In the ancient times, the qun was referred as chang and existed even prior to the creation of the trousers called ku.

[4] In the Warring States period, men could also wear short skirts similar to a kilt.

[15]: 165  This led to the creation of a long excessively pleated-style zhejianqun, called liuxianqun, which was inspired by the ripped skirt of Zhao Feiyan and became popular.

[16] After the Sui and Tang dynasty, the pleats which were used in the zhejianqun increased in numbers, from a few dozens to over one hundred forming the baizhequn.

[6] In this period, the qun worn by the Han Chinese were often mamianqun which featured pleats and embroideries at the panels and decorative borders.

[5]: 144  The late Qing dynasty qun were also heavier compared to those worn in the earlier times as they were weighted by the embroideries and pleats.

[5]: 144 During the early period of the Republic of China, people in Beijing continued to wear the clothing worn in the Qing dynasty.

[6] The qun can also have specific names based on the styles, design and constructions, the number of pleats and colours.

In some dynasties, the qun could be found very long and was tied under the armpits either below or above the bust regions;[5]: 144  for example, in the qixiong ruqun.

[13]: 36 The four-panel poqun, as the one found in the Mawangdui tomb No.1 dating from the Western Han dynasty, was used as a form of chenqun (衬裙) and was usually worn over the zhijupao or under the qujupao.

[20] This form of skirt was high-waist during the Sui and the Tang dynasties and were characteristics clothing for women during this time period.

[20] Pleated skirts are called zhejianqun (Chinese: 褶裥裙; pinyin: zhějiǎnqúnqún; lit.

The mamianqun was a wrap-around skirt composed of two overlapping panels of fabric which was tied at the waist level.

'fish-scale skirt'[3]) was a variant of the mamianqun and featured small pleats which gave a ripple effects.