The Effects of Foreign Cultures to the Women Clothes in the Tang Dynasty

Abstract

The clothes in every dynasties embody the factors of politic and culture in China, such as Tang dynasty. After the Benign Administration of Zhenguan Reign Period in Tang dynasty, the economic developed quickly. Due to the great territory, the decree unity and the material wealth, Tang dynasty had close intercourse with Tujue, Uighur, Tubo, Nanzhao, Japan, India and Persia. As one of the most open dynasties, Tang Dynasty was rich and opened to other countries in cultures. On one hand, its clothes kept the tradition of China; on the other hand, the clothes incorporated other styles from abroad. Both of them melted each other, and formed the clothe style of Tang dynasty with elegant grace and unique features. Especially the women clothes in Tang dynasty, with the high status of women, new aesthetic trend was appearing on the clothes style, hair style and makeup style. Under the melting of multi-culture in Tang dynasty, the paper analyzes the melting phenomenon between the Tang women clothes and abroad clothes. Today, the designers from all over the world create their designing through the absorbing from the traditional clothes. The costumes belong to the culture phenomenon, which lays the politic factors under the background of different times. On one hand, the political environment affects the integral style of the clothes and its evolution process; on the other hand, the rulers also need rely on the clothes to foil the characteristics of political and its regime. The culture of Tang dynasty was rich and colorful, and had a long history. Regardless of politic, economic or culture, Tang dynasty was praised by the generations. Founded in the 7 th century, when the rulers opened its soil and massive migration, at the same time, the Tang dynasty has been on its way to open. After the overthrow of the regime of the Sui dynasty by Li Yuan and his son Li Shimin, Tujue and the ancient cities of western region surrendered to Tang, which made Tang dynasty become a very powerful country. Due to the unity of the country, the stability of the politic, the economy was stable in Tang dynasty, and the price was very low, which benefited the prosperity of Tang dynasty. As a result, many foreign officials came to Tang dynasty, and the merchants were increasing by the attraction of Tang dynasty. Without the convenient traffic, opening to the public would be difficulty. At that time, there were two roads which led to Tang dynasty, one was an overland by the merchants for the trade; the other was the sea lane for the convenience of shipping, which regularly commuted between the Indian Ocean and the sea. From that time, the westerners also began to understand the culture of Tang dynasty. During nearly three hundred years of Tang dynasty rule, the costumes of the Chinese nation had become an extremely important symbol in the history of Chinese costume after a long period of hereditary, evolution and development. The clothes in Tang dynasty did not only inherit the suit system of ancient representative clothes, but also accepted the foreign cultures and popularized them. At the same time, the interaction of Tang dynasty clothing with Asian countries apparel clothing had made great contribution to the development of communication for human being. Especially the women clothing in Tang dynasty, it reflected the open mind, the pioneering spirit, the distinct times and the strong national character in that time. Tang dynasty, as the most prosperous time of feudal society, reached the summit in the ideas of the people and the production of the materials in the history. In Tang dynasty, the clothes were decorated through the flowers patterns and the style was open and fashion. 6th International Conference on Electronics, Mechanics, Culture and Medicine (EMCM 2015) © 2016. The authors Published by Atlantis Press 639 First, the political features are in Tang dynasty clothes. Since the ancient times, Chinese people paid attention to the form of the culture which mirrored the order of the society. The costumes was a tool of regulating the orders of different people and distinguishing the personal relationship by the rulers. The ritual, the instrument and the grade junior idea of inheritance wasn’t dimmed, on the contrary, it showed more incisively and vividly. Especially after the Anshi’s Rebellion, the political situation in Tang dynasty was unstable, and the aesthetic culture was appearing sad, depressed and exquisite, which had become the main trend in Tang dynasty. With the change in art style in Tang dynasty, the clothes style had experienced the change from the fresh and bright in the beginning of Tang Dynasty; freedom and opening in prosperous Tang dynasty; colorful in Middle Tang and exquisite and delicate in late Tang dynasty. Therefore, in the different development period of Tang, the whole style of the clothes were appearing different characters. In dealing with the foreign culture, the Tang dynasty's political strategy was absorbing more than rejection. The popularity of Hu’s style and clothing fashion was a form of free and open political strategy in the Tang dynasty. The Hu’s clothing mainly referred to the northern minorities and the Indian, Persian, Arabian, western ethnic costumes. According to the records in six code in Tang dynasty, the countries communicated with Tang dynasty had reached more than three hundred countries, at least there were more than seventy countries. The people who lived in Changan were the Han nation, in addition, there were Tubo, Japanese, Koreans, Persians, Arabs, etc., which made Changan be full of novelty and strange everywhere at that time. All kinds of languages, the distinctive costumes, folkway and folk-custom in photograph and the dizzying, the government not only didn’t oppose the people to follow them, on the contrary, the government advocated them to imitated. During that time, the foreign culture were popular in Tang dynasty and melt with the glorious cultures in Tang dynasty. Eventually, they formed the colorful and graceful culture art trend. Prosperity in the Tang dynasty costumes, showed the introduction and absorption without considering, the reform and the innovation of without considering. Its main features were the women clothing, integrating the traditional clothing, foreign apparel, as well as complete, the diversity of all kinds of hair style and decoration. Second, pluralistic characteristic of women clothes in Tang dynasty. Before Tang dynasty, the women had always been deeply influenced by the feudal moral codes, the clothing were conservative and implicate. In the Tang dynasty, with the improvement of women status, the aesthetic view had great changes comparing with the past, the people in Tang dynasty were advocating fitness, fruitful posture, handsome women. Especially the women, if they were a little fat, they were beautiful. The women dress experienced great changes. The pursuit towards the beauty was brave and bold, it was a great surprise to the modern people.not mention to the ancient people (Figure 1. Women Clothes in Tang Dynasty). Figure 1. Women Clothes in Tang Dynasty