The recently released new Chinese drama “Song of Youth” attracted a lot of people's attention. The drama tells the story of Lin Shaochun, the daughter of an official family, who maintains the relationship between her mother-in-law and sisters-in-law within the Sun family and solves various crises outside to finally achieve a happy and successful life.
Many viewers are attracted by the exquisite costume modeling in the drama, praising its detailed and elegant beauty. Then let's take a look at the beauty of Ming Dynasty costumes by referring to the costumes in Song of Youth.
I. Ming Style Hanfu
The dress and skirt attire of women in the Ming Dynasty was similar to that of the Song and Yuan Dynasties, mainly the upper Shan (衫, shirt) and lower Qun (裙, skirt), but with more attention to details.
Its main features are the use of buttons as decoration in the front lapel, small round collars in the inner wear, the standing collars at the neck, and the use of Yunjian (云肩, cloud shoulders), Bijia (比甲) and Xiapei (霞帔), etc.
The Ming Dynasty had strict hierarchical requirements for all classes of dress, and although the dress of the commoner women and the Ming Fu (命妇, noblewomen) were similar in style, there were still great differences in details, colors, and patterns.
For example, in the drama, the leading actress Lin Shaochun, as a commoner, “clothing is not allowed to use gold embroidery, brocade, and no gold thread decoration”, so in the first period Lin Shaochun's dress is plainer, also rarely embroidery and flower pattern.
The dresses of the women in the Sun family were much more complex and sophisticated. The main style of Ming Fu's clothing in the Ming Dynasty was based on Daxiu Shan (大袖衫), Xiapei (霞帔) and Beizi (褙子), which were differentiated according to rank.
It is worth mentioning that when Sun Yulou's sister, Sun Youzhen, appeared as a noble consort, her dress was magnificent.
The Ming Dynasty also had detailed regulations on the dress code of the royal women, according to the “Ming Shi (明史, History of Ming)” record, “Various colors of Tuan Shan (except yellow), embroidered on the Luan Feng pattern. True red Daxiu Shan, Xiapei, Beizi, clothes with gold thread embroidered phoenix pattern”.
After the Yongle period, the style of the imperial consort dress is equivalent to the empress, requiring “Di Yi (翟衣) with dark blue weave Di pattern, red collar and sleeve ends, the edge of the clothing and the back of the train edge embroidered with cloud and phoenix pattern”.
And in the drama, noble consort Sun presided over the talent show, wearing a red dress is precisely with the dark green Xiapei, looking dignified and noble.
At the beginning of her appearance, noble consort Sun wore a set of pink regular clothes, a pink round-necked Tuan Shan with a yellow round-necked clothing inner, embroidered with gold thread on the shirt with peony, gentle and elegant.
II. Daxiu Shan (大袖衫)
Daxiu Shan, also known as big-sleeved clothes, was the dress of the Ming dynasty Ming Fu, but also the empress's regular clothes, its color has yellow and red, yellow for the queen's special, the rest are wearing red.
Daxiu Shan of Ming Dynasty followed the Song Dynasty and came with large sleeves and lapels, match with a round collar coat, and the Xiapi was decorated with gold and silver.
III. Xiapei (霞帔)
Xiapei consists of two long and narrow pieces of silk, sometimes decorated with pearls at the edges and embroidered with different floral patterns depending on the rank.
Xiapei is mostly dark cyan, but there are also red colors, generally worn with Daxiu Shan or round-necked robes, and when worn, the ends are wrapped around the head and neck and hung on the shoulders, and because the embroidery is so beautiful and complex and shaped like a colorful haze, they have the name “Xiapei”.
In the Ming Dynasty, there was a strict distinction between the patterns embroidered on the Xiapei depending on the rank of the noblewoman, such as the dark green Xiapei worn by noble consort Sun in the drama, which was embroidered with a cloudy and phoenix pattern, while the empress could use a cloudy and dragon pattern.
IV. Yunjian (云肩)
Yunjian is a kind of shawl, which is named because it is often decorated with four-combined cloud patterns, and has various shapes, mainly the Sihe Ruyi style (四合如意式), the willow leaf style, etc. Yunjian is generally worn with threads or buttons to enclose it at the neck, and then draped on top of the shoulder coat to add color to the whole set of clothes.
Yunjian already appeared in the Jin and Yuan dynasties, but it was limited to the nobility and gradually civilianized in the middle and late Ming dynasties, and in the late Ming dynasty, Yunjian was widely used in the dresses of common women and even in their regular clothes.
Yunjian this accessory, in addition to being adorned with beads and jade accessories to reflect the luxury, but also the effect of thin shoulders, is beneficial to increase the thin, slender beauty of women, and therefore favored by the aristocratic women.
V. Beizi (褙子)
Beizi, also known as “Pifeng” in the late Ming Dynasty, is generally worn in addition to the Ao as warm clothing. Beizi of the Ming Dynasty “length close to Shan, sleeves wider than Shan, the front lapel separate not overlap each other, for the lapel, no edging”, generally with jade buttons or small belt tied.
Lin Shaochun wore a light blue Beizi, and in order to increase the beauty of the figure and the texture of the garment, the embroidered trim of the same color was used here, and it was tied with a small belt, adding to the beauty of simplicity and elegance.
VI. Bijia (比甲)
Bijia first appeared in the Yuan Dynasty, and when it first appeared, the shape of Bijia was “lapel, flat collar, no sleeves, short in front and long in the back”, in order to facilitate horseback riding and archery. By the Ming Dynasty, Bijia was gradually spread and turned into daily wear.
VII. Skirt
Ming Dynasty women dress mainly for the upper Ao (coat) and lower Qun (skirt). There are two main types of women's skirts in the Ming Dynasty: Mamian Qun (horse-faced skirt) and Zhe Qun (pleated skirt). Among them, the Mamian Qun is most commonly worn.
The skirt of the Mamian Qun is composed of two skirt pieces with four skirt doors, which are also called “Mamian”, and the skirt doors are covered by each other and are located in the middle of the front and back skirt, with the skirt pleated at the side and the waist is mostly white, taking the meaning of reaching old age together.
Relatively speaking, the Ming Dynasty Zhe Qun is less common, and at this time the Zhe Qun appears more as an inner petticoat, also consists of two skirt pieces, its skirt hem only has movable pleats, and slits in the center of the front and back of the skirt.
The Ming dynasty Hanfu costume not only absorbed the elegant beauty of the Song dynasty costume, but also drew on the simplicity and generosity of the Jin & Yuan costume, showing its unique beauty and charm in the intertwining of the strict Ming dynasty hierarchical society and the development of the commodity economy.
Ming dynasty clothing: