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IMPERIAL MATERIAL: MODERN WESTERN FASHION THEORY

AND A SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY EASTERN EMPIRE

This a pre-print of an article by Linda F. Matheson that was published by Maney Publishing in

2011for the Costume Society of America journal Dress vol 37, pp. 57-82.

Here is a link to the online hosting platform, www.maneyonline.com/dre, and the corporate website

at www.maneypublishing.com.

Abstract

This article explores a symbolic, non-western, non-contemporary, class-privileged, and dominantly

masculine world - that of China’s gentry and Imperial Courts in their transition from the Ming Dynasty

to the Qing Dynasty (1573-1722). Modern Western theories of identity and representation through dress

are analyzed -- using both artifact and discourse analysis -- as to whether or not they can transcend

cultural and temporal contexts. In particular the essay examines Eastern evidence from the seventeenth

century that supports the activity of the premise behind the trickle-down theory of clothing attributed to

Georg Simmel in the twentieth century West. Additionally, issues such as cultural ambivalence, creative

ferment, and collective tensions in transitional contexts are considered in testing the applicability of

symbolic interactionist theory of the contemporaryWest to the changing aesthetic codes and social

meanings of the royal robes in the ancient East.

Keywords

Imperial Courts, Western fashion theory, Eastern seventeenth century, dragon robes, Chinese history

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The intention of this paper is to explore a symbolic, non-western, non-contemporary, class-

privileged, and dominantly masculine world-- that of China’s gentry and Imperial Courts in their

transition from the Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty (1573-1722). The reason for this exploration is to

ascertain whether or not modern western theories of identity and representation through dress 1 can

transcend cultural and temporal contexts.

Chinese historian, Ye Mengzhu (叶梦珠, b.1634)2 writes at the end of the seventeenth century:

“Fashions begin in the homes of the gentry, and are copied by their maids and concubines, who transmit

them in their leisure time to their immediate relatives, and thus to the villages.”3 Besides denoting

change in China’s sartorial world, this quote exemplifies the trickle-down fashion theory attributed to

Georg Simmel (1858-1918).4 Could this be considered the forerunner of Simmel’s theory? Though not

an active discourse prior to Simmel’s observation, the existence of sumptuary laws in both eastern and

western hemispheres restricting the use of certain colors and materials for nobility, suggests that this

same dynamic, this emulation and imitation of the “look” of those whose status is desired, has been

present and in operation throughout the history of fashion.5 Now we have a quote from a seventeenth-

century Chinese historian making the same observation and drawing consistent conclusions. This is one

example of commonalities unearthed by this study of the benefits and limitations of modern western

fashion theory when applied to eastern dress practices.

Historical dress practices in China include the material realization of a sequence of ideas; therefore

to be correctly understood they must be analyzed by using some theoretical assumptions. 6 For this task I

have chosen two of our classic theories, the elasticity and durability of which I will test, while assuming

that they can be applied to a system7 for which they were not originally intended. My hope is that they

might be fortified and extended to help explain the practices or systems of dress in a more flexible

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manner. Employing their metaphoric value, theories are effective tools that enhance understanding until

stretched too far, at which time they must be replaced by a more apt model.

Between 1573 and 1722, China experienced extraordinary upheaval concurrent with monumental

changes. The traditional Confucian philosophy of life was juxtaposed by a tidal wave of new scientific,

intellectual, artistic and literary thought. There were radical new views on individualism including those

relating to gender and sex; originality and materialism were promoted, along with all manner of creature

comforts.8 While being politically threatened by the Manchu, unprecedented economic benchmarks

were being achieved, including those attained by the commercialization of fashion9, literature, the

decorative arts, and leisure. Though not a fashion industry as we know it today-- that caters to multiple

annual seasons-- Chinese trade and commerce during this era included a thriving interregional and

international textile component, equipped with factories and workers that sprung up as needed to

manufacture those fabrics and styles that attained popularity with a culturally aware majority. Attention

was paid to what was “in style” 10

by a socially questioning and aspiring bourgeoisie, whose (social)

mobility was announced by the dress practices they adopted. From the audacious and sometimes

ostentatious textiles of the Ming, to the superbly exercised order of the Qing, we witness a strong tide of

bold experimentation finally ebbing and stabilizing between 1759 and 1766 with a proclamation for

restored sartorial discipline to which adherence was mandatory.11

Unlike the west, where until recent decades critical elements of dress including changes in aesthetic

codes and social meanings received little attention, the seventeenth-century Chinese focused on the

symbolic as highly significant. Through a complex system of symbols, ancient and auspicious, the

upwardly seeking bourgeoisie and the members of the Imperial Courts relied upon their resplendent silk

robes to play an intricate role in the communication of political and cultural ideals, crucial to the success

of rituals and ceremonies, and vital to identity.12

Chinese dress scholar, Hua Mei, writes that the most

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outstanding feature in the Chinese official uniform is the buzi –patches of embroidered symbols on the

chest and back of gowns indicating the wearer’s rank-- which mark the relationship of garment and

power.13

This essay will examine the most auspicious of these symbols, the dragon, with the aim of

determining the ideas and values referenced from the larger cultural discourse that is inextricably linked

with the practices of identity construction that are intrinsic to dress. For the Chinese state, society, and

culture, the dynastic transition of the Ming dynasty to the Qing dynasty was one “of crisis and

transformation.”14

Simultaneous with bloodshed and battle with the conquering Manchu, a remarkably

thriving, commercially and industrially based economy was supported by strong population growth and

intense urbanization. This emerging culture encouraged by the idea that wealth was the noblest goal,

was carefree and pleasure seeking. It focused on comfort and enjoyment, leisure, and liberal attitudes,

along with new manners in regard to women.15

A new paradigm was being established, fulfilling the

foremost perquisite proposed by Kaiser et al for qualification as a transitional historical context16

in the

second of our fashion theories to be considered—A symbolic interactionist theory of fashion.

In 1991 Susan Kaiser, Richard Nagasawa and Sandra Hutton posited that “fashion becomes fraught

with cultural ambivalence and creative ferment in historical transitional contexts”--the periods of time

throughout history that include the dismantling/overthrowing of one cultural/political era, and the

establishing of a second one that replaces it--- …“because contradictory cultural practices that cause

collective tensions and ambivalences are likely to be present.” They developed a theory explaining

fashion, a social process that by its nature implies change, as influenced by underlying concepts such as

ambivalence, ambiguity and negotiation. Because these concepts instigate and perpetuate changes in

appearance style, or dress, they can be extracted to provide a starting point for cross-cultural analyses.

During times of political and or cultural change these ideas become intensified and impel new ways of

self-representation resulting in an increased pace of change in styles and expressions.17

Continuing in

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the symbolic interactionist tradition, another reason for this theory is to create a link between macro-

level cultural political forces and micro-level social psychological processes of dress. 18

Herbert Blumer, Gregory Stone and Fred Davis are credited with their seminal research in this area.

For Blumer symbolic interaction is the process of interaction in the formation of meaning, with the

symbols (of language) as tools to negotiate this meaning: thus creating the self and socialization within a

larger community.19 Gregory Stone considered these symbols in the realm of personal appearance, and

called for his colleagues not to focus only on the discursive aspects of communication.20

Agreeing with

this Davis looked to fashion and found its symbolic content to be what it says, how it says it and the

relationship of both of these to what has gone before and what is to come after.21

He also writes of

fashion as being “Prodded by social and technological change and occasions of disaster” (often evident

in transitional times) …“our identities are forever in ferment giving rise to numerous strains, paradoxes,

ambivalences and contradictions within ourselves. It is upon these collectively experienced, sometimes

historically recurrent, identity instabilities that fashion feeds.” 22

With macro-level shifts during the

Ming/Qing transition provoking enhanced micro-level activity we have a period in China’s Imperial

history that beckons application of this theory (henceforth to be referred to as SI).23

Despite widespread agreement that the roots of western civilization are deep in the delta of the Nile,

the Tigris and Euphrates, an area currently approximating Iraq,24

little literature on dress addresses

clothing practices outside the hegemonic west. An admirable exception to this is the contribution made

by Joanne Eicher, 25

who has written extensively on ethnic dress, and others, such as Anne Brydon,

Sandra Niessen26

and Jennifer Craik 27

who articulates a non-mainstream belief that the modern western

female does not hold exclusive rights to this realm. Significant research in Chinese dress has also been

done by other scholars who have added depth and texture to the field.28

Commendably, others have

written about ethnicity as developing its own inner logic as a fashion system,29

and the exotic, or

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oriental as a recurring inspiration in the decorative arts, clothing included. 30

Said's evaluation and

critique of the set of beliefs known as Orientalism highlights the inaccuracies of a wide variety of

assumptions which are accepted as paradigms of thought both individually, and academically.31

It is a

call to action that recognizes that besides these exemplary thrusts, much remains to be investigated in

the eastern matrix.

The necessity of contextual interpretation demands strong cultural/historical research. For this I

found the work of Chun-shu Chang and Shelley Hsueh-lun Chang most helpful. Crisis and

Transformation in Seventeenth-Century China: society, culture, and modernity in Li Yu’s world, and

Redefining History: ghosts, spirits, and human society in P’u Sung Ling’s world. Both manuscripts

translate and interpret numerous primary and secondary sources--that include social commentators and

historians from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries--in revealing the life of Li Yu, China’s first

professional writer and P’u Sung Ling, another prolific scholar who wrote 500 short stories as an

historian and analyst of human nature and the human condition. Employing both the classic and

vernacular in their essays, poems, plays, operas and fiction, a wide variety of life in China at this time is

described. Indeed they provide insights into feelings, values, attitudes, anxieties and assumptions that

are sometimes lacking in conventional historical documentation. Besides presenting an understanding

profile of these scholars and their work, the main goal of Chang and Chang was “to explore the scope

and depth of the reflection of contemporary political, social, economic, and cultural conditions in the

writings.”32

Their references to fashion in these various contexts are consistent with my definition of the

term, and appear to have been carefully translated with attention to detail. Their use of direct quotes

from contemporaneous writers and observers is strengthening, as is their use of scholars, such as Erving

Goffman for interpretation of impression management. 33

These texts beautifully and succinctly blend

literature, ideas, and society to enrich the dimension of historical understanding. Supplementing these

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texts was the work of scholars Dorothy Ko, D. D.Wang and Wei Shang, Peter Hershock and Roger

Ames, 34

as well as others too numerous to mention, but whose names you will see in the endnotes and

references at the end of this paper.

Hidden Meanings in Chinese Art by Bartholomew 35

was a regular companion which informed my

work substantially by its elucidation of meaning behind the symbols on the royal robes, and the Corpus

of Fabric Embroidery and Finery, based on the 1958 excavation of the royal tomb of the Wanli Emperor

(1573-1619) edited by Shauna Chung and published in Tianjin, proved to be an excellent resource. 36

Written in classical Chinese, it required translation, a somewhat daunting task, as many Chinese scholars

no longer read the classical text, or are familiar with textile terminology. Fortunately a University of

California, Davis, Textiles and Clothing graduate student from Taiwan, and a good friend who

completed her graduate study at the University of Beijing, both of whom had a firm grasp of the nuances

of the subject, came to my rescue.37

I have been fortunate to work with and use the research of scholars of Chinese dress, who have spent

many years examining these types of robes and who are experts in their field. 38

Their work has

increased my understanding and helped me formulate my ideas about this transitional period and the role

of dress within it. An example of this took place at the Forbidden Palace, where with translation help I

was able to communicate with researchers who specialize in this era. 39

One of them, Bai Ying Sheng,

has written books on the subject and discussed the relative scarcity of garments: Three theories for this

are (a) that the owners revering these “heavenly” vestments chose to be buried in them hoping to have

their otherworldly passage eased by such richness and beauty and (b) that existing Ming garments were

used as a basis for new Qing ones, hence being altered, recut etc., or (c) they were given as appeasement

gifts to war-lords of adjacent lands who might be inclined to invade Chinese territory. While no

consensus was reached, my host professor in Beijing, Guo Pingjing, holds that the first theory is correct,

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while Bai remained noncommittal. Based on my research to date I’m leaning toward a combination of

the three.40

This scarcity however means that conclusions drawn may not fully represent the era, and

might differ if a broader array of artifacts were available for analyses. Despite this it is my opinion that

understanding may be gained and inferences made based upon the substantial number of pieces that

have been made available to me.

