With the popularity of hats, the practical value can be better reflected.
In ancient times, hats often corresponded to social status, and different hats represented different identities.
01
It is said that the hat was first invented by Yellow Emperor, the ancestor of China. At that time, it was called crown and crown. Only emperors and civil and military ministers could wear it to show their status and power.
Later, it gradually formed a set of bureaucratic order, namely the coronation system.
At the beginning of the crown, the main body is just a crown beam, not wide and pleated, with both ends connected to the crown ring, like an arc-shaped belt covering from front to back. The tassel has two loops under the tassel. And the crown is the most noble kind of crown.
In the Xia and Shang Dynasties, short tubular hat hoops were popular among men, while high curved crowns were worn by slave owners and nobles, with many decorations on them.
Not only do hats symbolize identity, but hairstyles also reflect differences between different classes.
The men's hair style of Shang Dynasty is usually braided, with a top of a circle from right to left. Women usually wear their long hair in a bun, or curly hair shoulder length. Adult women with hairpins, children's hair combed into two fork shaped girls, known as the angle.
Part of braided hair (jade figure unearthed from Fuhao tomb at Guxu, Anyang, Henan Province)
Civilians and slaves, some of them curled upward in the shape of a sheep's horn, some had a short braid hanging from the top to the back, and some had their hair cut to the neck.
02
In the Western Zhou Dynasty, the hierarchical system was gradually established, and the ideological system of "no one is allowed to serve others" was gradually improved, and it was still the privilege of officials to wear hats.
Therefore, even Confucius and Mencius are not qualified to wear hats. They can only wrap their hair with a handkerchief.
Therefore, they often educate students to be ambitious and encourage them to take the road of official career.
At this time, the common people can only use the headscarf to tie up their hair. Poor people are in a lower position and can only use hemp rope to tie their hair.
In the Han Dynasty, there were more specific regulations on wearing hats. At this time, the emperor wore crowns, and the literati wore crowns.
Crown
Since the Qin and Han Dynasties, the crown and beam became wider and wider, connected with the crown ring into a cup-shaped cover, and its shape gradually tended to be hat shaped, and the titles were also greatly increased. For example, the long crown, commonly known as "magpie tail crown", was worn by officials above the Gongcheng level; the lacquer gauze crown was mostly worn by warriors.
People still can't wear hats, so men began to wrap their hair after the age of 20. They usually wear a scarf without covering their hair, or they just tie their hair and hairpin.
By the time of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the situation changed a little. The short tube shaped flat towel was used regardless of the high or low. The beam crown with beam on the flat towel and the painted yarn crown on the flat towel have also become customized.
The pottery figurines unearthed from the Han Dynasty tomb in Yangzi mountain, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, show that farmers or serfs wear scarves or hats, and most slaves wear a bun rather than a scarf.
03
During the period of Wei, Jin, southern and Northern Dynasties, social unrest, regime change, and the establishment of minority regime promoted the exchange between different ethnic groups. Clothing reform and development began to take place. Literati and scholars without official positions could wear hats.
The hat was gradually replaced by the hat of the literati. Not only did the literati use scarves, but also generals wore scarves.
In addition, there are also such scarves as Zhuge Liang's, such as the kerchief, the water chestnut scarf, the purple scarf, and the white Jue towel. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Zhangjiao uprising was called Huangjin uprising.
But civilians still can't afford to wear, so they can only use the cheapest black headscarf to wrap on their heads, from which comes the black shawl. However, the later WuShaMao was mostly worn by officials. In the Ming Dynasty, it became a synonym for being an official.
So before that, hats were symbols of status and power, not linked to the practical efficacy of hats. Unlike the hat worn by the northern Hu people, it can not only keep out the cold, but also prevent wind and sand.
04
During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the social atmosphere gradually opened up, the symbolic meaning of hats gradually faded, and the folk began to wear hats.
Officials usually wear Wusha Futou. From the emperor to the officials, the style is basically the same, except for the material, color and decoration of the belt head.
Most of the officers and servants wear pointed hats. Ordinary scholars and businessmen can also wear them, but there are also some prescribed styles.
