'coronation costume') is a kind of Chinese clothing in hanfu; it was worn by emperors, kings, and princes, and in some instances by the nobles in historical China from the Shang to the Ming dynasty.

[5] The mianfu is typically a set of clothing, which includes a type of Chinese crown (guan) called mianguan (冕冠), looked like a board which leans forward and had chains of beads at the front and back.

[4] Usually, the mianguan has 12 chains; however, it could also vary in numbers (i.e. 9, 7, 5, 3) depending on the importance of an event and in rank difference.

[4] The mianfu was also worn together with other accessories, such as gedai (革带) which is a type of leather belt, dadai (大带) which is a large silk belt, peishou (佩綬) which is a type of ribbon ornament, and clogs with wooden soles called xi (舄) [1]: 13  The shoes worn by the emperor which goes with the mianfu is made of silk with double-layered wooden soles.

[2] In the Zhou dynasty, there were various types of mianfu; including the gunmian, bimian, cuimian, ximian and xuanmian, which are the five grades of the mianfu worn by the members of the nobility apart from the Emperor; the Zhouli stipulated which types of mianfu were allowed to be worn depending on each noble and official ranks of its wearer:[1]: 14 The dress of dukes (gong 公) resembles that of the emperor at or below the grade of gunmian 衮冕; the dress of marques (hou 侯) and earls (bo 伯) resembles that of the dukes at or below the grade of bimian 鷩冕; the dress of viscounts (zi 子) and barons (nan 男) resembles that of marques and earls at or below the grade of cuimian 毳冕; the dress of solitaries (gu 孤) resembles that of viscounts and baron at or below the grade of ximian 絺冕; the dress of ministers (qing 卿) and grand masters (dafu 大夫) resembles that of solitaries at or below the grade of xuanmian 玄冕.Though the use of mianfu was abolished during the Qin dynasty, in favour of a black shenyi called junxuan(袀玄) and tongtianguan,[7][8] which was continued to be used throughout the Western Han dynasty, the mianfu and mianguan were later restored by Emperor Ming of Han in the Eastern Han dynasty based on Rites of Zhou and Confucian Classic of Rites.

[11]: 45 After the Manchu conquerors established the Qing dynasty, the new government initiated a policy that forbade Han Chinese to wear Hanfu.

Due to the strong cultural influence China exerted on its neighbours, Mianfu was also worn by rulers in other East Asian countries that belonged to the so-called Sinosphere, such as Korea (in the form of myeonbok), Japan (known as Raifuku[12]) and Vietnam (known as Cổn Miện) during the imperial era.