MARCH 1 - 7, 2012Arts & Culture B5

BY HONG JIANGEPOCH TIMES STAFF

W hile the Manchu establ ished the Q i n g D y n a s t y (1644–1911)

according to Chinese dynas-tic traditions, they kept very unique cultural elements, such as in clothing. The one-piece-long Manchu gown stood out in contrast with the more com-plicated Chinese traditional blouses and skirts. This may be understood from the semi-nomadic Manchu culture and a strong military tradition. Over time, the Manchu clothing has inf luenced the Chinese style of dress.

The long gown was the dress code for both Manchu men and women. Below we focus on Manchu women’s dress – clothing, shoes and headdresses.

The long gown, ‘Qipao’L o n g M a n c h u g o w n s , c o m m o n l y k n o w n t o d a y as ‘qipao’, did not have the tight-fitting shape that qipao is known for today – the latter was modified from the traditional qipao in the 1 9 2 0 s t o f i t t h e p o p u l a r Chinese fashion. The word qipao means banner gown or gown of the banner people, referring to the Manchu, who were organised into eight banners, or divisions, by the Qing state.

T r a d i t i o n a l q i p a o w a s loose-fitting and hung down from the body, covering all but the head, hands and the front of the toes. While men’s gowns had four splits for ease of movement in horse riding, women’s gowns usually had two splits, one on each side.

The upper-class woman wore long gowns made of si lk , satin or gauze, while the lower-class woman wore cotton or coarse fur. In the wintertime, fur or cotton inlays helped to insulate the body from the freezing cold in northern China. A long surcoat with a front opening or a short sleeveless vest could also be worn outside the long gown.

Embroidery on the long

gown was an important part of the Manchu dress, with d e c o r a t i v e b o r d e r s h i g h -lighting collars, hems and splits. Common embroidery patterns included animals, flowers and clouds; round p a t t e r n s a n d a u s p i c i o u s Chinese characters were used as well. Cloud and butterfly patterns were often used to decorate borders. For court women, the necklines were often decorated with pearls, precious stones and jade ornaments.

The embroidery patterns showed a deep inf luence from the Chinese culture. The Qing had a strict dress code for the court, and gown c o l o u r s a n d e m b r o i d e r y p a t t e r n s i n d i c a t e d r a n k . Royals preferred the colours yellow and blue as well as the royal symbol – the dragon – which represents authority bestowed by heaven.

T h e Q i n g c o u r t e s t a b -l ished its authority upon this Chinese tradition. Other Chinese motifs found their way onto the long Manchu gowns, such as the crane, symbolising long life; motifs from Taoist stories; and the plum blossom, a symbol of inner strength.

In the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, long gowns had narrow sleeves, right-side pleats and round collars, with the bottom wider than the top. Later, the bottom became narrower, making the gown more straight-lined; narrow collars appeared, and sleeves became wider.

D u r i n g K a n g x i ’ s r e i g n (1661–1722), Manchu women preferred brown gowns with golden-embroidered black col lars and surcoats with g r e e n - e m b r o i d e r e d b l a c k h e m s . P o p u l a r s t y l e s i n later periods included pink-trimmed yellow gowns and black-decorated blue gowns.

The Manchu women’s long gown was refashioned in the 1920s into today’s form-fitting silhouette, now seen as a Chinese traditional dress despite its Manchu origin. The lasting impact of the Manchu dress speaks both to the qipao’s vitality and Chinese culture’s versatility.

Pot-bottomed flowered shoesManchu women of status wore platform shoes with colourful embroidery. The wooden platform was shaped l ike a f lower pot , and its imprint looked like that of a horse’s hoof, so the shoe is also called “pot-bottom shoe” or “horse-hoofed shoe”. The former name is perhaps more f i t t ing because the platform served as the base for the upper part of the shoe, which was embroidered with flowers.

The platform is usually 2 to 6 inches high, wrapped in white cloth and attached

at the arch of the shoe. The vamp was made of silk and embroidered with flowers and sometimes birds and fruit. Manchu women did not bind their feet like some Chinese women did during the Qing Dynasty, so their shoes were of regular sizes.

T h e p o t - b o t t o m s h o e s e f f e c t i v e l y e l e v a t e d t h e woman’s feet above the hem of the long gown, making the Manchu women walk tall and dignified. To walk stably in the shoes, Manchu women had to hold a straight posture and swing their arms more widely. This gave them an

extra air of femininity and royalty.

