(Photo : The exhibition of dragon robe)

Recently, an exhibition of "Shenyang Palace Museum Treasures and Arts" is grandly held in Shenyang between August 29th and September 20th. During the exhibition, eight out of ten key highlights of the collections from Shenyang Palace Museum will be seen on show. 

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A dragon robe with more than 40 dragons

Dragon robes are one of Chinese emperor's propitious garments. Mostly, emperors wore dragon robes for festive occasions. The three precious dragon robes on show this time are namely: Qing emperor Qianlong's special robe made of yellow yarn with colored embroidery and ornament of gold frame. The Imperial Dragon Robe has a round collar and horse-hoof-shaped cuffs. The collar and cuffs were decorated with dark blue satin frame. On the robe, there are five pieces of golden dragon embroideries, with Chinese traditional propitious totems and colored clouds on it. In the lower part of the robe, there are delicate embroideries of Chinese eight treasures.

Another Qing emperor Hong Taiji's special dragon robe is on display as well. The main part of the robe is made of yellow yarn with round collar and horse-hoof-shaped cuffs. The lining was made of whitish silk cloth with light floral patterns, while the surface was full of dragon embroideries and propitious clouds pattern. Besides, the collar, cuffs and edge of the dragon robe are decorated with light black dragon patterns.   

Emperor Kangxi's personal robe is one of Qing emperors' ceremonial dresses for royalty. Usually, this kind of garment is worn outside of a dragon robe during festive occasions. It was made of stone blue silk with soft lining of ivory floral patterns and dark green golden dragon patterns in front of the robe. There are four gold dragons embroidered relatively on the positions of chest, back and two shoulders. Besides, the seal characters of longevity are embroidered around Kangxi's robe.

Different from the costumes in nowadays fashionable palace dramas in China, the majority of clothes for palace in Qing Dynasty were made by Jiangning clothing factory, Suzhou clothing factory and Hangzhou clothing factory, among which, the process of a dragon robe was the most complex. According to historical records, a single dragon robe usually needs 608 embroidering workers, 285 decorating workers and 26 painters to be finished. In addition, there should be more than 40 dragons embroidered in a dragon robe, including empress's dress. The only difference between the robes of emperor and empress is there are the signs of the zodiac on emperor's robe, which indicates 12 kinds of virtues.