中世纪中国民族服饰意义的变迁

On the Changing Meanings of Ethnic Dress in Medieval

本文针对服饰研究创新性地提出了一种可用于分类的方法论,一方面用于研究文化交流的手工艺品,另一方面用于研究文化身份的表征。该方法论可以作为一种理解外国事物、主题和风格随时间推移而驯化、规范化的手段。考察了在5世纪末6世纪初的视觉文化中被视为非中国风格(鲜卑风格)的男性束腰外衣、裤子和靴子到7世纪服装已没有特别的民族特征,成为一种普通男装的过程。与此同时,鲜卑风格的女装完全消失了,首先被中国风格的女装所取代,后来又被中亚新风格服饰取代。这一过程表明,初唐的服饰艺术中,穿着束腰外衣和长裤的妇女和少女的形象在很大程度上被理解为打扮成男人或男孩,而不是外国人。此外,这些非中国着装风格意义的变化也可能有助于解释外表(而非服饰)作为种族差异的主要视觉标志在唐朝的兴起。

This paper proposes a methodological distinction for the study of artifacts of cultural interaction on the one hand,and representations of cultural identity on the other,as an approach to understanding how exotic objects,motifs,and styles become domesticated and normalized over time.It examines the process by which the tunic,trousers,and boots that were understood as non-Chinese(Xianbei-style)men's dress in the visual culture of the late fifth and early sixth century became a form of ordinary men's dress,not particularly ethnically marked,by the seventh.At the same time,Xianbei-style women's dress disappeared entirely,to be replaced first by Chinese-style robes for women and later by newer borrowings from Central Asia.This process,whereby the meaning of an imported form of dress becomes decoupled from its exotic origins,suggests that figures of women and young girls depicted in tunics and trousers in art of the early Tang should for the most part be understood to be dressed as men or boys,not as foreigners.In addition,these changes in the significance of non-Chinese dress styles may also help explain the rise of physiognomy(rather than dress)as a primary visual sign of ethnic difference in the Tang.