Through the vast expanse of ancient China, a realm renowned for its ceremonial customs, the rites and attire of marriage ceremonies have traversed a protracted journey of inheritance and refinement since the Zhou dynasty, persisting through the epochs of Qin, Han, Sui, Tang, and Song, exemplifying an enduring reverence irrespective of societal strata. Addressing the perennial shifts in bridal attire across eras, this study leverages visual data from ancient women's wedding garments, employing methodologies of image interpretation, textual analysis, and design reconstruction to delineate their typologies, developmental patterns, and causal factors. The findings reveal: 1. Traditional Chinese bridal attire for women in antiquity can be broadly categorized into several forms, including plain robes with scarlet linings, intricately adorned ceremonial robes with hairpins, phoenix crowns paired with colorful veils, and embroidered dresses with red foundations. 2. The evolution of bridal attire styles across generations is intricately entwined with the ceremonial practices, structural ideologies, intellectual expressions, and social hierarchies prevalent in feudal societies, with pronounced correlations particularly during the Tang and Song periods. 3. The evolutionary changes in bridal attire primarily manifest in variations in garment structures, color palettes, designs, materials, and accessories. 4. The evolutionary trajectory of bridal attire encapsulates the crystallization of millennia-old Chinese cultural heritage, replete with profound cultural nuances and symbolic significances, concurrently serving as a guiding beacon for contemporary bridal attire development.
Cai et al. (2024) studied this question.