Food, clothing, housing and transportation have become the basic conditions for survival since the beginning of human civilization.
And "clothing" ranks first.
As we all know, primitive humans did not have the concept of clothes.
They will only cover important parts of the body with leaves or animal skins to hide their shame.
With the continuous development of human civilization, various types of clothing emerge in endlessly.
Clothes are also gradually transforming from practical meaning to symbolic meaning.
The emergence of the feudal dynasty also gave clothes a class meaning. Different clothes represent different classes and must not be confused or transgressed.
However, by the middle and late Ming Dynasty , the clothing hierarchy gradually collapsed.
Various types of clothing appeared in the Jiangnan area, which once led the country on the road to fashion.
The blurred social atmosphere gave rise to the emergence of flashy clothes.
American historian Wei Feide once said:
"Flashy clothes are implicated in political and social decadence."
Wei Feide
During the Hongwu period, the land of China had just emerged from the war, and all the state capitals in the Ming Dynasty were in ruins.
Although there is no more war, people still face the problem of survival.
Under such a social background, the role of folk clothing is close to that of primitive civilization, mainly to cover up shame.
At the same time, in order to stabilize the new regime and shake up the imperial court, Zhu Yuanzhang formulated a strict clothing hierarchy.
For a time, the style, material, and pattern of clothing were closely related to status.
People are divided into three, six or nine levels. If you know their clothes, you can know their people.
For example, due to the influence of the "emphasis on agriculture and suppression of business" policy, merchants in the early Ming Dynasty were prohibited from wearing silk fabrics, even if they were wealthy.
Scholars wore straight skirts or khakis, and wore scarves on their heads, while civilians mostly wore short clothes, small hats or net scarves.
In addition, there are strict regulations on the official uniforms of officials, and any violation of the rules will lead to disaster.
Zhu Yuanzhang
During the Hongxi period, Ming Renzong Zhu Gaochi came to the throne. At this time, the Ming Dynasty had basically passed the post-war recovery period.
In addition, Zhu Gaochi abolished some financial-consuming policies formulated by his father Zhu Di, saved expenses, and rested with the people. The country's economic level began to improve.
After the death of Ming Renzong, Ming Xuanzong inherited his father's legacy, cared for the people and reduced taxes.
At this point, the Ming Dynasty under the rule of Renxuan appeared prosperous.
If the country's politics are clear and the emperor is diligent in governing, the social atmosphere will naturally be healthy and upward.
At this time, the hierarchical system of clothing has been relaxed, but it still generally follows the ancestral system.
Zhu Qizhen
Only after Ming Xuanzong, Ming Yingzong Zhu Qizhen defeated Wala , and the country's dignity was humiliated.
The military failure implicated the entire country in decline.
Zhu Houzhao, Emperor Wuzong of the Ming Dynasty, ignored the affairs of the government, and Zhu Houzhao, Emperor Shizong of the Ming Dynasty, was addicted to elixirs.
The people in power are getting worse from generation to generation, and the Ming Dynasty at this time is close to corruption.
As the saying goes, the upper beam is not straight and the lower beam is crooked, and the emperor's words and deeds directly affect the people.
There is a saying in "Xunzi·Lun on Music":
"Symptoms of troubled times: their clothing, their women's appearance, and their vulgarity."
Gu Qiyuan
In "Guest Words" compiled by Gu Qiyuan, he once wrote about Zhengde in the Ming Dynasty Years later, changes in clothing affected by changes in social mores:
"Women began to wear pearls, jade and silk, even almost the same as prostitutes, and appeared outside."
It is not difficult to see from this that women in the Ming Dynasty during the Zhengde period already had the concept of gorgeous and luxurious clothing, and there were practitioners.
At this time, society's moral constraints on women were gradually loosening.
The concept of living in simplicity that was required in the early Ming Dynasty was abandoned, and instead, people wore silk silk and walked around the market in a swagger.
