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Hanfu is a term used for the historical styles of clothing worn in China by the Han Chinese. Traditionally, the hanfu consisted of a robe or shirt worn as the upper garment, with a pleated skirt commonly worn as the lower garment. Following the Han dynasty, this clothing had developed into a variety of styles utilising fabrics that encompassed a number of complex textile production techniques, particularly those used to produce silk, and had absorbed a number of elements from foreign cultures. Hanfu also influenced the whole Han culture circle through the Chinese law system. Some Asian nations, such as Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Mongolia, Bhutan and so on, all have the characteristics of Hanfu.

Tang dynasty
The Tang dynasty represents a golden age in China's history, where the arts, sciences and economy were thriving. Female dress and personal adornments in particular reflected the new visions of this era, which saw unprecedented trade and interaction with cultures and philosophies alien to Chinese borders. Although it still continues the clothing of its predecessors such as Han and Sui dynasties, fashion during the Tang was also influenced by its cosmopolitan culture and arts. Where previously Chinese women had been restricted by the old Confucian code to closely wrapped, concealing outfits, female dress in the Tang dynasty gradually became more relaxed, less constricting and even more revealing. The Tang dynasty also saw the ready acceptance and syncretisation with Chinese practice, of elements of foreign culture by the Han Chinese. The foreign influences prevalent during Tang China included cultures from Gandhara, Turkestan, Persia and Greece. The stylistic influences of these cultures were fused into Tang-style clothing without any one particular culture having especial prominence. Women's clothing in Tang Dynasty was mainly Ru. The upper garment is light and thin, and the skirt is tied above the chest. Due to the visit of many neighboring countries during the Tang Dynasty, the clothing styles of the Tang Dynasty also spread to Japan and South Korea.

Emperor Gaozong of Tang ordered women to wear a type of clothing similar to the burnoose, covering the head and body with only a slit for vision. It was to stop women from being seen by men to enforce public decency. Women wore hoods that only let the face be shown or a veil that covered the sides of their head hanging from a broad rimmed hat, a curtain bonnet. But Gaozong was not even satisfied with these because they let the face be shown and he wanted the burnoose to return and cover the face. The sil veil on the curtained hat was adopted from the Tuyuhun ethnic minority to the west and used to stop men from seeing women. The Tang dynasty veils covered the women's face and neck. Song dynasty women continued wearing this Tang dynasty women's veil which covered the head and upper body despite its barbarian origin. The full body veil originating from the Rong and Yi barbarians started to be worn by Chinese women of noble and aristicratic families during the Sui dynasty and was enforced with laws during the Tang dynasty to make women wear it sonce women started abandoning it for the weimao which only covered the head and face. It was to stop strangers from seeing women and viewed as proprietious. The full body mili veil was for women riding on horses. The weimao was also called the humao (barbarian hat). The veil worn by women in the Sui and Tang dynasties was of foreign origin from the western regions. Noble women of the Tang dynasty wore the veil and after the Yonghui reign the veil with hat was worn.

Song, Liao, Western Xia, Jin and Yuan dynasty
Some features of Tang clothing carried into the Song dynasty such as court customs. Because the Song Dynasty was in the process of domestic and foreign invasion for a long time, and the influence of Cheng Zhu Neo Confucianism, the clothing of this period advocated simplicity, preciseness and implicitness. The soft foot Futou of the Tang Dynasty has evolved into a Futou hat lined with wooden bones and covered with lacquer yarn. Song court customs often use red color for their garments with black leather shoe and hats. Collar edges and sleeve edges of all clothes that have been excavated were decorated with laces or embroidered patterns. Such clothes were decorated with patterns of peony, camellia, plum blossom, and lily, etc. Song Empresses often had three to five distinctive jewelry-like marks on their face (two side of the cheek, other two next to the eyebrows and one on the forehead). Although some of Song clothing have similarities with previous dynasties, some unique characteristics separate it from the rest. Many of Song Clothing goes into Yuan and Ming. One of the common clothing styles for woman during the Song dynasty was Beizi (褙子), which were usually regarded as shirt or jacket and could be matched with Ru or Ku. There are two size of Beizi: the short one is crown rump length and the long one extended to the knees. Since the Song Dynasty, Xiapei has become a part of lady's dress and a symbol of women's social identity. In the tomb of Huang Sheng of the Southern Song Dynasty in Fujian Province, antiques from Xiafu of the Song Dynasty have been found. It is shaped by two slender strips embroidered with flower patterns. One end of the long belt is in the shape of a sharp angle, and the two sharp corners are sewn together, so the two long strips are connected to form a "V" shape. The way to wear it is to put two long belts on the shoulder and sew them together at the back of the neck. The sharp end of the belt is hung in front of the body, and a gold or jade round pendant is dropped as decoration.

