' (), which can also be referred as ' (),
Since the Han dynasty and Jin (Chinese state), the waist of the skirt has typically been tied on the waist, while in the Sui dynasty, Tang dynasty and Five Dynasties, the waistband of the dress was much higher, many of which were usually above the chest or under the armpit. Some records of clothing history refer to it as the high-waist ruqun. Later, it was renamed to , according to the current inspection and certification by people. The was a typical form of women hanfu in the Tang dynasty.
The of the Tang dynasty was also introduced in Korea during the Silla,
Terminology
The was named after its location on its wearer's body. It is distinguished from the , which is attached below the chest and above the waist.
is tied at the waist while
qixiong ruqun is tied under the armpit.
In ancient times,
ruqun dresses for women were not very high waisted, but ruqun dresses with very high waists appeared from the Northern and Southern dynasties to the
Sui dynasty,
Tang dynasty and
Five Dynasties.
Some clothing history records call it the
high-waisted ruqun, and it was later changed to
qixiong ruqun according to the current people's examination and certification of it.
History
The first appeared in the Northern and Southern dynasties.
The
qixiong ruqun was worn during the
Sui dynasty,
Tang dynasty, and Five dynasties,
until the
Song dynasty, when, upon
Neo-Confucianism's rise, the fashion of Tang dynasty faded.
Northern and Southern dynasties
Prior to the
Liang dynasty of the
Liang dynasty, the waistline of the women's
ruqun were located at the waist.
During the Southern dynasties, the women's
ruqun evolved and was tied higher. Their
ruqun belt line became higher and the skirt was attached at the chest level. Their had open necklines.
The
ru (襦) with open neckline started since the
Liang dynasty; prior to that, the collars of the women's ru were designed to be tight-fitting from the
Southern Qi to the
Liang dynasty.
Sui and Tang dynasties
During the
Sui dynasty and
Tang dynasty, blouses were generally worn as short ; (i.e. short-sleeved upper garment)and
pibo (an accessory which looked like a long shawl) both constituted an integral part of
ruqun.
Sui dynasty
During the
Sui dynasty, the dress code of the Han dynasty was revised and a clothing system with the characteristic of the
Han Chinese was established.
In this period, the ru () with short sleeves became a popular trend for the time.
File:Sui Figurines of Musicians - b.jpg|Musicians wearing qixiong ruqun, Sui dynasty figurines.
File:Dinastia sui, donne da kuche, 581-618 dc ca.jpg|Sui dynasty female attendants wearing qixiong ruqun.
File:Sui Painted Pottery Attendant 04.jpg|Sui Painted Pottery Attendant
Tang dynasty
The
Tang dynasty was the heyday of economic, cultural, artistic and diplomatic history in Chinese history.
It also created the characteristics of this dynasty's freedom, gracefulness, and colourful clothing.
Tang dynasty people wore short sleeved and a floor-length skirt, but after the heyday of the Tang dynasty, the aristocratic costumes turned to become large and complex. Qixiong ruqun is a representative costume of the Tang dynasty and was very popular among Tang dynasty ladies. In the Tang dynasty, qixiong ruqun was typically worn long a wide-sleeved blouse, long-full skirt, and long silk scarves with painted motifs as part of the set of attire.
There were variety of skirts during the Tang dynasty.
-
Striped skirt ( jianqun): High-waisted striped skirts became mainstream since the Northern dynasties and lasted until the Sui-Tang dynasties.
-
Pomegranate skirt (): the colour pomegranate red was famous for the longest time.
-
Bainiao skirt: Emperor Zhongzong of Tang’s daughter, Princess Anle, had a skirt made up of the feathers of many types of birds,
-
Zhou dynasty's bell skirt: A skirt which was decorated with twelve bells at the four corners of the dress. When people walked, they made a "jingle" noise, which was seen as very graceful and beautiful.
Many unearthed cultural relics and antique paintings have record of the qixiong ruqun. For example, the famous picture Court Ladies Preparing Newly Woven Silk in the heyday of the Tang dynasty shows similar costumes.[ Shanghai Daily]
File:A Group of T'ang Dynasty Musicians from the Tomb of Li Shou (李壽).jpg|A Group of Tang Dynasty Musicians from the Tomb of Li Shou.
File:新城公主墓壁畫1.JPG|Tang dynasty painting.
File:執扇仕女.jpg|Tang dynasty painting.
File:Court Ladies Preparing Newly Woven Silk (捣练图) by Emperor Huizong (1082–1135).jpg|Court Ladies Preparing Newly Woven Silk (捣练图).
File:Chou Fang 002.jpg|Tang dynasty women.
File:A palace concert.jpg|One-piece and two-piece style qixiong ruqun depicted in Tang dynasty painting "A palace concert".
File:揮扇仕女圖（局部）.jpg|Tang dynasty painting.
File:Chou Fang 003.jpg|Tang dynasty women.
File:Noble Ladies Worshiping Buddha.jpg|Noble Ladies Worshipping Buddha, Tang dynasty painting.
Five dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period to Song dynasty
Qixiong ruqun continued to be worn in the Five dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period.
During the Song dynasty, the fashion of Song was different from the fashion of the Tang dynasty. With the rise of Neo-Confucianism, Song dynasty women were encouraged to reject the extravagant fashion of the Tang dynasty.
Ming dynasty
The Tang dynasty-style high-waisted skirt which tied to the chest area (just below the
Bustline) and was worn with a short and very tight sleeved jacket was revived in the early and middle Ming dynasty when it was especially worn by young women.
This strongly influenced the development of the Korean hanbok.
