Chinese traditional dress -- Ming and Qing Dynasties
明太祖朱元璋称帝后，为了恢复汉族的礼仪，便制定了以周、汉、唐、宋为准则的新服饰制度，禁胡服，恢复汉族服饰习俗，以袍衫为主要服饰，朝臣百官的官帽衣履，也恢复了传统朝服、祭服、公服、常服的设立，明朝服制中锈绘龙饰的袍服，沿承前制为帝王专用。
After Zhu Yuanzhang became the emperor of Ming Dynasty, in order to restore the etiquette of the Han nationality, he formulated a new dress system based on the principles of Zhou, Han, Tang and Song Dynasties and banned clothing style of the ethnic minorities, restoring the Han clothing custom which takes the robe as the main dress. Moreover, the clothing of officials also followed the tradition to be divided into court clothing, sacrificial clothing, public clothing, and ordinary clothing and the robe with embroidered dragon was made for the emperor's special use.
明朝由于皇帝姓朱，于是以朱为正色，又因 《论语》有“恶紫之夺朱也”，紫色因此从官服中废除不用，官员以补服为常服，头戴乌纱帽。
In the Ming Dynasty, the surname of the emperor was Zhu, which represents the red color. Therefor, red was regarded as the most nobel color. Since there is a saying that ' Purple is hated for taking away the luster and status of red ' in the Analects of Confucius, purple was abolished from official clothing usage. Officials used Bufu as the ordinary clothing, wearing the black gauze cap.
所谓补服，是指在前胸喝后背各补有一块刺绣图案。文官的补子用飞禽，武官用走兽，各分九等，用袍衫颜色和图案的分别来区分官阶品位。
As for Bufu, it refers to a kind of official clothes with a piece of embroidery pattern on both the front chest and back. Civil officials used fowls for their patterns, while military officials used beasts and all the animals were divided into nine ranks, together with the different clothing color, to distinguish the official grades.
明代男子最常见的便是“道袍”，道袍又称褶子，也叫青海，是大襟、宽袖、长度过膝的袍衫，尤其以明中后期最为流行。道袍的领口通常缀有白色的护领，既能保护衣领又方便拆换，道袍为日常穿着，既可用作外衣，也可作为衫袍，因为禁黄、紫而以青、黑色为主，劳动大众只许用褐色。
The most common dress for men in the Ming Dynasty is 'Dao pao', also known as pleated, and Qinghai, which is a robe with a large front, wide sleeves and length over the knee, especially popular in the middle and late Ming Dynasty. The collar of the Dao pao is usually decorated with a white collar, which can keep the collar clean and was easy to change. For daily wear, the Dao pao can be used either as a coat or as a robe. Since yellow and purple are forbidden to wear except the emperor, blue and black are mainly used, while the working people are only allowed to wear brown.
图片来源：微信公众号——传统服饰
明代女装主要装束仍是褙子、衫、袄、襦、裙子，衣服的基本样式大多仿自唐宋，一般都为右衽，恢复了汉族的习俗.
The main costume for women in the Ming Dynasty is still similar to the previous dynasties. The basic style of clothes is mostly imitated from the Tang and Song dynasties, and generally The left front is pressed against the right front, restoring the custom of the Han nationality.
明代由于妇女盛行缠足，又追求“行不露足”所以贵族妇女都穿长裙来掩饰金莲小脚，腰带上往往上一根以丝带编成的“宫绦”，借以压裙辐，使其不致于散开影响美观，作用与宋代的玉环绶相似.
In the Ming Dynasty, due to the prevalence of foot binding among women and the pursuit of 'walking without showing feet', noblewomen wore long skirts to hide the small feet which was called golden lotus. And there was often a ribbon tied around the waist called “Gong tao” to suppress the skirt so as to prevent them from spreading and affecting the beauty. The role of the ribbon is similar to that of the jade ring in the Song Dynasty.
清王朝是中国最后一个封建王朝，在服饰上也是改变最大的一个时代，清代服饰是中国古代服饰与近代服饰的交接点，它的存在是以后发展到近代男士长袍马褂，女士旗袍的前提。
The Qing Dynasty is the last feudal dynasty in China, and also an era with the biggest changes in clothing. The Qing Dynasty clothing is the junction of ancient Chinese clothing and modern Chinese clothing, whose existence is the premise of the development of modern men's robes and jackets, and women's cheongsam.
