An Ethical Research For Female Costumes In Tang Dynasty

Tang Dynasty has the most prosperous politics,economy and culture as never seen before in the history of China,not only inheriting and absorbing the culture of previous dynasties,but also developing its own features,thus imposes an extensive and profound influence on the history and culture of China.Clothing bears the memory of human civilization,and may refract the developing status of material life and spiritual civilization of the human society like a mirror.Therefore,to dig the ethical connotation behind clothing in Tang Dynasty,it is required to conduct in-depth analysis to the features of female clothing,and to extract and purify the ethical thought of Tang.In the ancient time of China," rite " was taken as the core of culture and the ethic behind female clothes in Tang has infiltrated into all aspects of life.In this research,the connotation of ethnic behind clothing is explored from the four major social fields of political activities,national religion,social activity and family life,and the representative clothing is presented in combination with the research as well.For the political activities in Tang Dynasty,the ethical function of female clothes is to clarify superiors and inferiors,gentle and simple between people,and to maintain a harmonious social order by the ruling class.In the fusion of society,nationality and religion in the Tang Dynasty,women wore Hu dress and dressed openly and barely,and they were daring to break though the limit of feudal ethical code,which displays the civilization and enlightenment trend of society.For the ordinary social life in Tang Dynasty,the folk cultural spirit is rooted in the ethic behind female clothes,reflecting the thought of Confucianism and Taoism as "Unity of Heaven and Man" with kindheartedness infiltrated and meant to maintain a harmonious and caring human society.As for the family life in Tang Dynasty,the virtue of woman "obedience to husband after marriage",the filial piety of woman "philanthropic and respect the elder" and the ethic "distinguish the close and distant" are embodied in the female outfits of Tang.Features of the ethic behind female clothes in Tang are summarized as follows: limited by the etiquette system,developing with things of diverse nature incorporated,aesthetics changing at times and taking vulgar as rite being the tradition.The essence of the culture in Tang Dynasty is embodied in the ethical value.Female clothes in Tang make a unification between " rite" and "beauty",conforming to the etiquette standards while fulfilling the desires of human.By exercising the shape suiting function of clothing,a unified "genuine" and "kindness" value is formed with clothing and the moral principles of human being combined,which together with the spiritual symbolic function,and the utilitarian nature for ethic indoctrination constitute a substantial part of the traditional clothing culture of China,and provide a valuable reference for the later research.However,the limitation of feudal society is inevitable for the traditional dress culture,and appraisal about the substance is mixed with appraise and devalue.The social etiquette,the spiritual and cultural property of clothing,and the balance of female aesthetic freedom expressed by clothes of Tang have strong vitality and era-crossing spiritual value,which provides a mirror for solving various ethic dilemmas faced by clothing and maintaining the social stability.