The Yandi Emperor also prospered...

The Yandi Emperor also prospered in areas to the east of Qishan Mountain in Shaanxi Province. Because he lived in the Jiangshui River area, he used Jiang as his surname. Compared with that of the Yellow Emperor, the Yandi Emperor's development route slanted south, extending eastward along the Weishui and Yellow rivers, reaching Henan and Shandong provinces, and then going southward to the Jianghan Plain and Hunan Province.

Since both of them had created the ancient civilization of the Yangtze and Yellow river valleys, laying the foundation ofr the 5,000-year mansion of Chinese civilization, the Yandi and Yellow emperors were honored as the earliest Chinese ancestors by the Chinese people both at home and abroad.

During the process of the continuous multiplication and development of the clans and tribes, the Yandi tribe collided with the Jiuli tribe in the southeast. Yandi asked the Yellow Emperor for help when he was defeated. The Yellow and Yandi emperors then jointed hands and defeated Chi You at Zhuolu. But then a battle broke out between the two former allies at Banquan, ending in the failure of Yandi. Finally, the Yellow Emperor was honored by the tribal chiefs as the leader of the tribal alliance formed at the meeting initiated by the Yellow Emperor, thus settling China's basic domain. The integration of the clans was accelerated in the post-war period, culminating in the formation of the Huaxia tribe, the main body of the Chinese nation.

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The Yellow Emperor and the Dragon Culture

During the primitive clan commune period 5,000 years ago, two tribal chiefs-the Yellow Emperor and Yandi Emperor-lived int eh Yellow River Valley. They were regarded as the earliest ancestors of the Chinese nation.

The original surname of the Yellow Emperor was Gongsun, and because he lived in the Jishui River area, he later changed it to Ji. He prospered on the Loess Plateau of Shaanxi Province, hence his name. Five thousand years ago the Yellow Emperor led his tribe to rise to the north of the Weishui River in Shaaxi Province, and then gradually to move eastwards to reach the Yellow River bank in the southern part of Shanxi Province, and Zhuolu in Hebei Province.

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The Romantic King of Wu: Brocade Sails

A dozen of Suzhou's street names are associated with silk, among which Jinfan (Brocade Sail) Road is the best-known. According to records, at the end of the spring and autumn Period, King Fu Chai (?-473 B.C.) of the State of Wu, once went on a spring cruise on a boat with a sail made fo brocade. Some people are skeptical: can silk, so light and thin, be used as a sail on a boat? Scientists have proven that the stretching resistance of silk is equal to that of copper wire; thus parachute covers are mode of silk.

According to records, officials of Wu all wore silk robes. There are also accounts of Wu people trading silk cloths and fabrics in the Central Plains. After the "Silk Road" was opened during the Han Dynasty, silk was transported to West Asia and Europe continuously from Suzhou.

Since the Song Dynasty (960-1279), silk enters had moved south. The Song court and those of the later dynasties set up special departments in charge of tribute silk production. In the beginning, Suzhou, Hangzhou, and Nanjing was equal in strength as silk producers, but why did Suzhou outshine the other two later? One senior silk craftsman explained, "There was definite division of lavor among the three cities; dragon robes (worn only by the emperor) were produced in Nanjing; robes for ranking officials, empresses, and imperial concubines were made in Suzhou; and clothes of palace maids, eunuchs, and common officials were made in Hangzhou." Dragon robes used only by the emperors were needed less, so its place of production declined quickly; while production and marketing of Suzhou silk thrived because of its high qulaity and large quantity.

Tang Dynasty Silk: Beauty and Color

The Zijin Nunnery on Suzhou's East Hill is small and remote, but art connoisseurs have been attracted there to examine the 18 exquisite clay arhat statues, often carried away by the various facial expressions of the figures, to the neglect of their lifelike floating garments.

A silk expert once made some new discoveries here. He was amazed to find that the handkerchiefs in the arhats' hands, the garments draping over their bodies, and the canopy over the great merciful Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, together with the red-flower adornments, were all of pure silk!

During the Tang Dynasty (618-907), Jiangnan Circuit (Suzhou being under its jurisdiction) presented more silk as tribute to the imperial court than other counties and prefectures, most of it being produced by Suzhou.

