Jisün (Mongolian term), also known as zhisunfu (Chinese: 质孙服) or Zhisun (simplified Chinese: 质孙; traditional Chinese: 質孫, also written as Chinese: 只孙 or Chinese: 直孙), zhixun (Chinese: 只逊), jixun (Chinese: 济逊), zhama (Chinese: 诈玛; Chinese: 詐馬 Persian: جامه, romanizedjāma) or Jisun (Chinese: 济孙), was a very important male Mongol garment during the Yuan dynasty.[1][2]: 29 [3] They were also known as Mongol "robes of honour" (khil'at).[4][5] The zhisun was a form of ceremonial clothing,[6] which was worn during the jisün banquets (also known as zhama banquets),[7][8][9][10] which were the most important ceremony of the Yuan dynasty court .[3][2]: 63  The zhisun were made of textile woven with gold and silk of one colour.[6] In China, the zhisun was introduced during the Yuan dynasty and was inherited by the Han Chinese during the Ming dynasty.[1] In both the Yuan and Ming dynasty, the zhisun is a single-coloured court robe.[11][2]: 29 [12] The zhisun is a type of Mongol terlig.[3]

Jisün
Textile fragment of the Mongol cloth of gold with falcons
Chinese济孙
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinJìsūn

Terminology

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The term zhama came from the Persian word jāmah which is translated as "garment" or "robe" or "coat" or "clothing".[2]: 64 [7][8][13]: 82 

The term jisün means "colour" in Mongolian.[2]: 62–64 [8][4] The term zhisun originates from the Mongolian term jisün.[11] In the History of the Yuan dynasty, the zhisun are defined as "a dress of the same colour" or "being of one colour" or "robe of one colour" or "dress in one colour" (Chinese: 一色服; pinyin: yisefu).[1][3][2]: 63 [8]

The term zhixun was used in the Ming dynasty and originated from the term zhisun.[1]

History

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Origins

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The zhisun likely originated in early period of the Mongol rule; it was first introduced under the rule of Genghis Khan, but it became more elaborate after the foundation of the Yuan dynasty by Kublai Khan.[2]: 29 

Yuan dynasty

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In the Yuan dynasty, the zhisun was worn by the Yuan Emperors and officials.[1][9] The zhisun was a ceremonial court dress which was bestowed by the Emperors to the higher-ranking officials, imperial relatives, those who had made great contributions and those who serve the emperors .[1] It could only be worn when bestowed by the emperor as such it held an important place for every official's political life in the Yuan dynasty; and if it was bestowed by the Emperor, the zhisun had to be worn.[1]

In 1321 AD, during the rule of Emperor Yingzong, the zhisunfu (Chinese: 质孙服) dressing code was officially formulated.[14] This dress code also combined the clothing characteristics of both the Han Chinese and the Mongol ethnicity.[14]

In 1332 AD, an imperial edict stated that all officials and imperial guards who had been bestowed with zhisun were required to wear it during the imperial banquets, and those would pawn off their zhisun would be punished.[7] Distinguished higher-ranking imperial officials, in particular, wore it when they would meet with the Emperors or when they would attend banquets.[1] The zhisun worn by the Han Chinese who would participate in the banquets organized by the Yuan imperial court were also bestowed by the Yuan Emperors.[1] The participants of the jisun banquets had to be dressed in the same colour.[4]

The zhisun could also be worn by lower-ranking singers, musicians, and security guards.[1][15] However, it appears that there were two kind of zhisun during the banquets: the first type which was worn as a formal dress for the Yuan Emperors, his officials and the nobilities, and the second type which was worn by the servants.[10]

Ming dynasty

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In the Ming dynasty, the Zhisun was mainly worn as a regular clothing by military officials,[12] such as the court guards and guards of honour, who are referred as xiaowei (Chinese: 校尉).[1] In 1373 AD, the clothing of the imperial body guards was changed to the zhisun, a solid colour robe which had been inherited from the Yuan dynasty.[16]

According to Collected Statutes of the Ming Dynasty and the Writings after a dream in Shining Spring (Chinese: 春明梦余录), the xiaowei all wore zhisun robe.[1] According to the Collected Statutes of the Ming Dynasty, the Embroidered Uniform Guard who were on duty at the East and West City circuit and the other men in charged of whip-throwing, fan-holding, umbrella-like towel-holding also wore the zhisun.[1] According to Understanding Elegance, the red or green robes which were made out of silk and which were worn by the Embroidered Uniform Guard was called zhixun; the zhixun was decorated with ground flowers.[1]

Design and construction

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The zhisun is described as being of a single colour.[2]: 29  The zhisun worn by the Yuan emperor and higher-ranking officials during court banquets typically had the same colour, design and form, with the workmanship and exquisiteness of ornaments as the difference.[1][2]: 63–64 [4] All the zhisun worn by Han Chinese during court banquets all the same form and design.[1] However, the zhisun was not made to have a fixed design or form.[1] According to the History of the Yuan dynasty, the zhisun is described as not having a fixed design or form, and the summer design is different from the winter design.[1][3][7] These robes were also different in design depending on the social classes of its wearer, but they were all referred as zhisun.[1] For example, the emperor had 11 varieties of zhisun for the winter season and 15 varieties for summer while members of the nobility and the senior officials had 9 varieties of zhisun during winter and 14 in summer.[7][2]: 63 

