The Xia Dynasty was the beginning of the class society in China

Some of the records about the costumes in this period in the historical documents.

In the records of the Shi Ji（《史记》）says,“Shun…xiu wu li, wu yu san bo”(舜……修五礼，五玉三帛).Yao, Shun, and Yu were three leaders of tribal alliances that emerged successively in the Yellow River Valley in ancient Chinese history. It means that Shun began to revise the five etiquettes, which include Rituals, Marriage, Diplomacy, Military, Funerals, and he offered five kinds of beautiful jade ornaments and three pieces of fine silk as the honorable gifts to reward the ministers.This actually indicates that the gorgeous and shiny silk was a prestigious textile at the time, representing high social status.

Chinese historical documents Shuo Yuan(《说苑》)says，“During the time of Yu administration, ‘Tu jie san deng, yi chang xi bu’(土阶三等、衣裳细布).This means that Emperor Yu, who lived a very simple life, did not wear silk clothes. He only wore coarse clothes. According to historical records,Yu the great is celebrated for his remarkable efforts in flood control, Yu never once entered his own home for three times during the arduous task of flood control which he spent 13 years to prevent disastrous floods that had plagued the land for generations. Therefore, his clothes were simple, and this indicates that coarse clothes might have been the clothing of lower-class laborers at the time.