Background
On the surface, the China of five or six thousand years ago bears little resemblance to the present-day nation remade by its 20th-century revolution. However, from China’s beginning certain institutions and attitudes have repeatedly reappeared throughout the millennia. Even during the Neolithic and Bronze Ages, China was home to much that is characteristic of the Chinese tradition. Such luxury items as silk, jade, bronze and lacquer were already being refined. Silk, particularly, exerted a profound influence on what came to characterize Chinese aristocratic society. By the end of the 3rd millennium B.C., silk was established as a prerogative of rank and was linked to a ruling elite that first emerged in China: the Bronze Age Shang.

With the Shang dynasty (1500-1050 B.C.), a diagnostic feature of Chinese clothing was established: a preference for silk robes trimmed with facing bands displaying small, closely grouped motifs that contrasted with the garment’s main fabric .

The Shang eventually fell before the forces of the Zhou dynasty (ca. 1050-221 B.C.), which established rule over an increasingly large territory, reaching up to Beijing in the north and down to the lower Yangtse River Valley in the south. When the western state of Qin conquered the Zhou and subdued the remaining states to establish centralized rule (221-206 B.C.), the first fully fledged Chinese empire was created. The ideal of imperial rule under a single sovereign was consolidated under the Han dynasty (206 B.C.-A.D. 220).

The Han period is the earliest for which there is reliable information on clothing styles—visible evidence that appears on bas-reliefs, painted tiles and lacquers. Men and women both dressed in wide-sleeved, kimono-style garments, girdled at the waist, which fell in voluminous folds around their feet . This robe, known as the pao, was worn in China until 1644, the end of the Ming dynasty, when the Manchu imposed their own style of dress first on their polyglot invading army, then on their new court and, subsequently, on the entire Chinese populace.

Many impressive gains were made during the Han dynasty—the empire’s territorial expansion; the official opening of the Silk Road; the arrival of Buddhism. A series of wars, however, brought about the overthrow of the Han. The subsequent Tang dynasty (618-907) is considered a Golden Age, the era when the Chinese state entered its mature phase. For the next 1,000 years, the rise and fall of subsequent dynasties provide a chronological record of China’s history: Song 960-1279; Yuan (Mongol ascendancy) 1279-1368; Ming 1368-1644; Qing (Manchu rule) 1644-1911.

Men’s basic dress
Early in East Asia’s history, a narrow backstrap loom was developed that produced only limited widths of fabric. As a result, woven Chinese upper-body garments were generally made of two narrow pieces of material arranged with a fold across the shoulders, seamed at the back and sewn under the arms leaving the front open. Sleeves were joined to the garment’s armholes. The most basic form of this traditional construction, the pao, was worn by peasant laborers, but it also served as the court ceremonial robe with the addition of more cloth at the front edges to increase the garment’s overlap. Additional fabric was added to exaggerate the sleeves, both in length and width. The pao was always worn over layers of under-robes, and during the hot, humid summers a bamboo mesh undershirt helped keep the robes from sticking to the body.

In sharp contrast to the Chinese cloth tradition, the garments of the Manchu revealed their heritage in the narrower Qing robes that close to the right with a curved overlap, a memory of the shape of earlier skin garments. In addition to this asymmetrical closure, these court garments have loop-and-toggle fasteners as well as tight sleeves that end in the Manchu horsehoof cuff, the matixiu, a flaring sleeve extension that could be pulled down to protect the back of a rider’s ungloved hands. Such silk robes clearly trace their origin to the horsemen’s utilitarian coats initially developed for an active outdoor life, a world apart from that of the sedentary Chinese court officials.

A suit of early 18th century Manchu ceremonial armor

Women’s basic dress
The formal court attire of Han Chinese women was much like that of the men: long-sleeved, full-length robes under which a series of layered garments were worn that added bulk to the ceremonial outfits used on important occasions. The difference between formal and informal clothing—the chaofu and the changfu—was largely a matter of iconography: in the Chinese decorative system, almost every motif conveyed a special, auspicious meaning.

As for Manchu female dress, at the time of the conquest trousers and/or leggings, the ku, were worn under the robes of all Chinese, regardless of class or gender—a heritage from former nomadic conquerors such as the Mongols of the Yuan dynasty. During the subsequent Qing period, Manchu women’s trousers were concealed by a skirt-like pair of joined aprons, the qun, also borrowed from an earlier nomadic tradition.

A Han Chinese style of robe that opens down the center and has full, kimono-style sleeves

Outwear
Surcoats, or bufu, were almost always worn over court robes. One was not properly dressed without a coat, hat and collar. Official court surcoats displayed rank badges, or buzi, sewn on the front and back so as to indicate the wearer’s status, an all-important matter in the strict social grading of the imperial court. A plain surcoat without the buzi was worn domestically. 

