Chinese headwear has such a long history and variety of styles, shapes, colors and accompanying ornaments, some scholars call China “the Kingdom of Headwear.” Divided into many categories appropriate for those in a certain social, political or court status or rank, headgear alone included crowns, hats, caps, turbans and kerchiefs with each category having many examples. Chinese hats are so varied, it makes identifications of wood-carved subjects very difficult, especially in the case of ancestors who were often provided accoutrements of a status they did not have when alive. Cylindrical hats with a low front and higher back commonly worn by military persons, and a variant called jieze were also used by both civil officials and commoners. Another hat called a futou similarly shaped had a wing-like flap on each side, and the two small vertical projections atop the hat recall earlier ones with large vertical flaps. The black cloth futuo (meaning ‘black gauze cap’) worn by Ming officials was still depicted in some Qing images was based on the futou of the Tang dynasty.
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Carved ancestor figure as an official sits on a backless chair with a decorative pedestal in official’s attire holding a long slender curved hu-tablet, all signs of his office and status. He is vibrantly painted in red, the color of fu, as a wish for prosperity and status.
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