Will the Ming Dynasty people wear "Han clothes"?

This article is about 6900 words

It takes 18 minutes to read

Nowadays, the concept of Hanfu has swept the country, as the costumes of previous generations are increasingly restored, more and more categories can be provided for people to choose, and the mainstream habits are divided by era, such as Han system, Tang system, Song system, Ming system, etc., which involves a core question about traditional clothing - is Hanfu equivalent to ancient costume?

"Xu Xianqing's Eunuch Map · Jintai Holding Edict (partial). Source: Collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing

What is the difference between Hanfu and period costume?

This needs to be traced back to the question, where did the term "Hanfu" originally come from? What is its original meaning? It depends on the literature and archaeological data. The word "Hanfu" appears on the bamboo tablet excavated from the No. 3 Han tomb in Mawangdui, which is the earliest source of the word "Hanfu" in all documents and archaeological discoveries so far. The owner of the Han tomb No. 3 in Mawangdui was the son of Hou Licang of Changsha, the prime minister of Changsha, in the early years of the Western Han Dynasty. The number is "Jian Si Si" with the funeral bamboo simple containment: "Four beauties, two of them Chufu, two Hanfu." Here Chufu refers to the clothing of Chudi, and Hanfu refers to the clothing under the crown clothing system of the Han Dynasty, that is, the earliest origin of the word "Hanfu" really refers to the clothes of the Han Dynasty. Over time, however, the term has taken on new meanings.

The "New Book of Tang" compiled by Ouyang Xiu and others recorded: "Han Xiangman, a native Han tribe, is in Tieqiao. Only with Chao Xia wrapped his head, Yu Shang was the same as Hanfu. "The juxtaposition of "Han" and "Hanfu" here already refers to the clothing of the Han people. Another "History of Liao" contains that "since Emperor Taizong of Liao entered the Jin Dynasty, the emperor and the Southern Ban Han officials used Han clothing; The Empress Dowager and the Northern Pankhitan ministers used national clothing", here the national uniform refers to the Khitan costume, Hanfu obviously also refers to the clothing worn by the Han people, "national uniform" (Khitan clothing) and "Hanfu" are both described here as national clothing. Since the Tang and Song dynasties, whether it is official history books such as the "Twenty-Four History" or notes and essays such as "Tokyo Menghualu", when the word "Hanfu" is mentioned, it has the attribute of national costume. In this way, the clothing commonly worn by the Ming Dynasty, such as straight robes, Taoist robes, shirts, skirts, and round neck robes, is of course Hanfu.

Hanfu was broken in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, and then emerged in the early 21st century. Whether the Hanfu worn by modern people is equivalent to ancient costume mainly depends not on the clothes, but on the attitude of the wearer. For example, traditional festivals, many young people wear Hanfu to visit the park, or wear Hanfu at the graduation ceremony and take photos with degree certificates, etc., more reflect the national costume attributes of Hanfu, can not simply be reduced to wearing "ancient costume", clothing here is a development, fluid concept. However, if it is filmed in a historical drama, or shows a scene from a specific era, or imitates the costume of a historical figure and wears Hanfu, it has the nature of props and is more in line with the definition of "ancient costume".

After talking about the relationship between contemporary "Hanfu" and "ancient costume", we might as well take a look at the life of the ancients. For example, in the last dynasty before the Hanfu dynasty, the Ming Dynasty, in addition to wearing contemporary clothing, will people wear the clothes of the previous generation?

The ceremonial crown of "Chonggu"

Of course, the phenomenon of living in the Ming Dynasty but wearing "ancient costumes" exists, especially the emperor, who must also wear this kind of clothing on important occasions, that is, the Ming Dynasty court dress. Strictly speaking, the court dress system of the Ming Dynasty cannot be completely equivalent to the clothing of the previous generation, but it is indeed the most ancient style of the clothing system at that time.

