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The jifu is a Manchu noble’s most common formal Emperor Yongzheng at Leisure (Yongzheng xingle tu,
housed at the Palace Museum in Beijing). It is a colour
public attire. It is a full-length garment with tapered only permitted to be worn by members of the imperial
sleeves and horse-shoe cufs. This type of garment is family.
proscribed in great detail in the sumptuary regulations
commissioned by Emperor Qianlong in ‘Huangchao Compare to similar examples in the collection of the
liqi tushi’ in 1759 (Illustrated Precedents for the Ritual Minneapolis Institute of Arts (acc. No. 42.8.3, see
Paraphernalia of the Imperial Court). The decorative Imperial Silks: Ch’ing Dynasty Textiles in The Minneapolis
elements, such as the powerful imperial imagery of Institute of Arts, Minneapolis Institute of Arts,
dragons, symbolizing the ‘Son of Heaven’ and his rightful Minneapolis, 2000, p. 32-33.) and one dating from the
mandate, along with various landscape elements such Yongzheng period in a private collection (published in
as mountains and seas, signifying the vast territory of Nengfu Huang and Juanjuan Chen, Zhongguo Longpao
the empire are all determined in this document. [Chinese Imperial Robes], Beijing, Zijincheng and Lijiang
Chubanshe, 2006, fg. 213). This design in a shorter
Jifu are made using a variety of techniques, materials version is taken up in theatre as a martial attire from
and colours, for instance kesi, satin and so on to suit the mid Qing dynasty and on (see Cultural Relics of
the pocket and status of the wearer. Qing, namesake of Drama of the Qing Dynasty in The Complete Collection of
the dynasty, also means clarity in Chinese and shades Treasures of the Palace Museum, The Commercial Press,
of pale blue and green thus became fashionable at the Hong Kong, 2008, p. 98.).
beginning of the dynasty. The Emperor Yongzheng was
represented wearing robes of this colour in the album 101
