Qing Dynasty court costumes in the Forbidden City, what a beautiful word
【Expo】
◎Chou Qian
Clothing is an important part of daily life in ancient and modern times.
The Forbidden City is the imperial palace of the Ming and Qing dynasties. It now collects about 150,000 costume cultural relics, most of which are royal supplies of the Qing Dynasty.
These costumes are of high quality and rich in variety, which can not only meet the functional needs of emperors and queens, sacrificial ceremonies, travel, festivals, leisure residences, etc., but also have unparalleled aesthetic characteristics.
The Forbidden City contains the beauty of Qing Dynasty court costumes, which are characterized by rich ornamentation, brilliant colors and exquisite craftsmanship.
Qing court costumes are rich in ornamentation.
For example, the "bright yellow satin embroidered cloud bat longevity character golden dragon pattern" dragon robe worn by Emperor Qianlong in the Forbidden City is not only painted with golden dragons, cloud bats and seawater river cliff decorations, but also has the "Twelve Chapters" integrating heaven, earth and all things in nature. pattern".
The "Twelve Chapter Patterns" appeared at least 4,000 years ago during the Yao and Shun periods.
The "Yi Ji" of the Zhou Dynasty Confucian classic "Shangshu" contains the dialogue between the emperor Shun and the minister Yu, among which "I (Shun) wants to see the images of the ancients, the sun, the moon, the stars, the mountains, the dragons, and the Chinese worms. Zongyi, algae, fire, powdered rice, scorpion, and scorpion embroidery are applied to five colors and clothes with the five picks, which means that Shun hopes to use the "twelve chapters" dress to express his desire for self-cultivation and national security.
The "twelve chapters" of Qianlong's dragon robes are rich in content and beautifully decorated.
Among them, the sun is the shape of the sun painted with the golden crow (ancient divine bird); the moon is the shape of the moon painted with the jade rabbit and the osmanthus tree; the star is represented by 3 small circles and connected by 2 straight lines to form a constellation; the sun and the moon , The three stars imply that the imperial power is in all directions.
The mountain is in the shape of mountains, which means stability.
The dragon is in the shape of two wandering dragons, which means judging the situation.
The Chinese worm is in the shape of a golden pheasant. Because the golden pheasant has beautiful patterns, it implies literary grace.
Zongyi is a pair of sacrificial utensils in ancient times, and the utensils have the shapes of tigers and giraffes, implying loyalty and filial piety.
The algae are water grass patterns, implying noble conduct.
Fire is in the shape of a flame, which means bright and upright.
The powdered rice is in the shape of a grain of rice, which means to consider the livelihood of the people.
The 黼 is in the shape of an axe, implying decisiveness in doing things.
黻 is similar to the sub-character shape, and it is like two opposite characters, which means to distinguish right from wrong.
The "Volume 1" of the "Book of Classics" written by Cai Shen, a scholar of the Southern Song Dynasty, has a clear record of the above-mentioned meaning of the "Twelve Chapter Patterns".
The court costumes of the Qing Dynasty had gorgeous colors and were influenced by the traditional concept of "five elements and five colors" in my country.
In my country's pre-Qin ancient book "Book of Yi Zhou", Volume 3, "Xiaokai Wujie No. 28", the corresponding relationship between "five elements and five colors" is summarized as: water-black, fire-red, earth-yellow, wood-blue (green) Color, gold-white.
The above 5 colors are called "orthochromatic".
Based on the theory of mutual generation and mutual restraint of the five elements, the ancients mixed positive colors to form a variety of "middle colors".
The Song Dynasty scholar Wei Wei wrote "Book of Rites", Volume 75, summed up the types of secondary colors: "The secondary colors are also green, red, purple, blue, and yellow"; and explained the origin of secondary colors. , For example, wood is cyan, soil is yellow, and wood overcomes soil, so green (blue-yellow) belongs to the secondary color.
The court costumes of the Qing Dynasty were very rich in colors, not only positive and secondary colors, but also dozens of colors based on them, such as pink, magenta, apricot yellow, light yellow, moon white, sapphire blue, grass green, lake green, lotus root, snow green and so on.
In addition to the main color, a single piece of clothing is also cleverly matched with different colors.
For example, in the Forbidden City, there is a large red kesi eight-group colorful cloud bat longevity gold dragon pattern female cotton dragon robe.
The fabric of the dragon robe is mainly red, the lining is bright yellow with plain silk, the sleeves are black, the chisel button is gold, and the water pattern on the right side of the placket, the horseshoe sleeve and the leader are all azurite with gold borders.
The top part of the dragon robe has the word "Double Happiness" in red, a golden dragon, a green flame, and is surrounded by colorful cloud bats.
The sea water river cliff pattern on the hem of the dragon robe is rich in colors, including bright yellow, ochre, azurite, lake green, gray black, moon white, etc., and includes a large number of dark blue, royal blue, moon white gradients, different colors The connection between them is orderly and merged with each other, which produces a strong visual effect and forms a gorgeous beauty.
The court costumes of the Qing Dynasty also included many exquisite craftsmanship, among which Kesi is a typical example.
Kesi, also known as "cut silk", is a very complex weaving method, and the weaving tool is a special plain wood machine.
Kesi uses finer raw silk as the warp (vertical thread) and soft colored cooked silk as the weft (horizontal thread).
The basic characteristics of the process are: install the warp thread on the loom as the natural silk, and draw the pattern pattern on the warp thread with ink; Weaving, changing a color, changing a shuttle.
The warp threads run through the entire fabric, while the weft threads are only interwoven with the warp threads according to the pattern and cut off.
The above-mentioned Kesi method is called the method of "passing the warp and breaking the weft".
The patterns on the front and back of the kesi fabric are mirror images of each other, both of which are exquisite.
There is a trace of crack at the junction of the fabric decoration and the plain ground; the junction of different colored threads has small pinholes; the above-mentioned cracks and pinholes can produce the beauty of carving and engraving.
The Qing Dynasty official Chen Yuanlong wrote "Gezhi Jingyuan", Volume 27, which also contains "It is seen as a carved image, so it is called carved (缂) silk" to describe the visual effect of Kesi.
The color of kesi can be adjusted flexibly, the overall fabric is elegant, noble, beautiful, and the craftsmanship is exquisite.
The above-mentioned large red kesi eight groups of colorful cloud bats and longevity gold dragon pattern female cotton dragon robe, its exquisite sea water river cliff pattern, gorgeous eight groups of red color clouds and gold dragon pattern, are all the use of kesi skills in the Qing Dynasty.
The beauty of the Qing Dynasty court costumes in the Forbidden City reflects the unique aesthetic art of ancient Chinese craftsmen, rich spiritual connotations, and superb production skills, which have become an important part of the excellent traditional Chinese culture.
(The author is a research librarian at the Palace Museum)