Bianfu
Red Chinese ceremonial outfit
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| Chinese | 弁服 | ||||||
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Bianfu (Chinese: 弁服; pinyin: biànfú) is a historical set of attire in Hanfu consisting of a knee-length Chinese upper garment known as jiangshapao (绛纱袍) over a qun, a Chinese skirt, known as hong chang (红裳; 'red skirt') or pair of ku-trousers along with other accessories. Coupled with the Chinese headwear known as pibian, the complete set of attire is also referred as pibianfu (皮弁服). This set of attire was considered to be a ceremonial dress. In the Zhou dynasty, the bianfu was only ranked-second after the mianfu and it was worn by the emperors when he would work on official business or when he would meet with the court officials.
01Construction and design
The upper garment known as jiangshapao (绛纱袍; 絳紗袍) which was red in colour and extended all the way to the knees. This was typically worn over a red skirt known as hong chang (红裳; 'red skirt') that reached the length of the ankles. The wearing of a qun under an upper garment was only worn during formal occasions. Over the hongchang, the wearer wore a red coloured bixi. Under the red outer garments, an inner garment known as zhongdan (中单) was worn. A yugui (玉圭; 'jade tablet') would be held in its wearer's hands; it was further accessorized with yupei (玉佩), daxiaoshou (大小绶; "a ribbon-like accessory"), and the belt called dadai (大带; 大帶). The bian (弁), also known as pibian (皮弁), was a cylinder-shaped guan (headwear) that completed the outfit.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Bianfu”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Ming dynasty emperor wearing Pibian and Bianfu (皮弁服).jpg by Unknown authorUnknown author, CC0
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