The Hans are the most populous ethnic group both inChinaand in the world. They have a long history and a resplendent culture. In the past thousands of years, there were chiefly two basic clothing designs of the Han people -- separating the upper outer garment from the lower skirt and connecting the two parts.Dajin(front of a Chinese garment with buttons on the right) has been the most distinct feature.

1. These clothes have different features in different dynasties and on different historical stages.

Colors of Costumes

In habilatory colors, the Han people regard five colors, namely blue, red, black, white and yellow, as the orthodox colors and different dynasties preferred different colors. Generally speaking, the Xia Dynasty (21stcentury - 17thcentury BC) preferred black, the Shang Dynasty (17thcentury - 11thcentury BC), white; the Zhou Dynasty (11thcentury - 256 BC), red; the Qin Dynasty (221-206BC), black; the Han Dynasty (206BC-220AD), red; the Tang Dynasty (618-907), yellow in clothes but red in flags; and the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), red. However, after the Tang Dynasty, yellow was regarded as an exalted color for a long time, and usually only emperors and nobles were entitled to dress in yellow.

Mysterious Chinese Dyeing and Weaving Techniques

Raw materials of clothes mainly include flax, silk, cotton, woolen cloth, leather and so on. The dyeing and weaving techniques of the Han people enjoy worldwide reputation for a long history, advanced technology and fine design. For quite a long time, China's dyeing and weaving techniques, especially silk weaving technique, could not be found elsewhere in the world.

Theancient dyeing technique ofChinawas very superb and advanced. It could produce cloth with varied lustrous colors, and colors it dyed were not easy to wash out. Thus, this technique was called the mysterious Chinese art by Westerners. The dyeing methods roughly fell into four types:weaving of printed cloth, dye printing, embroidery and pattern drawing.

Patterns of Costumes: from Abstract to Realistic

The decorative patterns on clothes of the Hans are usually animals, plants or geometric patterns. Their modes of expression have roughly undergone from abstract to standard then to realistic. Patterns before the Shang and Zhou Dynasties (about the 16th century BC to 1066 BC) were concise, brief and very abstract, just like primitive Chinese characters.

From the Zhou Dynasty to the Tang and Song Dynasties (618-1279), patterns gradually became regular and neat, and featured balance between the upper and the lower parts, symmetry between the left and right parts and elaborate distribution of decorative patterns.

In the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1268-1840), emphasis shifted to the realistic technique in making clothes, and all kinds of animal and plant patterns were usually arranged in a very minute and vivid manner, just as if taken directly from real life and without any artificial processing, fully demonstrating the Han people's diligence and wisdom.