The ancient Chinese people had very distinctive social classes. Each of these has specific styles and meaning of dressing. Varied symbols are used on clothing to distinguish between various strata of society. Ancient Chinese clothing has varied greatly over different time periods. Each social or historical period brought with it a new style.
During the Pre-Qing Dynasty (also known as the Manchu Dynasty, it was the last ruling dynasty of China from 1644 to 1912); Prevalent ancient Chinese clothing was loosely known as hanfu with many variations such as traditional Chinese academic dress. Each individual stratum shown has a different shape. In fact, the army was entirely distinctive in its appearance.
Chinese civil or military officials had a variety of motifs to represent their rank and position. Hat knobs were used as an icon of their rank. There were nine types of color-coded hat knobs representing the nine distinctive ranks. Another popular insignia was the mandarin square or rank insignia.
The Chinese clothing known as Hanfu (also known as guzhuang meaning “ancient clothing”), was the traditional clothing of the Han Chinese people. The term Hanfu finds its source in the Book of Han, which says, “then many came to the Court to pay homage and delighted in the style of dress of the Han. [Chinese].” It was fascinating for these visitors to see the characteristic attire, such as a kimono and sandals made from rice reed. As you can see, Hanfu has a colorful history dating back 3,000 years and more. In fact, the dress was even worn by the legendary Yellow Emperor. It was popular long before the Qing Dynasty came to power in the mid-17th century. Since the material of this ancient Chinese clothing was always silk, supposedly discovered by the Yellow Emperor’s consort Leizu, the Hanfu was also called ‘silk robes’.
The Hanfu is now worn only on special occasions which are mostly historical re-enactments, hobbies, coming-of-age ceremonies/passage rites, ceremonial clothing worn by religious priests, or cultural exercise. However, there are attempts to make it part of everyday clothing or at least during Chinese celebrations and festivals, especially in China, as well as among the non-resident community.
Ancient Chinese clothing in its most traditional form can be explained as different parts of specific cloth that are draped in a special style. It would be totally different from the traditional garment of other ethnic groups in China such as the Manchurian qipao. There is a big difference between the Han way of dressing and the Manchurian influence. It is still an unresolved problem which of the two would be the correct traditional costume of the ancient Chinese. Some costumes commonly considered typically Chinese, such as the qipao, are the result of the influence of brutal laws (Queue Order) imposed by the Qing dynasty rulers of Manchuria, and are considered by some proponents to not be “traditionally” Han.