cháng
noun

Meanings

  1. 1 lower garment (classical/literary)
  2. 2 skirt
  3. 3 robes

Examples

Ní wéi yī xī fēng wéi cháng.
Rainbow as upper garment, wind as lower garment. (Li Bai)
Gǔrén shàng yī xià cháng.
The ancients wore yi above and chang below.

Tips

register
Two readings: cháng (literary, 'lower garment') as in 衣裳 in classical poetry, and shang (neutral tone) in the modern colloquial 衣裳 (yīshang, 'clothes'). In Old Chinese was the upper garment and the lower — the pair survives as the modern compound.
history
Appears in Li Bai's 《梦游》 (, 'rainbow as my robe, wind as my skirt') and in the imperial garment names .

Stroke Order

cháng