METHOD

As capacious as poetry, textiles are a vital subject for visual and material culture scholars that enjoy

focusing on both the physical artifact and the meaning it produces or represents. As the processes of

detection seek the cooperation of various disciplines, I used a grounded theory approach41

with two

methods of discovery:

- Artifact analysis (analysis of outward and inward physical appearance), and

- Discourse analysis (analysis based on words—written and spoken—as well as pictorial

images)42

These methods combine the arcs of history and cultural studies and have wide cross-cultural

applicability. They were implemented with the grounded theory strategies of simultaneous collection

and data analysis, comparative examinations, note taking and writing that aimed toward a conceptual

analysis. Additional research allowed me to refine emerging ideas and integrate theoretical frameworks

of thought.

Jules Prown, professor emeritus at Yale, writes that “artifacts are primary data for the study of

material culture, and therefore, they can be used actively as evidence rather than passively as

illustrations.”43

For my artifact analysis the pieces were held in my gloved hands whenever possible and

turned inside-out. Measurements and notes on cut, color and fabrication were taken, questions were

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asked, and cameras used when acceptable. The notes made at the time of examination were written up in

full that evening; concepts considered and ideas integrated.

In viewing the empirical material I was looking for evidence-- or not-- to support the trickle-down

and the SI theories. As much of the material originated from the Imperial Courts, robes worn by the

royal family—the Emperor, Empress and Princes-- were compared with those worn by lesser members

of the court—civil and military rulers, eunuchs and concubines-- for similarities and differences that

would be relevant. Sometimes it was difficult to know who the wearer was; other times it was clear from

the specificity in the published clothing regulations, for whom and in what capacity the robe had been

intended, whether for Imperial family members or court official, male or female, formal or informal and

winter or summer. 44

One of my immediate foci in examining these garments was the art work of the very prevalent

dragon emblem. In the Chinese nation, the dragon represents a revered iconic symbol and was the most

prominent one on the dragon robes.45

Hence this evocative symbol was tracked to determine if there

were artistic, temporal or spatial themes that could be attributed to cultural movements or transitions. A

correlation was discerned, and a conceptual framework established. Besides the socially based messages

of any work of art that are indigenous to that culture, there are other messages imparted that are

produced by the arrangement and style of the various pieces within the composition of the art work. The

balance, proportion, emphasis, harmony, rhythm and color of the component parts influence the rational

and emotional responses it evokes and thus the adjectives employed to describe it. By comparing the

size, silhouette, features, posture and position chosen to make-up the symbol of the dragon, it became

clear that a range of attitudes and adjectives was represented, from fearful to ferocious or subdued to

snarling, dynamic or heroic. Thus by investigating the material alterations and recreations of the dragon

symbol, the most significant emblem on the favored mode of dress within the Imperial Court’s fashion

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system, I was able to make certain inferences, and draw plausible conclusions. There appeared to be

significant distinctions within the fabricated artwork—aesthetic codes-- of the dragon that correlated to

its probable time period.

Please see table below for sources and artifacts examined.46

Primary sources #s pieces examined and probable time period Minneapolis Institute of Art 16 (dragon robes, men’s and women’s, late Ming, early-mid Qing)

Asian Art Museum Seattle 1 (man’s dragon robe, early 1700s)

Asian Art Museum S.F. 1 (ceremonial vest of Wanli Emperor’s mother, late Ming, 1595)

Ding Ling Museum, Beijing 28 (robes, jackets, hats, fabrics, ornaments and accessories from the Wanli

Emperor’s tomb, 1573-1619)

Forbidden Palace, Beijing 5 (men’s and women’s Qing silk robes)

Chris Hall collection, HK 19 (assorted pieces including a theatrical gown, embroidered badges,

patches, runners, Ming and Qing)

In consideration of both the SI theory that suggests greater fashion activity—more dynamic changes

and unconventional styles during transitional periods than during times of political and social

stability— and the trickle-down theory—the imitation of dress of the class to which one aspires—a

comparison of garments dated within our period, to garments dated outside that timeframe was

necessary. It was equally necessary to ascertain the validity of dates already established. This had its

difficulties, as anyone familiar with trying to affix a date to historic garments will attest. First I needed

to mark the temporal parameters of the transition itself.

Because it is nearly impossible to precisely date a cultural upheaval, as historical change is far too

complex and variegated to allow for definitive chronological demarcations, I framed the

transition/revolution from the beginning of the Ming Dynasty’s Wanli reign (1573) to the end of the

Qing Dynasty’s Kangxi reign (1722). I am aware that there is an established academic practice of

marking 1550 as the beginning of the late Ming47

but since the 1958 excavation of the Wanli Emperor’s

tomb has given us such textile treasures, as well as a timetable from which to work-- both forward and

back-- it befits this project to begin here. Indeed dates for many of the pieces had already been

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established by researchers or curators (discussed in footnote 32) based on the garments from the

Imperial tomb of the Wanli Emperor (1573-1619), as well as those from that of Prince Ch’in Wang 48

(1697-1738) some of which are housed at the Minneapolis Institute of Art (MIA). This seemed to

provide a solid framework for dating.49

Figure 1. Manchu Prince’s

Semiformal Court Robe (chi-

fu), Datable around 1738 Qing

Dynasty, China. Embroidered

satin. L. 54 ¾ in (138 cm), W.

72 ½ in (184 cm), hem 42 1/8

in (109) sleeve length 25 5/8

in (65 cm). Minneapolis

Institute of Arts, the William

E Colby Collection. The John

R.Van Derlip Fund. acc. no.

42.8.17 Photograph by Linda

Matheson

The difficulty with dating is seen in one of the robes found in Prince Ch’in Wang’s50

tomb (ca.

1738) is of a “Crane and Gate” grid pattern not seen elsewhere in my research (Figure 1). However, the

unusual gown, which surprising substitutes gates or pavilions and mountains for waves, has a vague

counterpart shown in an illustration dated to the eighteenth century in the “Catalogue of the Treasures of

the Summer Palace” from an exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum.51

Here a similar placement

of bizarre architectural elements embellishes a Manchu woman’s chi-fu or informal court robe. The

existence of the prince’s robe demonstrates that grid schemes of this nature were already established in

the first half of the eighteenth century and were perhaps one of the unconventional changes that occurred

during the early and more volatile years of the Qing Dynasty, prior to the establishment of a more rigid

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codification of dress by1766. This was useful information yet rendered slightly suspect with a note

written by Lindsay Hughes speculating that the robe in question had its source elsewhere.52

I continued

to compare and contrast, relying more on the Wanli collection that I examined at the Ding Ling

Museum, which had been dated by the team of archeologists from the city of Beijing.53

Analyzing

information as I found it, particularly the aesthetic codes, I continued to integrate the findings into a

theoretical framework remaining mindful of the theories in question.

Recognition of the dragon robe as the preferred mode of dress among the officials of the Imperial

Courts incurred the mandate to investigate the meanings and social/political processes associated with

these robes. Knowledge of the culture and of the symbols embroidered on and woven into the silk of

which these robes were constructed, helps to determine historically based meanings and follow

ideological as well as style changes. To understand political and cultural movements within the society

and their influence on the clothing systems54

I turned to the second method of discovery -- discourse

analysis-- which enables the tracking of socially produced ways of thinking or sequences of ideas. In its

widest sense, discourse includes “all utterances or texts which have meaning, and which have some

effect in the real world.”55

Graham Turner notes how discourse analysis allows a researcher to find texts

within a broader range of historical and social structures --a variety of disciplines and institutions-- each

providing their own lens.56

This wider range proved useful as the development of prose, poetry, theatre and opera in the Yuan

and Ming dynasties inspired the production of hundreds of woodblock illustrations found in literary

works and paintings that due to their realistic style help us understand the dress of different kinds of

people, from the scholar to the old lady to the courtesan.57

Even the Regulations in a massive

manuscript of 18 chapters entitled Huangchao liqi tushi; 58

(Illustrated Precedents for the Ritual

Paraphernalia of the Imperial Court, which was published and enforced by 1766) included pages of

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printed woodblocks indicating the clothing to be worn. Discourse analysis also allowed exploration in

conventional history texts, as well as those of cultural history, dress history and art history.59

I also

found the dragon robes themselves to be texts, simply waiting to be deciphered through a mindful

application of the meanings attributed to their symbols. In a universe where the relationship between

history and cultural studies is not always straightforward, this method helped to enfold and unite the

multidisciplinary tasks of this research.

THE TRICKLE-DOWN THEORY and THE THEORY OF SYMBOLIC INTERACTION

At the beginning of this essay I quoted the seventeenth-century Chinese historian, Ye Mengzhu and I

reiterate: “Fashions begin in the homes of the gentry, and are copied by their maids and concubines, who

transmit them in their leisure time to their immediate relatives, and thus to the villages.”60

While

explaining the movement of Chinese fashions at the time, he stated in essence one of the observations of

Simmel which has subsequently become known as the trickle-down theory of fashion.61

A German

sociologist writing in early twentieth century Western Europe, Simmel situated his analysis of fashion in

the interpersonal sphere, where its social and philosophical expression could be studied. He felt that the

purpose of fashion was to fulfill the social demands of imitation and differentiation. He observed what

Ye Mengzhu had penned more than two centuries earlier in seventeenth-century China: that fashion

begins with the upper classes, and trickles down to the middle and lower classes as a form of imitation

and social adaptation.62

This is consistent with Chinese dress scholar Mei, who in describing the

“phoenix tail skirt”, a popular and faddish style of the early Qing, writes that though it was a style for

the rich, regular women would try to buy one for their wedding.63

Here is a fundamental principle

underlying both China’s fashion system at the time and that of western modernity.

Further research indicates that this phenomenon was not new to the seventeenth-century China, but

was documented as early as the seventh century, in 681, during the T’ang Dynasty when Emperor Kao-

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tsungin issued an edict to control the penchant for rich merchants in Ch’ang-an city, who envious of the

high officials in their purple and crimson fashions, had similar clothing in the same colors tailored for

themselves: “It is said that some officials and commoners do not follow the rules (about clothing) in

public, but wear tight jackets of crimson, purple, black, and green under their robes… This kind of

behavior blurs the distinction between the nobles and the masses, and erodes the moral standards. From

now on, everyone should wear clothes according to his own status. The office that is in charge of this

affair should enforce this rule and never let such aggressions reoccur.”64

This official edict is clear in its

disapproval of the observed practice of wearing clothing copied from that of those above ones class —

the trickle down theory.

A brilliant and perceptive scholar, Simmel, to his detriment was known almost solely for this theory

as it relates to class, while in fact he was responsible for a much wider array of pertinent reflections

regarding clothing practices, some of which have been elaborated upon by dress scholars

Lehmann and Purdy.65

One reflection positioned fashion as perpetuated by two seemingly conflicting

needs: the need for unity-- a societal, imitating external need-- and the need for differentiation-- an

individual, inventive and internal pursuit, often manifested by multiple expressions.

