Dragon robes, also known as gunlongpao () or longpao for short, is a form of everyday clothing which has a Chinese dragon, called , as its main decoration. In the past, it was worn by the emperors of China. Dragon robes were also adopted by the rulers of neighbouring countries, such as Korea (Goryeo and Joseon dynasties), Vietnam (Nguyễn dynasty), and the Ryukyu Kingdom.
Cultural significance
Chinese dragons have origins in ancient China. The Chinese dragons have been associated with the emperor of China since ancient times, while the fenghuang is associated with the empress of China. When used on clothing, the Chinese dragons denote the superiority of its wearer or his aspirations. Since the Song, Liao, Jin and Yuan dynasties, the wearing of robes with dragon patterns were forbidden for subjects of the emperor without his authorization.
Since the Ming dynasty, the Chinese dragon is a five-clawed dragon; if it has four claws, it is no more considered as a Chinese dragon but is considered as a Chinese dragon-like creature ; mang can be found on clothing called . According to Shen Defu, "The mang robe is a garment with an image close to a dragon, similar to the dragon robe of the top authority (the emperor), except for the deduction of one claw". Other clothing with four-clawed Chinese dragon-like creatures are feiyufu and douniufu; feiyu and douniu have additional specific characteristics which differ them from both the mang and the long.
China
The early use of dragon symbols on imperial robes was documented in the Shangshu, where the use of the number of 12 ornaments (which includes the dragon) allowed to be worn on clothing are regulated according to social ranks. The use of the 12 ornaments on clothing were again specified during the reign of Emperor Xiaoming of the Eastern Han dynasty in 59 AD.
Tang and Song dynasties Based on the circular-collar robe, the dragon robe was first adopted by the Tang dynasty (618–906 CE) and was used by the Tang dynasty rulers and senior officials;Lee, Tae-ok. Cho, Woo-hyun. Study on Danryung structure. Proceedings of the Korea Society of Costume Conference. 2003. pp.49–49. the circular-collar robe was embellished with dragons to symbolize imperial power. It was documented during the reign of Wu Zetian in 694 AD that she would bestow these robes decorated with (coiled) dragons-with-three-claws to high-ranking officials, i.e. court officials above the third rank, and to princes. The dragon robes were a symbol of power, and it was a great honour to be bestowed dragon robes by the emperor. This practice continued until the Song dynasty.
The Song dynasty eventually made the dragon into the symbol of the emperor. The Song dynasty's emperor's attire, such as the tongtianguanfu, also has dragons as decorative patterns.
In 1111 AD, a decree forbid all subjects of the emperor from wearing dragon patterns, making wearing of dragon robes an exclusive right for the emperor and the empress unless the dragon robes were bestowed to them as a symbol of special favour.
In the arts of the Tang and Song dynasties, the dragons are often depicted with three-claws and horns which curled upwards.
Liao and Jin dynasties Both the rulers of the Liao dynasty and Jurchen-led Jin dynasty adopted dragon roundels on their robes to indicate social status; currently, the oldest archeological artefacts of the dragon robe which has been found so far is dated to the Liao dynasty. The Liao and Jin dynasties both adopted imperial clothing decorated with Song-style dragons.
Western Xia dynasty
The rulers of the Western Xia also wore a dragon robe with a belt; it was a round-collared gown decorated with dragon roundels.
Yuan dynasty
The Yuan dynasty was the first to codify the use of dragon robes as emblems on court robes. The Imperial family of Yuan used the five-clawed long dragons, which were chasing flaming pearls among clouds. Large dragons with five claws became characteristic features of the emperor's clothing, while smaller dragons with three claws were used for general occasions.
Ming dynasty
As a result of the use of Dragon robes in the Yuan, the subsequent Ming emperors shunned them on formal occasions. (cited in )
Since the Ming dynasty, the Chinese dragons have five claws. However, only royals could wear five-clawed dragons, honoured officials could be granted the privilege of wearing robes with dragon-like creatures, such as mangfu (dragon-like creature with four-clawed), feiyufu (the feiyu, "Flying-fish", a creature with four claws, fin-like wings on the torso, and a fish-looking tail) and the douniu (Dipper capricorn; a creature which can have 3 or 4 claws; water buffalo-like horns). The mangfu, feiyu and douniu robes were strictly regulated by the Ming court.
In the early Ming, the Ming court retained the decorative schemes of the Yuan dynasty for their own dragon robes; however, Ming designers also modified the Yuan dynasty's dragon robe and personalized it by adding "waves breaking against rocks along the lower edges of the decorative areas". The Ming dynasty's dragon robe had a large dragon on the back and chest area of the robe and dragons which were placed horizontally on the skirt, wide sleeves.
Qing dynasty
In the Qing dynasty, the longpao can only be referred as such when it involves the clothing of the emperor, their consorts, and the crown prince; the lonpao was typically decorated with the five-clawed dragons along with the 12 auspicious symbols depending on the wearer's rank. There are different types of robes decorated with Chinese dragon in the Qing dynasty: including jifu ("auspicious robe", a semi-formal court robe, which was worn during special and important occasions), , the most formal robe of the Qing dynasty court, and changfu.
