China traditional beauty standard

What is beauty? What is the standard of beauty?

Beauty generally refers to a woman with a beautiful appearance. Juck Zhang, a man of the Qing Dynasty, summed it up more comprehensively in A Dream Shadow: "The so-called beauty, with flowers as its posture, birds as its voice, the moon as its god, dimension as its posture, jade as its bone, ice and snow as its skin, autumn water as its posture, poetry as its heart and calligraphy as its fragrance, I can't stop." .

As for the standard of beauty, people living in different times, different regions and different cultural environments may have differences in "aesthetics", but on the whole, there are still some striking similarities.

According to China's immortal masterpieces praising beautiful women in past dynasties and various versions of ancient and modern writers' comments on beautiful women, The Study of Beauty summarizes ten criteria for evaluating beautiful women in ancient China:

1, if the skin coagulates fat.

"Solidified fat", solidified fat, smooth, delicate and white. "If the skin coagulates fat", the skin is smooth, delicate and white, which is one of the main standards of beauty in ancient China.

The beauty of a woman's figure depends on her skin first, and white skin is the most rare. The Book of Songs says, "I used to think it was gorgeous", and vegetarians are white. "Women's nature, but white is the most difficult. People often have beautiful eyes like tongues, but the defects are only in the skin "(Yu's" Love with Fate, Sound Volume "). In ancient times, there was a saying that "one white covers all the ugliness", and whether the skin is white and tender is often regarded as the first standard of female beauty.

"Skin congeals fat" comes from The Book of Songs Feng Wei Shuo Ren, which describes the beauty of Wei Zhuanggong's wife Zhuang Jiang's skin in the Spring and Autumn Period. It can be said that the Han nationality, born as a yellow race, regarded white skin as beauty from the pre-Qin period. For example, Zuo Si's "Charming Poems": "My family has charming girls, and they are quite white"; Zhou Bangyan's Conan Zi: "The neck is thick and crisp, and the light shirt is pale pink".

As the ultimate white "snow" and crystal clear "ice", it is often used to decorate the skin of beautiful women. The word "ice and snow" comes from Zhuangzi's "Happy Travel": "If the skin is ice and snow, it is graceful as a virgin", and it has been borrowed by many people in later generations, such as Song Yu's "The Lotito": "The eyebrows are like jade, and the muscles are like snow"; Wen Tingyun's Bodhisattva Man: "Clouds on the temples want to smell the snow on the cheeks"; Five Dynasties Xue Zhaoyun's "Huanxisha": "Leaning against the wind to coagulate the snow skin"; Wu Wenying's Gift of Lake He Xinlang: "Snow on a Warm Spring Night"; Su Qing Schumann's skill poem: "Ling Bo's muscles are like snow" and so on. A popular term in ancient poetry is "jade bone Ice Muscle", and Meng Chang, the master of Shu, praised Mrs. Hua Rui in "Yu Lou Chun Xia Yu Mo Chi Shang": "The ice muscle jade bone is clear without sweat, and the wind in the water temple is dark and fragrant and warm"; Su Shi translated this word in Song of the Cave Immortal: "jade bone with ice muscles is cold without sweat"; Su Shi borrowed this expression in another poem "Plum Blossoms on the Xijiang Moon": "Why is jade bone worried about fog? Ice muscle has its own fairy wind ",the surface is Yongmei flower, which actually implies that his concubine faces the clouds;" "Yang Wuqiu's Liu Zao Qing also has" jade bone Ice Muscle, who do you prefer ".

In poems describing women's bodies, the word "jade" appears more frequently than "ice" and "snow". China people prefer jade, because "jade is moist but not dirty, and benevolent is clean" (Zhiluo, Fan Lu, Spring and Autumn Period). Smooth and moist "jade" is also often used to describe a beautiful woman's skin. For example, Jiang Yan's "Riise Fu": "The beauty of fairy algae, the beauty of Kethleen"; Liu Yong's Happy Day and Night: "I am tired of rubbing my neck with jade wheels"; Liu Yong's Acacia Belt: A Mud Skin as Jade and so on. According to the Chronicle of the Crown Princess, Liu Bei's wife, Queen Gan, is graceful and elegant. On one occasion, Liu Bei called Gan to the account. From a distance, the subordinates saw the Queen Gan in the account as if it were gathering snow under the moon. Henan offers jade people, three feet tall. Liu Bei put the Jade Man behind the Ganmei Man. Gan Hou and Yu Ren are white and moist. Liu Bei said, "I don't think I have two jade people."

The above poems use words such as "fat", "bright", "crisp", "ice", "snow", "jade" and "plain" to describe the body as white, slippery and slippery.