Referring back to the T’ang Dynasty (seventh-century China) where Emperor Kao-tsungin is trying

to control the rich and disrespectfully colorful merchants in Ch’ang-an city, and to our class-conscious

mimicking maids and concubines spotted by Ye Mengzhu approximately 1000 years later, (the late

seventeenth century), we see aspirations to and the desire for unity with a chosen class by imitation of

dress. Speaking of the human need to differentiate themselves through their outward appearance, we

have Chang and Chang citing instances of both identity and gender swapping-- gentry wearing servants’

clothing, men donning women’s’ garb, and ladies dressing as prostitutes.66

Here we see examples of

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differentiation through multiple expressions. Now we need to address the segment of society that is most

representative of these multiple expressions.

Simmel puts forth the premise that for both fiscal and social reasons the position of fashion

promotion is left to the middle classes.67

In answering this I enlist the help of Chang and Chang who

state that for the first time in the history of China, a new middle class was emerging, 68

and embracing

fashion as a means of expressing its arrival. Both commoner and merchant family that had profited from

the commercialization of the economy felt justified in dressing however they pleased. “Nowadays,”

carped one writer, “the very servant girls dress in silk gauze, and the singsong girls look down on

brocaded silks and embroidered gowns,”69

The shifting of society’s class structure was displeasing to

those at the top as we have noted, who witnessed their power bases diminishing, while those in the

middle class recognized their opportunities expanding. Evidence of this sparked the complaints of the

seventeenth-century Chinese poet and dramatist Kong Shangren (孔尚任; 1648 - 1718), who lamented

about the accountants, clerks, slaves and servants of wealthy households dressing up in flashy clothes in

Yangzhou (considered a fashionable city) in the 1680s.70

Clearly the middle class here was finding

fashion useful in forwarding their social aspirations.

Identified by Veblen as well as Simmel as a primary force behind fashion, 71

social climbing—the

basis for the trickle-down theory-- epitomized the era of our transition. Craig Clunas agrees, providing a

pivotal comment when he writes of “new and strange” styles flourishing in an age otherwise known for

the phenomenon of social climbing.72

This new frenzy of styles was necessary for the different visual

representations demanded by changing subjectivities. Political and ideological shifts coupled with

fashion’s need to imitate and differentiate prompted this fashion promotion, and the middle class in late

sixteenth and early seventeenth century China, as here in the modern west, proved most adept in

facilitating this.

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As well as unity and differentiation through multiple expressions, Simmel also presents the idea that

fashion finds impetus and inspiration in tensions, past and present, as well as those of class.73

Here our

two theories overlap: Simmel’s observations which we have been discussing, and the SI theory of

Kaiser et al toward which we will turn, both determine tensions to be intrinsically tied to fashion.

Toward the beginning of this paper the SI traditions are stated as collective tensions and ambivalences,

as well as links between macro-level cultural historical forces and micro-level social psychological

appearance processes. The SI theory holds the premise that fashion’s pace increases as multiple identity

representations are required in political transitions; while Simmel espouses imitation and differentiation

as displayed in multiple expressions by a class conscious middle class. They both involve tensions and

upward class-oriented movement. The extension of the SI theory, besides the increased pace of style

change, is the consideration of the effect of macro level (political and ideological) forces on micro-level

(social and psychological) processes of dress. We need to investigate these forces and their effect on

personal practices in our dynastic transition from Ming to Qing, and to do so we must take a closer look

at the political and cultural landscape.

Cultural historian Chu writes that philosophically seventeenth century China “distinguished itself by

its disarming blend of faith in the essence of traditional values along with a compulsion for

advancement.”74

The regime change (from Ming to Qing) with its colossal and multifaceted ruptures left

many feeling as if they were standing between two worlds: one of the Confucian ideal and one of reality

in which the traditional ideal no longer applied.75

The conquering tribesmen from the north, the Manchu,

were bringing with them issues of ethnicity and nationalism while the ruling elite, who had long since

abdicated their responsibility to the people with decades of squander and lavish living, were now being

made accountable. Arbitrary and unchallenged rule was no longer tolerated. While the Confucian

officials attempted to strangle-hold time-honored, intellectual traditions, the educated literati were

17

ushering in a new day of “robust empiricism, scientific criticism, and materialism.”76

The presence of

this seeming dichotomy interrogated the identity and ideology of the people, who were experiencing a

fundamental adjustment in all aspects of the political and social order. The ensuing fragmentation and

instability stemming from the clashing cultural ideals and political agendas-- macro-level forces--

produced severe strains on the overall fabric of society resulting in tensions and ambivalences forged by

contradictory yearnings or emotions77

--micro-level effects.

This desire to resolve what to some were oppositional forces of memory (stemming from the

ideological and political shifts), and current (social psychological) experience was for others the

springboard for creative activity. Visual expression in all manner of the decorative arts experienced a

booming expansion at this time 78

and was sought to articulate these shifting cultural and personal

terrains. As evidenced by the contemporaneous observations cited earlier in this study, we must agree

that fashion was part of this visual expression, and agile facilitator that it is, engaged this creative

activity despite the reach of tradition and industriously developed fresh concepts. 79

Symbolic

interactionist McCracken writes that fashion has the ability to express that which cannot be otherwise

communicated,80

and at this time conventional communication would have been met with penalty and

perhaps death.81

Multiple expressions through micro-level dress processes were a far safer venue with

which to display agreement or dissention with the prevailing macro-level powers;82

particularly in a

culture that has proven itself to be highly sophisticated in communicating ideas symbolically. Thus we

see the link between fashion’s frenzy and tensions, anxieties and ambivalences.

Still thinking through our question of fashion’s pace during this dynastic change, it must be

recognized that the complex link that ties fashion to culture, politics, aesthetics, and the individual, was

historically less fickle and more infrequent in its variations in China than in the west. Change here had

great political implications. For centuries Chinese clothing had been prescribed: everyone had a

18

designated place in society, due in no small part to a complex system of imposed dress regulations.

Vestments were chosen by the ruler with the assistance of all those in a position to influence, be they

courtier, courtesan, concubine, or eunuch. The clothing was codified and decreed by law. This was

accomplished with the highest regard for cultural ideology and social process, and was for the most part

obeyed: consequently any modifications in the rules of dress were deeply scrutinized through various

lenses.83

Yet despite this desire to stand firm in sartorial matters, changes were occurring.

By the mid Jiajing period (1522-1566), the reign preceding our area of inquiry (1572-1722), we see

the seeds of change being sown. Contemporaneous Chinese social commentators such as Wang Danqiu

were anxiously writing about the dissolution of the old ways of dressing, living, and relating socially in

Nanjing. With the Wanli period (1573-1620) came more swiftly changing fashions, and conspicuously

critical observations of commerce, luxury consumption, official corruption and the degeneration of

family ethics. 84

Similarly we have the observations of Ku Ch’i-yuan (1565-1628) that in his native city

Nanking, the southern capital of the Ming empire, “women’s fashions began changing more rapidly by

the early seventeenth-century; every two or three years (instead of every ten, as in the past) with some of

the designs being unbelievably outlandish and bizarre.”85

In the late Ming the discourse on “outrageous

dress” was lively and accompanied an array of disturbing new fashions in the prosperous cities of the

lower Yangzi valley. These included “long skirts, generous collars, wide belts, [and] fine linens,” all of

which were known as “contemporary styles” (shiyang) and were subject to “rapid changes.”86

Based on

these observations from our seventeenth century commentators, fashion was one of the areas in which

enhanced activity was discerned; thus it seems correct to conclude that tensions between the past and the

present ignited by political and social turmoil gave rise to this increase in fashion activity. Let’s look at

this activity and its genesis more carefully.

19

Our knowledge of women’s dress during these dynasties comes in large part from prostitutes,

courtesans or common street girls who probably posed for contemporary painters.87

According to Yu

Huai (1616-1696) respectable women looked to the demi-mode for fashion inspiration: “The clothes and

adornment associated with southern entertainment were taken as the model everywhere…The length of

gowns and size of sleeves changed with the times. Witnesses referred to this as a la mode

(shishizhuang).” 88

These paintings along with textual references, woodblock illustrations, and artifacts

from tombs indicate a variety of style changes in late Ming women’s clothing: the short jacket or ru

(Figure 1) worn with long skirt and short overskirt or yaoqun; the long skirt with long jacket or ao; the

open sided gown, long vest or bijia (Figure 5) considered a typical style; the long over-gown or pifeng,

about which you will hear more later, and the “paddy-field,” patchwork gown or shuitianyi.89

This last

style considered “eccentric,” and “outrageous” by contemporary critics, was constructed of small

squares of cloth in varying colors similar to the robes of Buddhist monks of the time, who frugally used

discarded or donated bits of fabric to piece together their garments.90

Figure 2.This jacket is a replica of one found in the Wanli Emperors Tomb. Embroidered and appliquéd quilted silk.

Housed at the Ding Ling Museum, Beijing. It probably belonged to the Empress Xiaojing.1 See close up below. This item

was dated by the Archaeological Team of The City of Beijing and is listed in Ding Ling, The Institute of Archaeology,CASS,

Museum of Ding Ling and The Archaeological Team of The City of Beijing. Published by Cultural Relics Publishing House,

Beijing.ISBN7-5010-0075-1/K35. p.138-139 (the picture) and p.250 (the appendix). Photograph by L. Matheson.

1 This jacket, called the “Hundred Children Coat”, is said to depict a hundred children at play, a symbol of abundant

fertility and good fortune. The Empress Xiaojing was a daughter of a Commander of the Imperial Guard. The title of

Favorite Concubine was bestowed upon her in the 10th

year of the Wanli Reign (1572). See detail on next page.

20

It is important to note that the pivotal markers of Chinese fashion differed from those of modern

Europe where cut and fit dominated: here quality and color of fabric were considered more important

registers of style. Embroidery was very prevalent, even adorning the insides of slippers, and unseen to

the world, it was an arbiter of beauty and wealth. Bright colors are described replacing drab black and

grey despite the sumptuary laws forbidding Ming women from wearing red or deep blue which were

reserved for royal garments.91

Similar shifts to color were noted in men’s garments. In 1614 Xu Dunqiu

remembered that when he was a school boy in Hangzhou all his friends wore “hats of [black] gauze and

clothes of white cotton. Among them only one or two of noble birth wore colored clothing. Now

everyone wears colored clothing and white cloth is nowhere to be seen.”92

Though these personal

processes connected with dress were being influenced by sources as varied as concubines and clergy that

does not mean that they were always easy to e

classes as we have already noted, and

Figure 3. Designation: Empress' court overvest. Date: dated 5th day of the eleventh month, 1595. Medium: Silk gauze

embroidered with canvas stitch and satin stitch, and overembroidered with silver and gold couching. L. 55” (140 cm).

Made for the Wanli Empress for the occasion of her fiftieth birthday, Dec 7

San Francisco, Place of Origin: China Credit Line: Museum purchase, City Arts Trust Fund California, Object ID:

1990.214 USA Photograph courtesy of Asian Art Museum

does not mean that they were always easy to embrace, particularly those that blurred the lines between

also when borderlines between genders are fuzzy.

. Designation: Empress' court overvest. Date: dated 5th day of the eleventh month, 1595. Medium: Silk gauze

embroidered with canvas stitch and satin stitch, and overembroidered with silver and gold couching. L. 55” (140 cm).

ade for the Wanli Empress for the occasion of her fiftieth birthday, Dec 7th

, 1595. Housed in the Asian Art Museum,

Credit Line: Museum purchase, City Arts Trust Fund California, Object ID:

Asian Art Museum.

21

particularly those that blurred the lines between

genders are fuzzy.

. Designation: Empress' court overvest. Date: dated 5th day of the eleventh month, 1595. Medium: Silk gauze

embroidered with canvas stitch and satin stitch, and overembroidered with silver and gold couching. L. 55” (140 cm).

