Figure 1.--This wondeful Chinese textile must have been made for a Chinese Emperor as it was done in yellow. I'm not sure how to date this one.

China is one of the oldest civilizations on earth. Civilization appeared in China about 3,000 BC in the Yellow River valley. The early emperors are legendary figures. The founder of Chinese social order was Fu Hsi. Organized agriculture appears about 2737 BC under Shen Nung. Many of the invention of Chinese cultural life occur under the Yellow Emperors (2704-2585 BC) which many scholars consider the golden age of China. They were followed by the Shang Dynasty (1766-1122 BC) who are remembered for their cruelty. They were followed by the Chou Dynasty which is regarded as the classical period of Chinese history. Aguculture became universal and the arts flirished. The great sages including Confucius, Lao-tse, Mencius, abd Mo Ti appeared. The feudal system developed in China at this time. Despite the humanitarian doctrines of these sages, a devestaing series of feudal wars marched the last years of the Chou. They were replaced by te Ch'in Dynasty. The Ch'in restored order, abolished the feydal system, and drove Hun Tartars back into the Asiatic desert. They also began construction of the Great Wall. The Empire was exte nded south of the Yangtze valley. Shih Huang Ti is sometimes regaded as the "First Emperor". To symbolize a break with the past, Shih ordered the burning of all but practical books on medicine and agriculture--for which he is generally held in repriach by Chinese scholars. The first Han emperor seized power about 202 BC. The Han were the last emperors of Ancient China and ruled until 220 AD. The Mongul hordees were again driven back to Central Asia and Mongolia was added to the Empire. Overland trade routes, chiefly in silks, were established with the West. Competitive examinations in the civil service were adopted. Chinese writing was standarized and printing invented. Buddhism was introduced from India, the first major foreign influence on China. We know little about historic Chinese clothing worn in the socienties of ancient China at this time, but we eventually hope to add such information to HBC. Almost as old as Chinese civilization itself is the history of silk--the oldest textile fabric known to man. We note that the fine clothes worn by the elite often had magnificent embroidery with important imagery. One of the most important images was the dragon which came to symbolize the unity of the Chinese people.

Civilization

China is one of the oldest civilizations on earth. Civilization appeared in China about 3,000 BC in the Yellow River valley. The early emperors are legendary figures. The founder of Chinese social order was Fu Hsi. Organized agriculture appears about 2737 BC under Shen Nung.

Chinese Culture

Many of the invention of Chinese cultural life occur under the Yellow Emperors (2704-2585 BC) which many scholars consider the golden age of China. It was during the reign of the Yellow Emperors that the cultivation of silk is believed to have begun in China.

Dynasties

Shang (1766-1122 BC)

The great Yellow Emperors were followed by the Shang Dynasty (1766-1122 BC) which is remembered principally for the cruelty of the emperors.

Chou (1122-255 BC)

The Chou Dynasty which is regarded as the classical period of Chinese history. The dynasty indured over 8 centuries. Aguculture became universal and the arts flirished. The great sages including Confucius, Lao-tse, Mencius, abd Mo Ti appeared. The feudal system developed in China at this time. Despite the humanitarian doctrines of these sages, a devestaing series of feudal wars marched the last years of the Chou. They were replaced by te Ch'in Dynasty.

Ch'in (255-202 BC)

The Ch'in restored order, abolished the feydal system, and drove Hun Tartars back into the Asiatic desert. They also began construction of the Great Wall. The Empire was extended south of the Yangtze valley. Shih Huang Ti (255-206 BC)is sometimes regaded as the "First Emperor". To symbolize a break with the past, Shih ordered the burning of all but practical books on medicine and agriculture--for which he is generally held in repriach by Chinese scholars. After Shuh's death in 202 BC rebellions and Mongul incursions appaered that his descendents were unable to put down.

Han (202 BC-220 AD)

The first Han emperor seized power about 202 BC. The first Chinese Emperor is genealy seen as Qin Shihuangdi. It was his tomb where the terra cotta army was found. He is famed for uniting China. He is also know for trying to destoy all previous Chinese history and putting scholars to death as part of that process. (The cony=tinuity in Chinese history can be seen in the fact that this is not unlike Mao's effort in the Cultural Revolution. A classic book by a Chinese scholar written about the Emperor became a standard in Chinese culture. Every subsequent emperor wanted a similar book. As a result, China today has the best recorded history of any country. [Mah] The Han were the last emperors of Ancient China and ruled until 220 AD. The Han dynasty, after which the members of the ethnic majority in China, the "people of Han," are named, was especially notable for its military effectivness. Rebellions were suppressed. The Mongul hordees were again driven back to Centtal Asia and Mongolia was added to the Empire. The Han military prowess enabled the empire to expand west as the Tarim Basin (modern Xinjiang-Uyghur Autonomous Region). This permitted the establishment of relatively secure overland caravan traffic across Central Asia to the west. These caravan routes came to be called "silk route" because the primary product exported by the Chinese was silk, which was only produced in China, to the Roman Empire. The western terminus were Antioch, Baghdad, and Alexandria. Competitive examinations in the civil service were adopted. Chinese writing was standarized and printing invented. Buddhism was introduced from India, the first major foreign influence on China.

