Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties Costumes: Women's Hairstyles in the Tang Dynasty

Buns were the most common hair style for women in ancient times, which originated in the Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties and were prepared in the Zhou Dynasty, and reached the peak of art in the Sui and Tang Dynasties. The so-called chignon is to pull the hair and knot it on the top or back of the head. Due to the different ways of pulling the bundle, the effect is also different.

Tang Dynasty women commonly used buns are: high bun, flower bun, bonobo bun, falling horse bun, haunted sweeping makeup bun, anti-bun, E bun, low bun, bun, U Manchu bun, prisoner bun, throw the family bun, back to the migratory birds buns, phoenix bun, from the comb of the hundred-leaf buns, the anti-head of the bun, double buns, buns, hair and sideburns and so on more than 30 kinds of forms, but in general, there are no more than two kinds of forms: one combed on the top of the head, one combed in the back of the head. Here, we will focus on the more typical hair styles such as high bun, flower bun, bonobo bun, horse bun, haunted makeup bun, and maid.

In the early Tang Dynasty, women of higher status changed their buns from the Sui Dynasty's flat buns and simply raised them upward, making various developments. It became a trend that was practiced from above and below. The minister asked Emperor Tang Taizong to prohibit it, and although Emperor Tang Taizong reprimanded him, he later asked his close minister, Linghu De, what was the reason for women's high buns. Linghu De thought that the head was important in the upper part of the body, so there was a reason to make it taller. As a result, the high bun was no longer restricted and became more diversified. Flying buns and chignons were all high buns. In the early Tang Dynasty, buns were usually tightly wrapped and stood high on the top of the head, as Yuan Wei Zhi mentioned in Li Wa Xing that "all the buns in the city were one foot high, not the buns of concubines". Another example is Li He's poem "The bun of a woman's hair is a sorrowful cloud", which describes the height of the bun at that time. Of course, the average woman's hair is not enough to reach this height, so the wig is very popular, in the hair padded with wood made of fake crowns, hair cushions, etc., the bun cushion high, Yang Guifei favorite wig, then called it Yi bun.

Later appeared the so-called cicada wings, the hair at the temples will be combed outward, forming a very thin and very open expansion of the layer, and then on the top of the head to make a high bun. At this time, there is also a spherical bun and flat oblique bun coiled on the top of the head, but also the hair to the left and right combed into two drop-shaped buns around the ears.

Draped bun

Draped bun in the legend of Wu Mei Niang

Draped bun is a bun in which the hair is strung at the back of the head, and then tied into a handful of hairs at the end of the head, forming a small ball (bun).

The flower bun is a kind of bun decorated with various kinds of flowers inserted in the hair bun. Li Bai's "Palace Music Lyrics" has the sentence of "mountain flowers inserted in a bun"; Wan Chu's "Cornucopia" has the sentence of "inserting flowers in a high bun", and so on. Peonies were inserted into the bun because the Tang people valued peonies as the king of flowers and the flower of wealth and nobility, especially the women of noble families preferred to use peonies as hairpins on their buns to show their charm and richness. It is recorded in "The History of Trousseau? The story of the women is recorded as follows: "Zhang C used peonies to entertain guests, and there were dozens of famous concubines, the first of whom was a peony." Zhou P's "Hairpin Ladies" reflects this kind of hair accessory. In addition to peonies, various kinds of small flowers can be inserted, "Crabapple flowers like snow hairpin in a cloud bun" (Luo Qiu's Bihong'er), crabapple is a small white jasmine flower, inserted in a bun, so that black hair and white flowers can better reflect the contrasting effect of the black one being even blacker. This decorative method, has been passed down among the names, and has become the main means of women's hair jewelry in China.

Bonobo bun

During the Sheng Tang period, the most popular was the bonobo bun, combing the hair from the temples to the back of the head, and then swept upward, and on the top of the head into one or two buns lowered to the forehead. Most of the unearthed pottery figurines of women from the Sheng Tang Dynasty were made with the Japanese chignon. To this day, Japanese women wear kimonos with their hair styled in the same way as the Tang Dynasty chignon.

During the Middle and Late Tang dynasties, there were many new styles of women's buns. Tang Dezong Zhenyuan the end of the year, the capital city of Chang'an popular fall horse bun, is a kind of hair pulled up to the top of the head to make the clothes cluster bun, and then make it to the side, forming a hair style like accidentally get, lively and natural, the painter Zhang Xuan's "Mrs. Guo Guo tour of the spring" in the appearance of this hair style. At that time also popular haunted sweeping makeup bun is a kind of scattered upward hair style, Bai Xingjian "Three Dreams" that there is "the end of the Tang Palace bun, the number of haunted sweeping makeup bun, the shape of the Amazing Wind Scattered" said; also said that randomly combed into the bun is also known as haunted sweeping makeup bun; also do Pan Crow. There is also a young maids, often hair to the left and right apart, on top of the head to do a row of multiple bun hair style, very elaborate.

Wu Meiniang comb abortion horse bun hairstyle

"Maid", "maid" is from the women's hair style, women underage, more hair will be bundled at the top, knotted into two small buns. The shape of the left and right one, and tree branches similar to the fork, so the name "Yatou". Developed to later "Yatou" has become a pronoun for young women. Li Jiav "ancient Xing" has "fifteen small family girl, double hair people do not know" poem describing the young girl pulling hair style.

The difference between the bun

The difference between the maid and the bun is twofold: First, the bun is a solid bun, while the maid is a hollow hair hair; Second, the bun is often high in the top of the hair, while the maid is more hanging between the ears. When combing and pulling, for women of different ages also makes a difference. General women at a young age to comb the main yatun, after adulthood is changed to comb the maid, to the date of marriage, and then change the bun to *** of the bun. If a woman is of marriageable age but not married, she can only wear a maid's hair but not a bun. From this, we can see that combing the bun and combing the maid is a kind of sign of whether a woman is married or not. Du Fu's poem, "Walking on a Salary," reads, "A virgin in Kui Zhou has half-hua hair, and she has no husband at forty-five or seventy. To the old double maids to drooping head, wild flowers and mountain leaves silver hairpin." Describing the women in the Kui Zhou area of Sichuan Province, due to years of war, the number of men decreased, until the age of forty-five and fifty have not been married, although the temples have been gray, but still combed to be married to the hair of the maid.