Guan (冠) is a general term which refers to a type of headwear in Hanfu which covers a small area of the upper part of the head instead of the entire head. The Guan was typically a formal form of headwear which was worn together with its corresponding court dress attire. There were sumptuary laws which regulated the wearing of Guan; however, these laws were not fixed; and thus, they would differ from dynasty to dynasty. There were various forms and types of Guan.
As the character Guan (冠) is of a homonym another Chinese character pronounced Guan (官) which literally means official; the Guan (冠) became the symbol of officials. Note, this should not be confused with futou which essentially replaced the Guan as Chinese court wear around the Tang dynasty (but continued to be worn by Confucian literati until the Ming dynasty, where it became the exclusive headwear of the royal family).
This tag implicates chinese_clothes (learn more).
The following tags implicate this tag: mian_guan (learn more).