In addition to the influence of the general environment, the emergence of clothing fashion is also inseparable from social mobility.
In the early Ming Dynasty, the social hierarchy was strict, class distinctions were strict, and social mobility almost did not occur.
"Da Gao" once wrote: "No matter who goes out, they need to bring road guide , and write down the content of the journey in the road guide."
Population movement control is so strict that places are isolated from each other, and there is almost no communication between people.
In such a social environment, even if fashion clothing appears in a certain area, it cannot travel outside the area where it occurs and is difficult to spread due to travel restrictions.
Fashion that cannot be spread is, at best, just self-entertainment among small areas.
In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, scholars were interested in all directions, and the trend of traveling was prevalent.
They like to travel around the world and look for career opportunities, such as the well-known Xu Xiake.
Xu Xiake
As mentioned above, the Ming Dynasty's imperial examination system's regulations on the issue of place of origin caused conflicts between students who traveled abroad.
It was not until the middle and late Ming Dynasty that this contradiction gradually disappeared.
Ming Dynasty naturalist "Wuzazu" written by Xie Zhaozhe once recorded in Jiajing period that a student in Zhejiang did not return to his place of origin after taking the exam, and was criticized for impersonating his nationality.
At that time, Jiajing 's answer to the matter was:
"My talents are all in the world, how can I say they are fake citizens?"
It can be seen from this that during the Jiajing period, the control of population mobility and travel had been relaxed a lot.
The enhancement of social mobility provides prerequisites for the spread of fashionable clothing and also lays the foundation for subsequent nationwide clothing innovation.
The development of the economy paved the way for the gorgeous
In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the commodity economy developed rapidly, and capitalism began to sprout.
The improvement of economic level is an important reason for the emergence of clothing diversification.
From the late 15th century to the 16th century, the agricultural economy in the Jiangnan region rapidly developed toward commercialization.
People planted mulberry trees and raised silkworms.
The textile industry gradually replaced crop cultivation from its original agricultural sideline industry and became the main source of income for farmers at that time.
It was precisely because of the development of the textile industry in the Jiangnan area that the earliest clothing innovations appeared here.
According to the records of unearthed antiquities and ancient literati's essays and novels, there were many types of coats and skirts at that time, including satin coats, silk coats, damask coats, etc.
Skirts are also classified by shape. Popular ones include pleated skirts, moonlight skirts, etc.
Chapter 72 of "Jin Ping Mei" Ximen Qing prepared a set of fashionable clothes to celebrate Mrs. Lin's birthday. The original text describes it like this:
"Lilac satin coat with full sleeves and emerald blue mud skirt."
The "satin coat" and "mud skirt" mentioned in the article are one of the more popular clothing styles in the middle and late Ming Dynasty.
Satin is a material that originated in the Han Dynasty and flourished in the Ming Dynasty. It was once the material for making high-end formal wear for civil and military officials in the spring, autumn and winter of the Ming Dynasty.
The satin material is light, the floating threads are long, and they are strongly twisted or weakly twisted. The weft threads have fewer interweaving points, are incoherent, and are evenly distributed at equal distances.
The surface of clothing or fabrics made of satin is smooth, soft, and translucent. It was one of the more precious fabrics at that time.
Satin skirt with floral patterns
As a literary work, "Jin Ping Mei", which was written in the Wanli year, must be able to reflect the social life at that time. The content about clothing in the
book can be used as a reference.
However, the discoveries in some tombs are different and are historical evidence that can reflect the changes in clothing in the middle and late Ming Dynasty.
In 1958, the tomb of Huang Mengxuan and his wife was discovered in Shanghai, and a female satin skirt and colorful cloud-patterned satin robe were unearthed.
In 2008, the Sensenzhuang Ming tomb of the late Ming Dynasty was excavated in Taizhou, Jiangsu Province, and two damask skirts were unearthed.
One piece has insects, flowers and miscellaneous treasure patterns as the main patterns, and the skirt has four pleats as a group.
