#hezi

(If you don't know what "hezi/诃子" is, I'll put it under the Keep Reading.)

Hi!!

I checked on Baidu, I checked on Google, I checked on Bili, I checked in my Hanfu books, I checked on 小红书 (popular Chinese app), and from all the information I gathered the simple answer is:

No.

As of right now, there are no artefacts or paintings depicting women of the Tang Dynasty wearing the undergarment hezi (诃子) inside. I imagine one of the difficulties with undergarments is most depictions (paintings, figures, etc) wouldn't show people wearing it without outer wear, so we can only rely on tomb excavations to unearth actual garments, and right now none have been discovered.

But you never know what they might uncover in the future! I heard when they expanded Xi'an's airport last time they dug out 3,500 tombs, so they're always finding new things :D

Hi, thanks for the question!

Yep, you’re right - the costumes in Disney’s live-action Mulan film seem to be mostly based on the Tang dynasty, but Mulan’s matchmaker outfit is quite different. Let’s take a look at it (excuse the low quality screenshots):

We see that she’s wearing a (rather cheap-looking) one-piece, long-sleeved purple robe with spiraling hems, that resembles the type of hanfu called quju. Quju was popular during the Han dynasty, and wasn’t worn during the Tang dynasty. Below is an image of Mulan’s outfit (left) and a modern quju (right). Aside from Mulan’s strange “sash”, the outfits look quite similar from the waist down:

Once we look more closely at the top half of her outfit, things get weird(er):

First of all, the collars are very loose and open, which would never be the case on an actual quju. Second, she appears to be wearing underneath her purple robe an embroidered Tang dynasty-style hezi (chest cover), which is never worn with quju. It makes her look like she’s wearing a heziqun (hezi dress) under her “quju” - essentially, two styles from two different time periods worn on top of each other. It is, quite frankly, a bizarre look. Below for comparison - quju (left) & heziqun (right):

If you want to see what Mulan actually would’ve worn during the Northern Wei dynasty (the setting of the original Ballad of Mulan), I have posts on that here and here. Popular hanfu brand Qianshan Yuandai also came out with a design that combines Northern Wei style with the color scheme of the original matchmaker outfit:

Another historical inaccuracy is that most of the women in the film wear earrings, which would not have been the case during the Tang, Han, or Northern Wei, as ordinary women only started wearing earrings during the Song dynasty (which I wrote about here): 

Still, I’ll give credit where credit’s due - the makeup does portray some actual historical Chinese trends (even though it’s applied badly). For example, Mulan has a red huadian (forehead decoration) and e huang (yellow forehead) makeup, in which the forehead was painted yellow as an early form of contouring:

The matchmaker has two black mianye (dimple-like cheek decorations) as well as two blue xiehong, which are crescents painted besides the temples:

That honestly depends on how the hezi was constructed. I knew some did have some sort of flip, but most probably did not. 汉尚华莲has posted a video on wearing a rectangular panel type hezi. Mandarin voiceover with Chinese subtitle. They did not really show how to hide the ties, but what I could do in this case is tying with a small snot and rolling the remaining ties back to the horizontal line (? not sure if this make sense). The position of the ties in 寻卿原创汉服's version was slightly different and underneath the arm so the ties were not hidden (music only).

If the hezi was sewed with the skirt, here is another tutotial with Mandarin voiceover and Chinese subtitle. People usually wear this with a daxiushan, so usually there is no need to hide the ties.

I hope this explain your question.

I'm thinking of trying to make my own ruqun. Specifically the qixiong ruqun, since I love the style and it seems easiest to make. Do you have any guides or tips for making them?

Hi, thanks for the question!

Here are 3 helpful English-language guides I found for making the qixiong ruqun (chest-high ruqun):

1. Leah's Scribal Box - Very detailed guides on constructing chest-high ruqun, hezi, banbi (half-sleeve jacket), and daxiushan (large-sleeve robe). Contains many helpful historical notes.

2. Dressed Up Dreams - Documents the creation of chest-high ruqun, hezi, and daxiushan. Lots of research & notes as well.

3. Fuwafuwanwan - This guide details the process of making the pibo (long scarf accessory), in addition to the chest-high ruqun.