2, bright eyes and good eyes

Bright, clean, smart and verve-filled eyes are also one of the main standards of ancient beauty in China.

The beauty of a woman is concentrated in her eyes. "Face is the master of the whole body" (Li Yu's "With the Letter"), the purpose is the master of one side. The eyes are the windows to the soul. "It's great to see the evil and the right in your heart." Li Yu believes that the size and movement of a woman's eyes are closely related to her gentleness and ignorance. "Narrow-minded, old, naturally soft"; "black and white initiative, will be more intelligent."

"Bright eyes and good eyes" comes from Cao Zhi's ode to Luo Shen, which describes Luo Shen's bright and flexible eyes, good at looking around and expressing his feelings. Beautiful eyes look forward to life, but also increase the charm of beauty. The description of beauty's eyes by ancient scholars in China is more empty than real, and they pay special attention to the charm of eyes, or the charm of eyes. For example, "The Book of Songs Feng Wei Shuo Ren": "Clever smile, beautiful eyes"; Li Yannian's Beauty of the North: "Take care of the city first, then the countryside"; Cao Zhi's Beauty: "Looking forward to glory and whistling"; Tao Yuanming's "Leisure Fu": "The beautiful eyes flow in an instant, and there is no difference between laughter and laughter"; Bai Juyi's "Song of Eternal Sorrow": "If she only smiles back, there will be hundreds of spells cast, and all the makeup in the sixth palace will disappear"; Cao Xueqin's Dream of Red Mansions: "A pair of eyes that look happy but are unhappy" is also a famous sentence describing the charm of beautiful eyes.

The water in autumn is clear and bright. In China's ancient poems and songs, "autumn water" and "eyes" are often used to describe the clear and bright eyes of beautiful women. For example, the Book of Songs Zheng Feng Yewei: "There are beautiful women, Wan Ru teenagers", and "teenagers" means watery, using clear water to compare the agility and brightness of eyes; Yan's "Picking Mulberry Seeds": "An inch of eyes, a thousand beads are not worth mentioning", using "a thousand beads" as a metaphor for bright, clean, flexible and gentle eyes; "Don Gore" by Li He in Tang Dynasty: "A pair of autumn waters" is a metaphor for a clear and clean eye pool; Cui Huige by Yuan Zhen in Tang Dynasty: "Eyes are as bright as a glass bottle, and the heart swings like clear autumn water", and "glass bottle" and "clear autumn water" are metaphors of clear and agile eyes; Liu E wrote in Travel Notes of Lao Can: "Those eyes are like autumn water, such as cold stars, such as orbs, such as white water, silver and two pills of black mercury ...", using "autumn water, cold stars and orbs" to compare Ming Che's eyes with gods, and using "white water, silver and two pills of black mercury" to compare black and bright pupils; In A Dream of Red Mansions, Cao Xueqin often writes about women's eyebrows, such as "spring mountain frowning, autumn water frowning" and so on.

3. Clouds are full of beauty.

Black, bright, thick and fine are the aesthetic standards of ancient beauty in China.

"Clouds are full of beauty" comes from Sima Xiangru's Beauty Fu. "Yunfa" describes hair as dark and thick as dark clouds; "Yan Feng" means that the hair is not only thick, but also bright and shiny.

China's traditional aesthetic is that black hair is thick and beautiful. In ancient poems, the word "cloud" is often used to describe the darkness and depth of hairdressing, such as "The Book of Songs": "Curly hair like clouds, disdainful". "sideburns" refers to thick black hair, and "parallel" refers to bun. This ancient poem praised thick black hair as a dark cloud in the sky. With such dark hair, I'm too lazy to use a fake bun. No matter how good "Linjiang Fairy": "Snow clouds will melt", and "Bodhisattva Man": "Clouds on the temples want to make your cheeks snow", which sets off snow-white skin and black hair and sets off the beauty of hair. In ancient times, women's hair styles were mainly bun, and only thick hair could comb out a variety of bun styles. Because all women can't be born with thick hair, wigs are very popular. The prosperity of wigs shows the ancient people's love and pursuit of thick hair from one side.

China's traditional aesthetic is based on beautiful black hair. The ancients often used the word "sword" to describe the black and shiny hair salon. For example, "Twenty-eight Years of Zuo Gong": "In the past, there was a woman who was black and beautiful, and the light could look in the mirror and was named the wife." Praise Ren's daughter as "black and beautiful" and compare her shiny black hair to a bronze mirror. Another example is "Seven Discrimination of Zhaoming Selected Works": "The curly hair is mysterious, and the light can look in the mirror"; Cai Yong's "Qing Yi Fu": "Xuanguang Runrun". "Juan" and "Xuan" are both words praising blackening.

