Tifayifu () is an edict policy which took place in the Qing dynasty in 1645 when Han Chinese people (more specifically adult living men, who did not fall in the stipulated exceptions) were forced to follow Manchu hairstyle and Manchu clothing. In 1644, on the first day when the Manchu penetrated the Great Wall of China through the Shanhai pass, the Manchu rulers ordered the surrendering Han Chinese population to shave their heads; however, this policy came to a halt just a month later due to the intense resistance from the Han Chinese near Beijing. It is only after the Manchu recaptured Nanjing, the southern capital, in 1645 that the policy resumed and was enforced severely. Within one year after entering China proper, the Qing rulers demanded that men among their defeated subjects had to adopt Manchu hairstyle or face execution. Qing Manchu prince Dorgon initially canceled the order for all men in Ming territories south of the Great wall (post 1644 additions to the Qing) to shave. It was a Han official from Shandong, Sun Zhixie and Li Ruolin who voluntarily shaved their foreheads and demanded Qing Prince Dorgon impose the queue hairstyle on the entire population which led to the queue order.
The law was strongly opposed by the Han Chinese, especially those who were part of the late Ming scholars and literati class. Even 10 years after the tifayifu edict implementation, resistance to the hair cutting and changing clothing to Manchu style still occurred. In the Kangxi period, a large number of ordinary people still followed the clothing and hairstyle of the Ming dynasty, except for the officials and military generals who had to wear the Manchu queue and uniforms. With time, Han Chinese men eventually voluntarily adopted Manchu-style clothing, such as changshan and magua, over time, and by the late Qing, officials, scholars, and many commoners wore Manchu-style clothing.
Cultural significance
Hairstyle
Wearing the queue (bianzi) was traditionally a Manchurian hairstyle, which was itself a variant of northern tribes' hairstyle, including the Jurchen. It differed from the way Han Chinese styled their hair; the Han Chinese kept long hair with all their hair grown over their head and was coiled into a topknot, held into place by Chinese headwear. Wearing the queue was unpopular among the Chinese and was met with resistance as shaving the head was against the "system of rites and music" of ancient China and violated the Confucian beliefs of not harming the body which was bestowed by one's parents as indicated in the Xiaojing, "Our bodies - to every hair and bit of skin - are received by us from our parents, and we must not presume to injure or wound them. This is the beginning of filial piety". Moreover, the traditional hairstyle of the Han Chinese were a fundamental aspect of their cultural identity and shaving their head was one of the greatest insults and was also a form punishment (). The Qing rulers however perceived the queue as a visible of symbol of submission, refusing to withdraw or modify the regulation. The Manchu, Mongol bannermen and Han bannermen in Later Jin (1616–1636) territories since 1616 already shaved their foreheads.
The Qing imposed the shaved head hairstyle on men of all ethnicities under its rule even before 1644 like upon the Nanai people in the 1630s who had to shave their foreheads. The men of certain ethnicities who came under Qing rule later like Salar people and Uyghur people already shaved all their heads bald so the shaving order was redundant.
However, the shaving policy was not enforced in the Tusi autonomous chiefdoms in Southwestern China where many minorities lived. There was one Han Chinese Tusi, the Chiefdom of Kokang populated by Han Kokang people.
Clothing
Throughout China's multicultural history, clothing has been shaped through an intermingling of Han clothing styles, the Han Chinese being the dominant ethnicity, and the styles of various ethnic groups. Some examples include the standing collar of the cheongsam, which has been found in relics from the Ming dynasty, ruled by the Han Chinese, and was subsequently adopted in the Qing dynasty as Manchu clothing items. Manchu robes were initially collarless. The Manchu also adopted the right closure from the Han Chinese as they initially closed their robes on the left side.