Garment decoration
Of all the motifs that appear on Manchu imperial robes, the dragon is the most important. Dragon motifs appear early on, at the end of the Bronze Age. Han literature links the dragon to the emperor, but putting dragons on robes can only be traced to the Tang court regulations of the 9th century. The earliest surviving dragon robes come from the Liao dynasty of the 10th-11th century. During the Mongols’Yuan dynasty, the 5-clawed or long dragon became emblematic of the emperor himself. In 1636 the Ming decreed that only the emperor and his family could wear yellow robes with the five-clawed dragon; lesser nobles were relegated to the four-clawed or mang dragon. During the first century of Manchu rule, the Qing court was vigilant regarding this law. Indeed, some museums and private collections contain early Qing robes that have had one claw picked out from each long dragon, de-clawed to reduce it to a mang.

The dragon motif appears in various configurations—front-facing, profile, standing, walking—and could be embroidered or woven on a garment at several locations. In the case of the nine-dragon robe, the longpao, which was the signature garment of the Chinese court, three dragons appear on the robe’s front, three in the back, and one on each shoulder; the ninth dragon is hidden from sight, embroidered on the front of the robe’s inside panel. Early in the 16th century, Ming court designers added a further prestigious motif around the robe’s hem, the lishui: waves breaking against rocks depicting a cosmic landscape for the imperial dragon. But this cosmic symbolism was only complete when the garment was worn. The human body then became the world’s axis, supporting the visible universe; at the center of that universe was the head of the august personage donning the magnificent robe.

Although the most exquisitely embroidered dragon robes were only worn at the highest levels of the imperial court, less ornate copies were made for the marketplace to be sold to Han and Manchu women, both of whom used them as bridal attire. Some robes were also used as glittering costumes for the opera.

A court satin belt complete with purses, handkerchiefs, a knife, a case for chopsticks, and a flint

Accessories
The various colored belts and attachments, the chaodai, worn by Qing courtiers were derived from the Manchu’s nomadic origins, as tying one’s personal effects to a belt was a horseman’s solution for the convenience and security of his necessities. The later court belt consisted of a narrow, card-woven silk strap whose color was coordinated to the wearer’s rank: from this belt were typically hung two ceremonial handkerchiefs, a pair of purses, a dagger, a case for a knife/chopsticks and a flint

Hairstyles
The nomadic conquerors made their dominant position visible by decreeing that Chinese officials had to wear their hair in the Manchu manner: shave the front of the head and braid the remaining hair into a long pigtail that hung down the back.

Headgear
Shortly after the conquest, the Qing decreed two types of headgear, both known as the chaoquan, to be an indispensable part of ceremonial court dress. For winter, the original Manchu fur-trirnmed hat was worn, complete with upturned brim and crown covered with red-dyed yak or horse hair. In summer, a conical sunshade was used; it was woven of bamboo that was completely covered with silk gauze. Both court styles had jeweled finials, easily visible indicators of rank and status. Manchu court hats also indicated rank by the shape of the finial, the type of fur, color, and added accessories such as peacock-feather plumes, or lingzhi. These hats are reminiscent of those worn by the Mongols.

Footwear
From the 10th century onward, the feet of upper-class Han Chinese girls were tightly bound with bandages in order to stunt their growth and create the much admired lotus-bud shape. The resulting tiny feet and shoes revealed the wealthy urban status and served to distinguish the Han Chinese from “lesser” groups. Prohibitions aimed at Manchu women to prevent them copying this practice were issued early in the Manchu dynasty. Nonetheless, foot-binding by some aristocratic Han continued. Extremely small feet were prized; even Manchu women, who did not bind their feet, sometimes chose to wear cumbersome, elevated shoes, the qixie, to achieve the coveted appearance of tiny feet, as well as the attendant mannered, stiff-legged shuffle that conformed to Chinese notions of feminine grace.

The male footwear introduced by the Qing dynasty reflected the Manchu warriors’ practice of wearing rigid-soled boots for stability when standing up in the stirrups during a mounted attack. Only the outward shape of these originally functional “horse boots,” the maxie, was preserved in the subsequent court boots.

Han Chinese peasants’ footwear, which varied with the climate and season, included both lacquered wooden clogs and sandals. In the cities, various types of closed footwear, or xie, were worn.

Han, Manchu, and Quing Chinese shoes

Transitional dress
The Manchu’s Qing dynasty ruled until 1911 when, under pressures from internal decline and external threat, imperial China’s long dynastic cycle was brought to an end. Court attire thus ceased to serve a function, no longer an important part of the Chinese governmental structure. The magnificent imperial robes, however, were far from forgotten. Indeed, copies of those memorable garments were—and still are— worn by fashionable women throughout the Western world.