A Special Theme Research On The Costume Of Tang Dynasty

This paper is a special theme research carried out from the perspective of the impacts of the northern nationalities' costume culture on Han nationality's costume culture. Two major parts are included according to the differences in content and research methods.Part one is carried out in the macro-background of national systems, and contains two special themes:1. Traditions of Hu nationality during the North Dynasties and Da-Jia-Lu-Bu costume systems of Tang Dynasty. The results of the study are the following two:a. The "Da-Jia-Lu-bu costume system" of Tang Dynasty inherited its predecessor of the North Wei Dynasty and made some improvement. The "Da-Jia-Lu-Bu costume system" was mainly divided into 5 categories according to different functions: the bodyguard costume; the honor guard costume; the test officer costume; the music band costume; the leading troop costume. Study shows that "Da-Jia-Lu-Bu costume system" enjoyed the traditional characteristics of mingling of Han culture and Hu culture.b. The Da-Jia-Lu-Bu costume system contained both benefits and guarding properties, which made it very important in studying national benefits and troop establishment of Tang Dynasty especially the obvious and vivid characters of different costume forms which became the symbol of the national authority. Nationality mingle was improved by reform of "Da-Jia-Lu-Bu costume system.2. Costume Bestowment of Tang Dynasty and its relationship with Si-Yi (four minorities).a. The costume-bestowment system in Tang Dynasty stemmed from the normal material bestowment due to styles forms. Traditional Hu costume style generated strong influences on Tang costume style. During the development of political system, costume-bestowment system first became a kind of special national bestowment, then the "Ci-Zi-Fei" system interacted with officers' informal costume system which showed a strong characteristics of Tang Dynasty .The costume-bestowment system left a profound influence in Chinese ancient history. In order to elaborate the costume-bestowment system comprehensively, this paper investigates bestowment case examples of Nei-Shi Ministry by taking advantages of inscription on the memorial tabletb. The unprecedented and strong national strength of Tang Dynasty determined its communications with circumferential even secluded nationalities. The costume-bestowment mainly in the form of "Pao-Dai" also played an important role in the relationship between Tang Dynasty and Si-Yi. In the early Tang Dynasty, the strong Hu characteristics in costume-bestowment system did a favor in mingling Hua and Yi. During Tang's prosperous period, costume-bestowment system was the tool of propaganda and educating Si-Yi and, what's more, the weapon of moderate and controlling relationship with barbarians. In the late of Tang Dynasty, the function of costume Bestow System declined in some cases because the empire's political influence had shrunk.c. Pao Dai Bestowment in Tang Dynasty showed strongly Hu's traditional characteristics while enjoying typical Hua Xia color on the political level. Under intertexture of concept of Han and non-Han, Pao Dai finaUy melted into Han by separating from Hu and became the most important symbol of informal costume system in Tang Dynasty. Its influence even could be found in the period of Song and Ming Dynasty.Part two, from the micro-perspective, studies with emphasis the Hu costume's influences on Tang. Two special themes are included.1. Chain-mall and Die-Xie-Qi-ShiAfter studying these two subjects, we can draw following conclusions;First, Chain-mail was probably invented by Scythians living in the northern Black Sea and was known until Tang Dynasty. After Chain-mail was invited into Central Plain regions, it did not exert its guarding function in troops. As foreign good, its special structure and appearance were wildly used in architecture, articles, literature etc. then Chain-mail gradually became a relatively abstract decorative language with foreign features.Second, Die-Xie-Qi-Shi as the basic composition of military officers' informal dress might be stemmed from ancient central Asia night attire。Rising and falling of the relative system partly reflected the change of political situation and system culture of Tang Dynasty in transition period. The "Die-Xie-Dai" had some directly relationship with the "Die-Xie-Qi-Shi". From the Northern Song Dynasty, however, the relative knowledge appeared to have some errors mainly in confusing the basic concept of "Huan-Dai" and "Tie-Xie-Dai" with the negative effects still existing today.2. High Jin-Zi and "Yi-Wen" in officer's formal dressa. According to knowledge about dress today, people think "Jin-Zi" included "Fu-Tou" was an independent part but it was totally different in Tang Dynasty .High Jin-Zi and the top cap of the Western Regions had some relationship with each other to some extent, which might be pushed forward by Hu nationality's activities in system reform in the period of Wu Zhou. High. Jin-Zi in the Wu Zhou period laid a foundation for development of the late Ji-Zi and Fu-Tou model and the height of Fu-Tou became an important fashion symbol.b. The big drawing and small drawing of top officers' dresses prescribed by Law of Costume in Wu-de were very possible co-pearl cycles and bi-bear patterns, they should be part of the scale of called Ling-Yang-Gong-Yang; the inscription on officers' dresses in Wu-Zhou and characters on textiles of western region discovered in XinJiang have some same distinguishes in appreciation of the beautiful and concept of use; the fashion of Hu-Xian-Shou-Dai and Yan-Xian-Wei-Yi in middle and last of Tang dynasty showed obvious traditional patterns of Zoroastrianism in origination, but these patterns were granted traditional characters of Hua-Xia Culture by their user in subject. Altogether, Yi-Wen of officers' dresses ia Tang dynasty influenced in large extent by Western-region (middle-Asia) culture and showed Sinicization gradually.c. The patterns on officer's informal dress of Tang Dynasty were provided with the function of distinction officer's rank which is without a doubt today. Since the patterns on the dress were not so conspicuous as well as the users' rank different a lot, using patterns to distinguish officer's rank was not as easy as color. Cause to the abuse of San-guan system, from mid Tang Dynasty, "Yi-Wen" became a main symbol in distinguishing officers' rank. The function of "Yi-Wen", on some level had begun to swift from rank to position..In conclusion, all Tang costumes, from the Da-Jia-Lu-Bu costume, to the guard costume, and even to the daily costume, took on the strong Hu influences. As an important part of social culture, costume spread these influences to other fields of Tang society, and generated profound impacts on the coming generations.