Different stories tell the origin of the pot-bottom shoe. One tells of a tradition that Manchu women gathered fruits and vegetables in the mountains, and they tied a piece of wood at the bottom o f t h e i r s h o e s t o a v o i d being bitten by snakes. This tradition later turned into the artistically refined pot-bottom shoe.

Elaborate hairstylesManchu women arranged their hair in a rather stately fashion, with a decorated

frame attached to the top of the head. Instead of tying their hair up in a bun like the Chinese did, Manchu women wrapped their hair around a wooden, metal or ivory f i l let (cal led “bian fang”) , extending over either side of the head and fastened behind the head.

The coiffure rose dramati-cally above the head, with decorative flowers attached to the front. Silk tassels hung from the two sides, matching the patterns of the flowered shoes. This was called the banner hair or “liang ba tou (two handfuls of hair)” as the hair was parted in the middle and wrapped to the two sides of the fillet.

During the Qing Dynasty, the coiffure became higher and fan-shaped, sitting on the head like a flat crown. Instead of being wrapped with hair, the frame was covered in silk or velvet, and decorations were also more lavish.

F o r c o u r t w o m e n , t h e coiffure was decorated with flowers made of jade, pearl, coral and precious stones. Common women preferred i n l a i d m e t a l a n d v e l v e t flowers. Choices of flowers included peony, chrysanthe-mum and plum blossom.

Hairpins helped finish the last step of the headdress. The coiffure was anchored t o t h e h a i r i n t h e b a c k . D e c o r a t i v e h a i r p i n s w e r e a t t a c h e d t o t h e f r o n t o f the coiffure , highlighting beauty and wealth. Jade and precious stone hairpins, often elaborately designed, were preferred by the wealthy, w h i l e c o m m o n e r s u s e d si lver and bone hairpins . Auspicious motifs such as those symbolising happiness, p r o s p e r i t y a n d l o n g e v i t y defined a hairpin’s decorative patterns.With the last hairpin, the Manchu woman completed her attire: an embroidered long gown, pot-bottom flowered shoes and a dramatic coif. She stood tall and beautiful, walking with her arms and headdress tassels swaying in the air as the platform shoes sounded rhythmically – a picture of beauty, dignity and grace.

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WIKIMEDIA

CHINESE TRADITIONAL CULTURE

ANASTASIA GUBINEPOCH TIMES STAFF

According to Italian art historian Carla Glori, the face of the enigmatic “Mona Lisa” (also known as “La Gioconda”), painted by the great Renaissance master Leonardo Da Vinci, and the replica, the “Prado Mona Lisa” is the face of Bianca Giovanna Sforza. However, that claim does not convince those who have sustained for many years the belief that it is a portrait of Mona Lisa or Lisa Gherardini.

Based on research by Glori, Bianca Sforza was the wife of Galeazzo Sanseverino and the legitimate daughter of Ludovico il Moro and Bernadina de Corradis, who lived in Bobbio, in northern Italy.

The writer claims the portrait was painted from the Malaspina dal Verme Castle, Bobbio, from where there is an observable bridge, the Ponte Vecchio Bobbio (Old Bridge of Bobbio), visible over the sitter’s left shoulder.

“As far as I am concerned, I tried to offer a coherent thesis on the basis of seven coordinates in the background of the painting, which coincide with existing,

or historically proven, elements together with the biography of the lady depicted in the artwork, which is Bianca Giovanna Sforza,” Glori said in an interview, posted on Oct 30 on the altavaltrebbia blog.

Her research is expected to be published later this year.

According to Glori, the Bobbio bridge is the same as the one painted in da Vinci’s painting “Madonna Dei Fusi,” viewed from Mount Penice.

Diverging opinionsRetired Oxford Professor Martin Kemp, however, said the bridge in the portrait of Lisa del Giocondo and the historic Bobbio bridge do not seem very similar.

“There have been many attempts to identify the landscape as a specifi c location and I do not fi nd the resemblance to the Bobbio bridge all that close,” Kemp said, according to The Daily Mail.

Lisa Gherardini (1479–circa 1542) was named La Gioconda after the name of her husband and was described as a Florentine woman from the family Gherardini.

The Italian painter and historian Giorgio Vasari (1511–1574) wrote that da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” painting was a portrait requested by her

husband Francesco del Giocondo of Florence.