, 1595. Housed in the Asian Art Museum,

Credit Line: Museum purchase, City Arts Trust Fund California, Object ID:

22

As mentioned earlier one prominent piece of women’s everyday dress in the sixteenth and

seventeenth centuries was the pifeng or beizi. Traced back to the Tang dynasty, this generic garment-

overgown or long coat- was illustrated by the artist Tang Yin (1470-1524) and was seen to undergo

major shifts in style. Indeed it was probably these changes in the dimensions of the pifeng that inspired

the ridicule about women’s clothing in the late Ming. With descending hemlines and trailing sleeves --

well below the fingertips-- it was beginning to approximate the man’s tunic. A distinguished official,

Huo Tao, the Minister of Rites in Nanjing, attempting to reverse the trend issued the following

stipulation: “Men’s and women’s styles differ in length. A women’s upper garment is level with her

waist, her lower garment meets with the top: earth supports heaven. A man’s upper garment covers his

lower garments: heaven embraces earth. When a woman’s [upper] garment covers her lower garments

there is confusion between male and female.” 93

The anxiousness implied by the tone of this edict speaks

of a demand, consistent with that of Western society, that gender identity be firmly grounded as either

male or female, not both, or some indistinguishable state as noted by Chang and Chang earlier, in the

bizarreness of style springing from gender swapping-- men donning women’s garb.” 94

These reports affirm that the increased momentum and creativeness displayed by fashion was

triggering tensions and uneasy responses from social and political arenas. Yet these same new

conditions were energizing supply and commerce. Chang Hsieh (1574-1640) observed in 1617, that this

thriving economy had boosted interregional and overseas trade to heights previously unseen. 95

Areas of

specialization in production and human resources were created with textile centers, for instance in the

lower Yangtze Valley, particularly in Soochow, supplying 56% of the entire empire’s silk quota.96

The

research conducted by Chang and Chang led them to state: “The age of the commercialization of fashion

took off in the late Ming, and the surge in fashion underscored the period’s remarkable economic growth

23

and social change.”97

Though still not deemed socially respectable occupations, trade and commerce

were a conventional means to fame and wealth, so persistently sought after in this age.98

Besides the expanding economy, the needs of the middle-class and the explosion of creative ideas,

this stride from clothing to commercialized fashion was made possible by technological inventions—

new kinds of equipment and machinery that enabled more efficient manufacturing-- and labor

specializations that facilitated production on a level never before attainable. Manufacturers were quick

to adapt this new technology and labor force and employ them in a capitalistic manner. For example, a

special type of summer shoe was designed in the late sixteenth-century by a man named Shih from

Sung-chiang. They became so popular that wealthy customers outbid each other in trying to purchase a

pair. Several hundred factories sprang up mass-producing these shoes, and a subsequent reduction in

price quickly occurred. Also in the sixteenth-century, and again in Sung-chiang, someone decided to

manufacture summer socks made of felt (these had been worn before). They too became a sought-after

fashion item, so much so that over a hundred stores were opened to sell them in a specifically designated

place west of the city.99

Other contributing factors in this fashion flourish included ordinary people giving up agricultural

work and its simple life, and seeking to purchase official ranks, luxurious residences, and beautiful

clothing. A Ming official Zhang Han observed that “the clothes of Suzhou people are splendid, as if to

be otherwise were to be without culture.” As their respect for authority waned with the shifting

ideologies discussed earlier, interest in material culture and multiple identity representations surged,

contributing to the intensified pace of fashion change, its impact on market fluctuations, and its

improved quality-- exceeding all expectation. Zhang continues: “The whole world appreciates the

clothes of Suzhou, and Suzhou gives clothes still more craftsmanship…In this way the extravagance of

Suzhou customs becomes even more extravagant.”100

Also at this time the relaxation of laws regulating

24

dress for the different social classes allowed a broader purchasing demographic. Hats, a vital item in the

male wardrobe and a critical signifier of social status, along with other clothing items that previously

could be worn only by officials, were now obtainable by commoners. Aided by the abundance, variety,

and lower cost of silk fabric, fourteen types of men’s turbans were affordably marketed, while for

women, all elements of dress including underwear became not just more elaborate and extravagant, but

also more widely available.101

This unprecedented availability of fashionable clothes underpinned the desire for and ability to

articulate numerous visual expressions; a key element in the SI theory. Most people need more than one

way of external representation (i.e., personal, professional) even in times of stability: how much greater

would this need be in a society that is exhibiting fragmentation, individualism and experimentation as in

the late Ming and early Qing? As many of the styles described have displayed a dynamic creativity--

consider the words used to describe these looks—“extravagant,” “bizarre,” “new and strange,” as well as

“eccentric and outrageous,” it is important to return to the dragon robes in the Imperial Court and

determine whether or not this same theme is present here.

Zang Han, a Ming official of the era who served in Suzhou, where the silk for the dragon robes was

woven, invokes the tone of the Court when he describes the merchants as pandering “to the outrageous

extravagance of the hereditary nobility of the capital” (Beijing, home of the Imperial Court and the

Forbidden City). Also that “a luxurious style of living emanates from the court outwards.”102

As

discussed earlier, the dragon is the most significant symbol in China, and the favored garment in the

Imperial Court. Heralding the divine event, this mythical creature, masterful and dominant, was

believed to appear in the heavens before the birth of an emperor, and hence became the emblem of the

Chinese Court. Power was vested in the ‘Dragon Throne’. The ruler wore robes emblazoned with this

magical beast: The national flag and even Chinese currency depicted the dragon.103

Representing

25

masculine vigor as well as fertility, benevolence and compassion, this mythical creature exhibits the

features of many creatures: the head of a camel, the horns of a stag, the eyes of a devil and the neck of a

snake. Carp-like scales cover its body which displays eagle’s claws and tiger’s paws, a clam’s belly and

bull’s ears, with long curling whiskers framing its mouth. 104

The artwork for these dragons on these robes was examined and carefully analyzed. Consider the

ferocious hoofed dragon on its fiery red background in Figure 2 105

and the brilliance and grace of the

luminescent dragons in Figure 3, woven with 88 percent real gold thread- probably for an emperor’s

robe: it was deemed one of the finest examples of a textile of the period.106

Note the strength and vigor

in the curves of the body and the determined expression in the lines of the face in Figure 4. One of the

most spectacular mythical beasts of the Ming period, the ying long dragon, exhibited three eyes and

wings on its upper body. While the creature in Figure 4 does not have a third eye, it does feature these

rare and spectacular wings. This eccentricity represents a fundamental distinction from the symbols of

the past or of those to come. It is a superb and forceful approach to a sometimes staid and ancient

character. Mystical and dynamic, the winged dragon was an invention or fashion experiment of the

Wanli period. 107

26

Figure 4. Textile with hoofed dragon circa1600. Embroidery on silk satin. 216 x 129 cm. Chris Hall Collection, Hong

Kong. Photograph courtesy of Chris Hall. Sourced from Celestial Silks: Chinese Religious and Court Textiles. Eds.

Rutherford and Menzies.

Figure 5. Uncut Ming textile as found in the Wanli Emperors’ tomb (1573

Beijing, Peoples Republic of China. 75” (181cm) x 26” (67cm). Below close up of dragon motif. Fabric probably woven for

an Emperor’s robe. This item was dated by the Archaeological Team of The City of Beijing and is listed in

Institute of Archaeology, CASS, Museum of Ding Ling and The Archaeological Team of The City of Beijing. Published by

Cultural Relics Publishing House, Beijing.ISBN7

Matheson

. Uncut Ming textile as found in the Wanli Emperors’ tomb (1573-1619), Housed at the Ding Ling Museum,

Peoples Republic of China. 75” (181cm) x 26” (67cm). Below close up of dragon motif. Fabric probably woven for

an Emperor’s robe. This item was dated by the Archaeological Team of The City of Beijing and is listed in

gy, CASS, Museum of Ding Ling and The Archaeological Team of The City of Beijing. Published by

Cultural Relics Publishing House, Beijing.ISBN7-5010-0075-1/K35 p.251 and 254 (the appendix). Photographs by L.

27

1619), Housed at the Ding Ling Museum,

Peoples Republic of China. 75” (181cm) x 26” (67cm). Below close up of dragon motif. Fabric probably woven for

an Emperor’s robe. This item was dated by the Archaeological Team of The City of Beijing and is listed in Ding Ling, The

gy, CASS, Museum of Ding Ling and The Archaeological Team of The City of Beijing. Published by

1/K35 p.251 and 254 (the appendix). Photographs by L.

28

Figure 6. Ming Dynasty Badge, Embroidery on silk. Chris Hall Collection,

Hong Kong. Courtesy of Chris Hall. Photograph by L. Matheson

Also see the celebration vest made for the Wanli Emperor’s mother, the Empress Dowager Li, for

her fiftieth birthday on December 7, 1595 (Figure 3): Observe the sinuous rising dragons, their golden

profiles book-ending two large shou characters under a swastika. 108

Now compare these illustrations

with Figure 6, the concubine dragon robe from the Kangxi period (1662-1722), Figure 7, from the

Yongzheng period (1723-2735) and Figure 8 dated 1738. The chronology represents declining violence,

and escalating stability in concert with greater political control by the ruling Manchu. Figure 6 displays

29

a still large dragon but without the flourish and intensity of its predecessors;109

while Figure 7, a product

of even more abated turbulence and a more firmly established Dynasty, has somewhat smaller, less

commanding dragons.110

Figure 8, a few years later still, displays dragons much reduced in size and

inconsequential in demeanor, constricted and almost fearful creatures rather than ferocious and insolent

as in earlier illustrations from the Wanli (1573-1723) period.111

Figure 7. Concubine Robe, circa1710. Qing Dynasty, Kangxi period (1662-1722). Green silk brocade. H.55 1/8 in (140.5

cm), W. 72 ½ in (184cm), hem 46 ½ in (118 cm), sleeve length 26 in (66cm). Housed at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts,

William E Colby Collection, The John R. Van Derlip Fund. acc. no. 42.8.3. Photograph by L Matheson.

Figure 8. Bright Yellow Satin Fur Robe with Design of Dragons in Clouds. Yongzheng Period of the Qing Dynasty

(1723-1735). Silk and fur. L 142 cm x W 194 Sleeve opening W17.5 cm, Hem W 130cm, L of side slit 23 cm, L of front slit

40 cm. Believed to have belonged to Emperor Yongzheng. Forbidden Palace, Beijing, Peoples Republic of China.

It seems that our theory postulating

period of change in China: Clearly the dragons in the last two illustrations from

comparatively stable era are less vibrant, dynamic, and imposing than the previous ones produced during

the earlier period of tumult. Congruent with

that “the Qing dynasty”… “is viewed as a regime under which fashion experienced a decline.”

agreement is Chinese dress scholar Mei who in reference to women’s garments of the mid and later

Qing states that “no bizarre dresses were allowed at that time.”

discourses on outrageous and eccentric

This phenomenon was also displayed

and negotiation-- all posited in the SI the

ht Yellow Satin Fur Robe with Design of Dragons in Clouds. Yongzheng Period of the Qing Dynasty

1735). Silk and fur. L 142 cm x W 194 Sleeve opening W17.5 cm, Hem W 130cm, L of side slit 23 cm, L of front slit

eror Yongzheng. Forbidden Palace, Beijing, Peoples Republic of China.

seems that our theory postulating creative ferment during times of transition fits well within this

period of change in China: Clearly the dragons in the last two illustrations from robes worn in the

comparatively stable era are less vibrant, dynamic, and imposing than the previous ones produced during

ongruent with this are the findings of Pomeranz and Finnane who writes

wed as a regime under which fashion experienced a decline.”

