Research Of Tangut Hat

Tangut hat is an important part of the culture of Tangut clothing. Meanwhile, it’s also an important reflection of the social structure of Tangut. The research on this subject does not only help to deepen the overall perception of the Tangut dress culture, but also help to reveal the hierarchical structure of Tangut society and national cultural diversity.In order to facilitate the detailed analysis, the thesis presents the Tangut hat in seven categories:emperor hat, civilian, military commanders, clergy, women, civilians and religious images. It is the main part of the thesis with seven chapters in total. The first chapter discusses the emperor’s crown of Tangut. There are three types of hat for Tangut emperors:hollow crown, tapered pointy crown with high top, and Dongpo towel. The three kinds of hats are wore for different occasions. The hollow crown is for formal and solemn occasions, such as translating scriptures, or listening to dharma. While the tapered pointy crown with high top is the common hat when the emperor is bowing to buddha, or going out for inspections.Dongpo towel is a casual hat when the emperor is homebound. The three different styles of hats reflect that the Tangut culture is diversified. The hollowed crown is created by Tangut people with the national characteristics of Tangut. The reason why it has the white steeple topped is that it’s mainly affected by Uighur crowns. While the Dongpo towel is from the Central Plains Han Chinese clothing elements. The second chapter discusses the hats for civil officers, which mainly include Fu towel and Dongpo towel. Fu towel is the formal hat for civil officers required in the Tangut Code. The most popular Tangut Fu towel includes mainly soft-corner Fu towel, exhibition-foot Fu towel, Right-Angle Fu towel, cross-foot Fu towel, no-leg Fu towel and long-leg Luo Fu towel. It’s with the same shape as what is in the Central Plains. Dongpo towel is casual hat for Tangut civil officers. Basically, the Dongpo towel wore by Tangut emperor and civil officers follows the shape which is popular in Central Plains. The main difference is that Tangut Dongpo towel focuses more on the decoration. It has decorative pattern of novel, and edges with unique style of decorative trim. The third Chapter analyzes the hat for Tangut generals. There are hollow crown, black lacquered crown, Wu Bian, Toba and cusp-like shape Helmet. Hollow Crown Series is only worn by senior generals of the Tangut for official court dress. Black lacquer crown was worn by the junior military officers. There is only one picture for Wu Bian crown, and there is no clue to identify the position of the wearer. The tats for Tangut military officers has it’s own national characteristics. Meanwhile it’s also affected by the northwest and north by the minority. The forth chapter discusses Tangut monk hat. Tangut monk hat includes Tibetan Buddhist lotus style hat, black hat; Central Asian-style wrap Yellow Turban; and also Central Plains style hat. It is the time, region, nation and even season that determines the Tangut monks wear the crown or not, when to wear it and what style of crown to wear, but not the strictly required by their position. The fifth chapter set forth of Tangut aristocratic women crowns. The empress wears phoenix coronet and flower hairpin, and the same cloth with the empress, queen of the Central Plains. It’s inheritance of the Central Plains clothing cultural. The noble woman mainly wear lotus bud-shaped four-petal crown and peach-shaped crest, which is from restructuring of the peach-shaped crown of Uighur women. The sixth chapter presents the Tangut civilians hat. Civilian men and women generally wraps in handkerchiefs. Civilian woman also makes comb buns, without ornaments hairpin on the bun or simply wears flowers. Men are also wearing Fu towel or felt hats. In the Tangut drawings of farmers, the farmer, peasant, blacksmiths, and traders are plunged white towel, wearing side frock or breasted shirt and narrow-leg pants, leggings and with hemp shoes or sandals on their foot. Their costumes are almost the same with the Central Plains Han costumes. The seventh chapter states the hat styles in Tangut religious drawings. Since the monks are in the drawings rather than realistic characters, their clothing including hat can not be simply equated with the real situation of the Tangut Dynasty. In fact, this section reflects the heritage and the creation of religious culture.In summary, the Tangut hat has the following main characteristics:First, the Tangut tribe feature is its mainstream, like the hollow crown for men and the four-bud crown for women, and so on. Second, it reflects the social classes obviously. The king shows supremacy, aristocratic bureaucrats wear luxuriance, while civilians are unpretentious. It vividly reflect the hierarchical structure of the Tangut society. Third, Tangut hat style is strongly influenced by Buddhism, especially Tibetan Buddhism. For example, the emperor’s crown with skull and lotus ornamentation are from Buddhism. Hats for Tangut monks includes the lotus hat and black hat are from Tibetan Buddhism. Fourth, the Tangut hat style is affected by the culture of the surrounding nations obviously, such as Uighur, Tibetan, Han etc.Tangut hat is the the inheritance and development of the hat style of north, especially the Northwest region in history. There are for origins of Tangut hats. First, their own Tangut tribe hat. This determines the subjectivity of the Tangut hat. Second, hat style from the the Five Dynasties in the Central Plains, which affects the Tangut hat strongly. Third, hat style from the surrounding minorities, such as Tibetan, Uighur and so on. This indicates geopolitical characteristics of Tangut vividly. Fourth, Buddhist element in Tangut hat, which is a product of the advocation of Buddhism in Tangut advocating society.Besides, the thesis also systematically lists the image data of almost all of the known Tangut hats at the end, including the original drawings, the source and hand-painted line drawings. The purpose is to provide the academics a set of intuitive and clear resource for research on Tangut hats.