The Tang Dynasty was the heyday of China's feudal society, with a prosperous economy, developed culture, frequent foreign exchanges and an open world. Coupled with the influence of foreign ethnic minorities, women in the Tang Dynasty were less bound. In this unique era environment and social atmosphere, women's dresses in the Tang Dynasty have become one of the important symbols of Tang Wenhua with their numerous styles, gorgeous colors, innovative decorative techniques and elegant and gorgeous styles.
Dress
Women's clothing in Tang Dynasty can be divided into skirts, crowns, hats and shoes. According to the Tang system, there are four kinds of women's clothes, namely, court clothes, public clothes, sacrificial clothes and regular clothes. The first three are the size dresses worn by empresses in court meetings, sacrifices and other formal occasions, while the latter is for daily use. Women's uniforms in the Tang Dynasty were basically shirts and curtains on the upper body, skirts on the lower body and silk on the shoulders. This shirt is single-sleeved, padded and only as short as the waist. Skirts are long and numerous. In addition, there are coats, half arms and shirts. The coat is a jacket, which is longer than the jacket and shorter than the robe. Half-arm is a kind of short-sleeved bodice, which is worn outside the shirt and popular in the early Tang Dynasty. A blouse is a short and easy-to-take gown worn by women when they sing and dance. Its clothes are colorful, and red, green, purple and yellow are the most popular, such as "red skirt is jealous of pomegranate flowers", "lotus root skirt" and "Yujin skirt with bending over and dancing more". Moreover, there are many weaves and embroideries on shirts, rafts, jackets and skirts. As stated in the Tang Dynasty, The Newly Embroidered Luo includes silk, cotton cloth, kudzu vine, hemp and wool, among which silk is the most commonly used.
In addition, "contemporary makeup", topless clothes, men's wear and Hu clothing are also important costumes. "Contemporary makeup", that is, fashion, women's dresses in the early Tang Dynasty were small sleeve narrow dresses with half arms, silk shoulders and tight chests, with simple style; In the prosperous Tang Dynasty, the dress gradually widened, the skirt waist moved down, and the clothing was gorgeous; In the middle and late Tang Dynasty, the dresses became more and more spacious, and women often praised them for their wide sleeves and bright colors. Naked collar clothes, men's wear, military uniforms and Hu clothes were widely popular among women in the Tang Dynasty, especially in its heyday. The topless collar dress is a kind of semi-topless sleeve shirt made of yarn. At that time, it was described as "slow-binding Luo skirt to cover the chest", "uneven shame to kill snow hibiscus" and "seeing the skin with thin lines on the front edge", which fully reflected the graceful figure and natural beauty of women in Tang Dynasty. Women in the Tang Dynasty like military uniforms and men's clothes. "Gong E in Military Uniforms Sweeps Her Eyebrows" depicts the scene of maids wearing military uniforms. During the reign of Wu Zong, Wang Cairen was often mistaken for the emperor by performers because he served with Wu Zong. Good things in the world will be effective in the afterlife. In the heyday of the Tang Dynasty, the wives of literati wore their husbands' clothes, hats and boots without exception, and the maids followed their mistresses in men's round neck suits, with hoes wrapped around their heads and black boots on their feet. Women in the Tang Dynasty had no other ideas from China and foreigners. During the reign of Tianbao in Kaiyuan, Han women dressed in tight-fitting Hu clothes with lapels, narrow sleeves and waists were everywhere in the streets and alleys of Chang 'an, Luoyang and other metropolises, which reflected the spirit of women's openness and bodybuilding in the prosperous Tang Dynasty.
collar
The collars of women's wear in the Tang Dynasty include round neck, square collar, oblique collar, straight collar and chicken heart collar. Short skirts and long skirts are characterized by high waists, generally above the waist, and some are even tied under the armpits, giving people a very slender feeling.
"Luoshan leaves are heavily embroidered, and Jinfeng Yinyan has its own traces." Mei Dai wins the color of day lily, and the red skirt envies pomegranate flowers. The skirts in the Tang Dynasty are colorful, with red, purple, yellow and green competing for each other, especially the red skirt. The popularity of red skirts in the streets is not the patent of modern people. As early as the prosperous Tang Dynasty, dance skirts were dyed red by pomegranate flowers everywhere.
Perhaps influenced by the theory of Yin-Yang and Five Elements, Yang Guifei likes the yellow skirt best, which is a symbol of status.
