Feiyufu

The flying fish decoration looks very similar to the python (mang) pattern on the mangfu ({{Lang-zh|c=蟒服|l=python robe}}), but was actually a dragon-like creature with wings and the fanned tail of a fish.{{Cite book |last1=Ding |first1=Ying |last2=Li |first2=Xiaolong |title=Proceedings of the 2014 International Conference on Mechatronics, Electronic, Industrial and Control Engineering |chapter=On the Decoration and Symbolization of Chinese Ancient Official Uniform in Ming and Qing Dynasties |date=2014 |volume=5 |url=https://www.atlantis-press.com/proceedings/meic-14/15195 |language=en |publisher=Atlantis Press |pages=1025–1029 |doi=10.2991/meic-14.2014.229 |isbn=978-94-6252-042-4}}{{Cite book |last=Burkus |first=Anne Gail |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/956711877 |title=Through a forest of chancellors : fugitive histories in Liu Yuan's Lingyan ge, an illustrated book from seventeenth-century Suzhou |date=2010 |others=Yuan, active Liu |isbn=978-1-68417-050-0 |location=Cambridge, Mass. |pages=87 |oclc=956711877}} The flying fish also had 4 claws like the mang, a dragon head and a carp's body and two horns.{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1045652964 |title=The right to dress : sumptuary laws in a global perspective, c. 1200-1800 |date=2019 |others=Giorgio Riello, Ulinka Rublack |isbn=978-1-108-47591-4 |location=Cambridge, United Kingdom |pages=421 |oclc=1045652964}}

The early flying fish ornament were characterized by the presence of double wings while in the middle and late Ming dynasty, the flying fish could only be distinguished from the python pattern by the presence of its fish tail instead of a dragon tail.

The feiyufu is typically in the form of tieli (a robe with a y-shaped cross collar, with either broad or narrow sleeves and pleats below the waist) decorated with the feiyu pattern.{{Cite journal|last1=Cho|first1=Woohyun|last2=Yi|first2=Jaeyoon|last3=Kim|first3=Jinyoung|date=2015|title=The dress of the Mongol Empire: Genealogy and diaspora of theTerlig|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1556/062.2015.68.3.2|journal=Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae|volume=68|issue=3|pages=22–29|doi=10.1556/062.2015.68.3.2|issn=0001-6446}}

File:Jinyiwei_Ming_Dynasty.jpg wearing feiyufu, Ming Dynasty.]]

The tieli ({{Lang-zh|c=贴里}}) originated in the Yuan dynasty in a form of Mongol robe known as terlig. Despite the repeated prohibition of Mongol-style clothing, especially during the reign of the Hongwu Emperor, some Mongol clothing from the Yuan dynasty remained.{{Cite book|last=Shea|first=Eiren L.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1139920835|title=Mongol court dress, identity formation, and global exchange|date=2020|isbn=978-0-429-34065-9|location=New York, NY|pages=147|oclc=1139920835}} After being adopted in the Ming dynasty, the tieli became longer and its overall structure was made closer to the shenyi system in order to integrate Han Chinese rituals.

The feiyufu appeared in the Ming dynasty and was unique to the Ming dynasty.{{Cite web|date=2020|title=What is the Ming Dynasty Hanfu Clothing? - 2021|url=https://www.newhanfu.com/3588.html|access-date=2021-07-10|website=www.newhanfu.com|language=en-US}} It is a form of tieli decorated with flying fish patterns. The feiyfu was also a type of cifu ({{Lang-zh|c=赐服|l=presentation clothes}}), a form of clothing which can only be bestowed by the Chinese emperors to those whom he favoured,{{Cite web|date=2019|title=You Need a Flying Fish Robe to Become a Knight-errant - 2021|url=https://www.newhanfu.com/1135.html|access-date=2021-07-10|website=www.newhanfu.com|language=en-US}} and were only second to the mangfu ({{Lang-zh|c=蟒服|l=python robe}}).

In the Ming dynasty, the feiyufu could be worn by a handful of civil officials, military officers, and chief eunuchs:{{Cite book|last=Huang|first=Ray|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/6280586|title=1587, a year of no significance : the Ming dynasty in decline|date=1981|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=0-300-02518-1|location=New Haven|pages=54|oclc=6280586}}

• Under the rule of the Yongle Emperor (r. 1402 –1424 AD), the eunuchs were allowed feiyufu when they would serve the emperor.{{Cite journal|last=Yuan|first=Zujie|date=2007|title=Dressing for power: Rite, costume, and state authority in Ming Dynasty China|url=https://brill.com/abstract/journals/fhic/2/2/article-p181_4.xml|journal=Frontiers of History in China|language=en|volume=2|issue=2|pages=181–212|doi=10.1007/s11462-007-0012-x|s2cid=195069294 |issn=1673-3401}}
• In 1447 AD during the reign of the Zhengtong Emperor, the Ministry of Works issued an edict which would put artisans to death and send artisan's families to frontier garrisons as soldiers should the artisan produce feiyufu among other prohibited clothing for commoners. The edict was issued to stop the transgressing of dress regulations.
• Emperor Zhengde (r. 1505 – 1521 AD) bestowed a feiyufu to Song Suqing, a Japanese envoy, in an unprecedented act.{{Cite book|last=So|first=Kwan Wai|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1818020|title=Japanese piracy in Ming China during the 16th century|date=1975|publisher=Michigan State University Press|isbn=0-87013-179-6|location=[East Lansing?]|pages=173|oclc=1818020}}
• Shen Defu (1578 –1642 AD) also noted the emperor would could bestow a red feiyufu to a guard which was promoted to court guard. He also wrote in "the beginnings of the bestowals of dragon robes to Grand Secretaries" that the feiyufu was bestowed to the six ministers, the grand marshals with the mission to inspect troops, and to the eunuchs who were servicing in the houses of princes.

The feiyufu and feiyufu-style guzhuang are depicted in Chinese television drama, especially period drama set in the Ming dynasty such as:{{Cite web |date=2022 |title=9 male stars in costume dramas play Jin Yiwei!Yang Yang is elegant, Zheng Yecheng is domineering, and Ren Jialun is the most classic |url=https://min.news/en/entertainment/447d1a1fe15832822e0354003ac4bf1c.html |website=iMedia}}

• Flying Swords of Dragon Gate (2011)
• Under the Power (2019)
• The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty (2020)
• Royal feast (2022)

• Douniufu
• Mangfu
• Jisün
• terlig
• Yesa

• Hanfu
• List of Hanfu
• Chinese ornamental gold silk

{{reflist}}{{Types of Han Chinese clothing}}

Category:Chinese traditional clothing