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12. Hat Yuan dynasty (1279-1368) |
There were many types of hats in the Yuan dynasty, as attested both by historical documents and archaeological excavations. Roughly they can be divided into two groups, one made of relatively inflexible materials such as bamboo and palm fibre, and those made of flexible materials, such as felt and woven textiles. According to a contemporaneous Korean source, all the ceremonial hats of the Yuan court used either gold or agate for the finial on the hat’s crest. The present hat has such a finial made of the nasji gilt textile. Like the robe with foldable sleeves in Plate VIII, this hat is what one could call an ‘all-weather’ item. In the winter, three long flaps encircle the crown for all but the area above the wearer’s face, protecting the neck from cold winds. Loops at the end of each flap allowed them to be folded up in warmer weather and secured to a button at the back of the crown. Two yellow silk damask ribbons, each 7 centimetres wide and 46 centimetres long, also descend from either side of the crown and were used to tie the hat to the wearer’s head. In addition, two small purple gauze ribbons, 3 centimetres by 29 centimetres, at either side of the area left for the face could also be tied under the wearer’s chin for further security. At the front of the hat’s crown, just above the facial opening, there was probably once a fringe of feathers, although now only an empty area of silk tabby remains. Among extant hats dating to the Yuan dynasty, the most similar one to the present example was found at Mingshui and decorated with confronted falcons. It also had two pairs of securing ribbons, one in yellow and the other in purple silk. Another hat preserved in Beijing also shares many of this hat’s features; all three hats are very similar to the hat worn in the official portrait of Kubilai Khan (1216-1294) now preserved in the National Palace Museum in Taipei. The present hat is in fact composed of seven different nasji textiles (referred to as Nasji A-G), which were conceivably produced in a Central Asian context or in a Chinese region by resident Central Asian silk weavers. Some support for this can be found in the bird and cloud design on a diamond-shaped grid on the largest piece (Nasji A), where the bird has a typically Central Asian style of falcon’s beak. The rest of the body is more similar to the ruan phoenix to be found in many Song dynasty kesi and embroideries; the layout of the clouds is also similar to that found on some examples of silk samite produced in China in the first half of the 10th century. Another large and well preserved fragment (Nasji B) has a grid of tear-shaped lozenges against a ground of floral scrolls. The scroll patterns are freely executed in design and are extremely beautiful, being similar to that scrolling found on two large pieces of nasji in the exhibition ‘When Silk Was Gold’. Other nasji textiles from this hat include a yin/yang (or taiji) design on a lozenge ground (Nasji E), rosettes on a ground of floral scrolling (Nasji C) and dragons. |