Compilation of all my Hanfu and Guqin posts 😊

(Updated April 17, 2025)

Hanfu Posts

Warring States/Qin/Han Dynasties - Straight-edged robe (直裾) - Wrap around robe (曲裾) - Layering + undergarment pants - Straight sleeved straight-edged robe (直袖直裾) - Fish-tail straight-edged robe (鱼尾直裾) - Mesh straight-edged and wrap-around robes (素纱直裾/曲裾) - Men's hanfu in Han dynasty (两汉男汉服)

Weijin + North/South Dynasties - Ruqun (襦裙) - Ruqun (襦裙) pt. 2 - Liangdang (裲裆) - Ru vs. Xiyi (襦 vs 褶衣) - Slim-arm wide sleeve Ru and Xiyi (窄臂大袖 - 襦和褶衣) - Quling inner garment (曲领中衣) - Half sleeve + knee covering (半袖+蔽膝) - North Wei (Xianbei tribe) large collared long robe (北魏（鲜卑族）大襟长袍)

Sui/Tang/Five Dynasties - Sui + early Tang dynasty hanfu - Early Tang hanfu layers - Men's round-collared robes - Men's half-sleeve (半臂/半袖) - Golden era Tang shirt + skirt (盛唐衣衫+褶裙) - Vest, shawl, outer jacket (背子，帔子，披袄) - Golden era Tang hanfu layers - Wide-sleeved ruqun in Tang (唐朝大袖襦) - Mid-Tang shirt + long robe (中唐衫+长袍) - Late-Tang/FIver dynasties hanfu - Buddhist donors hanfu/Dunhuang Mogao Caves (供养人/敦煌)

Song Dynasty - Popular style for Song; shan, ao, moxiong tops (衫，袄，抹胸) - Long shan/ao (beizi) (长衫/袄 (褙子)) - Half-sleeve shan/ao (半袖衫/袄) - Men's criss-cross collared shan/ao (交领衫/袄) - Men's outer robe (beizi/褙子)

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Hanfu videos

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Guqin Posts

Making Guqin - Part 1 (step 1 - scroll to bottom for video) - Various steps of making Guqin - Part 2 (steps 2-5)

Playing Guqin - Part 1 (Gou and Tiao) - Part 2 (Gou and Tiao pt 2)

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Asks

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Other

Hello 😀✨

Palace maids (and eunuchs) were not from wealthy families in any dynasty. They were usually bought as property, or gifted, and often from very, very difficult backgrounds (no family would be willing to sell a daughter or son unless they were in extreme, desperate situations).

Servants and their masters (owners) were in completely different classes, servants were property. No wealthy/good family would allow their daughter/son to 'lower' their societal status to that point.

In addition, when it comes to women, the traditional expectation of women from wealthy classes (especially young, unmarried girls) was to remain inside the household. It was only in the rare occasion that they left the house at all, as being seen in public by many people is considered an embarrassment (there's even an idiom for this in Chinese: 抛头露面). It was even more unthinkable for them to have to work (and in a servant role), as that would be an incredible embarrassment for the family.

(I know some TV dramas show women of wealthy families running around out in public everyday, going to restaurants, shopping, like women do today. That is a completely inaccurate depiction of women of wealthy families in historical China 😅)

(Post on women's beizi/褙子 here)

All these different robes are starting to swim together @_@

It's getting hot here and Yangzhou (where I'm at) is entering into the tourist season. A lot of people are wearing Hanfu at the sightseeing places :D

There are many studios that rent out entire Hanfu outfits, and will do your hair and make-up for you so you can go out and take photos. I usually do my own (didn't have the option of someone else doing it when I was in Canada, so I learned on my own) but at some point I'd like to experience one of these studios *-*

(How's everyone doing recently? The world's been particularly crazy the past few weeks xD)

(Masterlist post here)

When your Guqin teacher is like;

"Put more every into each note! Every note should be clear, not muddled. This is supposed to be a happy piece, put more energy into it!"

And I'm like;

"I've been teetering between constant pain and itchiness for a month, my body looks like I got into a fight with a feral cat when really it's just been me scratching, my skin is dry and cracking because the heavy swelling damaged it so now it's peeling, I can't sleep at night, I'm on my period, I'm achy, so no, my brain isn't functioning on 'happy' and 'energetic' 🙃🙃 You'll have to make do with confused and miserable 🫠"

Lemme sleeeeep 😭😭 I asked for a 3 wk holiday, so I'm going to head over to a Chinese-version Airbnb and really give my body a chance to recover from this darn allergy.