Silk

Silk is one of theoldest textile fibers knopwn to man. The history of the silkworm, which is also the story of silk, which originated in ancient China. Some of the stories have been handed down through the generations and are probably based party on fact and partly on legend and myth. Legend dates the developments of silk to the 27th Century BC when the Chinese first began weaving the cacoon fibers into luxurious silk fabric. The most persistant account is that about 2640 BC a Chinese Empress, Si-Ling-Chi, was watching the glistening amber cocoons that little worms were spinning in the mulberry trees in the palace gardens. She unwound one of the threads on a cocoon and found that it was one, very long strand of shiny material. Fascinated, she pulled strands from several cocoons through her ring to form a thicker thread. Eventually, with the help of her ladies of the court, she spun the threads into a beautiful piece of cloth to make a robe for the emperor, Huang-Ti. No other fabric could compete in luxury to silk. This magnificent material, became known at the "cloth of kings". For thousand of years on the royal family of China had silk.

Figure 2.--These Chinese boys are flying a kite. Unfortunately we are not yet able to date the painting. Notably, the Chinese appear to ahve invented kiites some time about 500-400 BC. Notice both the loose fitting tunics and pajama-like pants as well as the destinctive hair styles. This paingting is much more recent.

Clothing

We know little about historic Chinese clothing worn in various cultures and dynasties of ancient China at this time. We eventually hope to add such information to HBC. We have noted a few images of children in Chinese art, but they are not always dated, making it difficult to assess chanhes over time. Most of the omages we have noted show boys wearing lose tunics and pajamalike long trousers. We do not know precisely when this clothing style developed. We note that the fine clothes worn by the elite often had magnificent embroidery with important imagery.

Hair Styles

We note images of Chinese boys with destinctive hair styles. Nite the haor styles on the boys seen here flying a kite (figure 2). We do not yet, however, have a time line on the development and evolution of these styles.

Clothing Technology

Several authors have addressed the subject of the development of important technologies in China, often centuries, in some csases moillenia, before they appeared in the West. We note, however, that as regards clothing, except for silk, China was not ahead of the west in signifuicant elements of clothing oproduction. At least that is our initial assessment. We do note one important invention that was of critical importance to both clothing production and eventually the industrial revolution. That was the spinning wheel and associated mechanical devices and they all involve silk in some way. Silk has the longest strand of any natural plant or animal fiber. A continous strand from the silk worm may run hundreds of yards. Thus there was a huge need for some kind of winding device. As noted above, silk in China may date from the 27th century BC, although some authors give more conservative estimates, most agrree it was before the 14th century BC. No one knows when the Chinese first developed silk winding machines, but there is mentioin of such deviced in Chinese dictionaries by the 2nd century AD. Actual spinning wheels, however, came much later, perhaps the 11th century AD. [Temple, pp. 120-121.]

Dragon Robes

One of the most important images was the dragon which came to symbolize the unity of the Chinese people. The dragon first appeared in Chinese art abbout 4000 BC and was used as totem in both northern and southern areas of wghat was to become China. Early dragon images looked like snakes, but gradually over time the image became more detailed with the addition of crocodile feet, a horse head, manes and tail, an ox ear, hare eyes, a tiger nose, fish scales and beard, dog legs, eagle talons, a deer antlers, and other facets. The dragon became the symbol of the emperor. People worshiped the dragon to beung favorable growing conditions, especially rain, for their crops. The dragon thus served as a symbol of harmony, the fundamental spirit of Chinese culture. It also symbolized the cohesive force of the Chinese nation. The dragon not only appeared on clothing, but in other aspects of cultural life such as dragon-lantern dances or dragon-boat races on various festivals. The Chinese cheongsam or popularily known as Mandarin qi pao, are often designed with the Chinese dragon and phoenix images, motifs or icons.

Sources

Mah, Yen. A Thousand Pieces of Gold.

Temple, Robert. The Genius of China: 3,000 Years of Science, Discovery, and Invention (Simon and Schuster: New York, 1986), 254p.

Created: August 29, 2002
Last updated: September 5, 2003