The "semi-exposed skirt" reflects the openness of society at that time from one side.
cap
Women's hair mainly wears all kinds of hats and combs. Wearing a cap, the first row went on stage, the second row of curtain caps, and then Hu Mao. In the early Tang Dynasty, women had the custom of "covering their faces". When going out, women wear power, which is a big square towel. Generally, it is made of thin and transparent gauze, which covers the body and the whole body. During the reign of Emperor Gaozong, with the opening of social atmosphere, he changed to wear a "skirt-to-neck" curtain hat. In the prosperous new century, women simply took off their hats and went out in a bun, or followed the example of men and conference semifinals, wrapped in hoes and dressed in colorful Hu Mao. Hu Mao originated from the Western Regions and Tubo, and its shape is novel and changeable. Some have rolled eaves with empty tops, some are equipped with upturned hat ears, and some are decorated with fur along the brim. In addition, if you go out for a long trip, you should also wear a hood to avoid dust.
shoe
In the Tang Dynasty, women wore shoes, boots and shoes. Shoes are made of fabrics such as nylon, hemp, silk and twill. And straw sandals made of cattail. Embroidery is often added to shoes, which have various head shapes, such as round head, high head, cloud shape, flower shape, etc. For example, as the Tang poetry says, "Cloudy heads step on temple shoes", "golden wrinkles weigh heavily on platform shoes" and "cluster shoes are red and thin". Boots are mostly made of brocade, which is successfully woven and beautifully decorated. Used barefoot in summer, it is deeply loved by folk women. For example, Li Bai's poem says, "My feet are like frost, and I don't need crow's head socks".
hairstyle
Women in the Tang Dynasty pursued beauty and accessories, and their makeup and accessories were rich in content, including hairstyles, headdresses, faces and accessories. Women's hair styles are mainly comb-bun, or tied on the top of the head or behind the head, with very rich shapes. There are dozens of names, such as Banzhuan bun, Yunji bun, Wandering bun, Jing Gu bun, Japanese pendant bun, Double Ring Wang Xian bun, Uman bun, Uighur bun, etc. The bun in the early Tang Dynasty was simple and flat. After the prosperous Tang Dynasty, high bun became popular, with various styles. Hair accessories include hair clips, hair sticks, walking, victory, uranium, flowers and so on. Most of them are made of jade, gold, silver, tortoiseshell and other materials, with exquisite craftsmanship. Hairpins are often used in pairs. They are inserted horizontally, obliquely or backward. Walking and shaking is one of the best products. The hair stick head is made into a bird-beak-shaped bead string, which swings with the walk and doubles the charm. In the middle and late Tang Dynasty, women also popularized comb insertion and decorated their hair with delicate and beautiful flowers.
Facial makeup
There are many methods of facial makeup, such as painting aluminum powder, rouge, black eyebrows, applique cymbals, painted face cymbals, painted oblique red, painted lip grease and so on. Make-up people pick two or three, and make full use of them. Lead powder is white in color and delicate in texture. It is "white and bright" when applied to face, neck and chest. Rouge is a paste pigment made from the extracted red and blue flower juice, pig fat and bovine bone marrow. Due to the preference of emperors and literati, women's eyebrows are varied. Xuanzong once ordered painters to draw ten eyebrow paintings in Sichuan, including Yuanyang eyebrow, mountain eyebrow and inverted eyebrow. Eyebrows are mainly wide eyebrows, which were generally drawn longer in the early Tang Dynasty, and short eyebrows became popular after the prosperous Tang Dynasty. Flower bud is a kind of forehead decoration, which is cut into various flower shapes with gold foil, black paper, mica, fish cheekbones and other materials, especially plum blossom, which is the most common and attached to the brow. Noodles are painted with rouge on the dimples of cheeks, or with gold foil like flowers. Oblique red is a fashion for women in the middle and late Tang Dynasty, with two red crescent patterns painted on cheeks and temples. Neat shapes are like strings and the moon, and complicated ones look like scars.
attachment
Necklaces, collars and garlands are decorated with necklaces, armbands and bracelets, while Yu Pei and sachets are decorated with waist ornaments. The garland was originally a decoration between the necks of Buddha statues, which was introduced to China from India with Buddhism and was loved by maids and maidens in the Tang Dynasty. Its upper part is a semi-circular metal collar, and the lower part is a necklace made of jade. Some still hang a big lock-shaped ornament on their chests, which is luxurious and glittering as a whole. Armband, also known as jump, is an ornament made of metal wire wound in many turns, shaped like a spring, or combined with several bracelets. It is worn on the arm and is deeply loved by ladies and gentlemen. The sachets are mostly made of gold and silver, hollowed out, and the upper and lower hemispheres are locked by the mouths of children and mothers. There are two concentric rings inside, and there is a small incense burner in the ring. The concentric ring and the small gold burner are connected by symmetrical movable shafts. No matter how it is rotated, the ashes in the incense burner will not overflow.
Women's clothing in the Tang Dynasty not only added luster to the splendid Tang Wenhua, but also influenced women's clothing life and culture in later generations, and became a wonderful flower in the ancient culture and art garden of China.