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#since qun in vietnamese has evolved to mean trousers
guzhuangheaven · 3 years
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Hello! I was watching Sword and Brocade (and loved it!) and the clothes were lovely. Can you please explain what the long outer garment is that the female lead (and all the married women in the marquis mansion) begins to wear once she is married as opposed to the short, waist length jacket she wears when she's unmarried? And can you walk us through the many layers underneath that long outer robe? Thank you, love your blog!
We know very little about Ming dynasty clothes, but the basic hanfu for Ming dynasty women is called aoqun. From this post by @ziseviolet
- Aoqun/袄裙 ...became fashionable during the Ming Dynasty. It consists of a double-layered top called “ao/袄“ and a waist-high skirt (”qun”), hence “aoqun”. Unlike the “standard” ruqun that has the top tucked inside the skirt, the aoqun’s top is worn untucked, above the skirt. There are two types of “ao” - “short ao” and “long ao”. The “short ao” reaches the waist, while the “long ao” covers the knees. Ao collars can be crossed, upright, or square. Only worn by women.
We also recommend consulting hanfu blogs like ziseviolet, @hanfu-asks @fouryearsofshades for specifics about hanfu. We know nothing. 
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So, above, the outermost layer that Shiyi Niang is wearing is a square-collar ao. I think the inner buttoned layer probably is an upright collar unlined top (shan/衫)? Probably? 
Ming dynasty women also wear a jacket called pifeng 披风. It is the outermost layer that Lianfang is wearing in the photo below. 
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The shorter jacket Shiyi Niang wears when she was unmarried is a bijia 比甲:
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Here are some Youtube video with English narration on cross-collar aoqun and how to wear it, upright collar, mamian qun, bijia. Here’s a video on different types of Ming dynasty women’s clothes. It has the name of the different types of clothes in Chinese characters which unfortunately doesn’t have English subtitles, but you can see the different styles and how they layer.
See also: Powerpoint on Ming dynasty fashion,  Evolution of the Traditional Chinese Dress
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