Salai replicaGlori believes that the copy of the Mona Lisa called the “Prado Mona Lisa”, recently attributed to da Vinci’s workshop, is painted by the artist Salai. In 1990, US art historian Janice Shell and Italian archivist Grazioso Sironi found state archives in Milan, Italy, that Glori draws upon as evidence for her thesis.

The fi les discovered by Shell and Sironi indicate that there exists an inventory of goods from 1525 that belonged to Giacomo Caprotti, also known as Salai. Salai was one of Da Vinci’s pupils and died one year before the inventory was issued.

Among the assets was a painting of a woman registered as “Honda C” and then corrected to “La Joconda”. Shell and Sironi assumed it to be the famous “Mona Lisa” portrait by da Vinci. Glori now believes that very probably the inventory referred to a copy, namely the recently discov-ered “Prado Mona Lisa” and that this could prove that Salai was the artist, as the Italian news agency Adnkronos reported.

The original “Mona Lisa”, the one by Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519), is exhibited in the Louvre Museum in Paris.

The copy of the “Mona Lisa”, recently attributed to da Vinci’s atelier, will be exhibited until March 13 at the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain.

Special Classic Series

An overview of Qing Dynasty fashion.

The two faces of ‘Mona Lisa’

ZHENG JIAN EDITING GROUP FOR CHINESE CULTURE TEACHING MATERIALSPUREINSIGHT.ORG

The Three Character Classic (San Zi Jing 三字經), like one of today’s elementary school textbooks, was originally used for home schooling during the Song Dynasty (from 960 to 1279). No one knows exactly who began compiling this text of three-character verses. Some say it was Wang Yinglin from the Song Dynasty. Others think the author was Ou Shizi, who lived during the latter years of the Song Dynasty.

Jing in Chinese literally means “invariable truth”. In ancient times, a book called jing (classic) denoted a work of great value. Among all the Chinese clas-sics, The Three Character Classic is the simplest and easiest to understand. Its scope is broad, covering literature, history, phi-losophy, astronomy, the ethics

of human relations and elements of morality. Moreover, the content is rich, interesting and inspiring. The verses are short and simple, all in character triplets, and are thus very suitable for oral reading. When a young student recites The Three Character Classic, he or she will be learning social decorum, Chinese language and literature and histori-cal events. Because of these qualities, this text has always been the fi rst choice when starting a child’s formal education.

This teaching material is divided into 44 units, with 4 verses (8 phras-es) per unit. Each unit contains sec-tions such as Text, Vocabulary, Text Explanation, Discussion Questions, Story and Writing Refl ection. Each character or term in the Text sec-tion is accompanied by the Chinese phonetic alphabet (Hanyu pinyin) spelling to assist in pronunciation and is also annotated in the Vocabu-lary section. In the Text Explanation section, the verses are explained in English for readers to grasp their meanings. After that, Discussion Questions are used to guide learners to think more deeply about the text and consolidate their understanding of the unit’s theme. In addition to the verses, a related story or two are presented in the Story section to introduce the background of some

historical events or fi gures, promote critical thinking and/or facilitate moral education. The Writing Refl ec-tion section provides some guided questions for learners to express their thoughts or opinions in writ-ing.

The Three Character Classic is easy to memorise, and because of its multidimensionality and its edu-cational content, has been widely used since the Song Dynasty. It not only cultivates an understanding of traditional Chinese culture, but also provides students with models for getting along with others and for handling situations they might encounter later in life. We hope that readers can learn the text by heart and treasure this precious cultural legacy.

“The Three Character Classic” was discarded by the Chinese Communist Party’s education system. It was considered a crime if anyone tried to learn or to teach the “Three Character Classic” during the Cultural Revolution. As the “Three Character Classic” basically teaches the opposite ideologies to socialism. The classic, however, continued to circulate in other parts of the Chinese-speaking world outside of Mainland China.

Next edition, Unit 1 of “The Three Character Classic”.

‘The Three Character Classic’ – Introduction

The text Book cover of The Three Character Classic (San Zi Jing 三字經),

PUREINSIGHT.ORG

This combination picture made on Feb 1, 2012 shows a picture taken at Paris Louvre Museum on April 05, 2005 of the Portrait of Mona Lisa painted by Leonardo da Vinci (L) and a picture taken at Madrid’s Prado Museum on Feb 1, 2012 of an authenticated contemporary copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa (R).

JEAN-PIERRE MULLER-JAVIER SORIAN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

The Manchu woman from head to toe