Modern time
In modern times with the increasing popularity of
hanfu and driven by the
hanfu movement, the
qixiong ruqun gained high popularity among young women.
The modern
qixiong ruqun is controversial due to the rarity of unearthed historical clothing.
The modern qixiong ruqun which is found on the current market comes into two forms:
-
one-piece style,
-
two-piece style with a slit under the waist.
The former is well accepted as being an authentic shape as such form of skirt was unearthed in archeological findings; thus proving the correctness of the one-piece style qixiong ruqun whereas the latter is controversial as it is a style which (so far) can only be found in ancient paintings, such as the Tang dynasty "A palace concert" painting.
How to wear the modern qixiong ruqun
The qixiong ruqun can be found into a one-piece and two-pieces skirts.
The one-piece style qixiong ruqun is a traditional Chinese one-piece skirt which is tied like a wrap-skirt.
The two-piece style qixiong ruqun consists of two pieces of fabrics.
Influences and derivatives
Khitan Liao dynasty
From at least the
Han dynasty until the Mongol period, Non-Han Chinese women (regardless of social status or cultural identity) who lived in Han dynasty territories wore
Hanfu.
During the Tang dynasty, Central Asian women also were depicted wearing Han Chinese style clothing.
After the fall of the
Tang dynasty, the Tang-style Han Chinese clothing continued to be worn in the Liao.
The Khitans inherited the
Hanfu from the Later Jin dynasty; the clothing of the Later Jin were actually clothing from the Tang dynasty.
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Khotan
In
Dunhuang, the clothing fashion of the 8th and 9th century AD closely followed the Tang dynasty's fashion.
Lilla Russell-Smith (2025). 900414241X, Brill. 900414241X
This trend later changed in the 10th century AD when the Uyghur clothing and Sino-Uygur headdress became more prominent.
Korea
In
Silla, the clothing of Korean women were influenced by the fashion of the
Tang dynasty due to the cultural interactions.
Chinese-style clothing and Chinese fashion was introduced in the
Later Silla.
Some clay figures found in that period shows the high-waist line skirt worn over the jacket and appears to have shoulder straps attached to it.
The skirts worn over the jackets was a distinctive clothing style of the Tang dynasty's women.
Under the Tang dynasty influence, the skirts in Silla were similarly worn at chest-level and was tied with long ribbons.
The
qixiong ruqun with shoulder straps was also worn in China, but they appeared to have been rarely used in China during the Tang dynasty.
When Balhae established peaceful diplomatic relations with the
Tang dynasty,
Chinese culture was vigorously introduced by the Balhae court.
also adopted the women clothing of the Tang dynasty and assimilated the clothing of the Tang dynasty.
Some excavated Balhae relics show that women in Balhae wore a narrow sleeved blouse with low cut neckline under a long skirt which was tied above the bust,
which is a typical form of clothing style of Tang dynasty.
Other relics also show the ornamental differences between the Balhae and Tang dynasty women in the use of different types of
shawl.
This form of high-waisted skirt which ties to the Thorax can still be seen in the chima worn in the modern days Koreans women's hanbok.
Design and construction
Tang dynasty was a dynasty with a prosperous economy and relatively open social fashion. Its costumes tended to be bright, colourful, and diverse.
Qixiong ruqun is divided into two kinds:
-
Duijin qixiong ruqun (parallel collar type) - Duijin qixiong ruqun was and is generally more widely used.
-
Jiaoling Qixiong ruqun (crossed collar type).
Composition of Qixiong ruqun
Qixiong Ruqun is a style of
ruqun. Ruqun consists of a and a skirt (; also known as ), it is a typical upper and lower garment system. Because it must match the Qixiong skirt that was worn, the ru were usually very short. The patterns on clothes also had different requirements according to the characteristics of different dynasties, for example, flowers and plants were often used as patterns in Tang dynasty.
Qixiong ruqun accessories
. The hezi is tied from the back to the front, and the lower part has a rope so that the waist part of the skirt can be tied at the same time. This accessory bears resemblance to the Qing dynasty . Hezi is worn in the Tang dynasty, Song dynasty and
. Hezi can be seen in ancient Chinese frescoes and cultural relics, for example, the famous Mural.
. Pibo evolved from a long shawl, and later gradually became a ribbon between the arms, this is the typical costume of ancient Chinese ladies. Pibo often appears in the murals of
, and Tang dynasty is the most popular period. It is made of silver or gold chiffon, one end of which is fixed on the belt of the half arm then draped over the shoulder and wound around the arms. There are two kinds of pibo: one type of banner is broader and shorter, which is mostly used by married women. Another can reach more than two meters in length, primarily used by unmarried women. Women's clothing styles in the middle and late Tang dynasty tend to be more and more loose and elegant, so most of them are decorated with pibo. It is a type of decoration that influenced the
is also used to match the dress with the skirt. In ancient times, qixiong ruqun with a
can be worn as a formal dress. The material of daxiushan upper garment is compared commonly flimsy. Its lace-up position is located in the lower part of clothing. This kind of dress can be seen in the Tang dynasty cultural relics silk painting "court ladies adorning their hair with flowers",
this work is from Zhou Fang, who was a very influential painter in the middle Tang dynasty. The cuff of
upper garment has 4.37 feet above commonly. Many costumes can be used with daxiushan, which is commonly seen with narrow sleeves, straight sleeves and wide sleeves blouse (ru).
.
clothing is occasionally depicted in the costumes worn by actors in Chinese television dramas, in movies, and other forms of entertainment. They are also sometimes depicted in
