Why Did Zhao Liying’s Bride in 'The Story of Minglan' Use a Fan to Cover Her Face? It Wasn’t Just Shyness—The Ancient 'Que Shan' Wedding Ritual Had Deeper Meaning

In the Chinese period drama "The Story of Minglan," Zhao Liying portrays Sheng Minglan, who wears a bridal gown and holds a round fan to cover her face during her wedding procession—an image quite different from the common perception of brides wearing red veils. In fact, this act of covering the face with a fan was not merely for aesthetic effect; an actual wedding custom known as "Que Shan" (literally "removing the fan") existed in ancient Chinese marriage ceremonies. The entire process—from holding the fan to conceal one's face, to removing it after completing specific wedding rites—was itself an integral part of the wedding ritual.

Why did Zhao Liying’s bride character in "The Story of Minglan" cover her face with a fan? Did such a "Que Shan" custom really exist in ancient times?

According to the Ministry of Education's revised edition of the "Comprehensive Dictionary of Mandarin," "Que Shan" refers to an ancient wedding custom where the bride first covers her face with a fan and only removes it after performing the ceremonial bowing ritual (jiao bai li). Over time, "Que Shan" even came to symbolize marriage itself. Therefore, the fan held by the bride was far more than mere decoration. From concealing the face upon arrival to its formal unveiling at a designated point in the ceremony, the timing of removing the fan was synchronized with the wedding proceedings. The scene in "The Story of Minglan" where Minglan covers her face with a round fan can be understood through this historical lens. The fan served not only as a means of facial concealment but also played a role in the full sequence of wedding rituals and the ceremonial moment when the bride would finally appear unveiled.

"Que Shan" wasn't unique to the Song Dynasty! Records of face-covering with fans date back to the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and "Que Shan poetry" emerged during the Tang Dynasty.

Although "The Story of Minglan" is set in the Song Dynasty, textual records of brides using fans to cover their faces predate this era. Research into historical wedding customs has found that as early as the Northern and Southern Dynasties (420–589 CE), literary works already described brides using fans to hide their faces. By the Tang Dynasty, there were even clearer accounts of wedding traditions involving facial concealment and the removal of the fan.

During the Tang Dynasty, Feng Yan, in his work "Feng Shi Wen Jian Ji," listed customs such as "blocking the carriage," "fetching the groom," "Que Shan," and "viewing the wedding candles" as common wedding practices, noting that these customs were observed "from the imperial family down to commoners, without exception." This indicates that "Que Shan" was already a prominent feature of wedding culture at the time. Additionally, Professor Yeh Guoliang from National Taiwan University, in his study of Tang and Song wedding customs, cited records from the "Tang Huiyao," stating that in the first year of Emperor Dezong’s Jianzhong era (780 CE), officials including the ceremonial officer Yan Zhenqing petitioned the court, arguing that certain customs like "viewing the wedding candles" might violate proper rites, and requested the discontinuation of practices such as "blocking the carriage," "fetching the groom," and "Que Shan poetry." The fact that the imperial court considered regulating these customs further underscores how widespread they had become. Well before the Song Dynasty setting of "The Story of Minglan," the tradition of brides covering their faces with fans—and the broader wedding culture surrounding the act of "removing the fan"—had already left substantial textual traces.

Did brides cover their faces with fans simply out of shyness?

While fans naturally serve a function of concealment, "avoiding embarrassment" was indeed one layer of meaning behind the Que Shan custom. However, in formal wedding settings, both holding and removing the fan evolved into structured parts of the wedding ceremony. The dictionary definition specifically notes that the bride covers her face initially and only removes the fan "after completing the ceremonial bowing ritual," indicating that both actions corresponded to precise moments within the wedding sequence.

Ancients incorporated the transition from concealed face to unveiled appearance into the wedding ritual. Thus, the fan served both a practical purpose and acted as a ceremonial object marking stages of the rite. In "The Story of Minglan," Minglan’s use of the round fan not only conveys modesty but also echoes the ancient cultural motif of "covering the face with a fan and revealing it only after completing the ritual."

Did the Tang Dynasty have "Que Shan poetry"? Could poetry accompany the removal of the face-covering fan?

Even more fascinating, ancient traditions developed poetic elements around the act of "removing the fan." Scholar Yang Mingzhang from the Department of Chinese Literature at National Chengchi University, in studying Dunhuang wedding manuscripts, pointed out that during the Tang and Five Dynasties periods, wedding texts such as "Poems for Removing the Fan" (<Qu Shan Shi>) were used in actual ceremonies—not merely as literary descriptions, but as functional components integrated into the ritual.

Research shows that "Poems for Removing the Fan" were recited after the wedding procession arrived at the groom’s home. In other words, the act of removing the fan could be accompanied by poetry, transforming "removing the fan" from a simple physical gesture into an interactive ceremonial moment. This added another layer of ritual significance to the process of transitioning from hidden to revealed. What makes "Que Shan" truly special isn’t just that brides held beautiful round fans—it’s that ancients developed an entire set of wedding customs centered around "concealment, removal, and revelation."

"The Story of Minglan" is set in the Song Dynasty—did Song brides really use fans to cover their faces?

By the Song Dynasty, decorative fans (hua shan) were still present among wedding items, and there are also clear records of veils. The Southern Song scholar Wu Zimu, in his "Meng Liang Lu," meticulously documented wedding customs in Hangzhou, noting that three days before the wedding, the groom’s family would send items such as "gold-embroidered veils" and "five boys and two girls flower fans" to the bride’s household.

This record clearly shows that, at least in the Hangzhou wedding customs described in "Meng Liang Lu," both "veils" and "flower fans" coexisted as part of wedding paraphernalia. Later in the same text, when describing the formal wedding ceremony, it notes that upon the bride’s arrival at the groom’s home, a female relative would lift the veil using a scale or loom shuttle, after which the bride would reveal her face and proceed with the rest of the wedding rites.

From historical evidence, flower fans and veils were not mutually exclusive or sequential replacements. At least in the Southern Song Hangzhou customs recorded in "Meng Liang Lu," both items appeared simultaneously in wedding-related objects and rituals. "The Story of Minglan" uses the round fan to depict the cultural practice of brides concealing their faces—a portrayal supported by historical customs. Actual Song Dynasty weddings varied by region, era, and family background, taking diverse forms.

Ancient brides covered their faces in ways beyond the familiar "red veil"

Today, when people think of ancient Chinese weddings, they often picture brides in red bridal gowns wearing red veils. However, wedding customs evolved across eras, regions, and social norms, and methods of facial concealment were never uniform. From textual references to brides using fans during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, to mentions of "Que Shan" and "Que Shan poetry" in Tang literature, and finally to "Meng Liang Lu" recording both flower fans and veils in the Southern Song, it’s evident that wedding items and associated rituals changed over time.

Therefore, revisiting the scene in "The Story of Minglan" where Zhao Liying’s character Sheng Minglan walks down the aisle with a fan covering her face, that round fan actually carries a much richer cultural background than just "the bride being shy." Ancients once incorporated the entire process—from concealment to removal to revelation—into wedding rites, and during certain periods even developed ceremonial poems to accompany the ritual. That seemingly simple fan in a period drama actually represents a marriage tradition documented in texts over a thousand years ago.