Today’s clothing industry is particularly developed, with a dazzling array of products, and mass media often broadcast attractive fashion shows. Those who benefit most are probably the wealthy businessmen with huge wealth. They have a strong economic foundation and can enjoy fashionable and expensive clothes that cost tens of thousands of yuan.
Business people may not have thought that their predecessors did not have the freedom to choose clothing as they do today. The status of merchants in ancient times was at the bottom of the “four people” (scholars, farmers, industry and merchants). Although they were richer than farmers and workers, their clothing was restricted. Liu Bang, who was born as a scoundrel and never forgot to return to his hometown in fine clothes when he became emperor, felt uncomfortable when he saw the merchants dressed in gorgeous clothes. He ordered that “Jia people should not be allowed to wear fine clothes, 绮箸,絺绻,罽”. In today’s terms, doing business You cannot wear exquisite and bright clothes such as silk, wool, and gauze.
In fact, Liu Bang’s regulations were not “innovative”, and it was not just merchants who were deprived of their freedom to wear clothes. In the long feudal era, power had strict regulations on people’s clothing. Clothing was a symbol of people’s status and a symbol of their rank.
According to “Shangshu” records, as early as more than 4,000 years ago, starting from the era of Shun, who was regarded by our ancestors as the ancient sage king and “the world’s bright virtues began with Emperor Yu”, clothes had ” Chapter Twelve” means twelve kinds of patterns. Twelve kinds of patterns can be used for the emperor’s clothes, eight kinds for princes, six kinds for ministers, four kinds for officials, only two kinds for scholars, and civilians are not allowed to have ornaments and can only wear ” White clothes”. The regulations are strict and the levels are clear, and no one is allowed to exceed them. Since then, all dynasties have stipulated the wearing of clothes of different materials, colors, styles, and patterns according to different statuses. Yellow and dragon robes are reserved for emperors, and overstepping is considered treason; nobles are noble, and only those who become high-ranking officials can wear red robes and purple ribbons; commoners and cyan are used by the lower classes, and common people only deserve “green achievements and green clothes” (green clothes). headscarf blue cloth). “No non-human beings are allowed to wear clothes, so they follow the etiquette” (“Book of the Later Han Dynasty”). Precisely because clothing is an external symbol of class, clothing has become a reference to people. “Qingyi” refers to maids, and “common clothes” refer to common people. “Noble” means high official.
Today, most of us have no worries about food and clothing. The beautifying function of clothing dominates the choice of clothing, whether it is gorgeous, simple, trendy, or conservative. Different clothing appeals to different aesthetic tastes. If anyone still judges people based on their clothing and thinks that covering one’s body with brocade clothes will double one’s worth, and wearing plain clothes means one will be poor, then that is an outdated and vulgar view.
Clothing is a product created by people in the long-term survival and evolution to serve people. It is used to keep out the cold and sun, cover the body and shame, and decorate the body to be pleasing to the eye. It is expressed in the language of the academic world and has three functions: practical, ethical and beautifying. However, in the era of imperial rule, clothing became a status label that people could not refuse, and a functional symbol that all living beings lost their equal dignity. This alternative function of clothing is undoubtedly the alienation of its basic function and a blasphemy to its basic function.
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