Chinese dress scholar Mei who in reference to women’s garments of the mid and later

Qing states that “no bizarre dresses were allowed at that time.”113

This is in distinct opp

eccentric clothes commented on during the transition (1573

in the royal courts. Here besides collective tensions, ambivalence

all posited in the SI theory as germane to increased pace in sartorial change during

30

ht Yellow Satin Fur Robe with Design of Dragons in Clouds. Yongzheng Period of the Qing Dynasty

1735). Silk and fur. L 142 cm x W 194 Sleeve opening W17.5 cm, Hem W 130cm, L of side slit 23 cm, L of front slit

eror Yongzheng. Forbidden Palace, Beijing, Peoples Republic of China.

during times of transition fits well within this

robes worn in the

comparatively stable era are less vibrant, dynamic, and imposing than the previous ones produced during

the findings of Pomeranz and Finnane who writes

wed as a regime under which fashion experienced a decline.”112

Also in

Chinese dress scholar Mei who in reference to women’s garments of the mid and later

This is in distinct opposition to the

(1573-1722).

in the royal courts. Here besides collective tensions, ambivalence

increased pace in sartorial change during

31

transitional times-- we must add the hegemony of the dragon symbol. It is also here that we witness the

clearest link between macro-level cultural forces and micro-level social psychological appearance

processes.

The Imperial Courts in the Forbidden City were in at least as much flux as society at large: nor is

this surprising when we consider the political landscape. The Confucian officials with their small-

minded motivations and selfish complacency were under constant threat of military invasion, political

exclusion and/or social diminishment; the recognition of which must have incited fear for their lives as

well as for their careers. The collective tensions present would have encouraged the promotion of any

method or scheme that would sustain power and position or even appease. There was ambivalence too--

publically proclaimed or not-- as to which side --Ming or Manchu (Qing) -- to take.

Historically the color, kind, decoration and fabric for costume in the Imperial Courts were strictly

regulated; but with the increasing corruption, rules were flagrantly ignored. According to sumptuary

law, dragon robes, unofficial but favored garment of the emperor were not to be worn by anyone except

the highest ranking officials. Now however with so much at stake, and the recognition of their robe’s

value as an effective hegemonic tool, they were fast becoming the most fashionable and popular

garments at court (and 10). For example, the front-faced, five-clawed dragon, as in Figure 10, and also

6, 7, and 8 was customarily reserved for the sole use of the emperor (officials were supposed to wear

profile, and three and four-clawed dragons as in Figure 11) was now found emblazoned on the robes of

the Chief Eunuch and members of the General Council, the strongest governing body in the Empire.114

(It is worthy to note that the operation of the State silk factories where the exclusiveness of imperial

patterns was jealously guarded was in the hands of the eunuchs, who were responsible for the court

wardrobe.)115

This imperial symbol was also displayed on low-ranking officers and even their wives.

32

In China, since ancient times, correct clothing provided the assumption of the proper role;

consequently any method of appropriating the sought-after symbol to ensure this role (or at least the

“look” of the role and therefore one’s survival), was adopted and deemed acceptable. Following the

letter of the aforementioned laws, the right to wear the front-faced dragon robe was granted solely by the

emperor. Gaining this right by initiating interaction and negotiation in any channels available became

the goal of the courtiers.

So voluminous as to dictate physical activity (please see Figure 9), these robes were a magnificent

and impressive spectacle with their symbolic embellishments and embroidery that richly displayed both

pageantry and propaganda. The dragon, in particular, was central in the articulation of status and

hierarchy within the Forbidden City and the entire nation. Its placement and disposition on the robes of

the Imperial Court had evolved through thousands of years. It was indicative of the agency of the wearer

and, as research indicates, reflective of the environment of the time period being examined. It played a

dominant role in the dress of the courts. Because of their sophisticated uniquely Chinese system of

relating ideological and cultural themes through emblems, these self-preserving officials, by astute

appearance management processes, used their robes for personal and political advantage. The

predominant meanings expressed by the symbols, especially the dragon, were immediately understood

by a culturally sophisticated audience, and therefore provided a channel for political propaganda by

which these officials could send their desired message.116

Raymond Williams writes that hegemony is dynamic -- think of our textile dragons. As a form of

dominance it does not exist passively, but must continually to be renewed, recreated, defended, and

modified-- so too the symbol of the dragon. Yet “it is also continually resisted, limited, altered, and

challenged by pressures not all its own.” 117

If we consider the varied forms of this emblem in the

33

illustrations discussed, it is not difficult to detect renewals, modifications and alterations during our

transition. Conceivably as desperation of one’s plight increased, so too did the degree of alteration in

the artwork of the dragon. Re-creation and modification to create the desired image was the goal to be

achieved. This connection between the dynamics of hegemony, and the role of the dragon, which played

a critical role in the fashion system of the Imperial Courts, fortifies our theory that fashion becomes

more dynamic during crisis or transitions.

Figure 10. Close up of Dragon Robe featuring front-faced, five–clawed dragon from the Wanli Emperors tomb, housed

at the Ding Ling Museum, Beijing. Applique and embroidery on silk. This gold silk robe was believed to have been worn by

the Wanli Emperor. This item was dated by the Archaeological Team of The City of Beijing and is listed in Ding Ling, The

Institute of Archaeology, CASS, Museum of Ding Ling and The Archaeological Team of The City of Beijing. Published by

Cultural Relics Publishing House, Beijing.ISBN7-5010-0075-1/K35 p.251-254 (the appendix). Photograph by L. Matheson

To connect this SI theory with a more global stance, a look at what some western European scholars

say of fashion and transitions ( again political ones) is useful: Wrigley observes the forceful sartorial

shifts during the French Revolution (1789-1799) and describes it as an eighteenth century example of

34

creative furor unfolding within a European transition.118

Focillon references transitions as expedient to

the development of a style.119

And lastly Barthes credits transitions and violent episodes within them

with creating new fashion rhythms and systems.120

In writing of China, (yes, he did refer to this country

where the men were considered skirted) Barthes--with a typical mindset of his time—stated that the

ancients were stagnant and without fashion, because their clothing was so strictly coded as to be

immutable. I suggest that had he been present during the transition of the Ming to Qing Dynasties, (not

ancient China but perhaps to be considered modern China) he would have agreed that the word

“stagnant” is inappropriate to describe the creativity and change that characterized this particular fashion

period.

Figure 10. Uncut Ming textile as found in the Wanli Emperors’ tomb (1573-1619), Housed at the Ding Ling Museum.

As the dragon motif is in profile, the fabric was probably woven for a dragon gown for a court official. This item was dated

by the Archaeological Team of The City of Beijing and is listed in Ding Ling, The Institute of Archaeology, CASS, Museum

of Ding Ling and The Archaeological Team of The City of Beijing. Published by Cultural Relics Publishing House,

Beijing.ISBN7-5010-0075-1/K35 p.251-254 (the appendix). Photographs by L. Matheson

35

Figure 11.Three-quarter profile dragons are woven into this uncut silk fabric with metallic gold thread. Textile is

reproduced from one found in the Wanli Emperors’ tomb, housed at the Ding Ling Museum. It was probably woven for a

dragon robe for the Imperial Court. This item was dated by the Archaeological Team of The City of Beijing and is listed in

Ding Ling, The Institute of Archaeology, CASS, Museum of Ding Ling and The Archaeological Team of The City of

Beijing. Published by Cultural Relics Publishing House, Beijing.ISBN7-5010-0075-1/K35, p.48 (the picture) and p.251-254

(the appendix). Photograph by L. Matheson.

Figure 12. Portrait of the Wanli Emperor, Emperor Shen Zong Yijun (1563-1620). Housed at Ding Ling Museum,

Beijing. Photographer unknown. Photograph by L. Matheson

36

CONCLUSION

Investigating clothing practices is a way of developing methods of inquiry into cultures and

civilizations. As these practices are a result of thought that includes much of the cultural context of an

era, we must give special attention to this heritage -- the historical background from which it springs. It

incorporates artistic, religious, philosophical and political information for its development of ideas, upon

which people individually and collectively base their actions.121

These actions include the processes of

dress that identify us and leave strong empirical evidence as to our visual and material culture. In the

case of seventeenth-century China, studying this evidence has revealed the presence and operation of

two fashion theories of identity and representation prevalent in the contemporary west. It has also

revealed differences.

1) Kaiser, Nagasawa, and Hutton’s symbolic interationist theory transfers seamlessly with its

concepts of multicultural tensions, ambivalences and negotiations advancing the pace of fashion change.

The turbulence of a history-making transition-- in this case, the bloodletting defeat of the corrupt Ming

rulers and the establishment of rigorous order by the victorious Qing rulers-- acts as a catalyst to a fast

expanding fashion industry. There is also evidence of fashion providing a visual link between the

macro- level historical (political and ideological) forces and the micro-level social psychological ones,

particularly as displayed by the officials of the royal courts who enlisted the help of their dragon robes

for political advancement.

2) Simmel’s trickle-down theory was as applicable in the seventh-century T’ang Dynasty and in

seventeenth-century Ming/Qing Dynasties in China as when later discussed in the early twentieth-

century in Western Europe. Imitation, differentiation, class tensions and social climbing were all present

and thriving, as was fashion supplying (albeit with some angst and ambiguity) a newly aspiring urban

middleclass with sought-after multiple identities.

37

3) The differences were mostly to be found in the deeply nuanced system of symbols, (in particular

that of the dragon), that have been aptly referred to as “cultural revolutions” readily understood by the

sophisticated and culturally sensitive Chinese.122

Western fashion theory was limited in its ability to

decipher these images so ubiquitous and pivotal to cultural understanding. Here the commonality broke

down, possibly as much for temporal as ideological reasons. We in the west have no parallel system of

time-honored symbols as heavily laden with cultural import, and are thus less adept at deciphering their

meaning. Though we attribute meaning to such signs as male politician’s neckties in Republican red,

and Democratic blue, or wigs on British judges, these do not compare to the level of sophistication or

importance of the Chinese rebuses. Yet in studying the changing aesthetics of the dragon emblem in

concert with the dress practices of the members of the Imperial court, concepts of negotiation and

hegemony, prevalent in western fashion theory, were revealed as intrinsic to decisions about dress.

The dragon imagery was appropriated to authenticate political agendas. With astuteness and

cleverness this emblem was charted, mapped and dispatched as a political envoy wielding power as

required. Artistry and politics were united in dress, articulating identity and directed toward the exercise

of power: a common theme of twentieth-century western theorists poignantly displayed in this

seventeenth-century eastern empire. 123

In this area, it may be that the symbols have much to teach us

and perhaps time would be well spent looking into the same in our contemporary society.

In summary there was evidence of not just the potential applicability, but the actual operation of both

of the modern western fashion theories tracked by this study--the trickle-down theory and the SI theory.

There was also evidence of intensified artistic output within a dynamic and energized system of dress,

which draws from the past, infuses the present, and looks to the future. As with most theories,

exceptions can be found and this study does not differ in that respect; but thus far my research has

produced more support than not for its initial premise. It appears that these fashion theories from the

38

modern west (where they are generally applied to middle-class white women) were able to transcend

their temporal and cultural (and sometimes gender) boundaries and find a fitting place in this patriarchal,

seventeenth-century eastern empire.

This paper is presented in the spirit of respect for cultural pluralism, and the awareness that

increased knowledge can foster peaceful and mutually comprehensible relationships within a world of

linguistic, ideological and racial diversity: China offers this diversity. My hope is not to challenge but

rather to aim for inclusion within our discourse on dress by introducing evidence, both primary and

secondary, that allows China (and other nations with unmined fashion systems) its place in this field of

research: that modern western theories might be expanded to include multiple dress systems, allowing

each to direct us to its specificities that are unarguably present and no less compelling than that of their

western neighbors.