清初，满族统治者以暴力手段，推行剃发易服法令，按满族习俗强令汉族男子按满族习俗改变发式，剃去前额部分的发饰，把脑后头发编成辫子。汉族传统服饰受到相当大的冲击，并最终被满族服饰所取代。
In the early Qing Dynasty, the Manchu rulers used violent means to enforce the law of shaving hair and changing clothes. According to the Manchu custom, they forced the Han men to change their hairstyle, shaving the hair on the forehead and braiding the hair at the back of the head. The traditional dress of Han nationality was greatly affected and was replaced by Manchu dress eventually.
清代后期，满族效仿汉族的风气日盛，甚至史书有大半旗装改汉装，宫袍截作短衣裳的记载，但是，由于满族统治者坚持本民族特色的服饰制度，视为固国之本，所以清代数百年来始终以满族传统服饰为基本模式，形成了以满族服饰为主体的衣制。
In the later period of the Qing Dynasty, the Manchu people became more and more popular in imitating the Han people. It is even recorded in the history that most of the Manchu people changed their ethical dress into Han dress and cut their palace robes into shorter clothes. However, since the Manchu rulers insisted on the dress system with Manchu national characteristics, regarding it as the foundation of the country, for hundreds of years in the Qing Dynasty, traditional Manchu clothing was always the basic model, forming a clothing system with Manchu clothing as the main body.
清代官服主要为长袍马褂，补子的鸟兽纹样和等级顺序与明朝大同小异。清代平民男子也常穿长袍马褂，款式与官服有所不同，马褂是穿在长袍外面的短褂，长度只到腰际，短衣短袖便于骑马，所以叫马褂。
Official clothing in Qing Dynasty was mainly robes and mandarin jacket, and the pattern of the Buzi and hierarchical order were similar with the Ming Dynasty. While civilian men wore long robes and mandarin jackets too, which were different in style from official uniforms. The mandarin jacket was a short jacket with a length only to the waist. The short jacket and short sleeves were convenient for riding horses, so it was also called “Horse Clothe”.
满族妇女的典型装饰为衣裳连属的旗人长袍，即旗袍。清代满族旗袍与后世旗袍有很大区别，但后世旗袍是在满人这种长袍基础之上发展而来的。下摆的长度多盖住脚面，只露出鞋底。因为汉人的衣冠传统是根深蒂固的,清政府宽允汉族妇女沿袭明代的服饰，因此，清代汉族妇女的服饰变化比男服要少，以披风、袄裙为主。披风是清代妇女的外套，作用与男褂相似，颜色以红为贵。
The typical decoration of Manchu women is the cheongsam. The cheongsam of the Manchu nationality in the Qing Dynasty is very different from that of the later generations, but the later cheongsam was developed on the basis of this kind of robe. The length of the lower hem covers the feet, only showing the sole of the shoe. Because the dressing tradition of Han nationality was deeply rooted, the Qing government allowed the Han women to follow the clothing of the Ming Dynasty. That’s why the changes of the Han women's clothing in the Qing Dynasty were less than that of the men, mainly cape, jacket and skirt. The cloak is a woman's coat in the Qing Dynasty, whose function is similar to that of the male coat, and the most noble color was red.
清末，在普通妇女中间，还流行穿裤装，同时，旗袍也为汉族中的贵妇所仿用，满汉服装间的区别已经很模糊。
In the late Qing Dynasty, pantsuits became popular among ordinary women. At the same time, cheongsam was also imitated by noblewomen in the Han nationality. The distinction between Manchu and Han clothing was blurred.
总体来看，清代服饰尽管在外观形式上摒弃了许多传统的基本形制，但其内在却并没有改变，其精神实质与中华民族服饰文化是一脉相承的，它既体现了本民族的习俗特征，又保留了数千年遗留下来的等级制内容。
On the whole, although the Qing Dynasty costumes abandoned many traditional basic shapes and systems in the appearance form, their inner nature did not change. Their spiritual essence was in line with the Chinese costume culture, which not only reflected the custom characteristics of the nation, but also retained the hierarchical content left over from thousands of years.
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