Definition

Our previous articles have covered the costume components of the Song emperors, but today we focus on the composition and details of the Song empress costumes, using the Empress Cao's costume from the Qing Ping Yue TV series as a reference for comparison with museum collections. From the makeup poster of Empress Cao's character, Jiang Shuying, the cast still referenced the costumes in the "Axis of the Seated Portrait of empress Song Renzong (宋仁宗皇后坐像轴)" which is now in the National Palace Museum in Taipei, and perhaps due to the poor detail definition of the phoenix crown in the portrait, the phoenix crown was restored with reference to Liu E's phoenix crown in the similar era of Empress Zhenzong (真宗皇后). It's also worth noting that this empress costumes are of a higher class and therefore more elaborate, so let's start with a brief dissection of what Empress Cao is wearing. "Axis of the Seated Portrait of empress Song Renzong"   Dragon & Phoenix Flower Hairpin Crown In today's context, we are accustomed to referring to the Empress's ceremonial crown as a "phoenix crown" and sometimes the bride's jewelry as a "phoenix crown", but for a long time in ancient China, jewelry…

As Hanfu has received more and more attention and has important cultural significance, Hanfu is becoming a popular cultural trend. More and more Hanfu lovers take Hanfu to the streets and are seen by the public. However, due to the rapid development of Hanfu, many people are not clear about Hanfu and drama costumes, and even regard Hanfu as drama costumes. In this article, we will make a simple distinction and explanation between Hanfu and opera costumes from the aspects of the definition, style, design, and use. Hanfu is Hanfu, and the opera costume is opera costume, they are different. It may be that the opera costumes are inspired by Hanfu, so there are some similarities in appearance, but a careful study shows that there are great differences between them. Definition Hanfu, the abbreviation of Chinese Han traditional costumes, carries more than 30 kinds of intangible traditional culture and arts and crafts. Hanfu can be divided into two stages: ancient traditional Hanfu and modern Hanfu. The ancient traditional Hanfu originated from the clothes created by the Yellow Emperor and disappeared in the early Qing Dynasty. It is a self-contained clothing culture system; Modern Hanfu is a national traditional dress system…

The Chinese ancient armor protecting the head was called Zhou (胄, helmet) in the pre-Qin period. In oracle bone inscriptions, the helmet is painted as a shield with a vertical tube at the top. And many of the bronzes excavated from the Yinxu tomb in Anyang are fully consistent with this phenomenon. However, there is a lack of a standard for the definition of other ancient helmets without vertical tubes in Western Zhou and Spring and Autumn Warring States. Therefore, the emergence of iron head armor as the dividing line, before that, regardless of whether they had vertical tubes or not, they were called Zhou regardless of whether the material specifically leather or bronze, after that, they were divided into two categories: Dou Mou (兜鍪, helmet) and Kui (盔, helmet). But those with vertical tubes with feathers as decoration were still called Zhou, such as the unified style of the Qing Dynasty.   Ancient helmets from the pre-Qin period Bronze Zhou (胄) of the pre-Qin period is bounded by the Shang and Zhou (周) dynasties. The surface of Zhou in the Shang Dynasty is generally cast with Taotie, round sunflowers, and other patterns, and the unearthed objects in Xingan County,…