1 Definition of term dress: Congruent with Mary Ellen Roach–Higgins and Joanne Eicher in their chapter “Dress and

Identity” in the Reader that they edited with K.K. P. Johnson, Dress and Identity, (New York: Fairchild Publications, 1995),

p.7, I use the technical term dress because I feel it is the most accurate and comprehensive. Other terms that seem

synonymous such as clothing, costume, apparel, appearance, adornment and fashion will appear in this paper, yet despite

being related and interrelated terms; they carry social connotations and value judgments that render them less effective in

allowing for all of the possible types of modification and supplements that I believe the term dress encompasses. Therefore

I consider all of these terms as existing beneath the umbrella term dress. Also following Roach –Higgins and Eicher (1995),

my definition of dress is an unambiguous and cross-cultural one that includes all the phenomena of both product and

process involved. Though the word dress also functions as a verb, my definition will refer to the more commonly used

gender-neutral collective noun, which can be used for a group or an individual and is simply this: an assemblage of

modifications of and supplements to the body of an individual.

For my definition of the term fashion (which would come under the umbrella of dress as defined above), I turn to both

Robert and Jeanette Lauer, Fashion Power, (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentiss-Hall, 1981), p. 3 and Fred Davis, Fashion,

Culture and Identity, (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1992) equating it to the current chosen …“style

of a particular group”… that has the ability by its code—conventionalized cannons of taste-- modifications … “to startle,

captivate, offend, or otherwise engage the sensibilities of a culturally preponderant public” (Davis: 14- 15). It is interesting

to add that Davis did not believe that fashion existed beyond the western world –specifically China--as he states on p.16

footnote 8. This is a clear indication of the need for further research in this area. 2 The link below is to a discussion on Ye Mengzhu's (叶叶叶) birth year. It is believed that he was born in 1624. Shanghai

Ancient Books Publishing House under the 1934 "Shanghai anecdotes Series" explains the little known book on the life of

Ye Meng-chu. (Many Chinese names have more than one spelling: I have been assured by my translator, Chinese scholar

Sharmay Hu, that this is the same man). In his book Yue shi bian. Ming Qing biji congshu, (Shanghai. 1981), pp173-175,

Ye Mengzhu observed the Shanghai people during the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties in the Songjiang Prefecture. The

book is most striking for its socio-economic information with observations and detailed data, political, economic, cultural

customs, and various aspects of personnel information regarding the land and rice, cloth, wood, salt, tobacco, tea, sugar,

meat, paper, medicines, dry and fresh fruit, glasses, also embroidery and hand crafts with detailed records of equipment.

The second link is to its introduction. http://tieba.baidu.com/f?kz=302448447.and

http://www.xiaoshuo.com/jsp/booksearch.jsp?qtype=2&qkind=000&qcontent=%D2%B6%C3%CE%D6%E9

39

3 Ye Mengzhu, pp. 173-75 cited by Verity Wilson, in Chinese Dress, (London: Bamboo Publishing Ltd, and the Victoria

and Albert Museum, 1986) p. 48. I have been unable to obtain Ye Mengzhu’s complete text (see previous endnote), but

trust this source. Wilson is an independent historian formerly with the Victoria and Albert Museum, London UK. She has

published books on Chinese costume and textiles and is an acknowledged scholar in the field. She is currently co-editor of

Costume, the journal of the Costume Society. It is a scholarly, refereed, academic publication presenting current research

into historic and contemporary dress. I believe the word fashions means fashionable dress which is synonymous with

fashion as defined above. 4 Simmel, “Fashion,” International Quarterly (New York, X, Oct. 1990), pp.130-55 henceforth cited as Simmel 1990. It

should be noted that Simmel himself did not use the phrase “trickle down” to describe his observations. The context

indicates the term fashion to mean dress that is fashionable. 5 Institutionalized fashion (by this I mean an established cyclical convention) in Europe is thought to have had its birth in

the Italian city states in the early Renaissance (Steele, 1988, pp.18-19) or the Burgundian court of the fourteenth century,

depending on the parameters of the scholar. Davis, 1992, p.17. 6 In his writing about China, “Studies in Chinese Thought” in Comparative Studies in Cultures and Civilizations, eds. R.

Robert and M. Singer, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press and London: Cambridge UP, 1953) p.3, Wright, an

esteemed Chinese historian, stated that in order to analyze a group of ideas one must begin with certain assumptions. 7 By system I mean dress (including fashionable dress), its use, practices and processes and production.

8 C. Chang, and S. H. Chang, eds. Crises and Transformation in Seventeenth-Century China: social culture and modernity

in Li Yu’s world, (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1992). Also a second book by the same people

Redefining History: ghosts, spirits, and human society in P’u Sung-ling’s world, 1640-1715, (Ann Arbor: The University

of Michigan Press, 1995) has been useful. Chun-shu Chang is Professor of History, U. of Michigan, and Honorary

Professor of Chinese History, China. Shelley Hsueh-lun Chang is Visiting Associate Professor of History and Research

Associate, Center for Chinese Studies, U. of Michigan. Together they have written a number of seminal works on Chinese

history of this period. Two of these track the career, life and times of Chinese writers-- Li Yu and P'u Sung-ling (1640-

1715), who left behind over 500 essays, 1,295 poems, 119 lyrics, 18 encyclopedias and handbooks, 20 operas, 100 folk

songs, and 500 short stories. He was one of the most well-known scholar-writers and the best known short-story author in

Chinese history. The 500 stories in "Liao-chai chih-i," which P'u composed in his self-styled capacity as historian, had the

most lasting influence of any single work on the shaping of popular consciousness in China. The comprehensive

exploration of Chinese historical and literary sources of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is combined with a

selective application of interpretive insights and analytic techniques. 9 By this I mean clothing and textiles produced seasonally in factories and sold or traded interregionally and internationally.

Chang and Chang 1992.

I use the phrase in style to mean that which is the cannon in taste to which the majority aspire. It may include fashion as in

change that captivates, or it may simply be that which has been conventionalized and condoned as correct dress within a

certain group in a certain place. 11

These are my conclusions based of the research conducted in particular from Chang and Chang, 1992, and 1995, and

Wang and Shang. Dei D. Wang was named as the head of Columbia U.’s East Asian Languages and Cultures Department

in 1997. In 2000, he was made chair of the U. Committee on Asia and the Middle East. In 2004, Harvard U. named him

Edward C. Henderson Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures. Shang Wei is Associate Professor of Chinese

Literature at Columbia U. His research interests include print culture, book history, intellectual history, and the fiction and

drama of the imperial period. Their book Dynastic Crisis and Cultural Innovation: from the late Ming to the late Qing

and beyond, (Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2005) has been a wonderful source of historical/cultural information for this study.

Also the research and works of art/costume historian Schuller Cammann, an Am. Scholar who spent many years in China,

whose book China’s Dragon Robes, (New York: The Ronald Press, 1952), was a wonderfully detailed and thoughtful

resource. It examines their history, their symbols, how they are made and dyed, and the issues concerning dating. He also

discusses related robes like unofficial dragon-figured robes, women's court robes and vests, men's Ch'ing court robes,

robes worn by the Taiping rebels and dragon robes found in other lands. Also his other work on the subject “Types of

Symbols in Chinese Art,” in Comparative Studies in Cultures and Civilizations, ed. A. F. Wright, (Chicago London:

University of Chicago Press, 1953) and “Some Strange Ming Beasts.” Oriental Art New Series, vol. 11, no. 3, (autumn,

1956), pp. 94-102, were excellent. I should also mention the work of Valery Garrett here whose research addresses the

subject of regulated clothing in China. An acknowledged authority on Chinese dress and accessories, besides lecturing,

Valerie was Project Researcher for Rural Dress for the HK Museum of History and spent much of that time collecting

traditional Chinese dress. Part of her large collection has been acquired by major museums, including the Heritage

Museum, Hong Kong, and the Powerhouse Museum, Australia. In 1996 over 250 pieces from her personal collection were

40

acquired and exhibited at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. Her books Chinese Clothing: an Illustrated Guide,

(New York: Oxford UP, 1994); Chinese Dragon Robes, (Hong Kong: Oxford UP, 1998); and Chinese Dress, (Tokyo:

Tuttle, 2007) have all been most helpful in their historical detail and cultural contexts. She is a Council Member of the

Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch, and an Honorary Research Fellow at the Centre of Asian Studies, University of

Hong Kong.

12

J. Vollmer, Clothed to Rule the Universe, (Chicago: The Art Institute, 2000), p. 13. John Vollmer is a widely recognized

and respected expert in Chinese textiles and former curator of Chinese Art at The Royal Ontario Museum. He has authored

numerous exhibition catalogues and books on the subject.

13 Hua Mei, Chinese Clothing: cultural China series, trans. Y. Hong and Z. Lei, (Tianjin: China Intercontinental Press,

2004), p. 66. Mei is the head professor of the International School of Women of the Tianjin Normal University and

founder of the Huamei Clothing Ornament Culturology Study. Her major works include Human Costume and Ornament

Culturology, Costume, Ornament and Chinese Culture. She has edited four series of books and started the Garments and

Ornament Column in People’s Daily in 1993 where she has published over 300 articles on dress. 14

The quote is from Chang and Chang, 1992, 1. A similar opinion is presented by de Bary, 4, as well as Wang and Shang

and another leading historian of early modern China, Dorothy Ko. Ko is a Cultural Historian of Early Modern China who

has taught at Barnard College, Warwick U. and Rutgers U. The author of Teachers of the Inner Chambers: women and

culture in seventeenth-century, (Stanford: Stanford UP, 1994) she deals with the challenges posed by material and visual

cultures to our understanding of history and literature. She is a Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies and

Member of the Advisory Board of Berg Publishers. 15 Chang and Chang, 1992, Ko and Wang and Shang all agree.

16 I am defining this phrase as a political transition the is worthy of being recorded in history.

17 Susan Kaiser, Richard Nagasawa, and Sandra Hutton, “Construction of a Symbolic Interactionist Theory of Fashion: Part

1. Ambivalence and Change,” Clothing and Textiles Research Journal, 1991, 13 (3): 172-183.

Other scholars to write about the role of tensions, ambivalence and ambiguity in regard to fashion include Davis, Wilson,

Benjamin, and Breward. Historians Ko, Wang and Shang, Levenson, Cammann, Clunas and Garrett also write of tensions

and anxieties re the Ming/Qing transition. 18

This is a reoccurring theme in the writings of SI. See Davis, McCracken, Blumer, Kaiser et al 1991. 19

The Society for More Creative Speech. (1996). “Symbolic Interactionism as Defined by Herbert Blumer”.

http://www.thepoint.net/-usul/text/blumer.html. 20

G. P. Stone, “Appearance and the Self,” in Human Behavior and social processes, ed. A. Rose (Boston: Houghton-

Mifflin Co, 1962), p.86-118. 21

Davis, “On the ‘Symbolic’ in Symbolic Interaction,” Symbolic Interaction vol 5, no 1, pp111-126. Jai Press, 1982. 22

Davis, 1992, p.17. 23

Kaiser, Nagasawa and Hutton (1991), p. 178. Kaiser et al credit Blumer, Davis and Stone for their foundational work with

these concepts. 24

Historians Robert. Guisepi, Ed. The Rise of Civilization in the Middle East and Africa. 1998. http://history-

world.org/rise_of_civilization_in_the_midd.htm, retrieved Sept 10th

, 2010, and R. Miles, Ancient Worlds: the search for

origins of western civilization, (London: Allan Lane, 2010) are two examples of scholars who agree on this point. 25

Joanne Eicher, Regents' Professor emeritus Department of Design, Housing and Apparel, U. of Minnesota, Dress and

Ethnicity, and Editor-in Chief of the Routledge Encyclopedia of Dress and Adornment 10 volumes.