Take the most grand imperial costumes, for example. Crown costumes were worn by ancient emperors on major ceremonial occasions such as the Heaven and Earth, the Sect Temple, and the New Year, the Winter Solstice, the Holy Day, the Shrine Festival, and the Book of Worship. This kind of clothing is said to have appeared in the Xia Dynasty, and it has been clearly recorded in the Zhou Dynasty, and the pre-Qin classic "Book of Rites" states that the outer robe of the crown costume is called Xuan Yi, and the sun, moon, and dragon patterns are woven on the shoulders; The back is woven with stars and mountain patterns; The sleeve weaves fire, Chinese worm, and Zong Yi pattern. Two each of weaving algae, powdered rice, yam, and yellow weaving, collectively known as the "Twelve Emblems". However, this crown service was interrupted for a time in the Qin Dynasty, and after Qin Shi Huang unified the six kingdoms, he ordered the books to be the same text, the cars to be on the same track, to abolish the old scripts of the six countries, burn the classics, and unify weights and measures. In this series of drastic reforms, the ornate crown clothes handed down from the Zhou dynasty were also abolished. Since then, the color tones and accessories of noble men's dresses have become extremely simple, and the Qin Dynasty was still black, so it switched to using all-black deep clothes as men's dresses, named "Yuan Xuan".

The Western Han Dynasty inherited the Qin system, and the imperial dress also followed the Qin Dynasty, from the emperor to the official, all using Yuan Xuan as the ceremonial dress, until the Eastern Han Han Ming Emperor restored the crown dress as a men's dress. Since then, the emperor has put on the crown again and put on the gorgeous costume of "twelve emblems". It is said that the portraits of emperors of the Han and Wei dynasties, such as Liu Xiu, Emperor Zhaolie of Shu Han, Cao Pi, and Sun Quan of Wu, which appeared in the "Map of Emperors of the Past Dynasties" painted by Yan Liben of the Tang Dynasty, all wore crown uniforms. Since then, no matter how the dynasty changes, the crown dress has been passed down from generation to generation as the highest ceremonial clothing of the emperors. The Tang Dynasty poet Wang Wei described the atmosphere of the Tang Dynasty with the verse "Nine days open the palace, and all nations wear crowns and worship the crown", and Mian Xu became a symbol of the emperor of the Chinese regime. The Ming Dynasty was the last dynasty in Chinese history to use crown clothing, and it was also the era of the collection of crown clothing that passed down for thousands of years.

The Nine Crowns Unearthed from the Tomb of King Luhuang. Source/Wang Fadong "The Beauty of Ancient Chapters and the System of Crowns"

The crown dress is one of the oldest dresses in China. Unfortunately, the relics of the imperial crown costumes of the Eastern Han Dynasty have long been nowhere to be found, even during the Tang and Song dynasties, they can only be found from the surviving ancient paintings. The only imperial crown that survives today, only the Ming Dynasty, especially the imperial crown unearthed in Dingling, has great reference value for the study of imperial clothing. Comparing the crown uniforms on the image materials of the Tang, Song and Ming dynasties, it is not difficult to find that they still maintain their basic style. This is actually the basic situation of the Hanfu dress system before the implementation of shaving and changing clothes in the Qing Dynasty, especially the dresses made of upper and lower clothes, which often retain the ancient style well, although there will be development and changes, but the basic shape is in the same vein.

Inheritance of meaning in women's dresses

After nearly a hundred years of interruption of the dress ceremonial system, at the beginning of the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, the Chinese form system that has been passed down continuously was restored in women's dresses. This costume system is inherited from the two Song Dynasties, echoing the remnants of the Han and Tang dynasties, carrying the pre-Qin consideration of the world's life, and can be said to be an indispensable and important existence in Han civilization.

