Mawangdui

The shoe curl design is not unique to China, but it is a representative feature of ancient Chinese shoes. Both men's and women's shoes in ancient times had curled toes, with the distinction being "men's square and women's round." The shoe curl design appeared as early as ancient times, and by the Han Dynasty, there was a revolutionary design for the split toe of shoes, known as the "split-toe shoe." The No. 1 Mawangdui Han Tomb in Changsha, Hunan, and the No. 68 Phoenix Mountain Han Tomb in Jiangling, Hubei, both unearthed split-toe shoes with pointed curled toes. Since then, even shoes made of grass and hemp were designed with high curled toes. During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the main changes in women's shoes were in the toe design, which could be round, square, or pointed, divided into several petals, or layered, but all maintained the high curled toe design. Embroidered shoes are part of our Han nationality's attire and are very distinctive. Generally, embroidered shoes are worn with Hanfu, as people in ancient times wore these embroidered shoes when wearing this type of clothing, creating a harmonious look. Regarding boots, they are also commonly found in Hanfu shops.…

The 馬王堆漢墓/马王堆汉墓/ma3 wang2 dui1/Mawangdui Han tomb is one of the most famous Han dynasty archaeological sites in China. Located in Mawangdui, Changsha, this elaborate tomb was found in 1968 and excavated in 1972 to reveal the remains of an incredibly well-preserved noblewoman that we now know was the wife to the Marquis of Dai in the Han Dynasty Kingdom of Changsha, Li Dai. A multilayered burial site containing furniture, food, art, accessories, and other belongings, the tomb contained her personal seal, which was found with the name 辛追/辛追/xin1 zhui1/Xin Zhui engraved in it; thus we know her as 辛追夫人/新追夫人/xin1 zhui1 fu1 ren2/Lady Xinzhui.  wax reconstruction of what Lady Xinzhui would've looked like in her youth (A quick disclaimer—this series of articles is a result of my own research. I’m not a trained historian or archaeologist, I’m an inexperienced student with an interest in hanfu and chinese history. I don’t have a works cited page for these (though I can point you towards some of the resources I used off the top of my head if you really want them), and I didn’t spend a long time verifying my sources beyond checking with multiple sources to make sure the information was…