26 Anne Brydon is a professor at the U.of Western Ontario and Sandra Niessen, an Anthropologist is professor emeritus in

the Department of Human Ecology, U.of Alberta. Together they wrote Consuming Fashion: Adorning the Transnational

Body, (Oxford: Berg, 1998). Niessen also edited, along with A. Leshkowich and C. Jones. Re-Orienting Fashion: the

globalization of Asian Dress, (Oxford: Berg. 2003).

27Craik, a cultural anthropologist and writer of literature on dress, reviews Finkelstein’s “Chic Theory.” See reply to fashion

as western and urban: http://www.australianhumanitiesreview.org/emuse/Chic/craik.html, also Fashion: the key concepts,

(Oxford: Berg, 2009).

41

28 Here I include art and costume historians Schulyer Cammann, John Vollmer, Valery Garrett, Valerie Steele and John

Major, as well as Verity Wilson. Also the brilliant text by Antonia Finnane Changing Clothes in China: fashion, history,

nation, (New York: Columbia UP, 2008) which has served as a beacon for this work. And for more modern Chinese

clothing research -- From Mao to Now, (Oxford: Berg, 2009) by Juanjuan Wu, and the work of Hazel Clark on modern and

postmodern Chinese dress in The Cheongsam, (Hong Kong: Oxford UP. 2000)

29I use the word system(s) to denote orderliness, regularity, and method.

30Martin and Koda, Orientalism, (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1994), and S. Ashmore “London as

Fashion Cosmopolis, 1945-1979.” in Fashion’s World Cities, eds. C. Breward and D. Gilbert, (Oxford, New York: Berg,

2006), p. 205, agree. 31

Defined by the Am. Heritage Dictionary as “a quality, mannerism, or custom specific to or characteristic of the Orient,

Said’s focus is on the interplay between the "Occident" and the "Orient." The West (Eng., Fr., and the U. S.) is the

Occident, and the romantic and misunderstood Middle East and Far East, the Orient. 32

Chang and Chang, 1992, 3. 33

Erving Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, (New York: Doubleday, 1959), was a symbolic interactionist

who had an academic career teaching at the U. of Chicago and the U. of CA, Berkeley, and who produced an impressive

output of scholarly sociological research including that on the uses of clothing in identity building and representation.

Chang and Chang 1992, pp. 304 and 319. 34

Peter D. Hershock is Coordinator of the Asian Studies Development Program at the East-West Center in Honolulu.

Roger T. Ames is Professor of Philosophy at the U. of Hawaii at Manoa and editor of Philosophy East & West. Their book

together, Confucian Cultures of Authority, ( New York: State U. of N.Y. Press, 2006), was excellent at sorting through the

ideologies of the era in question

35 Terese Tse Bartholomew is a Curator of Himalayan Art and Chinese Decorative Art at the Asian Art Museum in San

Francisco. Her other books are: Myths and Rebuses in Chinese Art and The dragon's gift: the sacred arts of Bhutan. Again

her work was very valuable in helping me understand the cultural meanings behind the symbols on the Dragon robes.

36 Shauna Chang was born in Hangzhou, in 1931 and educated in the Arts-- she studied painting at Boston Museum of Fine

Arts in 1948, was a professor in the Department of Textile Arts, and vice president of the Central Academy of Arts, and

vice chairman of Chinese Artists Association, and China International Culture Exchange Center director. She has edited a

number of books on historical costumes, as well as embroidery printing, weaving, and dying of textiles and clothing in

China.

37

The names of these kind people are: Yin San Chen, a clothing and textiles graduate student at U.C. Davis and Sharmay

Hu (mentioned above) who splits her time between Beijing and Vancouver. Yuchen Zhao, another textiles student at U.C.

Davis was also most helpful in this area, both here in the US and in Shanghai, August, 2009. 38

Here I refer to Robert Jacobsen, curator at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, who in his early years worked with Chinese

dress of the Ming and Qing periods while at the National Museum in Taiwan (It is said to house the largest collection of

Ming/Qing textiles outside of the Forbidden Palace Museum) and authored the two volume treatise on the subject Imperial

Silks: Ch’ing Dynasty Textiles in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, (Chicago: Art Media Resources, 2000). My

conversations with him at MIA were informative and useful, and his staff knowledgeable, pleasant and effective. Also the

costume researchers I worked with at the Forbidden Palace Museum, Annie Yin, Fang Hongjun and Bai Yingsheng were

historical costume scholars with many years of research, scholarship and publication based on the collections at the

Forbidden Palace; and Chinese costume curator John Vollmer whom I did not personally work with, but whose museum

catalogues and other publications I have had the good fortune to read. 39

A special thanks to Guo Pingjian, chair of the English department and professor of the Social Psychology of Clothing at

Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, and Yang Yuan, textile professor, founder and curator of the Museum of Ethnic

Costumes at the Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, and Vice President of the Chinese Ethnic Costume Association,

who arranged this meeting at the Forbidden Palace. Both are widely published in academic journals in China. Thanks also

for the translating done by Professor Guo Pingjian and his textiles graduate student at BIFT, Yang Xue. 40

Lee Chor Lin “A Gift from Heaven: reading the history of silk in China,” in Power Dressing: textiles for rulers and

priests from the Chris Hall Collection, (Singapore: Asian Civilizations Museum, 2006), p.25, is a textile scholar and

42

author of books in this period as well as the Director of the National Museum of Singapore. She points out that “generous

numbers of silken textiles were given away to foreign envoys in state-sponsored ceremonies in Nanjing, the early Ming

capital.” These may have been appeasement bribes. Also Xinrue Liu who has written extensively on silk and religion

states that “silk and silk clothes were essential components of burials in China, certainly to the end of the 13th

c, and

judging by the clothing from the tombs I examined, the practice was still well in place during the Ming and early Qing

period. Xinru Liu is a scholar of ancient India and ancient China. She examines material things (like silk) and how people

think. For example two of her publications are entitled Silk and Religion -- An Exploration of Material Life and the

Thought of People in A.D. 600-1200 (Oxford: University Press, 1996), and “Silk, Robes and Relations between Early

Chinese Dynasties and Nomads beyond the Great Wall,” in Robes and honor: the Medieval World of Investiture, ed.

Steward Gordon, (London: St. Martin’s Press, 2001). Currently employed at The College of New Jersey prior to which

she held a professorship at the Institute of World History, where she was also Deputy Director Department of Ancient and

Medieval History, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing. She has also taught at Beijing U. and was a Fellow at

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington and a Visiting Fellow in the Department of East Asian

Studies, Princeton.

I talked with Chris Hall about this 12/ 19/ 2007 in Hong Kong where he was kind enough to display and discuss some of his

textiles with me. (I am not being informal here- his first name is “Chris”). He felt there were a number of reasons for the

scarcity, mentioning the practice of gifting to Tibet. Because of his love for color and beautiful silks, Chris has built an

unsurpassed collection of Chinese and Central Asian textiles. His collection is regarded as one of the best and most

comprehensive private collections in the world. He has written for Hali magazine and contributed to the exhibition

catalogue, Power Dressing: textiles for rulers and priests from the Chris Hall collection, (Singapore: Asian Civilizations

Museum, 2006). He was also a major contributor to Heaven’s Embroidered Cloths: one thousand years of Chinese Textiles,

(Hong Kong: Urban Council; of Hong Kong, 1995). 41

Grounded theory offers systematic inductive guidelines for the collection and analysis of data to construct midrange

theoretical frameworks that explain the data. Continual analytic interpretations focus further data collections which in turn

inform and refine developing theoretical analyses. “Grounded Theory: Objectivist and constructivist methods” by Kathy

Charmaz in The Handbook of Qualitative Research, 2nd

edition. N.K. Denzin, and Y.S. Lincoln, eds. (Thousand Oaks,

London, and New Delhi: Sage, 2000). 42

One of the meanings of the word discourse is argument (14th

century, from Medieval Latin. discursus: argument from

Latin, a running to and fro discurrere) Collins Concise English Dictionary, (London: HarperCollins, 1988). 43

J. D. Prown, “Mind in Matter: An Introduction to Material Culture Theory and Method.” Winterthur Portfolio (17): 1-19.

(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1964), p. 1. 44

For a discussion of clothing regulations see Garrett, 2007, pp.10, 11,12,35,37 and Cammann 1953. 45

Cammann 1953, Vollmer 1980, 2000, and Garrett 2007, also Bartholomew, and Rawson and Rawski. For further

discussion on the importance of the dragon at this time please see pp. 19-20 of this paper. 46

I also examined digitally available pieces of the era from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, N.Y., The Victoria and

Albert Museum, London, and the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.

47 Wang, and Shang, p.1.

48 Other material from this tomb can be found at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and the Nelson-Atkins

Gallery, Kansas City. 49

All of the material found in the Wanli Emperor’s tomb was dated by The Archaeological Team of The City of Beijing

and can be found in the book Ding Ling written by The Institute of Archaeology, CASS, Museum of Ding Ling and The

Archaeological Team of The City of Beijing. Published by Cultural Relics Publishing House, Beijing, 1990, it has an

appendix of every item with information including the item number, name, size, date, woven density, embroidery,

location, etc to identify the object; they also include photographs of most items. It is worth notice that the excavation,

renovation and establishment of the museum was directly lead and designed by China’s central government in Beijing, for

Ding Ling is considered priceless culturally and historically. That's why the entity responsible for the authenticity and

dating of Ding Ling's objects is an institution.

50

A product of the system of polygamy which ensured successors (Garrett 2007), he was a seventeenth son of the Kangxi

Emperor and noted artist, calligrapher, and collector according to Jacobsen vol 1. 51

Digby year 99, no. IX in Jacobsen, R. D. Imperial Silks: Ch’ing Dynasty Textiles in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. vol.

1.

43

52

In his book on The Kuo Ch'in-wang Textiles, (with forward by Alan Priest—formerly with the Metropolitan Museum of

Art in NY) Lindsay Hughes writes that the Hundred Cranes Robe and others reputed to have come from Prince Guo’s tomb

were acquired in Peking in 1934. This speculation is part of the difficulty with dating. 53

Chung. 54

By clothing systems I mean the same as system-see endnote #7. 55

This is based on Foucault’s first definition and is put forth by Sara Mills a research professor at the School of Cultural

Studies, Sheffield Hallam U. in her book Discourse: the new critical idiom, (London, New York: Routledge, 1997).

M.Foucault, The Order of Discourse: an archeology of the human sciences, (London: Tavistock, 1970)). 56

Graham H. Turner British Cultural Studies, (London: Routledge, 1996), is Chair of Interpreting & Translation Studies at

Heriot-Watt U. in Edinburgh, Scotland. Since 1988, he has been researching social and applied areas of linguistics with

special reference to sign languages. His research in translation and interpreting has included projects exploring domains

including the law, the workplace, mental health care and the theatre. He uses and writes about discourse analysis. 57

Mei. Also see Delbanco, H. “The Mustard Seed Manual of Painting.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, (Harvard:

Harvard-Yenching Institute. vol. 39. no.1. June 1979) pp.184-190, for more on this kind of 17th

c. artwork.

58 Garrett 2007, p. 10, and Mei.

59 The authors of most of these texts have already been discussed in previous endnotes. I add R. L. Thorpe who is a leading

authority on early Chinese art, and professor in the Department of Art History and Archaeology at Washington U. in St.

Louis, and R. E. Vinograd, chair of the Department of Art and Art History at Stanford U. since 1995, is a highly regarded

scholar of later Chinese art, from the Song era to the present. Together they wrote Chinese Art and Culture,

(Upper Saddle River, N. J.: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006) which was a most useful reference book for this study.