Since the beginning of the "Rite of Zhou", the dress of Han royal women has been clearly stipulated and implemented on major ceremonial occasions. Among them, the queen's uniform is the most detailed. "Zhou Li Tianguan Xia" contains: "The inner master serves the six clothes of the queen, the robe, the yi (一作翟), the que di, the bow robe, the exhibition robe, the gown, and the plain yarn." Changed to "Neiji obeys the six clothes of the queen, Yuanyi, Tandi (一作翟), Que Di, Ju Yi, Zhan Yi, Qiyi (一作褖), Susha (Sathorn Yarn)." Among them, the first three are engraved with the pattern of the zhai bird, so the jacket, the yidi, and the que di are put together, also known as "three zhai". Women's dresses are all connected to each other without distinction, symbolizing women's single-mindedness. Since then, this clothing system has changed occasionally in the change of dynasties and the changes of time, but the framework has been largely preserved. For example, the empress of the Sui Dynasty had four kinds of dresses: jacket, bow yi, qing yi, and zhu yi, and the empress of the Tang Dynasty had three kinds of dresses: jacket, bow yi, and dianxi yi. Unfortunately, the specific appearance of ancient dresses is temporarily unavailable due to lack of image. Today, people can see the earliest form of women's dress, which comes from Song Dynasty paintings.

The queen's robe portrait in "The Sitting Statue of the Empress of Song Renzong". Source: National Palace Museum, Taipei

If we talk about the queen's dress in detail, I am afraid that it will occupy the space of a book, and today we will take out the most solemn and representative robes to show the inheritance of the Ming Ren uniform to the previous dynasty. In the pre-Qin period, the robe was the highest dress, so the sky color Xuan Xiangzhi, here Xuan color, refers to the color of cyan or blue tones. Since then, cyan has become the dominant color tone of jackets. Tang and Song robes are mainly dark cyan. In the third year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty (1370), it was stipulated that the empress's robe should be dark blue, and the red colorful Zhai pattern was embroidered on it. However, the definition of cyan varies slightly from period to period, for example, in the portrait of Empress Guo of Ming Xiao Yuanzhen, Empress Guo's robe is close to black.

Statue of Empress Myeonghyo Wonzhen

Xia Wei was an indispensable element in the dress system of aristocratic women in the Ming Dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, from the empress to the concubine above the ninth rank, they had the opportunity to wear it on ceremonial occasions, but the pattern was different. Xia Shu was not pioneered by the Ming people, as early as the Wei and Jin Dynasties, there were embroidered collars, drapes and other things. The embroidered collar only hangs between the collar, while the drapery is a longer ornament, like today's long silk scarves. Tang Dynasty women were very fond of wearing curtains, and upper-class women, after wearing fashionable dresses, wrapped the curtains around their shoulders and arms, and fluttered lightly and gracefully in the wind. Therefore, the Song people believe that the Xia drapery, which has the nature of a dress, originated from the drapery. Gao Cheng of the Song Dynasty's "Records of Things" contains: "Jin Yong Jiazhong, make a stunned dangzi." "There is a second class in this era, and Xia is not allowed to accept it unless it is a gift." "In the Song Dynasty, only blessed women were allowed to wear the Xia Veil, and the pattern in the Xia Veil was a symbol of status, the Empress could use dragons and phoenixes, and the Lady was embroidered with different birds and beasts according to the grade.

In addition, Kasumi is also a dress form that is closest to a commoner woman. The "Barnyard Banknotes" recorded: "Xia Shu, women's dresses are also used by women above the ninth grade in the Ming Dynasty." When a man marries a man, he has to use a nine-pin costume, so the elephant is used and the custom is not noticed. It is said to be a wife's regular service. "If a woman marries a regular wife, on the wedding day, she can wear a nine-pin xia drapery, a custom that continued until the Qing Dynasty, and the xia dao also embellished the sweet dream of several generations of Han women to marry with red makeup flowers.

