Khitan males grew hair from their temples but shaved the crown of their heads. Manchu Jurchen men had queues, while Mongol men swept their hair behind their ears and plaited them, Turk men wore loose hair and Xiongnu men braided their hair. Khitan man in tomb painting in Aohan Banner, Inner Mongolia

The Jin at first attempted to impose Jurchen hairstyle and clothes on the Han population during the Jin but the order was taken back. This Jurchen queue and shaving hairstyle was not enforced on the Han Chinese in the Jin after an initial attempt to do so which was a rebuke to Jurchen values. Unlike the tonsure of the Tangut Western Xia, the Jurchen hairstyle of wearing the queue combined with shaving the crown was not the invention of an emperor of the dynasty but was an established Jurchen hairstyle which showed who submitted to Jin rule. It was imposed by the Tangut emperor, Jingzong, threatening that their throats would be cut if they did not shave within three days. This made sure the Tibetans and Song Chinese could be told apart from shaved Tanguts. It resembled a monk's hairstyle but was not exactly like their tonsure, it left the face to be framed on the sides and forehead by a fringe of hair by shaving the head top and leaving it bald. The Tangut people of the Western Xia may have inherited hairstyle influences from the Tuoba. This helped eradicate the partially shaved Mongol hairstyles. The penalty for both the barber and the person who was shaved and his sons was castration if they cut their hair and their families were to be sent to the borders for exile. Īfter overthrowing the Mongol Yuan dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, the first Ming emperor passed a law on mandatory hairstyle on 24 September 1392 mandating that all males grow their hair long and making it illegal for them to shave part of their foreheads while leaving strands of hair, which was the Mongol hairstyle. In the Western Wei cave 285 at the Mogao Caves in Dunhuang, Xianbei people are depicted with small queues hanging from their necks. Hairstyles showed affiliation to a tribal confederation or dynasty. To show submission to the Han Chinese of the Sui dynasty, the people of Turfan ( Gaochang) undid their queues, as did the Göktürks upon surrendering to the Tang dynasty. Han Chinese also made the peoples they conquered undo their queues. A braid of hair was found at Zhalairuoer in a Tuoba grave. The Liu Song dynasty's records called them 'braided caitiff', suolu, while Southern Qi's history said they wore their 'hair hanging down the back' ( pifa), and called them suotou, 'braided'. However, their hairstyle is hidden in depictions due to a hood they wore. Other evidence from Chinese histories indicate that the Tuoba or Tabgach groups of the Xianbei wore braids, since they were called 'braided' by the southern Chinese. The Xianbei and Wuhuan were said to shave their heads, while Xiongnu had queues.

Jurchen people wore a queue like the Manchu, the Khitan people wore theirs in Tartar style and during the Tang dynasty, tribes in the west wore braids. The term bian, when used to describe the braid in the Manchu hairstyle, was originally applied by the Han dynasty to the Xiongnu.

The Chinese word for queue, bian, meant plaited hair or a cord. The queue hairstyle predates the Manchus. Han women were never required to wear their hair in the traditional women's Manchu style, liangbatou, although that too was a symbol of Manchu identity.

The requirement that Han Chinese men and others under Manchu rule give up their traditional hairstyles and wear the queue was met with resistance, although opinions about the queue did change over time. The distinctive hairstyle led to its wearers being targeted during anti-Chinese riots in Australia and the United States. Hair on top of the scalp is grown long and is often braided, while the front portion of the head is shaved. Mn̂g-bué-á/mn̂g-bé-á or thâu-chang-bué/thâu-chang-béĪ queue or cue is a hairstyle worn by the Jurchen and Manchu peoples of Manchuria, and was later required to be worn by male subjects of Qing China. Chinese American men with queues in Chinatown, San Francisco, 1880s

Cue vs queue vs que