Another piece is mainly decorated with entangled flower patterns, and the skirt is also a set of four pleats.
There are many tombs like this.
Like the tomb of Xu Fan and his wife, which was also discovered in Taizhou, Jiangsu, two pieces of patchwork clothing with plain satin unicorn patterns and eight-treasure satin crane patterns were unearthed, as well as multiple damask skirts.
Two satin skirts were also unearthed from the tomb of the Zhu En family, the Minister of Civil Affairs in Nanjing.
In fact, the tomb owners of the tombs of Huang Mengxuan and his wife, Mori Senzhuangming and Xu Fan and his wife were all civilians at that time.
Because of the economic development in the Jiangnan region, they have become wealthy households and can afford to wear clothes made of high-grade fabrics.
From these archaeological studies, we can clearly see the changes in clothing in the middle and late Ming Dynasty.
The reason for this change is objectively because economic development has brought about the concept of luxury, changed people's spiritual pursuits, and thus affected aesthetics.
Subjectively speaking, people's thinking changed at that time, from sticking to tradition to being open and inclusive.
In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the development of the commodity economy gave rise to a number of new social classes.
They resisted the inherent class culture, advocated equality for all living beings, and paid special attention to the benefits obtained, and the pursuit of selfish desires was also put on the table.
This has also brought about a new social atmosphere, breaking the old ideological constraints, and the pursuit of true liberation and freedom has become rampant.
This avant-garde thought quickly set off a turbulent ideological movement among the people, and people's emotions that had been oppressed for a long time finally found a way to vent.
Ideological emancipation, keen to express oneself
When it comes to ideological emancipation, we have to talk about Wang Yangming and his " Xinxue."
When Wang Yangming was young, Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism was popular.
He also tried to understand the truth, but in the end he gained nothing, which made him very disappointed in Neo-Confucianism .
Wang Yangming
After that, Wang Yangming began to study his own ideas.
During the period when Zhu Xi's doctrine was authoritative, he dared to make a different voice, deny Confucius and Mencius, and proposed that whether you are studying or seeking Taoism, you should think independently and should not take the way of sages as your own way.
Wang Yangming proposed that "heart" is the master of heaven, earth, and all things. He believed that everything comes from the heart and people should follow their hearts.
"Xin" learning would undoubtedly be regarded as heresy by the orthodox schools in the Ming Dynasty at that time, but it was very in line with the flavor of the times. The emergence of
new ideas has given the general public the confidence and basis to dare to break through tradition.
People began to pursue personal freedom and pay attention to expressing themselves, and most people put this idea into clothing.
In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, a kind of earrings called "lilac" became popular under this background.
Li Yu's " Leisure Occasionally Send " describes: "The smaller the earrings, the better, or a bead, or a little gold and silver. This is commonly worn at home, and its common name is lilac, which is similar to its shape."
In addition to household accessories such as "lilac", there is also a headdress called "lying rabbit", which is generally used in winter.
It is made of sea otter skin or mink skin. It is expensive and can be said to be a luxury product in the Ming Dynasty.
"Lilac" and "Lying Rabbit" were favored by women as accessories in the late Ming Dynasty.
After its decorative meaning, what is hidden is that women at that time were affected by new ideas and began to pay attention to dressing up.
This is a question of paying attention to one's own value and its expression.
Conclusion:
In summary, the reason why women's clothing changed to fashion and trends in the middle and late Ming Dynasty was mainly due to the gradual collapse of the traditional clothing system, the development of the commodity economy, and the opening of the mind.
With the development of the times, ideas began to change, and people gradually increased their pursuit of freedom.
Its main performance is also reflected in the changes in clothing.
In any case, the clothing innovation of the Ming Dynasty is a reflection of social progress, and it also inspires us not to be constrained by tradition at any time, but to boldly innovate!
References
"Guest Words"
"Xunzi · Music Theory"
"Wuzazu"
"Da Gao"
"Xianqing Occasionally Send"
