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— CH. 1 · INTRODUCTION —

Queue (hairstyle)

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  • The queue hairstyle marked Chinese immigrants as recognizable targets during anti-Chinese riots in Australia and the United States throughout the 19th century. That same braid, two centuries earlier, had been the subject of some of the deadliest decrees in Chinese history. The Qing dynasty adopted a slogan that stated its policy without ambiguity. It read: "Cut the hair and keep the head, or keep the hair and cut the head." What made a single braid worth dying over? The answers reach back centuries before the Manchu Qing empire existed. They also extend into the barracks of 18th-century Europe, where soldiers from Paris to Philadelphia wrestled with the very same question.

  • The Chinese word for queue, bian, meant "plaited hair" or a cord. The Han dynasty first applied the term to the Xiongnu people of the northern steppes. Across Inner Asia, distinct braid styles served as markers of tribal and dynastic belonging. The Goktürks undid their queues upon surrendering to the Tang dynasty. The people of Turfan, also known as Gaochang, did the same in submission to the Sui dynasty. A braid of hair found at Zhalairuoer in a Tuoba grave shows how far back these practices reached. In Western Wei cave 285 at the Mogao Caves in Dunhuang, Xianbei people are depicted with small queues hanging from their necks. The Jurchen queue combined with a shaved crown was not a royal invention. It was an established hairstyle signifying submission to Jin rule, predating any Manchu dynasty. The Tangut emperor Jingzong had already shown how a ruler might enforce a hairstyle by decree. He threatened that throats would be cut if his subjects did not shave within three days. He was the first to shave his own head.

  • Nurhaci of the Aisin Gioro clan built his empire through strategic alliance as much as through military conquest. The Ming general of Fushun, Li Yongfang, defected after Nurhaci offered him rewards, titles, and his own granddaughter in marriage. Other Han Chinese generals in Liaodong proceeded to follow, bringing their armies with them and receiving women from the Aisin Gioro family in return. Once firmly in control, Nurhaci commanded every man in his conquered territories to adopt the Manchu hairstyle, called soncoho in Manchu. The style required the front of the head to be shaved above the temples every ten days. The remaining hair was braided into a long tail. The hairstyle served two purposes. It announced submission to Qing rule and made it easier to identify which Han men had refused to comply. The Nanai people of the Amur region initially resisted, led by their Hurka chief Sosoku, before surrendering to Hongtaiji in 1631. They had already worn the queue at the back of their heads. The Qing ordered them to shave the front as well, imposing the full hairstyle on them as it had on other conquered peoples. The Ulch people afterwards called the Nanai "shaved-head people."

  • Regent Dorgon's edict of the 21st of July 1645 commanded all Han men in China to adopt the Manchu queue within ten days. The order was partly driven by Han officials. Sun Zhixie, a Han official from Shandong, and Li Ruolin had voluntarily shaved their own foreheads. They then demanded that Dorgon impose the style on the entire population. Han Chinese had no fundamental objection to braiding the hair at the back of the head, since they had traditionally worn all their hair long. Their fierce resistance focused on the shaved forehead.

    Confucius, in the Classic of Filial Piety, had put it plainly. He stated: "We are given our body, skin and hair from our parents; which we ought not to damage. This idea is the quintessence of filial duty." Most Han officials cited the Ming dynasty's traditional System of Rites and Music as their grounds for resistance. Dorgon acknowledged that Confucian scholars might have a point. Then he pressed harder: "If officials say that people should not respect our Rites and Music, but rather follow those of the Ming, what can be their true intentions?" The edict noted that the Manchus and the emperor himself all wore the queue and shaved their foreheads. Han men who followed suit would fulfill the Confucian idea that the people should resemble their ruler.

    Koxinga summarized his objection memorably, comparing the shaven pate to a fly. He refused to shave when the Qing demanded it in exchange for recognizing him as a feudatory. Zheng Jing and his men on Taiwan rejected the same demand. The Ming prince Zhu Shugui stood with them in refusal. Han rebels in the first half of the Qing dynasty braided their hair at the back willingly, but refused to shave the forehead. One person was executed for refusing to shave the front, even though he had voluntarily braided the back.

  • Li Chengdong, a Han general who defected to the Qing, ordered three separate massacres in Jiading within a single month. The total dead reached into the tens of thousands. The third massacre left few survivors. The city of Jiangyin held out against roughly 10,000 Qing troops for 83 days. The walls fell on the 9th of October 1645. The commander Liu Liangzuo had reportedly been ordered to "fill the city with corpses before you sheathe your swords." Between 74,000 and 100,000 people died. Han rebels in Shandong tortured to death an official who had urged Dorgon to impose the queue, along with his relatives.

    In Fuzhou, authorities initially paid Han people silver to adopt the queue when it was first introduced. Full compliance across China took up to ten years of martial enforcement. The Queue Order was also imposed on Taiwanese indigenous peoples in 1753, and on Koreans who settled in northeast China in the late 19th century. The Ryukyuan people of the Ryukyu Kingdom, a tributary of China, requested and were granted an exemption. Neither Taoist priests nor Buddhist monks were required to wear the queue. Taoist priests kept their traditional topknots, and Buddhist monks kept their fully shaved heads, untouched by the decree.