The Qing dynasty inherited the dragon robes of the Ming dynasty. The early Manchus originally did not weave their own textiles, and the Manchus had to obtain Ming dragon robes and cloth when they paid tribute or traded with the Ming dynasty. In 1636, the dress code elaborated by the Manchu allowed the emperor and the first-rank princes to wear yellow robes with five-clawed dragons.
At the time of Hong Taiji, the first emperor of Qing did not want to be solely dressed in the clothing of the Han Chinese and wanted to maintain the Manchu ethnic identity, even in terms of clothing. He also rejected the use of Twelve Ancient Symbols of Imperial Authority which used to adorn the ceremonial and ritual robes of the previous Chinese emperors since the Zhou dynasty. The Ming dynasty dragon robes were therefore modified, cut and tailored to be narrow at the sleeves and waist with slits in the skirt to make it suitable for falconry, horse riding and archery. The Ming dynasty dragon robes were simply modified and changed by Manchus to fit their Manchu tastes by cutting it at the sleeves and waist to make them narrow around the arms and waist instead of wide and added a new narrow cuff to the sleeves. The new cuff was made out of fur. The robe's jacket waist had a new strip of scrap cloth put on the waist while the waist was made snug by pleating the top of the skirt on the robe. The Manchus added sable fur skirts, cuffs and collars to Ming dragon robes and trimming sable fur all over them before wearing them.
By the end of the seventeenth century AD, the Qing court decided to re-design the dragon robes of the Ming dynasty, and from the early eighteenth century, the Qing court has established a dragon robe with 9 dragons, wherein 4 dragons would radiate from the neck on the chest, back and shoulders to symbolize the cardinal direction, 4 dragons were found on the skirts – 2 on the back and 2 on the front of the skirt respectively, with the last dragon (9th) hidden placed on the inner flap of the gown.
In the 1730s, the Qianlong emperor started to wear the sun and moon symbols; both were part of Twelve Ancient Symbols of Imperial Authority.
Through the Huangchao liqi tushi decree, all the Twelve Ancient Symbols of Imperial Authority (which were ironically initially rejected by the first Qing emperor) were eventually added on the emperor's dragon robes by the year 1759. According to the Huangchao liqi tushi, Emperor Qianlong's winter court robe worn on the day court audience was bright yellow; it was decorated with the twelve symbols and was decorated with green ocean dragons on the sleeves and collar, the skirt had five moving dragons, the lapel was decorated by one dragon and the pleats had nine dragons; the skirt has two dragons and four moving dragons and the broad collar has two moving dragons and the each sleeve cuffs have 1 dragon. In the 1759 decree, the use of the five-clawed dragons were also restricted to the usage of the imperial family, i.e. the emperors, the emperor's sons, and the princes of the first and second ranks. Minghuang (bright yellow) dragon robes was only worn by the emperor and the empress; the sons of the Qing emperors were allowed to wear other shades of yellow, for examples: "apricot yellow" for the Crown prince, "golden yellow" for the imperial princes and for the other wives of the emperor; other princes and members of the Aisin Gioro clan were required to wear blue or blue-black robes.
Dragon robes of Han Chinese The Spencer Museum of Art has six longpao robes that belonged to Han Chinese nobility of the Qing dynasty. Ranked officials and Han Chinese nobles had two slits in the skirts while Manchu nobles and the Imperial family had four slits in skirts: All first, second and third rank officials (as well as Han Chinese and Manchu nobles) were entitled to wear nine dragons by the Qing Illustrated Precedents of 1759. Qing sumptuary laws only allowed four-clawed dragons (Mang) for officials, Han Chinese nobles, and Manchu nobles while the Qing Imperial family, emperor and princes up to the second degree and their female family members were entitled to wear five clawed dragons. However officials violated these laws all the time and wore 5 clawed dragons and the Spencer Museum's 6 longpao worn by Han Chinese nobles have 5 clawed dragons on them.
Misconceptions on Qing court clothing development It was mistakenly thought that the hunting ancestors of the Manchus skin clothes became Qing dynasty clothing, due to the contrast between Ming dynasty clothes unshaped cloth's straight length contrasting to the odd-shaped pieces of Qing dynasty longpao (lit. "dragon robe") and chaofu . Scholars from the west wrongly assumed that those clothing were purely Manchu as the early Manchu rulers wrote several edicts stressing on maintaining their traditions and clothing. Qing unofficial clothes, longpao, share similar features with the Yuan dynasty clothing while Qing official clothing, chaofu, shares similarities with the Ming dynasty chaofu-like clothing. The Ming consciously modelled their clothing after that of earlier Han Chinese dynasties like the Song dynasty, Tang dynasty and Han dynasty.
Han Chinese court costume was also modified by Manchus by adding a ceremonial big collar (daling) or shawl collar (pijianling).
Chaofu
The Manchu element on the Qing can be seen from the slim-fitting sleeves and horse-hoof-shaped cuffs, which are the vestiges of the Manchu clothing worn when people were hunting in cold weather. The first prototype of the chaofu was actually the Mongol terlig of the Yuan dynasty; the Mongol terlig of the Yuan continued to develop in the succeeding Ming and Qing dynasties developing their own respective characteristics. However, the Qing dynasty was also a Manchu adaptation of the Han Chinese court dress; the adaptations of the clothing were formalized in 1759.