Hanfu (meaning clothing of the Han people) is a name for pre-17th century traditional clothing of the Han Chinese, which are the predominant ethnic group of China. Hanfu appeared in China more than three thousand years ago and is said that it was clothing of the legendary Yellow Emperor, a great sage king of ancient China. The basic of Hanfu was developed in time of Shang Dynasty, from 1600BC to 1000BC. Hanfu consisted of a yi, a narrow-cuffed, knee-length tunic tied with a sash, and a narrow, ankle-length skirt, called chang, worn with a bixi, a length of fabric that reached the knees. They were made of silk and painted in red and green. From the first appearing Han-Chinese clothing had changed and evolved with the fashion.
With the beginning of Western Zhou Dynasty hanfu begins to be method of distinction between classes. Height of one’s rank influenced the level of decoration of a dress, length of a skirt and the wideness of a sleeve. Sleeves were also made wider than in the time of the Shang Dynasty and yi tunic is also closed with jade decorations or with a sash tied around the waist. The collar were crossed and tied to the right while skirts and trousers varied in length from knee-length to ground-length.
The dynasty to follow the Shang, the Western Zhou dynasty, established a strict hierarchical society that used clothing as a status meridian, and inevitably, the height of one’s rank influenced the ornateness of a costume. Such markers included the length of a skirt, the wideness of a sleeve and the degree of ornamentation. In addition to these class-oriented developments, Han Chinese clothing became looser, with the introduction of wide sleeves and jade decorations hung from the sash which served to keep the yi closed. The yi was essentially wrapped over, in a style known as jiaoling youren, or wrapping the right side over before the left, because of the initially greater challenge to the right-handed wearer (people of Zhongyuan discouraged left-handedness like many other historical cultures, considering it unnatural, barbarian, uncivilized, and unfortunate)
Eastern Zhou Dynasty invented shenyi - "the deep robe", which is a combination of tunic and skirt. It was cut separately but sewn as a piece of clothing with left side of the costume shaped into a corner which was used for closing the shenyi by fastening on the chest. Shenyi could be worn by anybody regardless of gender, profession or social class. Technology was advanced enough at the time that many complicated and magnificent patterns appeared on Hanfu.