The zhisun could also be made from variety of fabrics, including nasīj (or nasji; Chinese: 納石失; pinyin: Nàshíshī), silk, and wool (Chinese: 速夫; pinyin: sufu).[3][7][2]: 62–64  They were also embellished with precious stones and pearls.[2]: 62–64 [7]

In the Great statutes of statecraft《經世大典 - Jingshi dadian》by Yu Ji (1272–1348) recorded that the "Zhisun is the robe worn by high officials when they attend an imperial banquet. Nowadays it takes the form of a bright red robe with string of large pearls sewn on the back and shoulders [...]".[7]

Derivatives and influences

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China

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The yesa robe, which was a new form garment in the Ming dynasty, has some of its mixed-elements either developed from the Mongol terlig,[1] or from the zhisun robe, which is itself a form of terlig.[3][17]

Similar garments

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Wei, Luo (2018-01-02). "A Preliminary Study of Mongol Costumes in the Ming Dynasty". Social Sciences in China. 39 (1): 165–185. doi:10.1080/02529203.2018.1414417. ISSN 0252-9203. S2CID 149138176.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Shea, Eiren L. (2020). Mongol court dress, identity formation, and global exchange. New York, NY. ISBN 978-0-429-34065-9. OCLC 1139920835.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Cho, Woohyun; Yi, Jaeyoon; Kim, Jinyoung (2015). "The Dress of the Mongol Empire: Genealogy and Diaspora of the "Terlig"". Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae. 68 (3): 269–279. doi:10.1556/062.2015.68.3.2. ISSN 0001-6446. JSTOR 43957479.
  4. ^ a b c d Oka, Ildikó (2015). "Mongol Clothing in the Yuan Period". Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae. 68 (4): 385–414. doi:10.1556/062.2015.68.4.2. ISSN 0001-6446. JSTOR 43957434.
  5. ^ Lane, George (2006). Daily life in the Mongol empire. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. pp. 45–50. ISBN 0-313-33226-6. OCLC 61520398.
  6. ^ a b "Cloth of Gold: Displayed Falcons". Cleveland Museum of Art. 2018. Retrieved 2022-03-24.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h E., Watt, James C. Y. Wardwell, Anne (1997). When silk was gold : Central Asian and Chinese textiles. Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 138. ISBN 0-8109-6513-5. OCLC 470318441.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  8. ^ a b c d Allsen, Thomas T. (2001). "Robing in the Mongolian Empire". Robes and Honor : the Medieval World of Investiture. Stewart Gordon. New York. pp. 305–313. ISBN 978-1-349-61845-3. OCLC 1004381659.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  9. ^ a b "Clothing, Food, Housing and Transportation". Introduction to Chinese culture : cultural history, arts, festivals and rituals. Guobin Xu, Yanhui Chen, Lianhua Xu, Kaiju Chen, Xiyuan Xiong, Wenquan Wu. Singapore. 2018. p. 185. ISBN 978-981-10-8156-9. OCLC 1030303372.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link)
  10. ^ a b "A Study on the Zhisun–A Kind of Mongolian Grande Toilette of the Yuan Dynasty--《Journal of Inner Mongolia University(Philosophy and Social Sciences)》2008年02期". en.cnki.com.cn. Retrieved 2021-04-18.
  11. ^ a b Schlesinger, Jonathan (2017). A world trimmed with fur : wild things, pristine places, and the natural fringes of Qing rule. Stanford, California. p. 31. ISBN 978-1-5036-0068-3. OCLC 949669739.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  12. ^ a b Finnane, Antonia (2008). Changing clothes in China : fashion, history, nation. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 46. ISBN 978-0-231-14350-9. OCLC 84903948.
  13. ^ The legacy of Genghis Khan : courtly art and culture in western Asia, 1256-1353. Linda Komaroff, Stefano Carboni, Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York. 2002. ISBN 0-300-09691-7. OCLC 50228448.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link)
  14. ^ a b "Costume in the Yuan Dynasty---ASEAN---China Center". www.asean-china-center.org. Retrieved 2021-07-18.
  15. ^ "Chinese Traditional Dress Through the Ages". en.chinaculture.org. Retrieved 2021-04-18.
  16. ^ Zujie, Yuan (2007-01-01). "Dressing for power: Rite, costume, and state authority in Ming Dynasty China". Frontiers of History in China. 2 (2): 181–212. doi:10.1007/s11462-007-0012-x. ISSN 1673-3401. S2CID 195069294.
  17. ^ Wang, Guojun (2020). Staging personhood : costuming in early Qing drama. New York. ISBN 978-0-231-54957-8. OCLC 1129398697.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)