An obsession with vintage deep clothing

In the Ming Dynasty, although the most solemn dresses such as crown clothes and imperial dresses were consistent with the crown shape of the previous generation, it was somewhat reluctant to say that they were "retro". Since the unification of the Sui and Tang dynasties, there has been a "dual-track system" development phenomenon in men's clothing, which is divided into two categories: one inherits the Han-style clothing crown after the reform of the Northern Wei Dynasty as a ceremonial dress; The other category inherited the round-necked robe of the Northern Qi and Northern Zhou dynasties as regular clothing. Among them, as a line of ceremonial dresses has been passed down to the Ming Dynasty, that is, the crown clothes and imperial clothes mentioned above have all evolved and developed, but the changes are minor, different from the costumes that have disappeared from the revival. So, did the people living in the Ming Dynasty go back to the costumes of the previous generation?

Actually, there really is. The first is the official directive from the beginning of the founding of the country. After Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty, he issued an edict in February of the first year of Hongwu (1368) to "restore the crown of clothing as the Tang system", that is, restore the crown of the Tang Dynasty. However, judging from the image materials left in the early years of the Ming Dynasty, the Tang costume revival movement initiated by Ming Taizu did not really restore Tang uniforms, mainly because there were insurmountable technical barriers - at that time, there was no archaeology in China, unlike today, we can have so many Tang tomb murals, Tang Sancai figurines and other unearthed cultural relics as references, and the paintings that were mainly referenced by people at the time were also very limited and mixed with true and false, and it was indeed quite difficult to restore the costumes of the Tang Dynasty hundreds of years ago.

However, some of the costumes that appeared in the early Ming Dynasty can be seen in the efforts made by the people of the time to revive Tang clothing. For example, in the early Ming Dynasty, the regular clothes of officials were narrow-sleeved round-necked robes, which were closer to the Tang Dynasty round-neck robes, at least in appearance, compared with the wide-sleeved round-necked robes of the late Ming Dynasty. The black gauze hats worn by officials in the early Ming Dynasty were also similar to the hard-footed hoods that appeared in the late Tang Dynasty. As for Shishu clothing, "Tang scarf" also began to be popular. This kind of first uniform is not original to the Ming people, and it is recorded in the "Yuan Shi Public Opinion Zhi I", that is, "Tang scarf, made like a head, and our horns, the two corners are curved as cloud heads", which can be seen to be imitating Tang Tang heads. However, through the cultural relics portraits, we can also clearly find that there is still a big gap between the prosperous Tang scarf of the Ming Dynasty and the real Tang Dynasty head.

From the round neck robe, black gauze hat to Tang scarf, it is not difficult to see that it is difficult for people living in the Ming Dynasty to restore the Tang Dynasty clothing hundreds of years ago, let alone restore the earlier Han Dynasty clothing. However, among the Chinese scholar groups throughout the generations, there is no shortage of people who are obsessed with the ancient clothes of "deep clothes". There is probably no kind of clothing in the history of the mainland that can win such an honor as deep clothing. The Confucian classic "Book of Rites", which has been regarded as a compulsory book by successive generations of students, has many chapters on clothing, but only "deep clothes" are written independently.

Probably for this reason, many Confucians still miss it a thousand years later. During the Five Dynasties period, Nie Chongyi's "Three Rites" by the Later Zhou scholar restored the cutting of deep clothes; Zhu Xi, the great Ru of the Song Dynasty, personally researched and restored the ancient clothes of the pre-Qin dynasty in the classics, and added his own understanding to the "Zhuzi Family Rite", giving Shenyi cultural connotations. As soon as this wind began, successive generations of Confucians were obsessed with the predecessors and successors of the deep clothes examiners, and Huang Zongxi and Zhu Shunshui, beginners in the late Ming and Qing dynasties, all examined and restored deep clothes, especially Huang Zongxi's "Deep Clothes Examination", which juxtaposed the five family diagrams of Zhu Zi, Wu Cheng, Zhu You, Huang Runyu, and Wang Tingxiang, each of which refuted its own fallacies and tried to examine the truth of deep clothing. It is precisely because the ancient deep clothes are favored by many scholars that "the system of deep clothes, the dispute among the people", has been inconclusive for thousands of years. Until the founding of New China, the development of mainland archaeology by leaps and bounds, with the unearthing of Han Dynasty costumes, humanoid terracotta figurines, and portrait bricks one after another, finally opened a new exploration route for the thousand-year-old dispute of deep clothing - it turned out that in the Han Dynasty, "deep clothing" was not the name of a specific type of clothing, but a general term for a large category of clothing, that is, "deep clothing system".

