{"id":1726,"date":"2025-08-16T09:10:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T01:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.zhangruying.com\/en\/?p=1726"},"modified":"2025-08-16T09:21:27","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T01:21:27","slug":"mianfu-%e5%86%95%e6%9c%8d-one-type-of-ceremonial-attire-in-ancient-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zhangruying.com\/en\/1726","title":{"rendered":"Mianfu (\u5195\u670d), One Type of Ceremonial Attire in Ancient China"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Zhang<\/a><\/p>\n

Mianfu (\u5195\u670d ; mi\u01cen f\u00fa) is one type of ceremonial attire in ancient China. It was worn during sacrificial ceremonies and was the highest-specification ceremonial garment worn by emperors and regional rulers during grand rituals.<\/p>\n

The main components include the Mianguan (\u5195\u51a0 mi\u01cen gu\u0101n, Mian crown), upper robe (\u8863 y\u012b, usually black), lower garment (\u88f3 ch\u00e1ng, usually pink or yellow), belt (\u5927\u5e26 ; d\u00e0 d\u00e0i), kneecover (\u853d\u819d ; b\u00ec x\u012b), inner robe made of plain white gauze (\u7d20\u7eb1\u4e2d\u5355 ; s\u00f9 sh\u0101 zh\u014dng d\u0101n), red shoes (\u8d64\u8204 ; ch\u00ec x\u00ec), and others.<\/p>\n

\"Zhang<\/a>
Photo source: \u767e\u5ea6\u767e\u79d1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Mianfu was more than just clothing; it features the Twelve Ornaments<\/a> (\u5341\u4e8c\u7ae0\u7eb9 ; sh\u00ed’\u00e8r zh\u0101ng w\u00e9n): Sun (\u65e5), Moon (\u6708), Stars (\u661f\u8fb0), Mountains (\u7fa4\u5c71), Dragon (\u9f99), Huachong (\u534e\u866b), Zongyi (\u5b97\u5f5d), Waterweed (\u85fb), Fire (\u706b), Millet\/Grain (\u7c89\u7c73), Fu (\u9efc), and Fu (\u9efb).<\/p>\n

Da Qiumian (\u5927\u88d8\u5195 ; d\u00e0 qi\u00fa mi\u01cen) was the type of Mianfu worn by the emperor when offering sacrifices to Heaven, while Gunmian (\u886e\u5195 ; g\u01d4n mi\u01cen) was worn by the emperor when offering sacrifices to ancestors.<\/p>\n

\"Zhang<\/a>
Da Qiumian and Gunmian in\u300a\u65b0\u5b9a\u4e09\u793c\u56fe\u300b, we can see that the Da Qiumian has no patterns, while the Gunmian is covered with patterns.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

During Emperor Song Shenzong\u2019s reign, the Da Qiumian was revived, described as \u201cusing black sheepskin as a robe, thin black fabric for the collar and inner edge trim, sleeves wide enough to move the elbows, length sufficient to cover the knees.\u201d This was the attire Song Shenzong wore during the winter ceremony of offering sacrifices to Heaven, essentially adding a large black sheepskin robe over the Gunmian. Later, it was abolished again due to disagreements within the Song court over the ceremonial dress system.<\/p>\n

Identity Symbols on Mianfu<\/h4>\n

Although the Mianfu was worn by emperors, crown princes, and officials alike during major state rituals, subtle design features revealed the wearer\u2019s exact rank:<\/p>\n

a. Number of Liu (\u65d2) on the Mianguan (\u5195\u51a0)<\/h5>\n
\"Zhang<\/a>
Photo source: \u767e\u5ea6\u767e\u79d1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the Song dynasty, the rank of a Mianfu was distinguished by the number of Liu (\u65d2 ; li\u00fa). Liu (\u65d2) is a hanging ornament on the front and back of the Mianguan, usually made of pearls or jade, woven with multicolored silk threads into algae patterns. One strand of pearls or jade is called one Liu (\u4e00\u65d2 ; y\u012b li\u00fa).<\/p>\n

Determining ceremonial attire specifications based on the number of Liu was a long-standing tradition in China. The emperor\u2019s Mianguan had twelve Liu (\u5341\u4e8c\u65d2 ; sh\u00ed’\u00e8r li\u00fa), while the nine-Liu Mian (\u4e5d\u65d2\u5195 ; ji\u01d4 li\u00fa mi\u01cen) and seven-Liu Mian (\u4e03\u65d2\u5195 ; q\u012b li\u00fa mi\u01cen) were worn by the crown prince and officials, respectively.<\/p>\n

b. Number of decorative patterns (\u7ae0\u7eb9) on the Mianfu<\/h5>\n
\"Zhang<\/a>
Photo source: \u767e\u5ea6\u767e\u79d1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Below the Twelve Ornaments<\/a> (\u5341\u4e8c\u7ae0\u7eb9 ; sh\u00ed\u2019\u00e8r zh\u0101ng w\u00e9n), other ranks included Nine Ornaments (\u4e5d\u7ae0 ; ji\u01d4 zh\u0101ng), Seven Ornaments (\u4e03\u7ae0 ; q\u012b zh\u0101ng), Five Ornaments (\u4e94\u7ae0 ; w\u01d4 zh\u0101ng), and Three Ornaments (\u4e09\u7ae0 ; s\u0101n zh\u0101ng).<\/p>\n

Only the emperor could use Twelve Ornaments, the crown prince used nine, and the number for officials decreased according to rank.<\/p>\n

c. Others<\/h5>\n

The materials for the leather belt (\u9769\u5e26 ; g\u00e9 d\u00e0i), waist ribbon (\u4f69\u7ef6 ; p\u00e8i sh\u00f2u), and the color of the garments on the Mianfu were all differentiated according to the rank of the wearer.<\/p>\n

Source:\u300a\u6211\u5728\u5b8b\u671d\u7a7f\u4ec0\u4e48\u300bby \u9646\u857e<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mianfu (\u5195\u670d ; mi\u01cen f\u00fa) is one type of ceremonial attire in ancient China. It was worn during sacrificial ceremonies...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":1730,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,15],"tags":[1102,1105,1107,1094,1108,564,1111,1059,1095,1097,1092,1110,1103,1096,1099,1098,1104,1109,1106],"class_list":["post-1726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hanfu-guide","category-history-culture","tag-ceremonial-attire","tag-da-qiumian","tag-gunmian","tag-imperial-china","tag-liu","tag-mianfu","tag-mianguan","tag-traditional-chinese-clothing","tag-twelve-chapters","tag-twelve-emblem-patterns","tag-twelve-ornaments","tag-1110","tag-1103","tag-1096","tag-1099","tag-1098","tag-1104","tag-1109","tag-1106"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zhangruying.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zhangruying.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zhangruying.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zhangruying.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zhangruying.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.zhangruying.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zhangruying.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zhangruying.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zhangruying.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zhangruying.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}