The patter of ancient dress were classified into two groups:
"Coat-and-skirt" worn mainly by women;
"One-piece" by men.
Stringent rules are made for the colour of ancient dress and adornment:
Yellow is the most valuable colour as a symbol of
centre;Green,
red,
white and
black symbolise the
East, the
South, the
West and the
North respectively.
They are the pure colours applied by the emperors and officials. The common people could only apply the secondary colours.
Patterns:
The geometrical patterns, pictures of animals and plants were widely adopted on ancient dress and adornments. Before Shag (商) and Zhou (周), patterns were primitive, succinct and abstract.
After Zhou (周), compositions of the patterns became more balanced and symmetric. The attention to composition carried on through Tang (唐) and Song (宋).
From Ming (明) and Qing (清), most patterns became more realistic. The depictions of flowers, animals and mountains-and-waters were true to life.
Variety and consistency in clothing were roughtly established by the era of the Yellow Emperor (黃帝) and the Emperors Yao and Shun (堯舜) (about 4500 years ago); sophistication and refinement of clothing in the Shang (商) Dynasty (16th - 11th century B.C.) were demonstrated in remains of woven silk and hemp articles..
Darker colours were favoured over lighter ones in traditional Chinese clothing, so the main colour of ceremonial clothing tended to be dark while bright, elaborate tapestry designs accented. Lighter coloured clothing was worn more frequently by the common people for everyday and around the house use.
The Chinese associate certain colours with specific seasons:
Green represents
spring;
red symbolises
summer;
white represents
autumn;
and
black symbolises
winter.
External - elegance
Internal - symbolism
Libellés : chinese, colour, history, pattern, reading