The crown of the late Han dynasty in the imagination of the Ming people

In fact, in the portraits of the Ming people, there are indeed some cases suspected of imitating Han Dynasty clothing (mainly Han Dynasty clothing that Ming people believe). Although the "Portrait Book of Songjiang Kunihiko" was painted by Xu Zhang, who lived in the early Qing Dynasty, the costumes worn by the Ming Dynasty characters involved in the paintings are accurate, and must be a reference. In this set of portraits, you can find Mo is the dragon statue and Zhang Yi statue, although the figure wears a bright scarf on his head, the hem of the costume appears quite like the structure of an apron, which looks a lot like a top and a shirt. In addition, the album also appears a figure wearing a Ming dynasty costume, but wearing a Zhuge scarf on his head.

Mo is a dragon statue. Source: "Matsue Kunihiko Portrait Album"

Zhang Yi statue. Source: "Matsue Kunihiko Portrait Album"

The Zhuge scarf that appeared in the Ming Dynasty is also called a cloth towel, and this first dress can be regarded as a reflection of the retro complex of some Ming Dynasty literati. "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" mentions the image of Zhuge Liang's lupine scarf more than once, but in fact, in the historical materials from the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Three Kingdoms period, there is no record of the first service of "silk scarf". In the Jin Dynasty, the costume of wearing a silk scarf began to become popular among the Shi clan, such as the "Jin Shu Xie An Biography" recorded that "ten thousand white silk scarves, cranes, and walked forward". In the Jin Dynasty, which was extremely close to the Three Kingdoms at the end of the Han Dynasty, wearing a silk scarf was a popular dress among scholars. It is reasonable to infer that if the silk scarf already existed in the Three Kingdoms era of the late Han dynasty, not far from the Jin Dynasty, then whether it was Zhuge Liang, Zhou Yu, or even Sima Yi, it is possible that the silk scarf was worn on his head and was not exclusive to one person. But the question is, what does this "silk towel" really look like? No image material is available.

Lu Shusheng, an official of the Ming Dynasty with a scarf. Source: "Matsue Kunihiko Portrait Album"

So, how did this scarf worn in Akito's portrait come about? The "Three Talents Picture Meeting, Clothes, Zhuge Scarf" compiled by Wang Xi of the Ming Dynasty contains: "Zhuge Scarf, this name is Lunscarf, Zhuge Wuhou tasted Lunjian, held a feather fan, commanded the military, and was also this scarf." Named for its people. And there are pictures. According to the "Three Cai Tuhui", this kind of Zhuge scarf is a lun towel, because Zhuge Liang often wears this, so it is named Zhuge scarf. This is normal logic, but when used in Zhuge Scarf, the logic is completely opposite. First of all, the first clothing of "silk scarf" appeared in historical books as early as the Jin Dynasty, but the specific shape is unknown, and the Ming Dynasty people may not know what it looks like. Secondly, in the murals, terracotta figurines, portrait bricks and other character image materials left by the entire Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties periods, there is no Zhuge scarf-shaped first costume, indicating that the two are not the same style.

