Ruqun

Elite women in the Wei and Jin dynasty wore the combination of wide-cuffed, V-shaped, unlined blouse which was made of pattern fabric and was lined at the neck with a decorative strip of cloth, a long skirt which came in different styles, and apron.[12]^: 52 However, in the early Six dynasties, most ordinary men did not wear ruqun anymore; men, instead wore a set of attire referred as shanku consisting of ku, trousers, under their cross-collared jacket (i.e. ).^{[38]: 321–323} The men's jacket were either hip-length or knee-length.^{[38]: 321–323} The jackets can be tied with a belt or with other forms of closure.^{[38]: 321–323}

The shangjian xiafeng (Chinese: 上俭下丰; lit. 'top is frugal', 'bottom is rich'; similar to A-line silhouette) style was also a trend in the Wei, Jin, Northern, Southern dynasties, where skirts large and loose giving an elegant and unrestrained effect.^[22][23]

a

b

c

d

From left to right: a) unearthed artifacts of ruqun, Former Qin; jiaoling youren ruqun in the shangjian xiafeng-style: b) Western Jin period (266–316), c) Northern Liang, Sixteen Kingdoms and d) Northern Wei

During the

a)

b)

c)

Styles of shanqun: a) shanqun worn like a jiaoling youren yi with less overlap and worn with a weichang, Northern Qi b) shanqun with banbi, Southern dynasties, c) duijin shanqun with shan worn over qun, Southern dynasties

a)

b)

c)

d)

Different styles of ruqun in the Northern and Southern dynasty period a) Qixiong ruqun-style of the Northern dynasties; b) ruqun, Northern dynasties; c) jiaolingruqun with ru under skirt, Northern Qi; d) Ruqun with ru over skirt, Northern Qi

At Luoyang during the Northern Wei dynasty, several variety of clothing styles found on female tomb figures were largely derived from the traditional ruqun-style set of attire.^{[38]: 321–323} One style of ruqun was the combination of short jacket (usually belted and tied at the front of the jacket) with wide sleeves which falls to the knee or below knee level with a very high waist, pleated and multicoloured long skirt.^{[38]: 321–323} Based on a female tomb figure dating from the Eastern Wei, this form of ruqun is jacket worn over skirt.^{[38]: 321–323}

A popular form of ruqun was the jacket worn under skirt.^{[38]: 321–323} The qixiong ruqun-style also first appeared in the Northern and Southern dynasties.^[39]

Sui and Tang dynasties

In the Sui dynasty, ordinary men did not wear skirts anymore.^[40] In the late sixth century, women's skirts in the Sui dynasty were characterized with high waistline; this kind of high waistline skirt created a silhouette which looked similar to the Empire dresses of Napoleonic France; however, the construction of the assemble differed from the ones worn in Western countries as Han Chinese women assemble consisted of a separate skirt and upper garment which show low décolletage.^[41] This trend continued in the early decades of the Tang dynasty when women continued the tend of the Sui and would also wear long, high-waist skirts, low-cut upper garment.^[41]

During the Sui and Tang dynasty, women wore the traditional ruqun in the qixiong ruqun-style; a style where the skirts were tied higher and higher up the waist until they were eventually tied above the breasts and where short upper garment was worn.^{[3]: 1 [35]: 5}

In addition to the classical

By the Mid-Tang period (around the 8th century), the low cleavage upper garment fell out of fashion; the female beauty ideology changed favouring plump and voluptuous beauty.[41]

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  Woman in qixiong ruqun, Sui dynasty.
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  A Tang dynasty painting illustrates women wearing ruqun, with skirts tied above the breasts and short parallel-collar blouses
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  Another Tang dynasty painting illustrating ruqun
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  A Tang dynasty palace concert wearing ruqun
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Song and Liao dynasties

Song dynasty

Women continued to wear the Tang dynasty's fashion of wearing the upper garment and skirts tied around their breasts until the Song dynasty.^[43] In the Song dynasty, the women's skirts were also lowered from the breast level back to the normal waistline.^[43] Pleated skirts were introduced and became the main feature of the upper-class women.^[35]: 5 Song-style ruqun for women consisted of long narrow skirts and jackets which closes to the right.^[44] These jackets could be worn over the narrow skirts; this form of ruqun existed in both the Liao dynasty and Song.^[44] Cross-collared jackets with narrow sleeves could also be worn under a waist-length skirt or under high-waist skirt.^{[45]: 9, 11, 14–16}

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  Commoner women wearing ruqun, Song dynasty.
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  Sculpture of maids wearing ruqun, Song dynasty.