China's traditional aesthetics takes long hair as beauty. The ancients in China had a soft spot for women's long hair. For example, "Biography of Empresses and Concubines in the New Tang Dynasty" records that his wife, Queen Dou, was born with her hair hanging down her neck, and began to wear it at the age of three, and when she grew up, she had a bright black cloud. According to Jealousy in the Southern Dynasties, the daughter of the Shu Lord was taken as a concubine by Fu Huan Wen, the wife of Huan Wen, and the jealous Kang princess royal could not bear to kill Li's long hair. Another example is "Chen Shu Gao Zuji", which says: "The hair is seven feet long, and its curls are like paint, and its light can be distinguished." Seven feet is just a rough figure, which describes a woman's long and beautiful hair.

Cloud hair is a kind of beauty. More often, it is tied into a knot, placed on the top of the head, behind the head, or hung on both sides, called a bun or bun. In ancient times, there were many kinds of hairstyles for women, each with its own competition. In the book hairpin written by Duan Kegu in Tang Dynasty, nearly 30 kinds of hair were listed in the court of past dynasties, and nearly 40 kinds were added in Xie's book Continued hairpin. Ten kinds of ballads in Xu's Ten Steamed Buns are probably popular, namely: Feng bun, Jin Xiang bun, Fei Xian bun, Tongxin bun, Luoma bun, Snake bun, Furong bun, Sitting Sad bun, Anti-Wan Le bun and Noisy makeup bun.

4, moth eyebrow indigo naturalis

Slender, curved and light blue are the aesthetic standards of China ancient girls.

The ancients called the eyebrows a "rainbow of seven emotions" because it showed different modality and made the face more three-dimensional. In fact, the description of women's bodies in ancient poems is probably the eyebrows. Among them, two points are emphasized: slender and curved. For example, Sima Xiangru's "Zi Xu Fu": "Long eyebrows"; Cao Zhi's Ode to the Goddess of Luo: Trimming Eyebrows; Bai Juyi's Shang Yang White Haired Man: "The green eyebrows are slender"; Lu Guimeng's "Shang Mo" sings: "Long eyebrows are like fireworks stickers"; The article "Southern Songs" reads: "The temples hang low and comb the bun, while Lianjuan sweeps the eyebrows carefully", "The bun is messy and the eyebrows are long, so I want to gather the eyebrows and return to the embroidery households".

Slender and curved eyebrows can be summed up in one word, namely "moth eyebrows". The antenna of silkworm moth is slender and curved, so it is called. Such as "The Book of Songs Feng Wei Shuo Ren": "A cicada's head flies with a moth eyebrow"; Song Yu's Goddess Fu: "Mei Lianjuan is a moth"; Fu Xuan's "Poems with Women": "Flying moths divide their eyebrows into emerald feathers"; Yu He's Back to the Ancient Meaning: "Clear the mirror to the moth eyebrow"; Zhang Hu's "Gathering the Lingtai": "Sweep the beauty to the supreme"; Bai Juyi's "Silver Bottle at the Bottom of the Well": "Wan Zhuan Shuang E Yuan Shan"; Gu Huan's "Spring on the Jade Tower": "Two moths gather on the pillow" and so on, all praise the moth eyebrow.

Metaphorically, eyebrows are slender and curved, and besides the word "moth", there are also words such as "moon" and "willow". For example, Liang Jiangyan wrote "Goddess of Water" in the Southern Dynasties: "Red lips write Zhu, true eyebrows learn the moon"; Du Mu's Boudoir Love: "Juanjuan has moon eyebrows"; Yan Shu's "Huanxisha": "The cicada wants to meet the eyebrow and the moon"; Yan's "Bodhisattva Man": "Worrying about spring and painting the crescent moon in detail" and so on are all about the moon eyebrow. Bai Juyi's Song of Eternal Sorrow: "Petals are like her face and willow leaves are like her eyebrows"; Li Shangyin's "Harmony with People on the Tomb of True Mother": "Liu Mei talks in vain"; Liu Mei by Luan Luan of Tang and Zhao Dynasties: "Twisting willow leaves worries about the border"; Wei Zhuang's "The Female Crown": "Peach face, low-frequency arch eyebrows"; Yan's Ganzhou Qu: "Pink face can't win spring" and so on, are all written.

