Hi, I don't think I have come across anything about bags or pockets when it comes to hanfu, so I was wondering, how did people carry their stuff around in the past? Especially when on errands or travelling etc.
Hi! Thanks for the questions. There were many ways to carry things and here I listed five of them.
1. structure of the clothes provide space for storage
There is a space between the lapels in front of the body, especially when the tops were tucked. This space can be access through the sleeves. It is speculated that actual pockets could be found in the upper arm, but I haven’t seen any real artefact with these thing. So people did tuck stuff in there such as this medical book named 肘后救卒方 Hand book of Prescriptions for Emergencies that Should be Kept Behind the Elbow probably refers to that storage space.
Breast pockets were not uncommon in Qing dynasty (especially in the later period) and Minguo, usually in the inner lapel if the front lapels overlapped, such as this example.
Figure 1: Top: During periods where large sleeves with small cuff (such as pipa sleeve) was popular, it is also possible to just put stuff in the sleeves.
Figure 1: Bottom: In Ming dynasty Chaofu seemed to have breast pocket, possible to keep the 笏hù (the white panel thing) when the discussion turned physical (just kidding, but that could happen).
2. Hand bags and satchels
Hand bags and satchels were not uncommon, although usually only women were depicted using a handbag.
Figure 2: Hand bags from Tang dynasty
Figure 3: Satchels from various dynasties.
3. Hanging on the waist
Things were hanged directly onto a belt or kept in a small bag that was then tied on the belt.
Figure 4: Middle: 蹀躞diexie was a type of leather belt popular in Tang dynasty that features many hanging component.
Figure 5: Miniature items hanged on the waist in Ming dynasty. Some of these might be purely decorative.
Figure 6: 荷包/hébāo (茄袋、顺袋) and other types of small bags could also be used.
Figure 7: 褡裢/dālian is a long, rectangular bag sewn up at both ends with an opening in the middle. Smaller dalian are worn on the waist while large ones are worn across the shoulder or on horses.
4. Makeshift bags
Stuff could be wrapped with a rectangular shape fabric called 包袱布/bāofú bù into a bag 包袱/bāofú. A smaller fabric could be folded into a handbag, while larger ones could be worn on the shoulder.
Figure 8: In some part of China baofu bu is still important for wedding ceremonies to wrap certain ceremonious items.
Figure 9: Using a baofu bu with ties.
5. Boxes
People would store their things in boxes. Then people could used ropes to make into handles or placed the boxes into cart, bags or baskets and carried by hand, back or pole.
Figure 10: Smaller boxes with handles could be carried by hand (middle bottom), while larger ones could be carried on a stick (right). Carrying items in two baskets balanced on a pole 挑子/tiāozi was common as well (middle top).
There probably were more methods that I did not know, but I hope this post has answered your question.