Keywords:: Tang legendary costumes depict cultural implications
Costume description has a long history in the development history of China's novels, with various forms of expression. Influenced by historian culture and the spirit of record, costume description did not initially become an artistic means to express characters' character in novels. In the literary works of the Tang Dynasty, especially in lyric poems, the description of clothing reflects the author's aesthetic feelings more, and is not an independent means to express the character. However, with the development of social economy, especially in Zhenguan and Kaiyuan years, the political stability and economic prosperity made the people live and work in peace and contentment. Chang 'an, the capital at that time, was the center of politics, economy and culture, and also the center of cultural exchanges between the East and the West. Due to the open policy adopted by the Tang Dynasty, the costumes of the Western Regions and Tubo were eclectic, so "mud hat" and "fashionable makeup" became popular. Therefore, in tang legends's novels, clothing description is more of a conscious and conscious behavior. As an artistic means of shaping characters and showing identity and status, it has profound cultural connotation.
First, writing about God in form shows the character and characteristics of the characters.
Legendary novels in Tang Dynasty depict the characters' costumes with simple strokes, depict the characters' spirits in form, and mainly show their personalities and characteristics. For example, Ren Zhuan described the scene when the hero first met him, "The one in white is beautiful". Women's dresses in Tang Dynasty are mostly bright colors, which can show their luxurious status. Most skirts are purple, red and green. White, in the costume color of the Tang Dynasty, is the identity orientation of the poor to men in cloth clothes; For women, it is extremely rare. This novel gives the stone man white clothes. She is gorgeous, intelligent, alert and loyal, which can also be seen through the description of clothing. Therefore, clothing has become an important way to shape characters here. Another example is "Biography of Huo Xiaoyu": "When I was born, I suddenly saw the Jade Ear Curtain, which looks beautiful and looks like life. Wearing pomegranate skirt, purple ancestor file, red and green quilt. Leaning against the curtain, hand embroidered belt. " Quilts, "Notes on China in Ancient and Modern Times": "There was no system in ancient times, imperial edicts in Kaiyuan, wives and concubines in the 27th century, royal ladies in Lin Bao, lovers, etc., while ordinary banquets and attendance orders were covered with paintings and silks, so far." Ji Yuan's story: "Literati and ordinary women in the Tang Dynasty put quilts in their rooms and put them on when they came out, indicating that they are also useful today." Huo Xiaoyu has been wearing clothes all his life. There is little difference between quilts and quilts, only on the length. Girls' quilts are long and women's quilts are short. Women wearing skirts formed a formal style in the Tang Dynasty. The skirts in the Tang Dynasty are colorful, with red, purple, yellow and green competing, 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. Huo Xiaoyu's gorgeous clothes are related to her being the daughter of Huo Wang. Gorgeous clothes complement the action of "leaning against the curtain and holding the embroidered belt". Her unfortunate fate, her infatuation and bitterness are all vividly written. In Bai Xingjian's Biography of Li Wa, the dress described has changed, from a dirge lang to a fierce boss, to "a teenager wearing a black headscarf" when begging along the street, and "dressed in cloth with a hundred knots, dressed in rags like quail". The change of Zheng Sheng's life destiny can be seen from the clothes he wore before and after, and these are the foreshadowing of the author for the later plot-Li Wa's support for him. The description of Li Wa's clothing in the novel is also to shape her personality characteristics. "The baby holds its neck in front of it and embroiders it to the west wing", in which the "embroidery" of the dress is embroidered with various patterns. Yan, "the short coat is also in the knee." {1} is shorter than the coat, and has long sleeves, which can be padded. It's narrow but it fits well. The skirt must be worn under it. This is an ancient autumn and winter women's coat. The texture of the raft is mostly made of luogu yarn or brocade except cloth and silk. Luogu yarn is light and brocade is thick, which can be decorated with embroidery patterns. In the legendary novel, Li Wa did not abandon Zheng Sheng because he was in rags and flustered at this time, but embraced Zheng Sheng with "embroidery". Her kindness, innocence, sentimentality and ambiguous nature are all revealed in her behavior of ignoring gorgeous clothes.
Legends in the Tang Dynasty often describe gods through character modeling and express characters through costumes, thus becoming synonymous with a class of people, which has been circulating in people's daily lives. In Biography of Li Wa, Zheng Sheng was described as "black gauze" singing in the city, "hanging quail" begging in the market, and "black gauze boy" later became synonymous with the down-and-out dude who lived in Pingkang, such as "Yan Zhongqing's female is chivalrous, Tian Chunhang's arrogance is infatuated" in the twelfth episode of A Flower Treasure in Chen Sen in Qing Dynasty.
(friend) service road: "... the boy with black scarf is well-known in the restaurant, and a beggar in quail clothes is afraid of being suddenly hungry in the flower street and being laughed at by Zheng Yuanhe. "Chundao:" Is a gentleman the same as keeping money and keeping money in Japanese? What is the regret of self-satisfaction? " {2}
From Zheng Sheng in Bai Xingjian's Biography of Li Wa to Tian Chunxing in Chen Sen's Dream of Red Mansions, we can appreciate the unique artistic charm of costumes such as "the teenager wearing a black headscarf" and "the beggar wearing a quail suit" in Tang legends. The vivid description of costumes in Tang legends is helpful to show the style and personality characteristics of characters. It can be said that this is a great progress in the art of clothing description in the history of China's classical novels: from the unconscious record of the novels of the Six Dynasties to the conscious artistic behavior.
Second, the simple pen was touched, which reflected the identity and status of the characters.
Because of the national unity and economic prosperity in the Tang Dynasty, people's costumes became more gorgeous. Therefore, the imperial court sorted out the clothing system and formally incorporated it into the legal provisions, making the clothing system more standardized and systematic to show respect and inferiority. The difference of grades is mainly reflected in three aspects: color system, belt and chapter service. The color system established in the Tang Dynasty to distinguish official ranks by purple, red, green and cyan greatly impacted people's ideas at that time, and the color of clothing became the main symbol to measure official products. The description of costumes in Tang legends can reflect the identity and status of the characters in addition to describing the spirit and expressing their personalities in a general sense. It is this brief description of characters' costumes that makes the legendary figure a unique "this one" in the history of China's novel development.
In the legend of the Tang Dynasty, people with higher status generally wear purple clothes, such as the mirror essence (named Zizhen) in the ancient mirror story, "the snake body is the dragon head, and the purple clothes are the Zhu crown"; In Liu Yichuan, Dong Tingjun's dress description is "wearing purple clothes and holding sapphire", while Qian Tangjun's dress is "wearing purple clothes and holding sapphire"; In the biography of Conan satrap, King Huai 'an sent "two purple messengers" to meet Chun Yuba; Mr. Xian Guantian of Jiuhua Cave is "purple clothes" in "Qi Tui Female Secret Record". The status of purple in the Tang Dynasty has been improved as never before, and purple robe is the most expensive dress. During the Spring and Autumn Period, Qi Huangong liked to wear purple robes, and China people followed suit, but Guan Zhong stopped him. "Confucius said: evil purple catches Zhu." Note: "Confucius said: Zhu, positive color; Purple is the best hue. It is evil to fight for positive color. " {3} Five-color theory, which comes from the theory of Yin-Yang and Five Elements, divides the colors of clothing into positive colors and intermediate colors, with cyan, yellow, red, white and black as positive colors and others as intermediate colors, and stipulates that "clothes are positive colors and dresses are intermediate colors." {4} Because the color of clothes with purple as the top grade was determined in the Tang Dynasty, it remained unchanged in the Song and Yuan Dynasties and was replaced by Dahongpao in the Ming Dynasty.