Garment collars in hanfu
Garment collars in are diverse and come in several shapes, including ,,,,,. Some forms of collars were indigenous to China while others had been adopted from the of other non-Han Chinese ethnic minorities and/or from the clothing worn by foreigners.
Cultural significance
Ru
''Youren'' (right lapel)
Chinese robes, such as the ' and the ' as a general term, as well as Chinese jackets must typically cover the right part of their garment. Styles of garments which overlap at the front and close to the wearer's right side are known as . The closure is a style which originated in China and can be traced back to the Shang dynasty. The is also an important symbol of the Han Chinese ethnicity. The closure was eventually adopted by other ethnic minorities and was also spread to neighbouring countries, such as Vietnam, Korea and Japan.''Zuoren'' (left lapel)
Chinese people also wore another form of closure known as , which generally refers the way garment overlaps on the front, like the closure, but instead closes on the left side. According to the 《》, a form of, known as , was a robe with a closure while the coat known as , typically used as part of the, was also a according to the.The use of, however, was typically associated with funeral practices. This can also be found in the chapter of the :
According to ancient Chinese beliefs, the only moment the Han Chinese were supposed to use was when they dressed their deceased. This funeral practice was rooted in ancient Chinese beliefs; especially in the Yin and Yang theory, where it is believed that the left side is the and stands for life whereas the right side is the which stands for death.
Therefore, according to the Yin and Yang theory, the left lapel of a garment needs to be found outside to indicate that the power of the aspect is suppressing the aspect, which thus symbolizes the clothing of living people. On the other hand, the is a representation of the aspect surpassing the aspect, and thus, garments with a closure became the clothing worn by the deceased. It was therefore a taboo in Chinese clothing culture for a living person to wear clothing with a closure.
There are exceptions in which living Han Chinese would wear clothing with a closure. For example, in some areas in the 10th century, some ethnic Han Chinese could be found wearing left-lapel clothing. It was also common for the Han Chinese women to adopt left lapel under the reign of foreign nationalities, such as in the Yuan dynasty. The practice of wearing the also continued in some areas of the Ming dynasty despite being a Han Chinese-ruled dynasty which is an atypical feature.
Association with ethnic minorities and foreigners
The closure was also associated with the clothing of non-Han Chinese, ethnic minorities, and foreigners in ancient times. Some ethnic minorities generally had their clothing closing in the -style according to what was recorded in ancient Chinese texts, such as the Qiang. As a result, the traditional way to distinguish between clothing of the "Barbarian",, and Chinese clothing,, was typically by looking at the direction of the collar.This can also be found in the Analects where Confucius himself praised Guan Zhong for preventing the weakened Zhou dynasty from becoming barbarians:
Based on Confucius' sayings, , bound hair and coats which closed on the left side, was associated with the clothing customs of the northern nomadic ethnic groups who were considered as barbarians. From the standpoint of the Huaxia culture, was a way to reject refined culture and being turned into a barbarian.
By the Han dynasty, since Confucius himself was the first person to use the phrase to refer to Non-Zhou dynasty people, this phrase became a common metaphor for primitiveness. When used by the ancient Chinese literati, the concept of became a phrase, which held the symbolic of foreign people who were living a barbarous and civilized lifestyle; this concept also became a way to emphasize the customs differences between the Han people and other ethnic minorities and draw the line to distinguish who was were considered as civilized and barbarians. The thus also became a reference to and/or to the rule of foreign nationalities. Of note, some non-Chinese ethnicity who adopted -style sometimes maintain their left lapels, such as the Khitans in the Liao dynasty.