Study On The Clothing Styles Of Huizhou Three-Carvings Characters

The Huizhou"three carvings"is a kind of fine architectural decoration widespread in Huizhou buildings, being in great harmony with the whole building, and an important emblem of the profound Hui culture. The Huizhou three carvings represent a concrete expression of the Huizhou geographical and cultural feature, the core of which is Confucian feudal ethics, reflecting the pursuit of art in the Huizhou people’s life, and is a "living fossil" of the traditional Chinese culture. Today, the Huizhou three carvings, as it maps the values and the spiritual meaning of traditional Chinese culture, can be described as worthy as Masterpieces of farewell. The Huizhou three carvings themed on figures are self-contained, relying on the profound Confucianism as the backbone, merging with folk beliefs in Buddhism. The figure characters are realistic expression of the art of clothing, which could be described as a miniature of the Chinese traditional clothing art, especially the clothing art of the Ming and Qing dynasty. Clothing Art as part of the social and material culture can be viewed as the equivalent of a treasure trove of beautiful and fragrant blend. Subject of this thesis is the versatile clothing styles embodied in the figures of the Huizhou three carvings, based on which the political, economic, military, ethical, aesthetic, religious, life, customs and social thought, and many other value systems were depicted, providing a useful reference for the study of the Hui culture and Huizhou three carvings as well as modern fashion design.The pictorial materials used in this thesis primarily stem from residential buildings in southern Anhui, Anhui Museum, Huizhou Culture Museum, Yuanquan Museum of Hefei and Wuhu Museum of Hui Merchants. These collected pictures of concrete Huizhou carvings figures provide tangible materials for our research. Besides, our research also get references from pictorial materials of previous clothing literatures and relevant books on ancient architecture carving studies, including figure illustrations and embroidery in novels and monographs as complementary evidence. To summarize the above research materials, most previous studies are focused on the elucidation of folk tales associated with the figures in the Huizhou three carvings, while their clothing has been somewhat neglected. Although in literature, there is no lack of incisive discussion on the Chinese classical costumes from erudite professionals, systematic study on the clothing culture of the figures in the Huizhou three carvings with the Huizhou local area as the starting point is rare. Therefore, studying the clothing styles of the Huizhou three carvings figures can fill a gap in the research field of Huizhou local culture, and hence has a certain research value.The clothing styles of the figures in the Huizhou three carvings contain complex systems. First, this thesis takes the unique regional culture of Huizhou as the cornerstone of research, and provides an overview of it. We analyzed the background and motivation of the creation of the Huizhou three carvings, that is, under the cooperative catalysis of spiritual Confucian ethics, tangible material wealth of the Hui merchants, as well as other sister arts in Huizhou-the Huizhou opera, Anhui print. Then we outlined the three carvings figures, paving the way for classifying their clothing styles. Secondly, this thesis gives asserted discussions on clothing styles in accordance with of the gender, social class of the characters, and special branches of clothing-religious dress and opera costumes. After combing all the clothing styles as a whole, various types of clothing were analyzed by using methods such as comparison and summarization in combination with pictorial materials, which was shown by clear and visual self-drawn character costumes and dress style artwork chart diagrams.Finally, a multi-angled full summary of the examined Huizhou three carvings figure clothing was provided. From the diverse and literary viewpoint of the clothing, from the overall aesthetic qualities and aesthetic presentation of traditional clothing and a special branch of the religious dress and opera costumes to review the aesthetic features of the Huizhou three carvings figure clothing. And the clothing cultural characteristics of the Huizhou three carvings were summarized from a viewpoint of regional culture and custom.This thesis’study would enrich the research of the culture and three carvings of Huizhou, while providing a useful reference for the inheritance and innovation of the clothing civilization.