The earliest record of Zhuge Liang's first clothing is "Ge scarf", at this time, the head scarf made of Ge cloth refers to the material rather than the shape. However, when painting portraits of Zhuge Liang in previous dynasties, it is inevitable to incorporate some contemporary clothing characteristics, and due to the worship of Zhuge Liang, the creation process is likely to borrow from the Tang Dynasty Tongtian Crown or the Ming Dynasty Liang Guan and Jing Zhongguan and other first clothes. During the Ming Dynasty, on the one hand, due to the advancement of printing technology, on the other hand, due to the increasing influence of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Zhuge Liang's image materials increased and fixed the image. It is precisely because Zhuge Liang's costume has been fixed in the Ming Dynasty, so this Zhuge Liang's head clothing created by the Ming people is called "Zhuge Scarf". When Mingren Wang Xi compiled the "Three Cai Tuhui", on the one hand, he had formed an inherent impression of Zhuge scarf, and on the other hand, because the influential "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" at that time constantly emphasized the image of Kong Ming's "lupine scarf". Therefore, in the book, this kind of Zhuge scarf written by Mingren and the "Lunjian" that appears in historical books are combined into one.

Before the Ming Dynasty, Zhuge scarves were not directly related to the silk scarf, and after the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the silk scarf was equated with the Zhuge scarf. Therefore, the silk scarf (Zhuge scarf) worn in the portrait of the Ming Dynasty should be the scarf hat worn by the figures of the Three Kingdoms at the end of the Han Dynasty imagined by the Ming Dynasty, and has nothing to do with the silk scarf in real history.

The head of a woman in the Ming Dynasty has an ancient meaning

In the dusty worldly life, women's clothes often follow the trend, changing again and again with the fashion, and women who love beauty with a little surplus are surrounded by fashionable clothing. The past affair of the previous dynasty is rare in them, mainly for two reasons. First of all, "retro" clothing is a niche pursuit of a few people, most of whom are intellectuals with certain cultural literacy and often have ancient feelings in their hearts. Second, a large number of Ming women were detained in boudoirs, and Zhao Dongmei, a professor of history at Peking University, once used the phrase "pill in a plate" to describe the living conditions of Ming women, especially in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. This made them less well documented, and they were not the focus of the literati. In this case, even if there are occasional women wearing ancient clothing, they are likely to be unknown and naturally cannot be known by future generations.

However, even so, some romantic reverie of antiquity still adorns the daily life of women in the Ming Dynasty in the form of fragments.

"Crouching Rabbit" is also called "Zhaojun Tao", and sometimes it is simply called "Zhaojun Crouching Rabbit". In the "Legend of Awakening Marriage" created by Xi Zhousheng at the end of the Ming Dynasty and the early Qing Dynasty, it is written: "Thirty-six taels of silver bought a handful of mink skins and made a Zhaojun crouching rabbit." "When winter approached, women made headgears out of animal fur without a crown, and wore them in a circle around their heads, which were warm and beautiful, so as not to mess up and cover up their elaborate buns. However, despite the name "Zhaojun", Zhaojun Tao was not closely related to Wang Zhaojun of the Han Dynasty. There is no information to suggest that Wang Zhaojun of the Han Dynasty wore the Zhaojun cover. Even in the Song Dynasty, in the Southern Song Dynasty painter Gong Suran's "Concubine Ming Out of Setu", Wang Zhaojun did not wear fur-style decoration on his head, but the surrounding Xiongnu wore fur hats. In the Ming Dynasty, Wang Zhaojun in Qiu Ying's "Thousand Autumn Exquisite Pictures" appeared above his head.

