Ancient Chinese Accessories
In Ancient China jewelry was an important part of fashion. Jewelry was worn by both genders to show nobility and wealth. The Dragon was a very popular motif for jewelry. The dragon was mostly worn by emperors and the phoenix was worn by empresses. Women wore a lot of jewelry in their hair. What they wore on their heads determined profession or social rank. The typical male head wear were called; jin for soft caps, mao for stiff hats and guan for formal headdress. The basic headdress for women was called ji but there were a lot more elaborations. Officials and academics had a separate set of hats, typically the putout, the wushamao, the si-fang pingding jin; or simply the fangjin and the zhuangzijin. Popular materials used to make jewelry were jade, bronze and gold.
Jade was a very fashionable emblem of Chinese culture. Jade was used to hang from a sash. According to Confucius jade has eleven virtues which include beauty, purity and grace. The Ancient Chinese used two types of jade; Soft Jade (nephrite) and Hard Jade (Jadeite) which was imported from Burma starting in the 1200s.
Jade was a very fashionable emblem of Chinese culture. Jade was used to hang from a sash. According to Confucius jade has eleven virtues which include beauty, purity and grace. The Ancient Chinese used two types of jade; Soft Jade (nephrite) and Hard Jade (Jadeite) which was imported from Burma starting in the 1200s.