Qing Clothing, Grooming and Personal Appearance: Dress and Social Identity, 1636–1912

Qing clothing answered practical needs while making social position visible. Riding robes, court insignia and the male queue became associated with Manchu rule, while Han and Manchu women retained distinct traditions of dress. Garments changed with season, wealth and occasion. Maintaining an appearance also required work: arranging hair, shaving the scalp, securing ornaments and caring for stored clothing.

On this page5 sections

Riding garments and changing everyday dress

In broad use, qizhuang, or banner dress, referred to Manchu clothing and the wider system of attire worn for different settings. Men and women commonly wore a long outer robe with a jacket or vest, over shorter coats and trousers. Trousers protected the legs, while boots with firm soles helped riders stand in iron stirrups. The clothing’s construction also supported movement on horseback: robes and coats could have openings at the front, back and both sides, and the sleeves were relatively close-fitting.

Some robes had a slanting, overlapping front that fastened with loops and toggles along the right side. A distinctive cuff, the matixiu, or horse-hoof cuff, extended over the back of the hand, offering some protection from wind and cold. These features suited riding, but they also became markers of Manchu dress. Qing rulers presented such clothing as part of a martial tradition that they wanted to preserve, rather than adopt the wider sleeves and other styles associated with Ming dress.

Clothing nevertheless changed across ethnic and social settings. Han Chinese men developed the changshan, a long robe shaped by both Ming clothing and Manchu influence. It adopted a narrower cut, a curved collar and loop-and-button fastenings, but usually had two side openings rather than the four openings of the riding robe. It lacked the horse-hoof cuff. Han Chinese women continued to wear two-piece outfits, while Manchu women generally wore a single long robe. The styles could influence one another; for example, Manchu women’s informal clothing adopted some broad sleeves associated with Han dress.

Clothing also responded to weather and occasion. Robes and coats could be lined or trimmed with fur, and winter garments differed from summer ones. Fur-lined surcoats, including the duanzhao, were associated with elites and were subject to restrictions on who could wear them, as well as on the fur and lining colours. Silk, satin, fur and embroidery appear in descriptions of Qing clothing, but the materials and decoration varied with wealth, rank and use.

Court dress and the language of rank

The court established rules to distinguish the emperor and imperial household from officials and other wearers. The Board of Rites, the government body responsible for ritual matters, developed and revised these regulations during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. A court-commissioned guide to ritual objects and clothing, prepared in the Qianlong reign and published and enforced by 1766, set out attire for the imperial family, officials and their households. It classified dress by formality and occasion, and also took account of the seasons.

The most formal ceremonial clothing, called chaofu, was worn at major state rites, including imperial enthronements, weddings, New Year observances and sacrifices. Men’s court dress combined a robe with a ceremonial collar and regulated headwear. Women’s formal court outfit included a robe, a long vest worn over it and a skirt beneath. Festive robes, or jifu, served at banquets and other celebrations and could also be worn at military inspections. Less formal official dress was used for travel on government business and court entertainment, while ordinary leisure clothing was not regulated in the same way. Separate travel garments suited to riding and hunting were generally plain.

Rank was displayed through colour, ornament and embroidered insignia. An official’s square badge, called a buzi, was attached to the front and back of a surcoat. Civil officials wore badges with birds, while military officials wore animals; the insignia distinguished grades of office. Officials’ wives could wear related badges, sometimes with the design reversed. Imperial garments used different dragon designs and colours according to rank, and rules also governed the number of claws shown on dragons. The restrictions became less consistently observed toward the end of the dynasty.

Hats, belts and other accessories formed part of this regulated appearance. Court hats varied by season, rank and gender. Regulations also assigned different numbers of freshwater pearls to members of the aristocracy. A woven silk belt and a court necklace could complete formal dress. These details made rank visible without relying on the robe alone.

The queue and the politics of men’s hair

The male queue, known in Manchu as soncoho, consisted of a shaved area at the front of the scalp and the remaining hair grown long and braided at the back. Manchu rulers required men under their rule to adopt the hairstyle, making it a public sign of submission to Qing authority. In 1645, after Qing forces had entered the former Ming territories, the regent Dorgon ordered Han Chinese men to shave the front of the head and braid the rest into a queue, threatening severe punishment for refusal.

The order provoked resistance because many Han Chinese regarded uncut hair as connected to filial duty and the body’s inheritance from one’s parents. Enforcement involved violence and was not immediate or uniform across the country. Religious exemptions applied to Buddhist monks, who shaved their heads, and Taoist priests, who retained long hair in a topknot. Women were not required to adopt the queue or the Manchu women’s hairstyle.

Over time, the queue also became an everyday custom, but its political meaning remained available for protest. Some reformers and revolutionaries cut their queues before the dynasty’s fall, while the end of Qing rule brought the compulsory hairstyle to an end. Its history shows how a grooming rule could make political allegiance visible while provoking opposition.

The hairstyle required repeated maintenance. A watercolour by Zhou Pei Qun from about 1890 shows a barber shaving the front and sides of a seated man’s head. Nineteenth-century pictures from Canton also show itinerant barbers carrying equipment and working in the street. Keeping the shaved area clear while preserving the long braid created a regular demand for skilled grooming services.

Women’s hairstyles, footwear and adornment

Manchu women’s hair arrangement, often called liangbatou, developed from a style made with the wearer’s own hair. Hair was gathered and divided into two sections, then wound around a long, flat support called a bianfang. Supports could be made of wood, ivory or precious metal. Pins held the arrangement in place. Early forms sat relatively low; later versions grew larger and higher, sometimes using added hair and wire supports.

By the late Qing, the arrangement could be built up with a broad, board-like frame. Black satin gave the structure a defined shape, while hairpins and decorations secured or ornamented it. Court women might wear elaborate arrangements with flowers, jade, pearls or coral. More modest versions could use metal inlays or velvet flowers; hairpins might be made of silver or bone.

Manchu women generally did not bind their feet, and Banner rules prohibited the practice, although some women broke the restriction. Some Manchu shoes had raised platforms that gave the wearer a gait associated with bound feet. This footwear did not mean the feet had been bound; it was a separate style of shoe.

Other accessories likewise carried social meaning. Manchu and Banner women were expected to wear three earrings in each ear, a rule reinforced during the Qianlong reign, while Han Chinese women commonly wore one earring. Manchu women did not always observe the regulation. Court collars, decorative neck ribbons and formal necklaces supplemented particular outfits. As with robes and hairstyles, the use of accessories depended on occasion, rank and community.

Seasonal care of garments

Stored robes and textiles needed protection as well as decoration. Fucha Dunchong’s late Qing account of Beijing records people airing clothing and books on the sixth day of the sixth lunar month, believing this prevented insect damage. The date made household maintenance part of the seasonal calendar. Bringing stored garments out into the air and then packing them away linked clothing care to the rhythms of the home.

For the wider setting, see Food, Dress, Festivals and Recreation under the Qing Dynasty.