Ruqun

Two traditional forms of ruqun (襦裙), a type of Han Chinese clothing worn by women.

Ruqun (襦裙) is the traditional Chinese attire (hanfu) for women. It consists of a blouse (襦, Ru) and a wrap-around skirt (裙, Qun). It has a long history, and has been worn by women since the Warring States Period.

History

The blouse was tucked into the skirt. Popularity of ruqun declined during the Han Dynasty, but was picked up during the Southern and Northern Dynasties. During the Sui and Tang Dynasty, the skirts were tied higher and higher up the waist, until they were eventually tied above the breasts, worn with short blouses. In addition to the normal crossed-collar blouses, parallel/straight-collar (對襟) blouses were also worn in this period, thus exposing the cleavage of the breasts. During the Song Dynasty, the the skirts were eventually lowered from the breast level back to the normal waistline. In the late Ming Dynasty, ruqun went through a major change when women started to wear much longer upper garments. This new style of ruqun, also called aoqun (襖裙), became popular in the Qing Dynasty.

Late Imperial Era

By the Ming Dynasty, ruqun became the most common form of attire for women. The sleeves of the blouse are mostly curved with a narrow sleeve cuff (琵琶袖, pipa sleeve). There is often an optional detachable protective huling (護領, lit. "protect collar") sewn to the collar. The huling can be of white or any other dark colours. The collar is of the same colour as the clothing. Towards the start of the Qing Dynasty, the skirt is mostly baizhequn (百摺裙, lit. "hundred pleats skirt") or mamianqun (馬面裙, lit. "horse face skirt").

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  A Han Dynasty painting illustrates women wearing ruqun, blouse tucked into skirt
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  A Tang Dynasty painting illustrates women wearing ruqun, with skirts tied above the breasts and short parallel-collar blouses
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  A Tang Dynasty Painting illustrating Ruqun
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  Ming Dynasty painting illustrating ruqun
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  Ming Dynasty painting illustrating ruqun
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  Ming Dynasty painting illustrating ruqun
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  Illustration of Ruqun and Pifeng during Qing Dynasty<ref>{{citation

See also

• Han Chinese clothing
• List of Han Chinese clothing