The full name of Hanfu (汉服) is “Chinese traditional costumes”, also known as Han Yiguan (汉衣冠), Hanzhuang (汉装), and Huafu (华服).

From the reign of the Yellow Emperor to the middle of the 17th century AD (late Ming and early Qing dynasties), the traditional clothing and accessories system with a unique Han character and distinctive differences from other ethnic groups was formed through a natural evolution in the main inhabited areas of the Han people, with the background and dominant idea of "Huaxia-Han" culture and the Chinese ritual culture as the center, which is the embodiment of China's "country of clothes and crown", "state of etiquette", "brocade China", and the country of Ceres, and carries the outstanding crafts and aesthetics of Han dyeing, weaving, and embroidery, and inherits more than 30 Chinese intangible cultural heritages and protected Chinese arts and crafts.

Similar to the term Han Chinese, the word "Han" in Chinese clothing has been extended from the Han Dynasty to refer to the entire nation. For example, the earliest record of "Han clothing" in the Mawangdui Tomb No. 3 Demolition Book is that the clothing and ceremonial system of the Han Dynasty was the crown and clothing system in the Rites of Zhou, the Rites of Yi, and the Book of Rites.

The Han costume "began with the Yellow Emperor and was prepared by Yao and Shun", which originated from the coronation costume made by the Yellow Emperor. It was shaped in the Zhou dynasty and became a part of the Shinto religion through the Han dynasty when it formed a complete system of crown and costume based on the Four Books and Five Classics. Therefore, all the Chinese dynasties afterward followed the Zhou method to inherit the Han crown as a national event, so there is a public opinion and clothing in the Twenty-four Histories. "The Yellow Emperor, Yao, and Shun ruled the world with their clothes and garments, and the benefits were taken from the heaven and the earth", which means that the form of the upper garment and the lower garment was determined by the heavenly will and was sacred. Hanfu also influenced the entire Han cultural circle through the Chinese legal system, and some ethnic groups in Asian countries such as Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Mongolia, Bhutan, and so on, all had or borrowed features from Hanfu.