Dress of the Xia Dynasty
3 min readAccording to the Chinese ancient documents，the legendary leader Shun abdicated and handed over his leadership to Da Yu（Yu the Great）who had made great contribution in controlling the flood of the Yellow River of China.When Da Yu died，his son Xia Qi breached the tradition of demise system and set himself as the king.
Xia dynasty，the first slavery nation in Chinese history，was founded.Since then，the hereditary system had been practiced，and the political system of”the king’sruling country as his own family”began to be carried out.Thus，China stepped into a class society.Meanwhile，with a transition from the primitive society to the slave society，Chinese ancient dress civilization changed from the totem representation based on religious beliefs in the primitive society to the representation of royalty based on the political ethics in the slave society.
Xia，Shang and Zhou dynasties were the period that experienced the establishment，development and prosperity of the Chinese slave society.The crownclothing system appeared in this period was the earliest dress system in China.
Based on the records in ancient documents about the unearthed cultural relics，the Chinese crown clothing system was initially established in the dynasties of Xia and Shang，and was gradually improved in the Western Zhou dynasty.By the Spring and Autumn period，it was taken as one part of the ritual system.In the feudal society，the crown clothing system was the symbol of power and status.In different occasions，royal members and dukes wore different caps according to their different ranks and wore dresses in different styles and colors and with different flower patterns.Formal robes must be worn in a sacrifice，court dress must be worn in worship，and mourning dress must be worn in a funeral.The ornaments，pattern designs and colors should be varied according to different ranks.In the Zhou dynasty，even an official position sifu，which was mainly in charge of dress design for royal families，was established.
Dress of the Xia Dynasty
The Xia dynasty was a transition from primitive society to slave society.At that time，all aspects of social life still reserved traces of primitive society，but compared with the primitive society，a great progress had been made.At the site of late Neolithic period in Xiyin village，Xiaxian county in Shanxi province in China，archeologists found a silkworm cocoon that had been cut by man.Later，vermeil flax was found at another site of the Neolithic period.We may presume fromthe findings that Chinese ancestors in the Xia dynasty had started to use silk and flax to make clothes，and dyed clothes with vermilion.As for the specific dresspatterns in the Xia dynasty，we failed to find relevant detailed records in the Chinese ancient documents.However，based on the simple records in some ancient books，we may presume that as early as Xia dynasty，due to the division of the poorand the rich and different classes，the phenomenon of division also existed in the dress patterns.Therefore，one’s status could be told easily by his dress.
The dress material，patterns and ornaments material may be used as a norm for evaluating dresses.All of these could influence the quality of the dress.The dress material in this period was also influenced by ranking system.The dress material for the commons was mainly coarse fiber and hemp，and sometimes the withered and yellow stems and leaves of plants in autumn were used as dress materials；while for the noble family the dress material was mainly cotton and silk，fine fiber and hemp.
It may be said that the colors and styles of dress in the Xia dynasty had been connected with hierarchy but strict dress system between different classes had not established yet, therefore, the dress difference was not well maintained in practice. Therefore, this period should be said as a preparation for the establishment of dress hierarchy in the Zhou dynasty.
