The Study Of Costume Of Four Dowry Lists In The Late Qing Dynasty

The dowry list, produced by the marriage and displaying the money and goods accompanying by the bride, is one kind of independent document which is recorded and bound in a standard form. In Qing Dynasty, people had one import and familiar kind of customer that they use the dowry list in marriage. This objected studied in this paper are that:,,< the dowry list for Emperor Tongzhi> and< General Records of all happiness>. They are four dowry lists which are including much useful information of costumes. Moreover, this paper also contains< the empress dowry list in the marriage of Emperor Guangxu> and< one dowry list of Guangxu 15 in Suzhou> for the reference. With all documents of history for dowry lists in Qing Dynasty, this paper will take research in textile, daily use appliances, furniture and adornment in above dowry list.The emphasis of this paper is record of costumes in above four dowry list. The method taken in research is that we take key words which are sorted and classified to analyze those dowry lists. Those key words are colors, designs and material in costumes. All history reference taken in research is in documents or in real objects. We compare different colors by means of dyeing method and concrete description in history reference. We compare different designs in reference Books and Collected Statutes of the late Qing Dynasty. We also have novels, travel notes and poems from unofficial record for that. We consult some other papers for taking research in different material of costumes and obtain their definitions to describe them. In three comparison mentioned, we also list examples from other history references and concrete solids for those three key words. Those four dowry lists are from two different social classes:royal family and ordinary people. We can see that though there are some changes in costumes of Qing Dynasty, a apparent inherit relationship in them about ordinary people from Ming Dynasty can be roughly seen, specify in women. In history reference, this paper only takes four dowry lists to have a chiefly study and they perhaps not display all sides of that topic. But we can take a basic view in costumes of royal family and ordinary people from difference in them. This paper also take a research that the reason why dowry lists is created and the process in which it is worked out. The earliest record of dowry is in Zhou Dynasty. Politic marriage is popular in that time. So there were always large numbers of dowries in those marriages. But we can't make a conclusion when the earliest dowry list is recorded. From Song Dynasty, the luxury action changed from lots of bride price to plenty of dowry. In this process, Dowry, which was only in rich family, become more and more popular in common people. So, one kind of documents recorded all properties in dowry shows up. So the time when the dowry list becomes popular should be after Song dynasty. However, there are lots of such kinds of documents named "Lian Mu" and "Lian Bo" in history reference or concrete objects. Through them, we can obtain a solid conclusion that people have a custom of using the dowry list in their marriage.The objects recorded in the dowry list and the list self, is of vital importance for research in custom of Qing Dynasty.