#xiapei

宋朝 - 大袖衫 + 霞帔 （2/3） Song Dynasty - Wide-sleeve Robe + "Xiapei" （2/3）

The second common style of wide-sleeve robes was called:

2) Trailing back (拖尾/tuowei) As the name suggest, this style of robe was asymmetrical with the front shorter than the back.

Hi! Thanks for the question, and sorry for taking ages to reply!

Historically, 披帛/pibo and 披风/pifeng would not have been worn together, as they are from different time periods.

As I explained in my post on pibo here, the pibo - a scarf-like accessory - first appeared sometime around the Qin dynasty, really came into vogue during the Sui & Tang dynasties, and fell out of common use during the Song dynasty. Below - Tang dynasty-style pibo (via):

The pibo didn't disappear, though - it just evolved. During the Song dynasty, the pibo evolved into the 霞帔/xiapei. The xiapei became an important component of women's formal attire in the Song, Ming, and Qing dynasties (x). Below - xiapei in Ming dynasty portrait (via):

Meanwhile, the pifeng, an outer coat with loose and long sleeves, was worn during the Ming dynasty (pifeng is the Ming dynasty name for beizi). Below - pifeng (via):

So technically, it would be anachronistic to wear the pibo and pifeng together. However, nowadays people are free to mix and match hanfu as they please. Unless you're going for historical accuracy, there's no reason not to wear the pibo and pifeng together if that's what you want ^^

Exquisite Ming Dynasty & Qing Dynasty style portraits

宋朝 - 大袖衫 + 霞帔 （3/3） Song Dynasty - Wide-sleeve Robe + "Xiapei" （3/3）

Civilian women who did not have court-appointed titles also had their version of 'xiapei' that they could wear for special occasions. These were not as intricate, and came in two styles:

1) horizontal shawl (横帔/hengpei) 2) straight shawl (直帔/zhipei)

The horizontal shawl was much like the shawl of the Tang dynasty, wide and long, draped around the arms loosely.

The straight shawl was similar to the "xiapei", but without the delicate designs.

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宋朝 - 大袖衫 + 霞帔 （1/3） Song Dynasty - Wide-sleeve Robe + "Xiapei" （1/3）

In formal ceremonies, women of the Song Dynasty wore wide-sleeve long robes (大袖衫/daxiushan), paired with what's called a "xiapei" (霞帔).

The wide-sleeve robe was inherited from the late Tang/Five Dynasties period, with parallel collars open at the front to reveal the layers underneath.

There were two common styles of wide-sleeve robes:

1) Triangular pocket (三角兜) The triangular pocket style was most commonly seen. It was a loosely fitted robe with slitted sides, and a signature triangle piece of fabric at the bottom of the back. The sides of the triangle were left unsewn to allow for the "xiapei" to be tucked into.

Xiapei (霞帔) "Xiapei" was the name for two strips of intricately patterned cloth draping across the front and back, resting on the shoulders. This article of clothing is believed to have evolved from Tang Dynasty's shawl (帔子/peizi) that women wore either draped around their arms or across their shoulders. However, unlike the shawl, "xiapei" was slimmer with more complicated designs. The front of the "xiapei" was adorned with a pendant, usually made from gold.

In the Song Dynasty, only women with court appointed titles were permitted to wear "xiapei".

Hi, thanks for the question! (image via)

@siumerghe wrote an amazing and thorough guide to hanfu wedding colors in their post “Historically, what was the color of wedding dress in China?” - please check it out!

I also recommend the following two articles: 1) What is Traditional Chinese Wedding Dress? & 2) Dress and color of Wedding Hanfu.

As summarized in the first link, the colors of wedding hanfu are:

Western Zhou to Qin & Han dynasties - black (with red details)

Wei-Jin and Southern & Northern dynasties - black with red, but also white

Tang & Song dynasties - green for the bride, red for the groom

Ming Dynasty - red for the bride; green, blue, or red for the groom

So as you can see, you are correct - the bride wore green during the Tang and Song dynasties (while the groom wore red). In fact, there is a saying for this tradition - “红男绿女” (Hong Nan Lv Nv), which literally means “red man, green woman”. It’s now become an idiom meaning “young men and women in beautiful clothes”. Here are a few visual examples:

1) Tang dynasty wedding hanfu (1, 2):

2) Song dynasty wedding hanfu (1, 2) - Note: in past years, modern wedding hanfu came in only three styles - Zhou/Han, Tang, and Ming. It’s only very recently that authentic Song dynasty wedding hanfu has come onto the market. My theory is that it was largely the influence of the 2020 Song dynasty-set Cdrama Serenade of Peaceful Joy, which created a fresh wave of interest in fancy & authentic Song dynasty fashion:

Although the color coordination is the same, Song wedding hanfu differs from Tang wedding hanfu in style & accessories. Here are two easy ways to tell the difference: 

Obvious difference #1 - Song wedding hanfu for brides includes a long accessory worn over the shoulders called Xiapei/霞帔. Xiapei was a component of women’s formal clothing during the Song and Ming dynasties, and was therefore a part of Song and Ming wedding hanfu. Xiapei was not a part of Tang wedding hanfu (1, 2):

Obvious difference #2 - Men’s headwear is different. Song dynasty grooms wear unique Song official headwear called Zhang Chi Mao/长翅帽 (long winged hat) with long, straight flaps (x):

3) Most Chinese period dramas show the bride and groom wearing all-red wedding hanfu regardless of the time period, but the Song dynasty-set Cdrama The Story of Minglan does a good job showing the traditional red & green wedding colors (x):

For more visual examples & references, please check out my wedding hanfu tag.

Hi, thanks for the question!

The large ring-like necklaces sometimes worn with Hanfu are called Xiangquan/项圈 (lit. “collar”). There’s a specific variety of Xiangquan that‘s often worn with Hanfu called Yingluo Xiangquan/璎珞项圈, which is fancier and involves more pieces than standard Xiangquan. Yingluo/璎珞 originates from ornaments called Keyura, which were made of gold, jade, and other valuable materials and worn on the head, neck, chest, arms, and legs by royalty and the wealthy in ancient India. The Sakyamuni Buddha was said to have also been adorned with this auspicious ornament when he was a prince, as was his mother when she gave birth to him. Keyura gradually came to adorn statues and paintings of Bodhisattvas and Buddhas:

Later, Keyura was introduced into China with the spread of Buddhism, where it was called Yingluo. During the Sui and Tang dynasties, it was imitated and adapted by fashionable women, becoming a piece of high jewelry. Below - Yingluo in Chinese art (note: it was worn by children as well as adults):

You can often see Xiangquan and Yingluo Xiangquan in Chinese dramas. For example, they are commonly used in drama adaptations of the classic novel Dream of the Red Chamber:

Boys/Men wear them too!:

Due to the Hanfu revival movement, Xiangquan and especially Yingluo Xiangquan are making comebacks as gorgeous and versatile Hanfu accessories:

Please see my Yingluo tag for more resources. Hope this helps! 

All product photos are from Hanfu accessories brand 青荷记忆国风首饰.

Hi, thanks for the question!

The red stick in this post is called 秤杆/Cheng Gan. In traditional Chinese weddings, when the bride and groom are in the bridal chamber, the groom uses it to lift the bride’s red bridal veil (called 盖头/Gai Tou). Below - standard Cheng Gan and Gai Tou:

The act is not to check if the bride is ugly - it actually has the symbolic meaning of “称心如意/chen xin ru yi”, which means “(to let the newlyweds) be completely satisfied in their hearts”.