Silk

With its long history, Chinese silk has been one of the oldest "envoys" of Chinese culture. As early as the third century B.C., when colorful Chinese silk made its appearance in West Asia and Europe, a king of the Western world was shocked to see before his eyes the fleecy cloud-like silk fabrics. It is said that a European emperor marveled at Chinese silk, exclaiming, "This is just like a dream!"

Suzhou is the generally recognized home of Chinese silk, or the silk capital of China. It is known to people who are interested in Chinese silk, that 90% of the genuine-silk trade in the world comes from China, and of the silk products exported from China, one third is from Suzhou. The large assortment of Suzhou silk, long known for its quality and beauty, finds a brisk market in more than 100 countries and regions around the world. It has been praised as a "mythical fairy".

Silk production in Suzhou has a history of more than 2,000 years. During the Western Zhou Dynasty (1046-771 B.C.), people in the Suzhou area began to grow mulberry trees, raise silkworms, reel silk and weave silk cloth. Later, Suzhou became the production and trade center in the Taihu Lake valley. In the latter half of the 20th century, silk industry attained a proportion never before known.

Today's Kimono and the Homophones

A japanese scholar wrote in The History of Textile Technique, that "In the Qin Dynasty (221-206 B.C.), someone left Suzhou (called Wu at that time) for Japan to pass on the skill of weaving hefu (kimono) and wufu (or Wu robes) are homophonic in Suzhou dialect.

This is probably the historical origin of Wuxian County in Suzhou being the chief base for making kimono and obi for Japan.

Kesi weaving (a type of silk weaving done by the tapestry method) is another kind of artistic work in silk, and it is done completely by hand. First, vertical silk threads are set down. The out line of patterns and characters is woven on the background according to a draft. Colorful threads are woven into background horizontally. After the Song Dynasty, dragon robes were mostly made in the kesi style.

Drastic Changes in the modern Era

China's fairlure in the Opium War in 1840 opened China to the outside world, and Chinese clothing came to be influenced by Western culture.

Young scholars bravely wore Western-style suits, abandoning robes and mandarin jackets and cutting their braids. In 1911, Dr. Sun Yat-sen led a bourgeois democratic revolution, or the Revolution of 1911, and the republican government promulgated an "Order on Cutting Braids," abolishing millennia-long traditions and rules on designating sttus by one's attire.

Toward the end of the 1920s, the replublican government issued "Regulations on Uniforms," providing for the uniforms of men and owmen civil servants. The Chinese tunic suit became popular, a design based on Japanese students' uniforms. With a straight turndown collar, a single row of five buttons and a tight waist, it combined the convenience of western suits and the comfort of Chinese graments. As it was popularized and worn early by Dr. Sun Yat-sen, it was regarded as a symbol of the democratic revolution and also known as "Sun's Suit."

In that period, Western suits and Chinese tunic suits were popular in major cities, where people were more open-minded, especially among the elite and intellectualls. In rural areas, ordinary people still wore robes and mandarin jackets.

Before the 1920s, women's garments remained two-piece, with little defference from Qing Dynasty garments. Shortly after the Revolution of 1911, as more Chinese students studied in Japan, the influence of japanese women's wear on young Chinese women could be seen in a narrow, long blouse with a high collar and a long black skirt. Known as "modern garments," these clothes were accompanied by little jewelry.

In the 1920s, Chines women started to be conscious of "the beauty of curvaceousness," and traditional straight, loose garments were replaced by close-fitting ones. Women of that period wore blouses narrow at the waistline, with small stand-up collars, sleeves reaching the elbows, and a curving hemline. The blouses were decorated on the collar, sleeves, front and hem. The skirts, which earlier had been pleated and reached the feet, were not pleated and shorter, though the hem still fell below the knees. The skirts were also decorated along the hem, sometimes with colorful, speakling jewelry.

The major feature of modern Chinese women's wear was the qipao, which originated from the Manchu. After the 1920s, Han women started to wear qipao, changing and improving the original design until the qipao became common wear among Chinese women. The qipao became popular for two mains reasons. Women's attire previously had consisted of a blouse, trousers and a skirt. Now a qipao replaced all of them, and a qipao cound be made at lower cost. Second, as a one-piece dress, the qipao set off a woman's figure, especially in high-heels.