  • A 1678 depiction of King Louis XIV of France shows the king hunting with his long hair tied back. This is one of the earliest documented instances of the queue in a European royal context. By the 1730s, the style had spread from soldiers and hunters to civilian men across Europe. The queue gradually replaced large, unwieldy powdered wigs and became an indicator of rank, occupation, and political leanings.

    Grigory Potemkin, a Russian statesman and favourite of Catherine the Great, reformed Russian Army hairstyles in the 1780s. His changes made the Russian Army the first western military to ban the soldier's queue, before the French Revolution even began. Napoleon Bonaparte, who had worn long hair tied in a queue, cut it short while in Egypt in 1798. Some French regiments clung to the old style long after that change. The Imperial Guard foot grenadiers kept their queues, and the 2nd Line Infantry wore them as late as 1812. Short hair became mandatory in the French Army only with the ordinance of the 25th of September 1815. Marshal Jean Lannes was notable among senior officers for his refusal to cut his queue.

    In the Prussian Army, wearing the soldier's queue was mandatory under Frederick William I. Gerhard von Scharnhorst's reforms abolished it in 1807. The British Army discontinued white hair powder in 1796 and ordered queues cut off four years later. The Royal Navy kept the style longer: officers wore pigtails until 1805, and other ranks wore them until about 1820. In the United States Army, Major General James Wilkinson issued the order to remove all queues on the 30th of April 1801. The order prompted desertions and threats of resignation. Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Butler was court-martialled in 1803 for refusing to cut his hair. In 1817, President James Monroe went on a national tour wearing a Revolutionary War officer's uniform. Monroe was the last U.S. president who had fought in the Revolutionary War. He wore his hair powdered and tied in a queue in the old 18th-century style.

  • The White Lotus Rebellion made the unshaved crown into a marker of revolutionary intent. Members of the Taiping Rebellion earned the names "Long hairs" and "Hair rebels." They maintained the braid at the back of their heads while defiantly growing hair on the front. Cantonese outlaw pirates along the Guangdong maritime frontier with Vietnam wore their hair long across the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. This was a sustained defiance of Qing law spanning three centuries.

    Lu Xun wrote that the Chinese had revolted "not because the country was on the verge of ruin, but because they had to wear queues." The Xinhai Revolution of 1911 ended the Qing dynasty and changed Chinese hairstyle almost overnight. Lu Xun's short story "Storm in a Teacup" depicted the social upheaval the change caused. Chinese citizens in Hong Kong collectively changed to short haircuts. Some individuals, like Zhang Xun, continued to wear the queue as a personal tradition long after the dynasty fell. In 1922, Puyi, the last Emperor of China, cut his own queue.

Common questions

What was the queue hairstyle worn by the Manchu and Han Chinese?

The queue was a hairstyle in which the front of the head was shaved above the temples every ten days and the remaining hair was braided into a long tail. It was the traditional hairstyle of the Manchu people, called soncoho in Manchu, and was imposed on all male subjects of the Qing dynasty. The penalty for refusing to wear it was death.

Why did the Qing dynasty force Han Chinese to wear the queue?

The Qing imposed the queue to demonstrate that Han men had submitted to Manchu rule, and to identify those who refused. The shaved forehead was treated as the primary test of loyalty. Han Chinese had no objection to braiding the back of their hair, since they traditionally wore it long, but strongly objected to shaving the forehead on Confucian grounds.

What was the Queue Order of 1645?

The Queue Order was a decree issued by regent Dorgon on the 21st of July 1645, commanding all Han men in China to adopt the Manchu queue within ten days or face execution. The order was partly driven by Sun Zhixie, a Han official from Shandong, who had voluntarily shaved his own forehead and demanded that Dorgon impose the style on the entire population.

How many people died during enforcement of the queue order in Qing China?

The violence was severe. Three separate massacres in Jiading within a single month killed tens of thousands, with the third massacre leaving few survivors. At Jiangyin, between 74,000 and 100,000 people died when the city walls fell on the 9th of October 1645. Much of this violence was carried out by Han Chinese defectors who had switched to the Qing side.

When did Chinese men stop wearing the Manchu queue?

The Xinhai Revolution of 1911 ended the Qing dynasty and prompted an almost immediate shift away from the queue. The last Emperor of China, Puyi, cut his own queue in 1922. Some individuals, like Zhang Xun, continued to wear it as a personal tradition after the dynasty fell.

Did European soldiers also wear queues?

European soldiers wore queues from at least 1678, when a depiction of King Louis XIV of France shows the king hunting with his hair tied back. Grigory Potemkin made the Russian Army the first western military to ban the style through reforms in the 1780s. In the United States Army, the queue was abolished on the 30th of April 1801 by an order from Major General James Wilkinson.

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