Unlike the tonsure of the Tangut Western Xia, the Jurchen hairstyle of wearing the queue combined with shaving the crown was not the invention of an emperor of the dynasty but was an established Jurchen hairstyle which showed who submitted to Jin rule. This Jurchen queue and shaving hairstyle was not enforced on the Han Chinese in the Jin after an initial attempt to do so which was a rebuke to Jurchen values. The Jin at first attempted to impose Jurchen hairstyle and clothes on the Han population in the Jin but the order was taken back. They also banned intermarriage.

Manchu Jurchen men had queues, while Mongol men swept their hair behind their ears and plaited them, Turk men wore loose hair and Xiongnu men braided their hair. Khitan males grew hair from their temples but shaved the crown of their heads. The Han Chinese men living in the Liao dynasty were not required to wear the shaved Khitan hairstyle which Khitan men wore to distinguish their ethnicity, unlike the Qing dynasty which mandated wearing of the Manchu hairstyle for men. Khitan men left only two separate patches of hair on each of the forehead's sides in front of each ear in tresses while they shaved the top of their head. Khitan wore felt hats, fur clothes and woolen cloth and the Liao emperor switched between Han and Khitan clothing. Khitan officials used gold ornamented ribbons to found their hair locks around their foreheads, covering their heads with felt hats according to the Ye Longli's (Yeh Lung-li) Qidan Guozhi (Ch'i-tan kuo-chih). Khitan wore the long side fringes & shaved pates. Tomb murals of Khitan hairstyle show only some hair remaining near the neck and forehead with the rest of the head shaved. Only at the temples were hair left while the crown was shaven. The absence of Khitan clothes and hairstyles on a painting of riders previously identified as Khitan has lad to experts questioning their purported identity. Khitan men might have differentiate between classes by wearing different patterns on their small braids hanging off their shaved foreheads. They wore the braids occasionally with a forehead fringe with some shaving off all the forehead. Some Han men adopted and mixed or combined Han clothing with Khitan clothing with Khitan boots and Han clothes or wearing Khitan clothes. Han women on the other hand did not adopt Khitan dress and continued wearing Han dress.

Non-Han women such as Central Asian women often adopted Han dress while their men didn't during the Tang dynasty. In the Liao dynasty, Khitan officials and the Liao empress wore Khitan clothes but the Han Chinese officials and Liao emperor wore Song clothes (Han clothes). The Liao had both Han style Tang and Song dynasty clothes and Khitan clothes. Both Khitan women and Han Chinese women in the Liao wore Han style Tang-Song dress.

The Song dynasty banned people except for drama actors from wearing Jurchen and Khitan diaodun leggings. In the Yuan dynasty theater zaju drama actors wore all different clothes ranging from Jurchen, to Khitan, to Mongol, to Song Han Chinese clothes. The Ming dynasty had many Mongol clothes and cultural aspects abolished and enforced Tang dynasty style Han Chinese clothing.

Hanfu Movement
In the 21st century, a fashion and social movement named Hanfu movement seeks the revival of ancient Han Chinese clothing. The slogan "Renaissance is not restoration" was put forward. People began to accept Hanfu made of modern technology, cloth and pattern. Some elements of the movement take inspiration from the use of indigenous clothing by ethnic minorities in China, as well as the usage of kimono in Japan and traditional clothing used in India. Clothes from different dynasties also began to be mixed and matched, such as the Tang Dynasty's big sleeve shirt and the Ming Dynasty's round neck robe. The modern Hanfu also changes to a style that can be worn daily, and these styles combined with western clothing or even clothing from other cultures.

Ming dynasty Han Chinese robes given by the Ming Emperors to the Chinese noble Dukes Yansheng descended from Confucius are still preserved in the Confucius Mansion after over five centuries. Robes from the Qing emperors are also preserved there. The Jurchens in the Jin dynasty and Mongols in the Yuan dynasty continued to patronize and support the Confucian Duke Yansheng.

Controversial Point
As there is no antique sample clothing as a reference, many of the current wearing methods of Hanfu are imagined by businesses. For example, the shape of Ru skirt in Tang Dynasty is still difficult to determine whether it is made of two pieces of cloth or one piece of cloth.