you use black dragon robes in later generations?
In addition to the progress of cloth textile dyeing technology mentioned above, there is another reason for the change from black to yellow among the dragon robes, and that is the strengthening of imperial power.
The feudal imperial power gradually reached its peak with the feudal time getting longer and longer, and in order to conform to the concentration of imperial power, the particularity of the emperor naturally needed to be strengthened again and again.
Tang Gaozu Li Yuan stipulated that only the royal family could use yellow, which was a big breakthrough, which meant that the royal family had its own symbol, and no one else could infringe on the royal majesty at will.
It is also for this reason that the emperors of later dynasties embroidered the dragon on their clothes, which not only strengthened the emperor's status, but also had a greater sense of majesty.
In addition, there is another reason why the black dragon robe is no longer used in later generations, that is, out of respect for the imperial rule of the Qin and Han dynasties, in fact, it is to respect the ancestors.
Because one of the Qin and Han dynasties was the founder of the feudal emperor system, which provided a template for later emperors, and the other was the promoter of the Han national culture, which sorted out the backbone of the Han people.
In today's words, the two dynasties of Qin and Han are the "white moonlight" of their descendants, not to mention that these two dynasties still have the political significance of inheriting orthodoxy for future generations, so it is not too much to respect.
This is just like the fact that although the emperors of later generations scolded Qin Shi Huang for being a tyrant, absolutely no one blamed Qin Shi Huang for creating the emperor system, because he was stained with the light of Qin Shi Huang, so he was somewhat in awe.