What is the Cloud shoes 云鞋

Cloud shoes are a type of footwear worn by high priests during rituals. They feature shallow uppers made of colored brocade, round toes, thin soles, and are decorated with embroidered cloud patterns on the vamp.

Cloud shoes have a long history. According to Notes on Chinese Ancient and Modern Things: "By the Eastern Jin Dynasty, shoes woven from plants and trees appeared, including phoenix-headed shoes, cloud-gathering shoes, and five-petal shoes. The Song Dynasty had multi-layered shoes. The Liang Dynasty had tablet-headed shoes, split-tip shoes, phoenix-standing shoes, and five-colored cloud shoes." In Taoist rituals, during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, priests were not allowed to wear decorated shoes. Cloud shoes became popular after the Song and Yuan dynasties.

Nowadays, during the "jinbiao" (presenting memorials) ritual in Taoist ceremonies, high priests often wear cloud shoes when performing the "bugang tadou" (treading the constellations) ritual.