Typical Chinese Clothing in Palace of Devotion: Song Hanfu

On March 20, "Palace of Devotion" directed by Li Shaohong began to air. Compared to the eagerly developing plot, what attracted more attention from netizens was surprisingly the typical Chinese clothing in the drama: the Song Dynasty Hanfu.

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Song Dynasty was an era of high economic and cultural prosperity in ancient China, but their costumes were understated and elegant, do you know what the reason was?

 

Factors Related to the Aesthetics of Song Dynasty Clothing

The Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127) was established, ending the division between the north and the south, which had been confronting each other for nearly two hundred years. In terms of politics, the Song Dynasty emphasized literature over martial arts; compared to the opulence of the Tang Dynasty, the Song Dynasty called on the literati to return to the basics by political means, rejecting an overly flashy and exaggerated style of writing and advocating a smooth and simple style of writing, which made the Song aesthetics tend to be literary. Coupled with the introduction of Buddhism, Zen thought combined with cultural performance in literature and painting and calligraphy, catalyzed the literati to favor rational aesthetic concepts; ideally, the literati generally pursued natural truths and were indifferent to fame and fortune; in life, they were accustomed to elegant clothing and simple artistic style.

 

Style of Typical Chinese Clothing: Song Dynasty Clothing

Whether it was the Northern or Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279), the most important feature of the costumes was that they were slim and fit, from the top to the nobles, from the bottom to the commoners, with straight collar and lapels and elegant colors. Although the styles were very different, Song Dynasty clothing also inherited the elements of Tang Dynasty clothing, combined with the contemporary style of the Song Dynasty, clothing color scheme is different from the Tang Dynasty red, purple, green, green color use habits, more use of various types of light colors, such as black purple, white, silver-gray and other plain light colors.

Song Taizu in the first year of the Jianlong (960) costume system provides that: the emperor's Mian Fu is Gun Long clothes (衮龙衣, dragon robe), Jiang Sha robe (绛纱袍), Tongtian crown (通天冠). The court dress of the Song officials followed the characteristics of the official dress of the Tang Dynasty, Zhuyi and Zhushang, wearing white Luo Zhongdan inside, outside tied with a large belt of Luo material, hanging on the body with brocade ribbon, jade pendant, feet wearing white damask black footwear.

The style of the court dress was uniform, and the level of official rank reflected the change in rank from the patterns on the zen coat and brocade ribbon. When an official wears the court dress, must wear the Jinxian crown, Diaochan crown, and the Jiepang crown, can not wear other crowns, not to mention not wearing the crown. Hold a Hu (笏) in hand.

Song Dynasty women's casual dresses were thin, slim, long, and narrow for beauty. The general clothing worn by women in the Song Dynasty included clothing styles such as Ru, Shan, Beizi, Banbi, skirt, and Ku (pant). The skirt was worn mainly, usually on the outside of the dress and then wore long-sleeved lapel Beizi, which collar and front lapel painted embroidered lace. In terms of color, the color of the tops are relatively light, usually using inter-color, there are light green, pink purple, silver-gray, onion green, dark green, white, etc., while the color of the skirt is usually brighter than the tops, there are green, blue, and white and apricot yellow, etc.

 

Patterns of Song Dynasty Clothing

The patterns of the Song Dynasty were more extensive and richer than those of the Tang Dynasty, such as Bada Yun(八搭晕, multilateral geometric shapes are used as the skeleton of the pattern, and the main parts of the skeleton are filled with floral motifs in a lifestyle, while other secondary parts are supplemented with various small, delicate geometric flowers), Liuda Yun(六搭晕), and Panqiu(盘球). The richness of the patterns could not be separated from the developed hand embroidery of the Song Dynasty, especially in the pioneering painting embroidery, which was a masterpiece. The embroidery painting was influenced by the painting art of the Song Dynasty, and the composition of the landscape, pavilion, flowers and birds, figures, etc. was simple and atmospheric with vivid images, which was a mature stage of development of embroidery painting and embroidery method.

Clothing was born in primitive society, the most fundamental use is to cover up the shame and keep warm. With the development of the times, more meanings have been given to clothing, and the function of clothing is not only limited to this.

Traditional Chinese clothing was a symbol of social status and an expression of the aesthetics of the times. The costume culture under the aesthetic outlook of the Song Dynasty is the epitome of Chinese culture, moreover, it is the unique beauty of typical Chinese clothing, and the real costume and material aesthetics of the Song Dynasty deserve to be studied in depth in recent times.

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