page_title: Hanfu
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Hanfu / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Mural painting of a male figure found in a late Western Han dynasty tomb in Yang-shan town, Shantung province.
context_page_description: Hanfu refers to the historical Han clothing styles of China. The Han Chinese historically wore a robe or a shirt for the upper garment, while the lower garment was commonly a pleated skirt. Since the Han dynasty, Chinese clothing had developed varied styles and exquisite textile techniques, particularly on silk, and absorbed favorable elements in foreign cultures. Ancient Chinese clothing was also influential to other traditional East Asian clothing such as the Japanese wafuku and Korean hanbok, as well as traditional Southeast Asian clothing such as the Vietnamese Áo giao lĩnh.
context_section_description: Traditional Han clothing comprises all traditional clothing classifications of the Han Chinese with a recorded history of more than three millennia until the end of the Ming Dynasty. From the beginning of its history, Han clothing (especially in elite circles) was inseparable from silk, supposedly discovered by the Yellow Emperor's consort, Leizu. The Shang dynasty (c. 1600 BC – 1000 BC), developed the rudiments of historical Chinese clothing; it consisted of a yi, a narrow-cuffed, knee-length tunic tied with a sash, and a narrow, ankle-length skirt, called chang, worn with a bixi, a length of fabric that reached the knees. Vivid primary colors and green were used, due to the degree of technology at the time.
  The dynasty to follow the Shang, the Western Zhou dynasty, established a strict hierarchical society that used clothing as a status meridian, and inevitably, the height of one’s rank influenced the ornateness of a costume. Such markers included the length of a skirt, the wideness of a sleeve and the degree of ornamentation. In addition to these class-oriented developments, Han Chinese clothing became looser, with the introduction of wide sleeves and jade decorations hung from the sash which served to keep the yi closed. The yi was essentially wrapped over, in a style known as jiaoling youren, or wrapping the right side over before the left, because of the initially greater challenge to the right-handed wearer (people of Zhongyuan discouraged left-handedness like many other historical cultures, considering it unnatural, barbarian, uncivilized, and unfortunate).
  Han Chinese clothing has influenced many of its neighbouring cultural costumes, such as the Japanese kimono and yukata, and the Vietnamese Áo giao lĩnh. Elements of Han Chinese clothing have also been influenced by neighbouring cultural costumes, especially by the nomadic peoples to the north, and Central Asian cultures to the west by way of the Silk Road.
caption: Mural painting of a male figure, discovered in a Western Han dynasty (206 B.C. – 8 A.D.) tomb in Chin-hsiang County
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