[MUSIC] Hello everyone, I'm Pan Wang from Nanjing University. Today, I'm going to talk about Chinese traditional costumes. This is quite a big topic. The long history of Chinese costumes is a great story of beauty and creativity. Which path should I follow? Time? Generally speaking, we have 25 dynasties, each of which has its own characteristics. Gender? Men and women have different garment systems. Or ethnic minorities? There are 56 of them. For each week, we need far more than 30 minutes to construct a system, display the details, and draw some conclusions. But today, I want to focus on three questions. One, what is the relationship between traditional costume and social status? Two, how costume reflected the women's rights, especially the Tang women's rights? Three and the last one, what color is the opposite of Chinese red? The basic form of the earliest costumes in China was composed of Yi coat on the upper part of the body and the Shang skirt on the lower part. So upper coat and lower skirt became their standard clothing. The word yishang is still used today as the general name of clothing. In ancient times, people choose the color of dawn, dark blue, very close to black, as the color of coats. We call this color xuan, and the color of the Earth was yellow or brown, which became the color of skirts. It indicates the harmony between the nature and human beings. In Zhou Dynasty, a kind of long garment named Shenyi became popular. Yishang and Shenyi made the two basic forms. As time passed by, they evolved into various kinds of clothes. According to historical records, the Chinese rules on costumes and ornaments started to take shape in the Zhou Dynasty, regulating from the noble families to the common people. As mentioned in Yi, one of the ancient Chinese classics, the Yellow Emperor, Yao and Shun distinguish the governors and common people from what they wear. They govern the nation by different levels of dress. [MUSIC] Official costumes were made of pure and bright colors while those for common people were plain and dull. Undoubtedly, costume has a special significance. Royal costumes such as dragon robes and phoenix coronet indicated the highest rank of society and represented the super imperial power. But now, I want to introduce ceremonial robe first. Ceremonial robe was formal attire for Chinese emperor and high ranking officials to attend ceremony of offering sacrifices to gods and ancestors. There were 12 ornaments on the emperor's ceremonial robe. [MUSIC] Let's take one robe from Han, for instance. On the upper garment, six ornaments are embroidered. One, sun on the left shoulder, two, moon on the right shoulder opposite to the sun. Both meaning brightness. Three, star. The pattern of galaxy. Is surely embroidered under sun and the moon. Four, rock, indicating calm and stability. Five, dragon. Two dragons, one goes up and the other goes down. Meaning, capability to deal with emergency. Six, Huachong. One kind of pellet beautifully shining with bright colors, meaning virtues. And also, six, ornaments on the lower gamut. So seven, Zongyi. Zongyi is dragon vessel for offering sacrifices to gods and ancestors, usually in pair. And the pattern of the vessels are tiger and goat and hare monkey, meaning loyalty. Eight, algae means purity. Nine, flame means brightness, again. Time, fenmi. Fenmi is rice-shaped pattern, meaning nourishing. Eleven, Fu. Fu is a swirl patch embroidered with white and black accents. Meaning, capability to judge the right and wrong. The last one is foo. An embroidery in square pattern, in black and blue, meaning clear discrimination. Dragon robe is also known as yellow robe. Gold and yellow was used exclusively for the empire's robes, bearing dragon patterns, which started from Tang Dynasty. Before that, common people are allowed to wear yellow clothes. This system has been followed until the demise of the last dynasty, Ching. According to legend, dragon is the most powerful animal, head of all beasts. Just like dragon, phoenix is also an imaginary creature, a combination of many kinds of auspicious animals. In the legend, phoenix comes back to life in flame after his death with a much more stronger life. And from this kind of circle, it will get an eternal life. It's called Phoenix Nirvana. From Han, phoenix ornaments became popular. Then, phoenix coronet became the decoration of the queen. In Tang Dynasty, the first female ruler in China's history, Wu Zetian, also wear this kind of ornament to show her power and nobility. Doing the ruling of Wu Zetian, the system of official uniform undergo a significant reform. The official dress was style with narrow sleeves. Different ranks of officials were distinguished by the color, pattern, and accessories. Wu Zetian released a new regulation on the embroidery patterns. Costumes with embroidered was for civil officers and the one with beasts was for military officers. This system developed into BuZi, Ming, and Ching Dynasty. Out of all details in Chinese official uniform, boots was the most outstanding feature to indicate the official's position. Here are some boots on official's costumes in Ming Dynasty. The first rank, Crane. The second rank, golden pheasant. The third rank, peacock. The fourth rank, wild goose. And fifth rank, silver pheasant. And there are also booths for the military officials. So the first and second rank, it's lion. The third rank, tiger. The fourth rank, leopard. The fifth rank, bear. Now you can say in Chinese traditional costumes, the color and the patterns were closely related to the social status. The empires and their queens had their own costumes, like dragon robes. And also, officials have their own boots to indicate their positions. [MUSIC]
