Clothing Culture Through The New Red Chamber

Hua Mei

Dean, professor and faculty of fine arts and design, Tianjin Normal University

China's clothing culture has a long history. Cao Xueqin, the author of the classic dream of Red Mansions, can be regarded as a dress.

Reporter: the dream of Red Mansions is based on the rise and fall of the "four great families". So the clothes mentioned are mostly "aristocratic costumes". Can this represent the whole society and the clothing culture at that time?

Wah Mei: no matter the feudal society in China or the monarchy in the west, it represents the costumes of the middle class and above.

Because the rulers, aristocrats and even the rich in the civilian population have the financial resources to buy clothes, and these people have more social activities needs, etiquette needs dress codes, and on this basis pursue new and luxurious.

The clothing of heavy manual workers has changed little in several dynasties, such as short dress, bamboo hat, cloth shoes or straw sandals. The so-called "endless Brown" is a common portrayal of ancient poor people's clothing.

Reporter: it is generally believed that the "dream of Red Mansions" is written in the Ming Dynasty, and the author Cao Xueqin is a man of the Qing Dynasty.

The "Red Mansion" has been moved onto the screen (the screen), and the dress that people should wear is always a concern.

What do you think of this problem?

Hua Mei: Cao Xueqin was born in 1715, when he lived in the last years of Qing Dynasty and lived in the twenty-eight or twenty-nine years from Yong Zheng to Qianlong. It belonged to Manchuria's Zheng Bai banner under duer in the early Qing Dynasty. However, he was the epigenetic son of Han banner in Manchuria. It was different from the eight banners of the Manchu nationality.

The book "Xixiang Ji" is often mentioned in the book. It can be seen that Cao's influence on Han culture is very great, so he is very impressed with Chinese literature and art.

Because of the severe imprisonment of Kang Yong, the words about Ming, Zhu and Han were not allowed to appear in the book, so Cao Xueqin moved the background of the story forward.

In the dream of Red Mansions, Tsing Yu and Yu three sisters were all painted in the song and Ming Dynasties, even in the Tang Dynasty.

In fact, if we read the dream of Red Mansions carefully, the costumes are mainly in the Qing Dynasty, such as Lin Daiyu's early to Rong government office, and when they see Wang Xifeng's wearing, "they wear gold jewels and bead bun on their heads, with sunrise five Phoenix hanging beads Chai"; they wear a red gold plate and a ring of rims, and the skirt is tied with the green green palace tapes, with a pair of scales and roses.

Here, we have avoided the symbolic decoration of typical Manchu women's clothing, such as Dala's wings, flower flags, flag shoes, and so on.

It is not difficult to find out that "coat" and "gown" are professional clothes of the Qing Dynasty. "Satin" and "crepe de crepe" are also used by the Qing Dynasty.

In particular, Bao Chan "wearing a Pipa skirt tight", this Pipa lapel is a typical full dress.

Other costumes are mainly in the Qing Dynasty. We can write a comparison of the heroes and heroines in Qing Dynasty.

For example, Dai Yu wore "painted gold and red scented sheepskin boots". In the heroic biography of the sons and daughters, the thirteen sisters also wore "small red boots".

Shi Xiangyun wears a "mink head face, big black black chinchilla inside and outside, and has a big gown". In the heroic biography of the sons and daughters, Deng nine Gong is also wearing "grass and cream hanging mixed inside and outside a fever Liriodendron".

"Inside and outside fever" leather clothing was popular in Qianlong and Jiaqing years.

Cao is deeply influenced by traditional literature and art works, and has deliberately avoided the consciousness of this dynasty, emphasizing that "the truth is hidden and the false language is sealed up", which makes the characters of the characters in the book more ambiguous.

If you try not to write enough clothes, this is different from other novels in Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Cao Xueqin depicts the dress image, often from the beginning to the skirt, only in a few places to write the style of shoes, for example, in the sixty-fifth time, write the third sister, "loose hair, big red coat half cover half open, exposed green green breast, a trace of snow, green trousers red shoes, a pair of golden lotus or warped or even..."

Golden Lotus should be the image of Han nationality women's foot binding, but "coat" and "trousers" match the Manchu women's clothing. This is also related to the "ten from ten not to follow" in the early Qing Dynasty.

In the unwritten agreement between Jin Zhijun and the Qing rulers in the Ming Dynasty, there were "old people who do not care less, who do not live from death, officials do not belong to them, and Confucianism does not come from..."

To a certain extent, they retain the essence of the Han costume culture. In the early Qing Dynasty, Han women wore the Han costume of the Ming Dynasty, but the Manchu Han mixed living inevitably affected each other.

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Again, Baoyu's dress appeared "arrow sleeves" many times. In the fifteenth time, "wearing a silver hair cap, draging the Double Dragons into the sea, wearing white Python arrow sleeves, surrounded by beads of silver belt."

In the nineteenth time, "big red gold Python fox armpit arrow sleeve, outer cover stone green marten fur row gown", purple gold crowns, silver crowns and so on are mostly young men of song and Ming wealthy families. In the journey to the west, Monkey King wears purple gold crown, is a typical Chinese cultural product, but the arrow sleeve is absolutely Manchu clothing and clothing, also known as the horseshoe sleeve, it can protect the hands back, and does not delay the bow archery.

In short, the dress of the dream of Red Mansions should be in the early years of the Qing Dynasty, and mixed with some authors' deliberate avoidance and artistic treatment.

Reporter: Li Shaohong's new version of the Red Mansion is more inclined to "costumes" in actors' costumes, such as the "copper coin head" appearing in drama. Many viewers think it is too exaggerated and dramatic. How do you feel about it?

Huamei: I didn't look at the new version of the TV drama "the dream of Red Mansions", but the so-called "fixed makeup" photos gave me a very serious feeling, because these movies and TV dramas were always playful, so I didn't want to comment at all.

Reporter: can you talk about the obvious differences between Wang Fu Lin's version of the dream of Red Mansions and Li Shaohong's dream of Red Mansions?

Hua Mei: Wang Fu Lin's version of the dream of Red Mansions is closer to the original work. Only the actors can not play the psychological world and explicit temperament of the original characters. The dress is reasonable.

Li Shaohong's version of a dream of Red Mansions is too subjective. It seems to have nothing to do with the original works of a dream of Red Mansions.

Reporter: what is the value of Cao Xueqin's dream of Red Mansions in the history of Chinese clothing culture? What are the reference materials of clothing culture mentioned in a dream of Red Mansions?

Huamei: Cao Xueqin's clothes depicted in a dream of Red Mansions are mainly two categories: "master" and "maid". They belong to the clothing features of the houses of the official families in the late feudal China. If we want to derive the national cultural elements from this masterpiece, or find out what we can learn from today, I think it should be clothing technology.

Cao Xueqin talked little about style, but talked about the material and technology, such as "silk", "golden gold", "saving beads" and so on. The color matching of clothing was also very particular. If the thirty-fifth times Bao Chai beat the complex, he said, "if the color is absolutely not allowed, the scarlet will make the color again, the yellow will not be obvious, and the black will be too dark.

When I think of a way, I will bring the gold thread and take it together with the Black Pearl thread to make a good match.

This is the knowledge of Chinese clothing culture. There are many things worth studying today.