A Study On The Costume Of The Northern Dynasties

The Northern Dynasties, from the fourth century A.D. to the end of the sixth century A.D. comprised Northern Wei, Eastern Wei, Western Wei, Northern Qi and Northern Zhou. This was one of the most transformational phases in Chinese history and the period in which the minority Xianbeis established its hegemony in China. It was a period of intense cultural conflicts and integrations between Hans and Xianbeis. Meanwhile, it was also a dynamic era of cultural interactions between the Western and China. After Zhangqian opened the Silk Road in Western Han dynasty, foreign monks, merchants, musicians from central Asian entered China in massive amount, leaving many historical sites in cities such as Ping Cheng , Luo Yang, Xi An , Ye Cheng , and Jin Yang. The fusion of Han, Xianbei and Western region cultures had huge impact on costumes, which reflected the cultures mentioned above both physically and spiritually.The Northern dynasty was certainly a turning point in the course of the history of Chinese costume as Zhuxi, a prominent scholar in the Southern Song Dynasty, pointed out, "Modern clothes, such as shirt with collar or boots, are mostly foreign clothes.. Our ancestors' apparel are no longer to be seen. Traditional Chinese clothing entered an era of chaos during the Jin Dynasty. From the Northern Wei to the Northern Zhou , the Sui to the Tang, in each of these dynasties, foreign clothing prevailed." Since Xianbei had no written language themselves, the written record of their costumes were mostly kept in ancient Chinese authorized history. As the narration of the historical sources had been apparently more focused on the Southern dynasties than the Northern dynasties, it provided limited information about the costume of Northern Dynasties. Nevertheless, the insufficiencies mentioned above had been dramatically improved following the development of archeology and the fruitful result of excavation of additional visual materials. These picture materials contributed to the maintenance of donors in Buddhism arts, mural paintings in burial chambers, and pottery tomb figurines and so forth.Through comparing and analyzing these artifacts' illustrations, combined with the documentary record's substantiation on their existence, the image and the transformation process of the costume of the Northern Dynasties can be confirmed. The main point of this study is to reestablish a chapter that has been disregarded permanently in Chinese clothes history. And at the same time, help people understand the fact that the development of Chinese clothing in Northern Dynasties had been gradually diverted into two directions: one was inheriting the revised form of the ceremonial dress form of the Han Dynasty, and another was engaged in the adoption from Xianbei and the Western clothing, forming shirt with round collar and slit on both sides, the conical cap with back flaps, girdle and boots as daily clothing. These two different systems of dresses were the results of ethnical integration, which signify a pivotal change in the history of Chinese costumes during the Middle Ages and impact people's daily wear for thousands of years.