Liao dynasty

In Liao dynasty, the Song-style and the Tang-style clothing (including the qixiong ruqun) coexisted together; both Khitan women and Han Chinese women in the Liao wore the Han Chinese style Tang-Song dress.^{[46]: 74–75 [44]} Tang-Song style clothing women clothing in Liao also included a long-sleeved, outer jacket with ample sleeves which could cropped or waist-length, was tied with sash in a bow below the breasts to create an empire silhouette.^{[46]: 74–75} The outer jacket could also be worn over floor-length dress which was worn a yaoqun, a short over-skirt which looked like an apron, on top.^{[46]: 74–75} In Northern Liao mural tomb depictions, women who are dressed in Han style clothing are depicted in Tang dynasty fashion whereas in the Southern Liao murals, women dressed in Han style clothing are wearing Song-style clothing.^[44]

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  Women possibly wearing shanqun (upper garment over skirt) and beizi (Song-style clothing), inner chamber of the Tomb of Zhang Kuangzheng, Liao dynasty.
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  Khitan women wearing Tang-style clothing; Baoshan tomb No.2 wall-painting of Liao dynasty.
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  Khitan women wearing Song style ruqun.

Yuan dynasty

In the Yuan dynasty, the Mongols never imposed Mongol customs on the ethnic Han,^[47] and they did not force the Han Chinese to wear Mongol clothing.^{[46]: 84–86} Many Han Chinese and other ethnicity readily adopted Mongol clothing in Northern China to show their allegiance to the Yuan rulers; however, in Southern China, Mongol clothing was rarely seen as both men and women continued to dress in Song-style garments.^{[48]: 82–83 [46]: 84–86} Tang-Song style clothing also continued to be worn in multiple layers by families who showed that they were resisting the rule of the Mongols.^{[46]: 84–86} The Song style dress also continued to persist among the southern elites of the Yuan dynasty and evidence of Song-style clothing was also found in the unearthed tombs in southern China.^{[46]: 84–86}

The casual clothing for men mainly followed the dress code of the Han people and they wore banbi as a casual clothing item while ordinary women clothing consisted of banbi and ruqun.^[49]

Chinese women also wore cross-collar upper garment which had elbow length sleeves (i.e. cross-collar banbi) over a long-sleeved blouse under a skirt; the abbreviated wrap skirts were also popular in Yuan.^{[45]: 19–20} Women jackets closing to the right and closing to the left coexisted in the Yuan dynasty. It was also common for Chinese women in the Yuan dynasty to close their clothing to the left side (instead of the right side).^[50]

The way of wearing short-length cross-collar upper garment over long narrow skirt was also a Song-style fashion.^[44] Long cross-collar upper garment (about the knee-length) over a long skirt could also be worn by Chinese elite women.^{[45]: 19–20} The aoqun consisting of jia ao (Chinese: 夹袄), a lined jacket, and a long-length qun was worn by the Han Chinese women as winter clothing; typically the jia ao would be worn over the skirt.^[51]

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  Figure of a Woman Jin-Yuan dynasty China 13th-14th century.
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  Ruqun and banbi, Yuan dynasty. The jacket is closing to the left which is a common style for Chinese women in the Yuan dynasty.
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  Woman wearing shanqun, Yuan dynasty.
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  Women depicted in the Fresco in the Hall of King Mingying. Han women wore elbow-length sleeves, cross-collar upper garment over a long-sleeved blouse; the abbreviated skirts were popular in Yuan.^[52]
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  Women wearing Song-style ruqun (jacket over skirt) in the Yuan dynasty, from the painting Street Scenes in Times of Peace (Chinese: 太平風會圖), Yuan dynasty 14th century.

Ming dynasty

In terms of appearance, the Ming dynasty ruqun (i.e. the short jacket and skirt) was similar to the Song dynasty's ruqun.^[42] Compared to the ruqun worn in the Tang dynasty, the Ming dynasty ruqun was more gentle and elegant in style; it was also less lavish and yet less rigid and strict as the ruqun worn in the Song dynasty.^[3]: 42 One difference from the Song dynasty ruqun is the addition of a small short waist skirt which was worn by young maidservants; it is assumed that it was worn as an apron to protect the long skirt under it.^[3]: 42 The short overskirt was called yaoqun.^{[5]: 48–50} Moreover, following the Yuan dynasty, the style of closing the jacket to the left in women's clothing persisted in some geographical areas of the Ming dynasty, or for at least Chinese women who lived in the province of Shanxi.^[50] Ming dynasty portrait paintings showing Chinese women dressing in left lapel jackets appeared to be characteristic of ancestral portraits from the province of Shanxi and most likely in the areas neighbouring the province.^[50]

