Sui-Tang Hanfu
(581 AD – 960 AD)
Sui Dynasty (581 AD – 618 AD)
Tang Dynasty (618 AD – 907 AD)
Five Dynasties (907 AD – 960 AD)
In the year 581 AD, the establishment of the Sui Dynasty ended the four hundred years of division since the Eastern Han Dynasty. It was a feudal unified country established after the Qin and Han Dynasties, representing a new ethnic community centered around the Han ethnic group.
The clothing of the northern and southern regions influenced each other and merged harmoniously. The Tang Dynasty was the pinnacle of feudal society in China, marking the most brilliant chapter in ancient Chinese history. The Tang Dynasty was a period of stability, economic prosperity, and comprehensive development in cultural undertakings. Feudal culture reached its peak during this time.
The clothing of the Tang Dynasty, spanning nearly three hundred years, went through a long process of inheritance, evolution, and development, making it a crucial period in the history of Chinese clothing. On the one hand, the Tang Dynasty inherited the hat and garment system of previous dynasties and laid the foundation for later clothing styles. On the other hand, the clothing of the Tang Dynasty was inclusive, incorporating various styles and showcasing great diversity.
The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms that followed the Tang Dynasty continued the division of feudal warlords and largely inherited the clothing system of the Tang Dynasty. Whether it was official or civilian attire, men's or women's clothing, the clothing of the Sui and Tang Dynasties reflected an open-minded and pioneering spirit, fully embodying the distinctive characteristics of the era and a strong national identity.
The Ruqun was the primary dress style for women in the Tang Dynasty. During the Sui and early Tang periods, women wore short ruqun with small sleeves, tight-fitting long skirts, and high-waisted sashes that were usually tied above the waist, some even tied under the armpits, secured with silk ribbons, giving a delicate and elongated appearance. Pibo, also known as "painted silk," was usually made of lightweight gauze and printed with patterns. Its length was generally over two meters, draped over the shoulders and wrapped between the arms.
In the Tang Dynasty, plump figure was considered beautiful for women. Due to their well-rounded figures, the clothing for women in the middle Tang Dynasty gradually became more loose and spacious, with much wider skirts compared to the end of the Sui and the beginning of the Tang Dynasty. Although the garments had small sleeves, compared to the clothing of the early and prosperous Tang Dynasty, they were noticeably more relaxed and loose.
During the Tang Dynasty, the trend of wide-sleeved garments became more prominent, as the influence of foreign clothing diminished. By the middle to late Tang period, this characteristic became more pronounced, and the sleeves of women's clothing were often more than four feet wide. The noble ceremonial attire of the mid to late Tang Dynasty was usually worn on important occasions such as court audiences, ceremonies, and weddings.
When wearing this ceremonial attire, the hair was adorned with gold and jade hairpins, thus it was also known as "dianti and chaoli" attire. The style of the grand-sleeved garment and skirt featured wide sleeves, a straight collar, worn with a long skirt and draped with pibo. The use of gauze as a fabric for women's clothing was a distinctive feature of Tang Dynasty attire, closely related to the prevailing open-mindedness of the time. Particularly notable was the innovation of wearing light gauze to cover the body without an undergarment. This type of clothing was described as "fine gauze delicately revealing the skin."
During the Sui and Tang periods, an important variation of Hanfu called the round-collar garment emerged. The round collar style had appeared in Chinese clothing history early on but became prevalent during the Sui and Tang Dynasties as a standard official attire.
This clothing style continued through the Tang, Five Dynasties, Song, Ming, and greatly influenced countries like Japan and Goryeo (Korea). Wrapping the head with a headdress and wearing a round-collar robe was the common attire for men in the Tang Dynasty, with headdress and robe being in fashion.
The headdress, also known as futou, was a type of headwear that developed from a wide cloth headband in the Han and Wei Dynasties. In the Tang Dynasty, a fixed ornament called "jinzi" was added inside the futou. The shape of the jinzi varied in different periods. In addition to the jinzi, the design of the two ends of the futou also underwent many changes, and by the late Tang and Five Dynasties, the soft ends had transformed into two separate rigid ends.
It should be noted that the prevalence of this variation of round-collar Hanfu does not mean the disappearance of the traditional right-collared crossed-collar Hanfu.
In fact, even during its peak in the Tang Dynasty, it was mostly limited to the areas centered around Chang'an (present-day Xi'an) and among officials and members of the imperial family.
In regions like Wuyue (present-day Jiangsu and Zhejiang) and among the common people, the dominant Hanfu style was the wide-collared right-collared crossed-collar clothing, similar to the Song and Ming Dynasties.
Tang Dynasty officials, apart from wearing narrow-sleeved round-collar robes on ordinary occasions, still wore ceremonial attire on important occasions such as sacrificial ceremonies. The style of the ceremonial attire mostly followed the old system of the Sui Dynasty, with officials wearing jiezi (a type of official hat) or long crowns on their heads, straight-collared wide-sleeved garments, skirts, and accessorized with jade pendants and tassels. Both round-collar Hanfu and crossed-collar Hanfu were important components of Han ethnic clothing.