Informal Discussion on Imperial Robe
3 min readImperial robe literally means a robe that is embroidered with images of Chinese dragon, which played an important role in Chinese ancient dress culture history. Thedesign of Chinese dragon appeared as early as in the Zhou dynasty. At that time, the dress with the design of Chinese dragon was just one pattern of shenyi, and the real imperial robe had not yet existed. By the Qin and Han dynasties, the robe with upper and lower parts as a whole was designed, but still no flower pattern of Chinese dragon in the robe. By the Sui and Tang dynasties, the crown clothing that consisted of both upper clothes and lower skirt began to have the flower pattern of Chinesedragon. However, the ordinary dress worn by the emperor wasn’t embroidered with theflower pattern of Chinese dragon. Only by the Yuan and Ming dynasties, the imperial robe embroidered with the flower pattern of Chinese dragon began to become more common, and the emperor was also called “Son of Heaven”. In this way, the emperor and Chinese dragon became a whole, and the real imperial robe came into being. There was a saying in the Song dynasty,”draping a yellow robe over somebody’s shoulder”, which means to acclaim somebody as the emperor or the ruler of the country. But, why it is a “yellow robe”that stands for the emperor. According to the Chinese thought of yin, yang and the five elements (metal, wood, water, fire, and earth), all things in the universe consist of the five elements. And there is a phenomenon of mutual promotion and restraint between the five elements. The white stands for metal, the blue for wood, the black for water, the red for fire, and the yellow for earth. Since the Han dynasty in Chinese history, the yellow had been accepted by all people and was regarded as the most distinguished color. By the Tang dynasty, the dress system stipulated that except the royal family all others were prohibited from wearing yellow dress. From the Tang dynasty to the Qing dynasty, th last one in Chinese feudal society, the yellow had been the special color for the royal family, and a symbol of dignity and power.
By the Qing dynasty, the rulers continued the feudal tradition for thousands of years in Chinese history. The imperial robe was mainly in yellow, with round neck and arrow sleeves, and the golden or the apricot-yellow could be used as subsidiary colors. In the robe flower patterns of golden Chinese dragon with five claws and five-colored auspicious clouds were embroidered. Among the auspicious clouds scattered”twelve symbolic tokens”. According to the records of Chinese ancient documents, there are a total of nine Chinese dragons embroidered in the imperial robe. However, only eight Chinese dragons can be found in the imperial robe.
Therefore, some people believe that such design was purposely to imply that the emperor himself was counted as the “ninth Chinese dragon”. In fact, this “ninth Chinese dragon”was embroidered inside the robe which cannot be seen easily. The imperial robe was the typical dress for the emperor and can better show the emperor’s dignity as well as his worship to the “Chinese dragoon”. In addition, the rulers of the Qing dynasty also stipulated that except the royal family all others were prohibited from using the design of Chinese dragon.
