Magua (clothing)

A Manchu wearing a magua painted by Pierre-Louis Delaval

The magua (simplified Chinese: 马褂; traditional Chinese: 馬褂 Manchu: ᠣᠯᠪᠣ olbo) was a style of jacket worn by males during the Chinese Qing dynasty (1644–1911), known to the Hakka people as a dajinshan (大襟衫), it was designed to be worn together with and over the manshi changshan (滿式長衫). The garment was available in a number of styles: singlet (单; shan), clip (夹; jia), leather (皮; pi), cotton yarn (纱; sha) quilted (棉; mian) and others. It was worn by Manchu people throughout China from the reign of the Qing Shunzhi Emperor (r. 1643-1661) until the time of the Kangxi Emperor, (r. 1661-1722), whence it became popular throughout Qing China.

Rendered literally in English as "riding jacket", the magua had its origins as a simple tabard like item of clothing intended to protect the changsan during riding and normal everyday activities. However, with time the magua itself became more elaborate, becoming for officials part of their uniform of office; one variation of the magua, the Imperial yellow jacket ((Chinese: 黃馬褂; pinyin: Huáng mǎguà) "yellow riding jacket") becoming an indication of Imperial approval of an individual.

See also

• Chinese clothing
• Cheongsam
• Tangzhuang