By the Ming dynasty, the ruqun became the most common form of attire for women. The sleeves of the blouse were mostly curved with a narrow sleeve cuff in a style known as pipaxiu (Chinese: 琵琶袖; lit. 'pipa sleeve'). The collar was of the same colour as the clothing. Often, there was an optional detachable protective huling (Chinese: 護領; lit. 'protect collar') sewn to the collar. The huling can be white or any dark colour, and is used to protect the collar from being rotten by sweat, therefore to extend the life of the clothing. Towards the start of the Qing dynasty, the skirt was mostly baizhequn (Chinese: 百摺裙; lit. 'hundred pleat skirt') or mamianqun.^{[dubious – discuss]}

By the late Ming dynasty, the aoqun (jacket over skirt) became more prevalent than the ruqun (short jacket under skirt); and the ao became longer in length.^{[5]: 48–50} By the late Ming dynasty, jackets with high collars started to appear.^{[5]: 93–94} The stand-up collar were closed with interlocking buttons made of gold and silver,^[53] called zimukou (Chinese: 子母扣).^[54] The appearance of interlocking buckle promoted the emergence and the popularity of the stand-up collar and the Chinese jacket with buttons at the front, and laid the foundation of the use of Chinese knot buckles.^[53] In women garments of the Ming dynasty, the stand-up collar with gold and silver interlocking buckles became one of the most distinctive and popular form of clothing structure; it became commonly used in women's clothing reflecting the conservative concept of Ming women's chastity by keeping their bodies covered and due to the climate changes during the Ming dynasty (i.e. the average temperature was low in China).^[53]

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  A painting by Ming dynasty painter Tang Yin illustrating women in ruqun
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  A painting by Ming dynasty painter Tang Yin illustrating women in ruqun
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  A painting by Ming dynasty painter Tang Yin illustrating women in ruqun
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  Illustration of Ming dynasty ruqun
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  A woman (left) wearing an aoqun (i.e. top over skirt), Ming dynasty.
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  Aoqun, Ming dynasty.
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  Group of women wearing aoqun, Ming dynasty
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  A ming dynasty woman wearing a chang ao over a skirt (possibly a mamian skirt). A blue pifeng is worn over the outfit. The ao jacket is long and has a high stand-up collar.

Qing dynasty

During the Qing dynasty, the aoqun was the most prominent clothing of Han Chinese women.^{[5]: 48–50 [55]} The ruqun (i.e. short jacket under skirt) continued to be worn in early Qing dynasty,^[4] but the later Qing dynasty depictions of ruqun in arts were mostly based on earlier paintings rather than the lived clothing worn by women in this period.^{[5]: 48–50}

In the late Qing, women wore the long jacket ao with the skirt.^[56] It was fashionable to wear the ao (袄) with the baizhequn (百摺裙) and the mamianqun.^[4] The ao in the Qing dynasty has a front centre closure and then curves crossover to the right before secured with frog buttons.^{[5]: 48–50} The front closing, collar, hem, and sleeves cuff have edging of contrasting pipings and side slits.^{[5]: 48–50} The skirts have a flat front and back panels with knife-pleated sides.^{[5]: 48–50} In Qing, the high collar continued to be used but it was not a common feature in clothing before the 20th century.^{[5]: 93–94} In the late Qing, the high collar become more popular and was integrated to the jacket and robe of the Chinese and the Manchu becoming a regular garment feature instead of an occasional feature.^{[5]: 93–94} The high collar remained a defining feature of their jacket even in the first few years of the republic.^{[5]: 93–94}

For the Han Chinese women, the stand-up collar became a defining feature of their long jacket; this long jacket with high collar could be worn over their trousers (shanku) but also over their skirts.^{[5]: 93–94} In The Chinese and Japanese repository published in 1863 by James Summers, Summers described Chinese women wearing a knee-length upper garment which fits closely at the neck; they wore it together with loose trousers with border around the ankles under a skirt, which opens at the front and has large plaits over the hips. Summers also observed that the sleeves of the women's garment are generally long enough to conceal the hands in cold weather; the sleeves were sometimes very wide and were decorated beautifully with embroidered satin lining which would be turned back to form a border.^[57]: 40 In Mesny's Chinese Miscellany written in 1897 by William Mesny, it was observed that skirts were worn by Chinese women over their trousers in some regions of China, but that in most areas, skirts were only used when women would go out for paying visits.^[58]: 371 He also observed that the wearing of trousers was a national custom for Chinese women and that trousers were worn in their homes when they would do house chores.^[58]: 371 Mesny also observed that men (especially farmers, working men and soldiers) around Shanghai also wore skirts in winter.^[58]: 371

