A Study On The Female Costumes In The Northern Wei Dynasty

Emperor Xiaowen's moving to Luoyang and sinicization reform greatly promoted the centralization of power and national integration in the Northern Wei Dynasty.The change of costume system before and after moving to Luoyang has always been the focus of academic attention.At present,there is little analysis on the specific trend of the development and collocations of costume types in the Northern Wei Dynasty,which can not deeply show the accurate and dynamic development process of the costumes in the Northern Wei Dynasty.Most of the reasons for the changes of costumes only focus on the sinicization reform.This paper focuses on the female costumes in the Northern Wei Dynasty.The main research contents are pottery figurines,ornaments,murals,lacquer paintings and stone line paintings unearthed from the tombs in the Northern Wei Dynasty,supplemented by the images of female providers in Buddhist statues such as grottoes.The research method is to combine the literature and material materials,deeply study the categories of the female costumes in the Northern Wei Dynasty and the female costumes collocations of different identities on the basis of stages and divisions,and draw the style sketches of the female costumes collocations of each identity,so as to analyze the more accurate change trend of the female costumes and reproduce the dynamic style and features in the Northern Wei Dynasty.The main content of this paper is divided into five parts.This paper first states the relationship among the history of the capital city was established three times in the Northern Wei Dynasty,the process of sinicization and the pluralistic civilization created under the national blending.In the second and third parts,hair style,head clothing,body clothing and foot clothing of women in the Northern Wei Dynasty are analyzed.On this basis,the fourth part divides the female identity in the Northern Wei Dynasty into five categories: aristocratic woman,female official,musician and dancer,maid and working woman.Their costume collocations situation is studied by stages and zoning method,and the representative style sketches of costume collocations are drawn.The fifth part makes statistics on the specific situation of the female costume collocations in the Northern Wei Dynasty,and summarizes the evolution and formation reasons of it.The research conclusions are as follows:(1)After moving to Luoyang,the female hair style in the Northern Wei Dynasty are practical and diverse.The cage crown which belongs to the head clothing is only worn by female official,its flat top is long oval,and the outer arc on both sides of the crown extends downward to two ears.The decorative technology base of step rocking crown is the leaf swinging ornament.The lotus crown is double lotus shaped,worn by women with high status.Hood is a representative accessory of the Xianbei's costume,the dome hood with cross shaped line trace is the most common,and the concave dome hood in the middle is the unique style of women.The earrings reflect the aesthetic tradition of the Xianbei,the exquisite craftsmanship and the multi-ethnic culture.(2)There are various combinations of Ru-qun in the Northern Wei Dynasty.According to the shape and length of sleeves,the jacket can be divided into 9 types:long jacket with cross collar and narrow sleeves,short jacket with cross collar and narrow sleeves,short jacket with cross collar and wide sleeves,long jacket with cross collar and wide sleeves,short jacket with cross collar and half sleeves,long jacket with cross collar and half sleeves,long jacket with straight collar and wide sleeves,short jacket with straight collar and wide sleeves,the last one is gui-yi.According to the shape,length and pleat density,the skirt can be divided into 4 types: A-type skirt,pleated skirt,jianse skirt and shoulder belt skirt.According to the collar type and sleeve shape,Ku-xi has both Han style and practicality.The jacket can be divided into 3 types:jacket with cross collar and wide sleeves,jacket with round neck and wide sleeves and jacket with cross collar and narrow sleeves.The trousers can be divided into 2 types:trousers which was be tied up and trousers with wide leg opening.According to the collar and sleeve type,the robe can be divided into 3 types: robe with standing collar and narrow sleeves,robe with cross collar and narrow sleeves,robe with cross collar and wide sleeves.Ornaments can be divided into 5 types: the shawl on shoulder and collar,the cloak,the belt,the waist hug and the knees hide.Some patterns of costumes worn by women in the Northern Wei Dynasty in archaeological materials can be mutually verified with the textile objects in the Southern and Northern Dynasties.Only shoes and boots are the 2 types of foot clothing which are clear and definite.(3)In the period of Pingcheng,aristocratic women mainly wear Xianbei costume,which begin to show the trend of Sinicization.In the period of Luoyang,the effect of Sinicization is remarkable.It is popular to match various Han style ornaments with the jacket with wide sleeves and the skirt with high waist and big swing.The aristocratic women in the areas far away from the political center are dressed in Xianbei costume with both Hu and Han styles.The costume matching of female officials are lacquer gauze cage crown,jacket with wide sleeves and pleated skirt with high waist.The costume collocations of musicians and dancers are greatly influenced by time and region.There are many cases of male costumes,but the types of ornaments used for matching are less than that of aristocratic women.Working women tend to dress up practical and convenient.(4)The change trend of the female costumes in the Northern Wei Dynasty is clear.In Shengle period,women in Shaanxi Province wear Han style Ru-qun,while women in Inner Mongolia wear Xianbei costume.In Pingcheng period,women are very popular to wear Xianbei costume,and there is no obvious difference in their identity.Han style dress up still appears in Shaanxi Province.In Luoyang period,Han style dress up reaches its peak,but still retained some characteristics of Xianbei clothing,and their identity differences are obvious.On the whole,the popularity of Ru-qun is always going through.Before moving to Luoyang,the female costumes are mainly matched with hoods,long jacket with cross collar and narrow sleeves and skirts,while after moving to Luoyang,the female costumes are mainly matched with long jacket with cross collar and wide sleeves and pleated skirts with belt.One of the reasons for the evolution of the female costumes in the Northern Wei Dynasty is the blend of Hu and Han culture,which is closely related to "the implementation of Sinicization measures","the interactive integration of Sinicization and Xianbei variation" and "the improvement of female social status and the influence of male costumes.The second is due to the communication between Chinese and foreign civilizations.From the perspective of the land Silk Road,the influences of the inlay technology of metal ornaments of Xiongnu and Bactria,as well as the textile patterns of Persian and ancient Greece and Rome are principal.From the perspective of the grassland Silk Road,crescent shaped necklaces have been unearthed along the Great Wall in northern China and in the Eurasian steppes,and the materials used are also influenced by Siberia and other western regions.