中国古代官服颜色与权力等级_英语论文

Colors of Ancient Chinese Official Robes and Hierarchy of Power

摘要

服装是民族文化的重要组成部分，又是历史发展和社会嬗替的重要标志之一。中国古代社会是一个等级分明的社会。从奴隶社会到封建社会，君主专制得到了充分发展。而官服制度，作为君主专制下的产物，其最明显的一个特征就是以颜色来划分等级，彰显身份。本文将“五行说”作为理论支撑，选取古代官服中最常见的三种颜色——红、绿、紫作为研究对象，着重分析这三种颜色在古代权力等级背景下的特殊含义及演变历程。研究结果显示，中国古代官服颜色与官员的权力等级密切相关。同一种颜色在不同的朝代所代表的权力等级也具有差异性。本研究的结果说明了官服的颜色作为划分权力，标志阶级的重要符号具有十分重要的研究价值。理清中国古代官服颜色在不同朝代所代表的权力等级，有利于我们更好地了解中国古代社会生活、社会制度。同时，也有利于中华文化的传播。

关键词  官服颜色  权力等级  五行说  五行色

Abstract

As the symbol of historical development and social vicissitude, clothing is an important part of national culture. There is a rigid hierarchy of power in ancient China. From slave society to feudal society, the autocratic monarchy system is fully developed. As a child of autocratic monarchy, the most obvious function of official robes is to rank hierarchy of power. In terms of “Five elements Theory”, the paper selects three the most typical colors of ancient official robes: red, green, and purple as the research objects, and then emphatically analyses three colors’ connotation and evolution under the background of ancient China’s hierarchy. The result shows that colors of ancient Chinese official robes have bearing on hierarchy of power. And even one color also has differences in connotation with the change of dynasties. The results of this study confirm that colors of official robes, as the significant symbol of hierarchy, are worth investigating. By studying the topic, it is helpful to understand ancient Chinese social culture, and also meaningful to spread Chinese excellent culture to the world.

Keywords  colors of official robes  hierarchy of power  five-element theory  colors of five elements

Contents

1   Introduction 1

1.1 Research Background 1

1.2 Significance of the Study 1

2 Literature Review 2

2.1 Relevant Studies on Official Robes 2

2.2 Relevant Studies on Five Elements 3

2.3 Thesis Structure 3

3 Five Elements Theory and Colors of Five Elements 5

3.1 Five Elements Theory 5

3.2 Colors of Five Elements 5

3.3 Five Pure Colors and Five Binary Colors 6

4 Colors of Official Robes and Hierarchy Politics 7

4.1 Hierarchy Politics 7

4.2   Application of Colors in Ranking Officials 7

5 Colors of Official Robes and Hierarchy of Power 8

5.1 Red 8

5.2   Green 10

5.2.1   Green 10

5.2.2   Blueness 11

5.3   Purple 13

Conclusion 15

Acknowlegements 16

References 17