When it comes to skirts, modern people will definitely say without hesitation that they are the patent of women. In fact, skirts were originally worn by men and women at the same time.
The word "skirt", the original work is "Jun", "Shuowen Jiezi" says: "Skirt, from the towel or from the clothes, Junsheng". "Cihai" explains under the "skirt" note: "In ancient times, it was called lower clothes, unisex". That is to say, in ancient times, people called tops "clothes" and lower clothes "clothes". And "clothes" are skirts, no matter men and women, everyone is the same.
The first generation of the skirt should have been in the primitive society. At that time, due to low productivity, when people made clothes from leaves or other raw materials, the easiest way was to wrap them around their bodies, and the first skirt was born. Of course, the skirt at this time would not be a female patent, but should be unisex. According to historical records, the ancient Yellow Emperor "ruled the world with clothes and clothes", which means that the Yellow Emperor wore a men's dress —" ruled the world. The statue of the Yellow Emperor in front of the Mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor in Xuanyuan, Huangling County, Shaanxi Province, wore a skirt. It was also from then on that the ancient Chinese system of "clothes under the top" was regarded as the most solemn and orthodox clothing, just as modern people wear suits and ties on solemn occasions.
The costumes of the Shang Dynasty. The "clothes" of the upper body, the collar is opened to the right, and the clothes are as long as the knees. The "clothes" of the lower body are as long as the ankles, and a wide-brimmed belt is tied around the waist. In front of the abdomen, a narrow and wide axe-shaped ornament "Qi" is added to cover the knees, so it is also called "knee covering". In the Zhou Dynasty, which was very elegant and polite, people began to combine the two pieces of cloth of the "clothes" into a cylinder. This small change made the "clothes" more beautiful and elegant than the Shang Dynasty.
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the world was in chaos, the princes were fighting for hegemony, and wars were frequent. Horses have become an important means of transportation and combat tools for people. For people riding horses, skirts were extremely inconvenient. In order to adapt to this situation, people simply put their tops and lower clothes together, from the "clothes" and "clothes" worn separately from the top and bottom in the past to the upper and lower parts. The specific method is to unfold the triangular cloth behind them, and the lower right corner of the cloth goes around the legs, wrapping from the front of the legs to the left side of the body, and then wrapping the lower left corner of the cloth to the right side of the body in the same way, and then binding it with a belt. This is the "deep clothes" that were popular in the Warring States Period, and its shape is quite like our dresses today.
During the Six Dynasties of the Han and Wei Dynasties, the fashion of men wearing skirts was extremely popular and fashionable. According to the "Song Shu · Yang Xin Biography", Yang Xin liked calligraphy since she was a child, especially good at official calligraphy, which won the love of the famous calligrapher Wang Xianzhi. When Yang Xin was 2 years old, his father was the county magistrate of Wu Cheng (now Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province), and Wang Xianzhi was the prefect of Wuxing County (where he was governed). This summer, Yang Xin "wore a new silk dress and went to bed." At this time, Wang Xianzhi came to Yang Xin's house to visit Yang Xin's father. Before leaving, Wang Xianzhi saw that the new dress worn by Yang Xin was very beautiful, and on a whim, "the book's kirt 'went away several times." After Yang Xin woke up, he practiced calligraphy according to the few "skirt" banners written by Wang Xianzhi for him, and his calligraphy attainments were "so good."
There is also an interesting thing recorded in the "Biography of Southern History and Confucianism". Once, Emperor Wu of the Southern Dynasty discussed the meaning of the word "Qiankun" with Zhang Yixiao, Yuan Ding, and others in the Wende Hall. Emperor Wu of Liang asked the ministers to express their views. Ministers were afraid that their views would be different from those of the emperor and lead to death, so "all Confucians should not dare to go first." Zhang Yixiao, on the other hand, went into plastic surgery, quoted from the outside, talked eloquently, and spoke gently, "The emperor was very different, and bestowed thi, thi, silk, etc.", and said that this was to "show the merit of the ancient times." It can be seen that the emperor rewarded men's dresses at that time as a high honor.
In the upper classes of the Han, Wei and Six Dynasties, "young people with clogs" were very popular and fashionable. The so-called "young people with clogs" meant that the children of nobles wore skirts and clogs as fashion. So much so that later, people often used "young people with clogs" as a metaphor for those young people who only paid attention to clothes and decoration but not real talents, which is synonymous with what we call "playboys" today. For example, "Xiao Shenzao was a young man with clogs and did not manage government affairs" as recorded in the Biography of Xing Lian, Northern History.
After the Sui and Tang Dynasties, men began to stop wearing skirts, but because the Yellow Emperor was recognized as the ancestor of humanity, the clothing of emperors in previous dynasties still used the "top and clothes" system, but a dragon robe was added on the outside. Ordinary people used "robes" for men, while women used "skirts" for regular clothing. In fact, whether it was the emperor's "dragon robe" or the ordinary people's "cloth robe", how different was it from the original "clothes", that is, skirts?