The itchiness hits worst at around 1am and again at 3-4am. It's like that feeling when you go out into really, really, really cold weather without proper insulation, then go into some place warm and you almost have a mild frostbite. There's this tingling under the skin that makes you want to scratch but then it also hurts when you scratch 😣

(And can we get some thicker pads? Why are all these extra long pads here paper thin? If I'm using extra long it means I'm on a heavy day, how's this slenderfied puppy pee-pad supposed to catch my Niagara Falls?? 😑)

Making Guqin silk strings

Thanks to @asideoftrashplease 's ask (here) I asked my teacher who we get our silk strings from, and if it would be possible to visit their workshop to see the process first-hand. My teacher reached out to our silk-string maker, Mr. Fang Ronglin (方荣林) in Suzhou, which is about a 1.5 hr bullet train ride away, and we arranged a visit yesterday :D

Mr. Fang is currently in his 80s, but still working daily. The place he works at also has people making steel strings , and Erhu strings, but only he and his student, Liao Xia (廖霞) make the Guqin silk strings.

He told us that he started learning to make Guqin silk strings at 16 with his father, and this has been a craft passed down in his family for four generations. In the 1960s, steel strings were invented which greatly impacted the demand for silk strings. Steel strings have less flexibility than silk strings, but the sound is louder and clearer, making it easier for beginners to use.

Here's a short interview clip I found of Mr. Fang when they applied for Guqin silk string making to be added to the Gusu Region Intangible Cultural Heritage List (in recent years, China has pushed to preserve many of the traditional crafts under Intangible Cultural Heritage/非物质文化遗产 (非遗)):

When they receive the silk thread from the silk companies, the thread is about a hair's thickness (this is about 8 raw silk threads combined). They then need to combine these threads to various thicknesses needed for Guqin strings. The thickest string on the Guqin (string #1) requires about 400 combined silk threads, which means it needs about 3200 raw silk threads (8 raw threads x 400 combined threads).

You can see in this pic below, each string is made up of many small, thin silk threads. These ones are after they've been combined and are hung to dry.

When Mr. Fang was younger, this was all done by hand, but with more and more people learning traditional instruments now they've invented a machine to speed up the process. Mr. Fang told us that if they had to combine all the threads by hand, a person can only complete about 1-2 strings/day. It would be very labour-intensive and the end result very expensive.

Here are some videos of Mr. Fang and his student, Liao Xia, demonstrating how to combine the threads. You can see how flexible the silk is, after the machine spins and combines the strings, the tension tightens causing the strings to shorten. Mr. Fang then stretches the strings back:

As he was demonstrating, I kept thinking this would be incredibly difficult to do through human strength alone. That machine was spinning so fast, to depend on human arm strength to get the same tension would require so much practice.

The more I learn about these traditional crafts the more I'm in awe at people of the past who couldn't use machines and still managed to invent so many amazing things.

Mr. Fang also took us to see how they make steel strings. The workers were wrapping the steel in nylon. They made it look so simple, it really all comes down to practice, practice, practice. Hours, days, months, years, there are no shortcuts to these sorts of skills. Even with the help of machines, it still requires practice.

🌸 Giveaway! 🌸

Open April 1st, 2025 - April 7th, 2025, 12:00am (midnight) Beijing time

I was going to do a package exchange with someone but they changed their mind, so I'm using the items I bought for a giveaway 😀

1) Open to all countries

2) Winners will need to provide address, phone, email. **If you're a minor, please make sure your parents/guardians are ok with you giving this information out before entering 💖

3) International postage + any custom fees covered by me **You may need to pay the custom fee first but I will reimburse you through PayPal, just send me a screenshot of the receipt.

4) Winners will be announced within 24hrs of giveaway closing.

5) Winners must respond to my private message within 72 hrs, otherwise someone else will be chosen.

To enter:

3) Follow + like + reblog this post = 1 entry

4) Follow + like + reblog + comment or reply to this post with some information about your interest in Hanfu and/or Guqin = 5 entries

Prize 1:

a) Bear mug set b) Plush shiba dog toy c) Stickers set x2 (pretty Hanfu chibis and capybara) d) Stationery set e) Notebook set blue f) Double-sided embroidery fan g) Large hair clip h) Hair sticks x2

Prize 2:

a) Tea set b) Cat bag d) Sticker set (Chinese-style paintings) e) Stationery set f) Notebook set red g) Double-sided embroidery fan h) Large hair clip i) Hair sticks x2

NOTE: A 3rd party agent will be doing the packaging and shipping. I will do my best to ensure they package everything well but cannot guarantee that the packages won't get tossed around during transportation. I cannot provide exchanges/replacements for anything that gets broken/damaged during international shipping.

During the Tang Dynasty, men's clothing was mostly dominated by the round-collared robe. Going into the Five Dynasties, followed by the Song Dynasty, the criss-cross collared robe came back into fashion again with various styles being worn (alongside round-collared robes).

In the painting, "Along the River During Qingming Festival" (pic 2), you can see that the workers on the boat and doing manual labor are all wearing short versions of the criss-cross collared robe, while shop owners are wearing long versions. Although there wasn't a strict rule that one can only wear one or the other based on wealth, artefacts show that most likely the working class wore shorter robes for ease of movement.

In the painting, "Literary Gathering" (pic 2), several people are wearing half-sleeves over top of their criss-cross collared robes, showing that the garments could be mixed-and-matched as desired.