"Concubine Ming out of Setu" (partial), held by Wang Zhaojun, is now in the Osaka Municipal Museum of Art, Japan

"A Thousand Autumns" (partial), now in the National Museum of China

Perhaps, the appearance of the crouching rabbit and the Zhaojun set came from the love of Ming Dynasty women for headband hair ornaments on the one hand, and from the beautiful imagination of the Han Dynasty beauty Wang Zhaojun on the other hand. In the Middle and Late Ming Dynasties, headbands were one of women's favorite headwear, whether they were married young women or young and favored girls. The Zhaojun set, on the other hand, is just a variant of the headband, and it must be worn with the headband. A popular headdress, once associated with a well-known beauty legend in history, constitutes an interesting aesthetic image. This kind of ornament, widely spread in the name of Zhaojun, crisscrossed the north and south of the river, spanning the Ming and Qing dynasties, and until the late Qing Dynasty, it still covered women's foreheads, giving them winter beauty and warmth.

Wang Xifeng, who wears a Zhaojun set in film and television dramas. Source/Screenshot of the TV series "Dream of the Red Mansion"

Ancient women liked to comb their hair smoothly and tie it up on top of their heads into a bun. Over thousands of years, various popular patterns have changed and changed among women's green silk, sometimes towering and fluffy, sometimes low and simple. However, there are always some enduring aesthetics that have adorned the top of women's heads again and again in the vicissitudes of the times.

Jin Temple Ming Dynasty color sculpture. Source: Jinci Museum official website

This is the case with fallen horse buns, which were in the Han Dynasty, in the Tang Dynasty, and in the Ming Dynasty. The "originator" of the fallen horse bun was created by Sun Shou, the wife of Liang Ji of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and the Book of the Later Han recorded: "Shou is beautiful and good at being a demon, making frowns, making makeup, falling into a bun, folding the waist, smiling, thinking that it is charming." "Sun Shou is beautiful and good at dressing up, painting himself bleak eyebrows, making makeup that wants to cry but not crying, combing his hair in a bun, walking swayingly, and laughing like a toothache. The whole image is contrived, but full of delicate and feminine charm, and the fallen bun, which obviously serves this charm, is lowered and tilted to one side, as if a woman is about to fall from her horse. Sun Shou seemed to be a beauty blogger at the time, and the makeup and hair styles created quickly became popular, and for a time the upper-class women each showed a pitiful appearance of "weak and unable to take care of themselves". After this idea of beauty died down for a long time, it reappeared in the spring breeze of the Tang Dynasty and appeared on the body of noble women again. In the well-known "You Chuntu of the Lady of the Kingdom of Yu" and "Pounding Diagram", many women comb their horse buns, still falling crookedly to one side, but the shape is different from that of the Han Dynasty.

The fallen bun in "You Chuntu, Lady of Yu Guo" (partial) (first from right, second from right). Source: Liaoning Provincial Museum

After the Ming dynasty fell horse bun appeared in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, Fan Lian's "Clouds According to the Banknote" said: "Comb the hair like a man's straight luo, do not need to distribute, the butterfly sideburns are hanging back, also known as the fallen horse bun." "Women do not have to distribute their hair when combing their hair, just like men, they tie their hair full of blue silk on the top of their heads, and then comb it into a bun, which is a fallen bun. However, also known as the Fallen Horse Bun, the Ming version is very different from the Han and Tang Dynasties, with the Han Tang bun hanging to one side and the Ming dynasty tilting to the back of the head. The fallen bun is also known as the wai degenerate bun, and it is said in the "Ten Beautiful Words Chronicle" that Chen Yuanyuan (this Chen Yuanyuan is not Wu Sangui's love Ji) loves to comb the wai bun, which shows that this hairstyle is particularly popular.

Although the antique behavior of the Ming Dynasty in dressing has left many evocative life fragments in history, in the final analysis, it is still a hobby of a few people. It is not the same as Hanfu, which is currently in full swing and popular throughout the country and is one of the important symbols of traditional Chinese clothing. However, the nostalgia and love for traditional culture reflected in it are the same. This is also the gift of the long-standing Chinese civilization to secular life in various periods.

Author | Hou Jiaming Zhou Yu

Edit | Zhan Qianhui

Proofreading | Torch Li Dong Zhang Bin Gu Yue