60 Ye Mengzhu, p. 48.

61 This theory has been referenced widely: Eicher, Evanson and Lutz (2000), McCracken (1985), Kaiser (1985), Tortora and

Eubank (2004, 2009), Craik (1995), Davis (1992), Lehmann (2000), Lynch and Strauss (2007), to mention only a few. 62

Simmel, 1990. 63

Mei, p. 83. 64

Liu, p. 65. At the time, officials at the three highest levels wore purple, while those of lesser rank wore crimson, green

and black. . For further discussion of color see Garrett, 2007, 11, Medley, 1982 and Vollmer, 1980. 65

U. Lehmann, Tigersprung: fashion in modernity. Cambridge, Massachusetts, (London, England: The MIT Press, 2000),

125-142, and D. L. Purdy, ed. The Rise of Fashion: a reader, (Minneapolis, London: University of Minneapolis Press,

2004), pp.79-86. 66

Chang and Chang, 1992, p. 155; and 1998, p. 115. 67

Simmel,1990. 68

Chang and Chang, 1992 69

Clunas, p. 370. “Prof Craig Clunas has published extensively on the art history and culture of China, and as material

culture is his interest, notations about dress are made. Especially in his book Superfluous Things: Social Status and Material

Culture in Early Modern China, (Cambridge: Polity, 1991). Much of his work concentrates on the Ming period (1368-

1644), with additional teaching and research interests in the art of 20th century and contemporary China. He has worked as

a curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and taught art history at the University of Sussex and the School of Oriental

and African Studies, U. of London He is currently completing a book on the cultural role of the Ming regional aristocracy,

Screen of Kings: Art and the Imperial Clan in Ming China Here is the link to his Oxford website:

http://www.hoa.ox.ac.uk/staff/core/cclunas/cclunas.htm retrieved Sept 15th, 2010.

70 Kong Shangren was born at Qufu, Shandong province, in 1648. He was a sixty-fourth generation descendant of

Confucius. At age 21, in 1669, he became a National U. Student by contributing his farmland to the state. At age 36, in

1684, he was invited to lecture the classics to the Kangxi Emperor (r. 1662-1772) when he latter visited Qufu to pay tribute

and make sacrifice to Confucius. Kong was in the Emperor’s good graces and was bestowed the position of Erudite of

National U. At age 51, he finished the drama “Peach Blossom Fan” which was started before he was 36 years old. The play

became very popular and he was promoted to the position of Vice Director of Guangdong Squad in the Ministry of Revenue

only to be dismissed within a month. He was best known for The Peach Blossom Fan, a chuanqi drama, one of the major

literary forms of the Ming and Qing dynasties. It tells the story of a love story between the scholar Hou Fangyu and the

courtesan Li Xiangjun, against the backdrop of a history of the Southern Ming. It continues to be famous today. A bilingual

2009 version is available through this link: http://www.chinabooks.ch/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=5957

Retrieved Sept 16th

, 2010 from ChinaBooks.cn. 71

Veblen, and Simmel, “The Philosophy of Fashion.”

44

72

Clunas, pp. 370-1. 73

Simmel, 1990. 74

M. Chu, “Cultural Dynamism of the Seventeenth Century China,” in Excursions in Chinese Culture: festschrift in honor

of William R Schultz, eds. M. T. Chan, C. Pao, J. Tao (The Chinese University of Hong Kong: The Chinese Press, 2002), p.

173. 75

Thorpe and Vinograd, p. 317. 76 W. T. de Bary, The Unfolding of Neo-Confucianism and the Conference on Seventeenth Century Chinese Thought,

(Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1975), p. 4. 77

These are my conclusions based on the research conducted. 78

Chang and Chang, 192 79

Ibid. 80

Grant McCracken, “Rank and Two Aspects of Dress in Elizabethan England.” Culture 11 (2): 53-62.

81

Chang and Chang, 1992, 1998; Ko, Garrett, 2007. It was not uncommon to have dissenters and their families severely

punished or killed. 82

Chang and Chang, 1998, p.17 They discuss how by 1647 the Manchu began a rule of terror where the slightest suspicion

of disloyalty to the regime led to arrest, interrogation, prison and sometimes execution. 83

These codes of dress are discussed by Cammann 1952, Garret 1998, Vollmer 2000, Mei 2004 and Lin 2006. 84

Wang and Shang, p. 6. 85

Sourced from Chang and Chang, 1992, p. 149. The book written by Ku Ch’i-yuan, is entitled K’o-tro chui-yu (1617)

(reprint, Taipei, 1969), pp. 16b-17a. 86

Liyue, in Finnane’s well regarded book Changing Clothes in China: fashion, history, nation, (New York: Columbia

University Press, 2008), p.125. I was unable to obtain Liyue’s book but trust Finnane. 87

Lin and Mei. 88

Liyue, p. 128, in Finnane. 89

Xun and Chunming, pp.244-254. Using written records, paintings, figurines, and actual garments and fabrics, this book

presents a chronological record of Chinese dress and hair styles from ancient times to the 20th century. Besides photographs

of relevant historical artifacts, brightly colored drawings of costumes are provided. With an award-winning book design,

and readable text, plus such details as garment measurements, this is a useful book for scholars of Chinese dress. 90

Lian and Tan, p. 413. While not a paddy-field gown, there is a fine example of patchwork shown here. 91

Mei, p. 57. Also red was the color of the Ming Dynasty and I observed that many of the textiles and garments found in

the Wanli emperor’s tomb were of this hue. 92

Liyue, p. 124, in Finnane. 93

Ibid 137.

94 Chang and Chang, 1992, p.155. Also see Davis, pp.37- 46 for some succinct observations on clothing and gender in

modern western culture. 95

Sourced from Chang and Chang, 1992, p. 149. 96

Ibid.148. Also Lin writes (p. 32) that by the end of the 18th

c. there were about 12, 000 active silk weaving looms in

Suzchou. The silk found in the Wanli Emperor’s tomb is believed to have been woven in this region, Lin, p.31. 97

Chang and Chang, 1992, p. 149. I assume that by this they mean clothing being manufactured for reasons of commerce. 98

Lin, p. 33, sourced from Qian Hang and Cheng Zai, Shiqi shiji Jiangnan shehui shenghuo (Hangzhou Zhenjiang renmin

chubanshe, 1996), and Hegel, The Novel in Seventeenth Century China, pp. 1-32. 99

Chang and Chang, 1992, pp. 148, 152-5. 100

Clunas, p. 145 sources from Zhang Han’s book Treatise on the Hundred Artisans trans by T. Brook. 101

Mei, p. 60, Finnane, pp. 46-47 and Chang and Chang, 1992, pp. 147-155. 102

Clunas, p. 144 sourced from Zhang Han’s book. 103

Garrett, Chinese Dragon Robes, p. 1. 104

Ibid, plus Cammann, 1952, and Vollmer, 1980. 105

Rutherford and Menzies, p. 100. This yardage would have been intended for a Ming style robe with its abundance of

symbols of longevity, including peaches and the sacred lingzhi-- fungus, possibly as festival yardage to celebrate the

Emperor’s Birthday. We so not know who would have worn a dragon with hoofs instead of claws during the Ming whereas

in the Qing they were given as gifts to high-ranking Han Chinese officials or statesmen who were not Manchu members of

the imperial family and hence not allowed to wear dragons with claws.

45

106

Chung, 307. Woven uncut textile of gold and silk from the royal tomb of the Wanli emperor that viewed from different

angles, shines seven different colors. It is probably woven for an emperor’s imperial robe, for a New Year’s Festival. 107

Cammann, “Some Strange Ming Beasts,” pp. 94-102. 108

Two large shou characters under a swastika decorate the upper center back and the front shoulders. Together they make

up the phrase “ten thousand longevities, or “life without boundary.” Prior to the end of the Chinese empire, emperors and

empresses were the only ones allowed to use this term for their birthdays. 109 Jacobson, p. 141. Full-length garment with front over-flap closing to the right, fastened with three gilt metal ball-and-

loop toggle buttons, tapered sleeves ending in slightly flared cuffs, slit front and back. Decoration: Body and upper sleeves:

celestial landscape (nine lung dragons in gold with multicolored clouds, mountains, and waves), and li-shui pattern against a

green ground; eight treasures in waves; Cuffs: imperial imagery of dragons, mountains, waves with eight treasures, and

cloud scrolls against a green ground. Fabrication: Ground structure: green 6.1 satin brocaded with multicolored plied-cord

silk and metal wrapped thread, patterning achieved by 1/10 twill; Cuff lining: green silk tabby; Lining: light red tabby. 110

The Palace Museum, 166. Emperors wore dragon robes for important ceremonies on auspicious days. This robe has a

round neckline, side and front slits, a side opening and horseshoe cuffs. The lining is made of white fox fur. The cuffs are

lined with purple mink. There are four silver and gold buttons with embossed decorations. This robe combines many textile

decorative techniques and is a superb example of Beijing workmanship in this period. At the collar there is a yellow paper

label with the character “shi” (world) in brush woven calligraphy. This label indicated that the robe was made for the

Emperor Yongzheng. 111

Jacobson, p. 143.This is known as a “Crane and Gate” (T’ing Ling-wei) robe from the tomb of Prince Kuo Ch’in Wang

(1697-1738), There is an unusual weave pattern in this gown that substitutes architecture (gates? pavilions?) for the

expected mountains. It is a full length garment with front overflap closing to the right, fastened with five gilt metal ball-and-

loop toggle buttons. Tapered sleeves ending with flared cuffs slit front and back. Decoration: Body and upper sleeves:

celestial landscape (nine multicolored lung, or five-clawed dragons, clouds, waves, buildings, trees, and waves), and li-shui

(puff-ball cloud) pattern against a brown ground; eight treasures in waves; Grid scheme: honeycomb diaper pattern with

octagonal compartments containing flowers; Scattered scheme: cranes, eight Taoist attributes, and the bat; Borders: neck

band and cuffs with imperial imagery of dragons, waves, and cloud scrolls against a honeycomb grid pattern scheme;

Edging: black silk and gold metallic brocade with swastika-fret pattern, trimmed with gold braid. Fabrication: Ground

structure: brown 7.1 satin embroidered in satin, long and short couched, flat, stem, and seed stitches with multicolored

plied-cord silk thread; Neck band and cuffs: dark blue satin embroidered in satin, long and short, couched, flat, stem, and

seed stitches with multicolored plied-cord silk and metal wrapped thread; Sleeve extensions: black 5.1 satin; Lining: blue

silk tabby. 112

Finnane, p. 52, and K. Pomeranz, The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the making of the modern world economy,

(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000), p. 155. 113

Mei, p. 84. 114

Cammann, 1952. 115

Lin, p. 30. It is also noteworthy that all commentators on Ming dynasty silk manufacture have emphasizes that additional

order production, (the term used during the Ming to indicate production of all goods ordered by the Inner Court which

exceeded the framework laid down in the statutes), increased exponentially. 116

Pearce. 117

R. Williams, Marxism and Literature: Marxist introductions series, (London and New York: Oxford University Press,

1977), p. 111. 118

R. Wrigley, The Politics of Appearances: representations of dress in revolutionary Franc, (Oxford, New York: Berg,

2002), p. 5.

119H. Focillon, “Vie des formes.” Paris: (1934): 53-54, in The Arcades Project, (Cambridge, MA. London: The Belknap

Press of Harvard University Press, 2002), p. 488. 120

R. Barthes, The Language of Fashion, eds. A. Stafford and M. Carter, trans. A. Stafford, (Oxford, New York: Berg,

2006). p.11. 121

Wright, p. 5. 122

Pearce, I believe coined this term during his dissertation research at the University of Glasgow where he received his

PhD in 2006. It was used in a conference essay entitled “Cultural Revolutions: traditional design as a vehicle for

propaganda in China, 1680-1980.” Cammann, Medley, Vollmer and Bartholomew also discuss these highly significant

symbols as do Rawski and Rawson, Rutherford, Menzies, and Garrett. 123

Benjamin, Craik, Entwistle, Langer, Liu, McCracken, Perrot, and Wrigley-- to name a few.

46

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