People in ancient times also wore the wind coat and raincoat against the wind and snow when staying out. The raincoat appeared earlier than the wind coat. As recorded in historical literatures, people in the Zhou Dynasty had begun the use of raincoat and the earliest raincoat was made of straws and thus referred to as “coir raincoat”.

The coir raincoat is mainly made of the eulaliopsis binata which is smooth on the surface and hollow in the body, so it was used to make the raincoat as it would effectively prevent the rain from permeating the coat easily. With the advancement of the time, people have discovered many other materials that can be used to make raincoats. The coir raincoat, however, is never abandoned completely but in wide use especially among farmers and fishermen.

Raincoat is more advanced than the coir raincoat, which is made by daubing oil on textile materials such as silk. That is why it was also referred to as “oil coat”. Chinese wood oil was in wide use at that time. As the silk turned yellow after soaked and painted with the oil, presenting the color of amber, the “oil coat” was named “amber coat” instead afterward. Besides, materials like hemp and palm fiber were also used to make the raincoat in ancient times. 

Palm fiber is a kind of fiber extracted from the bark of the palm tree and could be processed, rearranged and weaved into the raincoats that are often referred to as “palm coat”. Other similar materials like the oil sunflower are also ideally suited to make raincoats. Ever since the Ming Dynasty, the raincoats have been made increasingly exquisite. Those for noblemen and noblewomen were named “jade needle raincape”, which was weaved with a kind of upscale jade grass that is soft and water-proof.

Strict rules and regulations were formulated to govern the making of the raincoats for emperors and ministers in the Qing Dynasty. The yellow color was for the exclusive use of the emperor, while red for first rank officers and cyan for officers of the second rank and lower. The raincoats for the upper part and the lower part of the body were designed separately and referred to as “raincoat” and “rain skirt” respectively.