Aoqun

I have already talked about Ruqun--the clothes that ancient Chinese people dressed mostly in spring, summer, and fall, now I want to talk about what are people, especially women are going to wear in Winter: Aoqun. Ao and Qun are the two main parts of Aoqun: Ao means the coat, and Qun means the skirt.

Ao (Coat)

There are two types of the coat “Ao”: the long Ao and the short Ao. The long Ao is always long enough to cover the knees, which is not convenient for acting and moving. So, most people prefer the short Ao instead, the short Ao should cover the waist at least to make sure that it can prevent us from the cold weather outside.

Also, both the long Ao and the short Ao have the crossed collar, and they always put the front of collar at right. And because the Ao is the clothes for winter, it has to in a double-deck structure, the inside cloth is always warm and comfortable while the outside cloth is always thick and beautiful.

Here are pictures of Long Ao and Short Ao：

 
Source: Back to Han

Qun (skirt)

The skirt “Qun” has a lot in common with the Qiyao Ruqun, which means that the waistband of it is on the waist instead of above the chest. The only difference is that people use much thicker cloth while making the Qun because it is a winter dress.

However, there is one special type of Qun in Ming dynasty named “Horse Face Qun”. As we can in the picture, both the front side and back side of this Qun are as flat and long as the horse’s face, this design will make the people in it look thinner and taller. But because it is hard to keep both sides as flat as new, people only dress it in the important festivals or ceremonies.

Here is a picture of Horse Face Qun:

Source: Gusu Chen

Ruqun

Ruqun is the most basic type of Hanfu, it consists of a blouse and a wrap-around skirt. Generally speaking, people divide it into two types based on the height of the skirt: Qixiong Ruqun and Qiyao Ruqun.

Qixiong Ruqun

Qixiong Ruqun is the kind of Ruqun which the waistband of it is above the chest. It is only for women to wear.

Qixiong Ruqun was extremely popular in Tang dynasty. At that time, people believed that the fatter you are, the more beautiful you will be. So, they wore the Qixiong Ruqun to help them look more round. Because the design of Qixiong Ruqun requires to put the waistband above the chest, so others cannot see how thin the person really is inside the dress, the person will look as fat as her breast is.

Here is a picture of Qixiong Ruqun:

Source: Recover Group

Qiyao Ruqun

Qiyao Ruqun is the kind of Ruqun which the waistband of it is on the waist. Both men and women can wear it.

Qiyao Ruqun was common in almost all the dynasties in ancient China. Because the main characteristics of it is convenient to wear, save cloth, and easy to make.

Here are two pictures of Qiyao Ruqun:

 
Source: Flying Bee

Common to Both

As we can see in the pictures above, when people wear Ruqun, they usually put a long cloth around their arms, people call it Brocade Scarf in China. At the beginning, people only used it as a scarf to prevent themselves from wind and cold air. However, as time goes by, it gradually becomes one important part of Han clothing, people used it to make themselves look more charming and mysterious.

Also, the sleeves of Ruqun are either tight or loose. Usually, people wear the Ruqun with tight sleeves for working to prevent their sleeves from getting dirty. And they wear the Ruqun with loose sleeves for relaxing because it the loose sleeves are more beautiful and comfortable to wear.

Here is a picture of Qiyao Ruqun with loose sleeves:

Source: QianLing

What is Hanfu?

Hanfu, also known as Han clothing, is the traditional clothing of the Han Chinese (Han: the main ethnic group of China) for more than 4,000 years. There are three basic characteristics of Hanfu, fastened by ropes or rope hookers, crossed collar and always put the front of collar at right.

Basic characteristics

Firstly, ancient Chinese people preferred to fasten the Han clothing by ropes or rope hookers because they believed that the ropes can decrease the damage to the cloth, so they use them instead of metals to protect the cloth and keep it smooth.

Secondly, most of the Han clothing has the crossed collar, which means to wrap the right side of the collar across to the left side. The point of intersection is right in the middle of the clothes, it encourages our Chinese to become an unprejudiced person. And based on the intersection point, we will make a straight line on the middle of the clothes, which encourages us to become an upright person.

Thirdly, Chinese ancestors believed that when do the crossed collar, it is necessary to always put the front of collar at right, in the other word, always wrap the right side over before the left to make it looks like a “y”. They made rules because of the initially greater challenge to the right-handed wearer. Also, Chinese discouraged to put the front of collar at left, they believed that it is unnatural, barbarian, uncivilized and unfortunate. Because in the ancient time, only the people from foreign minority nationalities wore the clothes in this way.

Here is a picture of the crossed collar and the middle straight line:

Source: SeSe

The Han clothing is now usually worn during some festivals, or coming of age of passage ceremonies, by hobbyists, by Taoist, Confucian or Buddhist monks and priests during religious ceremonies, or as a cultural exercise. However, the clothes that we usually see in Chinese television serials and films are not Han clothes, because they do not have those three basic characteristics.