Another form of ruqun worn in that period is called qungua (Chinese: 裙褂), which is composed of gua (褂; a jacket with central closure which closes with buttons) worn with a qun (裙) skirt.^[59] The gua jacket was a popular form of jacket in Qing and was worn as a summer jacket instead of the ao which was usually worn in winter.^[4] The qungua also referred to one style of Qing dynasty wedding dress.^[59]

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  Illustration of ruqun and pifeng during Qing dynasty
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  A woman wearing aoqun under a pifeng (aka beizi).
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  Qing dynasty aoqun, the blue ao (jacket) has a slanted/curved opening.
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  Qing dynasty Han Chinese women wearing Manchu-influenced aoqun and qungua.
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  Cantonese Han noble lady with her servants in 1900s wears Manchu-influenced aoqun.
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  Woman's wedding costume from China, an aoqun. c. 1900.
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  A bride wearing aoqun,

Modern

Republic of China

Wenming xinzhuang

In the early 1910s and 1920s, young women wore aoqun called Wenming xinzhuang (文明新裝), also known as the "civilized costume" or "civilized attire".^{[6]: 47–50, 54 [60][61]} It originated from the traditional yishang (衣裳) and the basic style of this clothing is clearly inherited from ancient Han Chinese clothing although the details have changed over time.^{[6]: 47–50, 54} The Wenming xinzhuang continued the unbroken tradition of Han Chinese women's matching a jacket with a skirt which has been established for thousand of years.^{[6]: 47–50, 54}

The ao of the Wenming xinzhuang was typically cyan and blue in colour while the long skirt was dark in colour, mostly in black; the ao had no complex ornaments as bindings and embroidery was rejected in this period.^{[6]: 47–50, 54} There was a narrow trim which would bind the hem and the side vents were rectangular in shape.^{[6]: 47–50, 54} The ao typically had a standing collar and long in shape with its hemline typically reaching below hip height and sometimes even at knee-height.^{[6]: 47–50, 54} The sleeves were short and left the wrist exposed.^{[6]: 47–50, 54} The skirt was derived from the baizhequn (百摺裙) and became a dark long skirt with larger pleats.^{[6]: 47–50, 54} With time, the skirt length eventually shortened to the point where the calves of the wearer was exposed, and the ao had a lower collar and an arc shaped vents started to appear on both sides.^{[6]: 47–50, 54} This style of clothing eventually faded in the early 1930s.^{[6]: 47–50, 54}

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  Aoqun, 1920.
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  Aoqun, 1930s

21st Century: Modern hanfu

In the 21st century, several forms of ruqun, whose design are often based on the previous dynasties traditional ruqun but with modern aesthetics, gained popularity following the

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  Men and women wearing different style of modern ruqun.
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  Ruqun sold in clothing store, 2018.
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  Modern qixiong ruqun.
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  Modern Ming dynasty aoqun

Construction and design

As a set of garments, the ruqun consists of an upper and lower garment.

The ruqun can be categorized into types based on the waist height of the skirt:

• Mid-rise (齊腰; qíyāo),
• High-rise (高腰; gāoyāo) and
• Qixiong ruqun (齐胸襦裙; qíxiōngrúqún).

The ruqun can also be categorized based on the collar style. The collar style of the upper garment can be divided into:

• crossed collar (交領; jiāolǐng),
• parallel collar (對襟; duìjīn), also known as straight collar (直领; Zhiling).

Women's skirts

Throughout history, Han Chinese women wore many kind of skirts which came in variety of styles; some of which had their own specific names.

Types of ruqun

• Mianfu
• Qixiong ruqun
• Qungua (裙褂): a type of ruqun worn as a traditional Chinese wedding dress in Qing and in modern era.
• Tanling ruqun: a type of ruqun with a U-shaped upper garment
• Xiuhefu (秀禾服): a type of aoqun worn as a traditional Chinese wedding dress in Qing and in modern era.
• Xuanduan (玄端): a very formal dark ruqun with accessories; equivalent to the Western white tie.

See also

• Han Chinese clothing
• List of Han Chinese clothing
• Shanku

References