Zhou Dynasty Clothing

During the Zhou Dynasty, the colors and fabrics of your clothes were specific to the occasion, and the social class you belonged to. As shown in the picture to the right, which is a garment made for someone with a position of royalty, clothes were usually very colorful and were loosely fitted robes. Confucius defined yellow, blue-green, white, red, and black as standard colors to support the dynasty's ceremonial rituals. He told the people these specific colors were related to kindness, virtue, and benevolence. During this time, people were relating the colors to the seasons and directions. Red was an honored color, because it represented summer, guarded by a red sparrow and the southern direction. They honored this color, because summer was the most important time of the year for crops, while the sun was in the southern direction. The blue-green color represented the spring with a blue-green dragon as its guardian, and it represented the east. White represented autumn with a white tiger as its main guardian and the western direction. Finally, winter was represented by black with a black tortoise facing the north. Yellow was only worn by people of royalty, and their robes were usually made of silk. Peasants were mostly found wearing clothes made of hemp, which was a material much cheaper to make than silk. Overall, the colors of your clothes greatly reflected the time of year or showed your position of royalty, and the material easily showed your social ranking.