Origin of Traditional Chinese Dress

In many Chinese ancient books and documents, there are records about the originof traditional Chinese dress, such as The Spring and Autumn Annals of Li Buwei, Generation (Shiben in Chinese), Huai-nan-tzu. However, quite a bit disputed issues still remain. For example, who is the creator of dress after all, Huangdi, Hu Cao orBo Yu? It seems that there is no consensus on this point in the ancient documents what’s the initial purpose of the ancients to make clothing is also a quite thorny question-some said it was for keeping out the cold, some said it’s for beauty and ornament, and others said it’s just for covering themselves.

To view these issues from the perspective of historical development in Chinese society, the forefathers in remote antiquity lived together in caves, and supported themselves by gathering and hunting. Having little idea of what dress is, they usually just covered their body with leaves or barks. Later on, they came to learn that they could keep warm with animal skin, thus began to use animal skin to wrap themselves. Of course, covered with animal skin, people in primitive society could be more convenient in hunting and fighting. As we all know, the primitive people mainly feed on hunter-gather diets. While hunting, to attract game to approach, theoften disguise themselves as animals by wearing animal horns, hats made of animalskins, or clothes made of animal skins so as to slacken animals’ vigilance and get them easier. Gradually, animal skin became a everyday dress up for them. In addition, to avoid being hurt by sharp claws and stone in hunting and fighting, orfor the purpose of disguising and deterring, primitive human beings also invented some original clothing, such as animal-head-shaped hats, fur jacket, and shank-covering clothes, from which the ordinary dress is derived.

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