I have always been a great fan of China's modern illustrated stories, and I show high respect for their artists, because the illustrations are always meticulous in details and accurate in presentation. However, the following illustration, one of a set, on Shi Ji ("Records of the Historian", c. 100 BC) disappointed me. These two well-robed gentlemen are suppose to represent Huang Di and Yan Di, two of the sage sovereigns, showing them contemplating on the important matter of the time. Shouldn't they be dressed in animal skins or coarse fabric of some sort? I know that legends tell us that Huang Di's wife, Luo Zu, to have taught people to raise silkworms and to weave with silk. Even if that were true, please look closely at Huang Di's robe (one of the two, not identified): it must have taken hundreds of persons and years of work to produce such an elaborate robe. I think this depiction of Huang Di's royal garment is at least a thousand years ahead of his time.
A stone carving done at the time of the Eastern Han dynasty (c. 100 AD) paraded the Three Sovereigns and the Five Emperors in silhouettes wearing probably the royal costume of the Han period. Subsequent illustrators all seemed to follow this dress code.
Picture source:
(top) Wang Shu-rong, ed, Illustrated stories from Shi Ji, 21th-Century Pub House, Nanchang, 1990;
(bottom) K.C. Chang, The Archaeology of Ancient China, Yale U. Press, 1986.