Why are the images of ladies in Tang Dynasty so fat?

The Picture of Zanhua Ladies, now in the Liaoning Provincial Museum, is the representative work of Zhou Fang, a painter in the Tang Dynasty. The painter described the scene of several aristocratic women enjoying flowers in the garden, only to see that they were all wearing high-bun hairpin flowers, with faint eyes, bare veils on their chests, rich and leisurely, and a leisurely attitude towards life.

Nowadays, "thinness is beauty" has become an aesthetic standard and trend, but why did people still regard obesity as beauty in the Tang Dynasty? In fact, the Li family, the founding emperor of the Tang Dynasty, was originally of northern descent and had the strength and toughness of northerners. In the early Tang Dynasty, Chang 'an people were mostly northerners, but few southerners, and the aesthetic habits of men and women changed accordingly, preferring strong and plump women. After the prosperous Tang Dynasty, the original masculine beauty was gradually replaced by the roundness and fullness of the south.

In addition, due to the very open society in the Tang Dynasty, with a large number of Hu people moving to the Central Plains, Hu Hua atmosphere appeared in the Tang Dynasty. Painters in the Central Plains have a deeper understanding of the image of Hu people, their living customs and religious beliefs, and the image of Hu people has become the prototype for painters to describe and shape. In view of the national characteristics and eating habits, the image of Hu people is set as plump and healthy, and the costumes of Hu clothes enhance the charm of the characters, which was widely imitated with the help of Hu Feng advocated by the ruling and opposition parties in the Tang Dynasty.

In the Tang and Ming dynasties, Buddhism was advocated and beautiful curves and roundness were pursued. Even several bodhisattvas in Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes are based on real ladies.

As soon as Yang Yuhuan Heipinker, one of the "four beauties", appeared, she contributed to the new painting style with her plump beauty. No wonder the ladies in the painter's works are so plump.

Summary: It is also said that the pictures of ladies in the Tang Dynasty were all based on Yang Guifei, whose weight was 130 kilograms, so the images of ladies became fat. There are abundant female images in Tang Dynasty paintings, such as Zhang Xuan's Tao Ren Map, Western Region Mural, Guo's Lady You Chun Map, and Zhou Fang's Flowers and Ladies Map.