In addition, the more practical mat hat, huntuo felt hat, pressing ear cap, big hat and so on have become rich.
The mat hat was originally the hat of Qiang people. It was made of felt or Xi Teng to protect against wind and rain.
Huntuo felt hat was made by changsun Wuji. It was made of black wool. It was inspired by huntuo method of slaughtering poultry in North China.
It is of the type of two ear covering.
The big hat was originally worn by wild old people. It was made of gauze in the early Tang Dynasty. It has the same function as the mat hat.
Futou system originated from the Northern Qi Dynasty, and gradually formed in Sui and Tang Dynasties. This is a soft bodied hat (once wooden) made of black leno, wrapped around the back of the bun, protruding slightly and leaning slightly forward.
Futou in Sui and Tang Dynasties
Two hat belts are tied to the front of the hat top, and two are hanging behind the neck, either long or short. There are three or five styles. At first, they are flat head samples, and then they are gradually higher.
During the Kaiyuan period of the Tang Dynasty, Emperor Xuanzong once granted his officials "inner style towel with long feet and luofutou head". In the Five Dynasties, the two ribbons were straight on both sides, and "soft feet" became "hard wings". The Song Dynasty's lacquer yarn Futou, commonly known as WuShaMao.
It is worth mentioning that Tang dynasty women also had a variety of hats, such as Jin Jin Hun hat, big gauze hat and curtain hat.
05
The Song Dynasty also had typical scholar's hat and merchant's hat, among which the official hat was the most characteristic.
It is said that the official hat of Song Dynasty was invented by Zhao Kuangyin, its founding emperor. Zhao Kuangyin, who was not long after the founding of the people's Republic of China, was always wary of winning the throne. One day in the early Dynasty, Zhao Kuangyin was very angry when he saw the ministers whispering and whispering.
After retiring from the court, he came up with a good way to prevent the officials from whispering to each other, that is, installing two long ears on both sides of the official hat to prevent the officials from whispering when they went to court.
This kind of flat winged Wusha hat is called straight foot Futou. It is a custom-made one. According to the regulations, the officers and men servants wear the curved Fu head with two wings bent back and up.
Flat winged Futou in Song Dynasty
However, the old people in Song Dynasty mostly wore Dongpo scarf, which was a square tube shaped high towel. It is said that it was created by Su Dongpo, a great writer. In essence, it is the revival of ancient scarves. Up to the Ming Dynasty, the old gentry often wore Dongpo scarves.
Futou and ZhangJin are still popular among ordinary people.
06
After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, the crown system was restored, and there were new regulations on the black gauze hat that everyone could wear before. The common people were not allowed to wear the black gauze hat, which became the pronoun of official.
The main first clothes of the officials in Ming Dynasty followed Futou of song and Yuan Dynasties, but slightly different. The emperor wore black yarn and folded a towel. The wings of the hat were raised upward from the back. The official's court clothes wore the lacquer yarn Futou head, which was 1 foot 2 inches in length. The black gauze hat was often worn when wearing it. After winter, the emperor also gave fur to the officials to warm their ears, much like earmuffs of later generations, but the civilians were still not allowed to use them.
In addition to the hats popular in the Tang and Song Dynasties, Zhu Yuanzhang also personally formulated two new types of hats, which were issued to the whole country and used by scholars and common people.
One is square barrel shaped black lacquer yarn square hat, called square flat towel.
The other is a small hemispherical cap made of six pieces of black velvet and satin. The top is inlaid with hat beads, which is called "six in one" hat, which means that the world will be prosperous and the world will become one. This kind of cap has been handed down, later called guapi cap.
After the Qing Dynasty entered the Central Plains, the system of shaving was implemented, and then the system of "topping off" was formulated for officials.
The hats of the officials pay attention to the topping, while the hats of the common people are not so much particular about, and there are various styles, such as small caps usually worn, felt hats worn by street vendors, windbreaks, leather hats for ear protection, etc.
At the end of the Qing Dynasty, with the introduction of western culture, we can see not only the gentlemen wearing hat, but also the rickshaw driver wearing felt hat, and even beggars begging with hat.
It can be said that with the popularity of hats, the practical value can be better reflected.