Hello! :D

Our Guqin workshop doesn't make the strings here. I asked around and was told that most steel strings are made using machines because the strength needed to twist the steel to the necessary tension is very, very difficult to achieve by hand.

Silk strings, however, are handmade and usually done by people who specialize in that. My teacher said one of our string suppliers is in Suzhou. He's going to ask if they'll allow us to visit and have a tour of their workshop during Qingming holiday (they might be away, though, a lot of people go home for Qingming holiday). If we get the OK I'll take some photos/videos for you :D

And please let your mom know, my dad thinks I'm utterly insane for quitting my job in Canada, flying over to China, and now hunkering down to learn how to make Guqin. Waste of time and my life, as he calls it 😑

If you're ever visiting the Yangzhou area, feel free to drop me a message. We get people who come have a look around all the time :) We even have people who come over for a week or two to participate in making their own Guqin (my teacher helps them select the materials, they decide on the style and can draw their own stencil, dig out/shave the Qin themselves, and get it put together, we then help them finish it with the lacquer (allergies, most people don't want to deal with the allergies ^^;;), accessories, and strings and ship the finished product to them.

Re: allergies I've resigned myself to just being itchy for as long as I'm here xD Even after all the swelling and blisters went away, the rashes didn't and the itchiness worsened. A few days ago we were working with lacquer again for another set of Qin, luckily I didn't have as bad of a reaction this time but this darn itchiness is so irritating T___T When it wakes me up at 1 or 2 am and I can't sleep I want to stab myself x_X

I'm honestly considering taking a 1month break to let my body fully recover before returning, like my hands and legs right now are a hot mess. Patches of mis-coloured skin from where the new skin grew after the blisters, rashes, scabs, open wounds from scratching, dry skin...all 3 of us students are pretty much the same, 全军覆没了 OTL

So yeah...if you visit we'll be sure to keep you away from the lacquer xD

My Guqin teacher gave us some Paulownia wood to make whatever we want, I was thinking to make 4 baby Guqin, about 58cm long (pic 3, middle one for reference) and do a giveaway for my followers. It wouldn't be playable, just for decoration.

The entire process would take a few months, would that be something ppl are interested in getting as a giveaway? Or would you prefer some cute stationery, mugs, stickers, jewelry, that sort of thing?

The parallel-collared shan/ao played a large part in women's fashion of the Song Dynasty, so there are many different styles. It allowed for a lot of combinations as you can layer the different garments together, depending on the occasion, the weather, etc.

Guqin score instructions be like, "sound of immortal vomiting alcohol 🤮"

Back to my Hanfu posts now that my allergy has mostly cleared :D

The shan/ao style really creates a very slim, simple silhouette which was popular during the Song Dynasty. If you prefer more simplistic and soft styles, with lots of flowers, then take a look at the Song Dynasty's fashion.

Making Guqin - steps 2-5

(Step 1 here, video at bottom of post.)

Step 2: After creating the stencil, we trace it onto the selected piece of wood.

Guqin is mostly made using 3 types of wood: 1) Paulownia 泡桐 2) Chinese fir 杉木 3) Chinese parasol 梧桐/青桐

Paulownia is the most inexpensive and easiest to work with. The material is quite soft and easy to carve. It also doesn't require as much time to dry and grows quickly. About half of the old Guqin that have been found today (dating as far back as the Tang Dynasty) are made from Paulownia. The only downside to it is that the sound it produces tends to be a bit hollow as the wood itself isn't very dense.

Chinese fir is the most common today. It's a bit more expensive but produces a nice sound. The one I'm making my Guqin out of (the one in this video) is Chinese fir.

Chinese parasol is the hardest to work with. Trying to dig that thing is like trying to chew through rocks. It's also the most expensive. It can produce a lovely sound but depends on the piece you get. Because a tree's density will vary from year to year depending on its environment (rainfall, temperature, sunlight, nutrients, etc) only looking at the wood type isn't enough to determine the sound of the end product.

Most of the wood used today for Guqin comes from old houses that have been taken down. The wood is perfect for Guqin as it has been allowed to air-dry naturally over hundreds of years (the wood can't be baked dry or set out under intense sunlight as this will cause it to crack. It needs to be in the shade, which means wooden beams of old houses is perfect).

As mentioned in a previous post, some wood also comes from coffins .__.

Step 3: Cutting off the excess to get the base shape of the Guqin.

Step 4: Carving out the inside. The head and foot of the Guqin is the deepest part, with 2 bumps near the front and back called "nayin" 纳音 to help with the vibration of the sound.

In these photos you can see the difference of the nayin in a factory-made Guqin and a hand-made Guqin:

The factory-made Guqin's nayin is much larger and very sudden (pic 1) compared to the hand-made one that has a gradual bump (pic 2)。

Step 5: We then shave down the top of the Guqin so that it's a nice curve.

Usually all of these steps can be done within 1-2 days, but I'm slow and have no arm muscle, so it took me a while ^^;; It honestly is quite a workout between the carving and shaving.