The beauty of eyebrows lies not only in its shape, but also in its color. For example, Song Yu's "The Loser": "Eyebrows are like jade feathers", which describes the shape and color of eyebrows. Eyebrows are dark and light, but beautiful women are mainly light green. Beauty's eyebrows are often referred to as "distant mountains" and "spring mountains" in ancient poems. There is no doubt that the distant mountains are very light. The mountains in spring are not as rich as those in summer, so these colors are all light blue. For example, "Miscellanies of Xijing": "Wen Jun is very beautiful, with eyebrows like Yuanyuan Mountain." In the Western Han Dynasty, Zhuo Wenjun's eyebrows were like distant mountains, which became fashionable for a while and was called "distant mountain eyebrows". Bai Juyi's "Spring Poetry Sleeping in Hundred Rhymes": "Eyebrows converge on the distant mountains"; Liu Yong's Jade Butterfly: "Green eyebrows open, charming far away"; Wei Zhuang Lotus Cup: A pair of distant eyebrows; Gu Huan's distant resentment: "Two eyebrows are far away from the mountain"; Yan's "Bodhisattva Man": "Spring Mountain eyebrows are low" and so on, all written in the distant mountains. Diane, this is a blue-black pigment. Ancient women often used black eyebrows, so they were called black eyebrows or black eyebrows.

Thrush is the most popular and common makeup method in China. For example, Qu Yuan's "Songs of the South Zhao Da": "White and black, Shi Fangze is just". "Black" refers to painting eyebrows with cyan and black pigments. Li Shangyin's Untitled poem: "When I was eight, I stole a mirror, but I could draw a long eyebrow." Even girls have learned to draw long eyebrows, which shows the popularity of thrush in Tang Dynasty. Wei Zhuang's "Visit Wushan Temple": "Spring comes empty, fighting thrush grows long", reflecting that ladies-in-waiting kill time by fighting for long eyebrows; Yan's "Huanxisha": "Every day, the eyebrows fight for the length of the painting", describing the famous prostitutes fighting for the long eyebrows every day, competing for novelty and beauty. Don Zhu Qing's "Recently Tried Zhang Shui Department": "Don't ask Jun with heavy eyebrows, is thrush fashionable?" After painting makeup, the woman thought to herself, should she ask her husband: Is the eyebrow shape and depth of painting fashionable?

5, apricot face peach cheeks

Brilliant light and red in white are the aesthetic standards of ancient beauty face in China.

In ancient poems and songs, the faces of beautiful women were described and their brilliance was emphasized. For example, Song Yu's "Goddess Fu": "The face is rich and moist, and the jade face is moist"; Sima Xiangru's "Beauty Fu": "Yan Sheng Man Cai, Jing Yaoming"; Zhang Heng's "Ode to Love": "Husband and wizard, beautiful, gorgeous, beautiful"; Cao Zhi's Ode to the Goddess of Luo: "Turn to the essence and follow the beauty"; Cao Zhi's Zen Poetry: "Beautiful streamer, outstanding"; The southeast corner of the Golden Sunrise Tour: "Beautiful and bright, happy and carefree", all show beauty and brilliance.

The ancients often used "jade" to describe the beauty's appearance, such as "jade face" or "Yan Ruyu", to express the warmth, smoothness and beauty of jade. In addition to the above famous sentences, there is the twelfth poem of Nineteen Ancient Poems: "Zhao Yan has a beautiful woman, and the beauty is Yan Ruyu"; Song of Luoyang Girls by Wang Wei: Has anyone noticed a jade-faced Yue girl, humble and poor, washing silk by the river? Wait.

The description of beautiful women's faces in ancient poems and songs is not pure white, too pale and without a trace of blood, which will give people a morbid feeling. Pink is in harmony with white, and the author appreciates white and red. For example, Song Yu described the girl next door: "Pink is too white, Zhu is too red" in "Ode to a Disciple", and put forward the standard of harmonious beauty, which is also a healthy beauty. The perfect combination of white and red is also described in the Biography of Empress Han Xiaohui: "Without makeup, the color is like the morning glow reflecting snow". The red morning glow is reflected in the snow, which is just artistic conception and charming enough.

The ancients often used flowers to compare the appearance of beautiful women, such as peaches, apricots and hibiscus (lotus), emphasizing the delicate and flowery appearance. This "color" is, of course, "white inside and red inside". Commonly used words are "apricot face and peach cheeks", "peach cheeks and pink face", "peach blossom with human face" and "lotus face". In The Book of Songs, Zhao Nan Yao Tao, there has long been a saying that "peaches fly away and burn their glory", and the blooming peach blossoms are used to describe the wealth of women to be married. "Apricot face and peach cheeks", with a face as white as apricot and cheeks as pink, comes from the first fold of the fourth book of The West Chamber by Master Wang Yuan: "Apricot face and peach cheeks make riding on the moon more delicate.