What does it mean to be told you look classical?

The meaning of a figure appearance and a gentle and elegant temperament that conforms to traditional aesthetics.

Classical beauty is a Chinese word meaning a good-looking woman from ancient times, or a woman who conforms to ancient Chinese aesthetics.

The main features are hands like soft catkins, skin like condensed fat, neck like grub, teeth like gourd. A small cicada with a small head, a small smile and beautiful eyes. Chivalry, the appearance of the closed moon and shy flowers, sinking fish and falling geese of the face. Ice and jade clean, keep your body like jade.

Chinese classical beauty standards, in accordance with the late Ming and early Qing Jiaxing literati Xu Zhen "beauty spectrum", there should be the following characteristics:

One, a cicatrix

"Poetry" cloud "cicatrix," is a description of a pre-Qin dynasty, a king's wife Zhuang Jiang's appearance. "A cicatrix is a cicada-like insect with a small body but a wide head. The ancients believed that a woman with a full and broad forehead and a full atrium was considered beautiful, and that it was only by looking at her face that she was lucky to have good luck.

Finally figured out why modern actresses pad their foreheads, right?

Two, cherry lips

Tang Dynasty Bai Juyi for his two beloved concubines, wrote a famous poem "Cherry Fan Su mouth, willow small savage waist". The lips of Fan Su are the standard of classical Chinese beauty, as small as apricots and cherries. Su Shi, a great lyricist of the Song Dynasty, once used the phrase "a cherry Fan Su mouth" to describe a beautiful woman.

Modern society, influenced by Western aesthetics, has begun to appreciate and pursue "big mouths," but a small cherry mouth is still the most traditional aesthetic standard. Oh, and legend has it that chewing betel nut can make your mouth smaller.

Three, rhinoceros teeth

There is also a line in the Book of Songs that describes a beautiful woman's teeth as white as a gourd. In the Song Dynasty, Wang Yan wrote a poem, "I can't see the moth-eyebrows, gourd and rhinoceros teeth of the old eulogy". The heroine of the Republic of China's drama "New Camellia" was praised for her beauty, "the eyebrow of the distant mountain gourd rhinoceros teeth, springtime for the hair of the pupils of the autumn wave".

See, the ancient aesthetic, white teeth is essential oh! This is also the reason why modern people are keen on braces, it is said that Angela baby goddess of beauty is because of braces!

Weak, distant mountain eyebrows

Distant mountain eyebrows, describing, is a kind of color light and false, such as the color of the distant mountain eyebrow shape, seems to have yet to be, curved misty ...... is similar to the style of Chinese painting: writing, subtle, elegant.

The Han Dynasty beauty Zhuo Wenjun was described as beautiful, it is so "Wenjun pretty, eyebrow color such as looking at the distant mountains, the face is often as hibiscus." Another Han Dynasty beauty, Zhao He De, was also described as "Shi Thin Eyebrows, No. Far Mountain Dai." And Du Liniang in The Peony Pavilion was "Broken hearted spring color in the brow bay, Qian who is facing the distant mountain."

Ancient people's eyebrow aesthetics are completely different from today's popular Korean unibrow, which is closely related to the cultural background of different times.

Wu, autumn wave

Autumn wave is a word that can not be described, it describes a kind of "autumn flow, affectionate" eyes, but there is no specific form of the eye requirements. Eyes are the windows of the soul, the ancients on the eyes of this special part of the aesthetic, not too figurative, but only emphasize the eyes moving.

such as "smiling wryly, beautiful eyes look forward to." "Two curved like knit but not knit smoke eyebrows, a pair of like happy but not happy eyes." The most graphic description of Wang Xifeng in Cao Xueqin's "Dream of Red Mansions": "A pair of phoenix triangular eyes, two curved willow leaf hanging tips."

In fact, Danfeng eyes are the traditional Chinese eye shape, only later received Western and Korean influence, double eyelids more.

Lu, hibiscus face

Chinese people praise the pure and beautiful women, used to use the word "hibiscus", describing the woman's elegant and elegant, light dew slightly red face. The Han Dynasty beauty Zhuo Wenjun was praised for her "hibiscus-like face". Tang Dynasty poet Wang Changling wrote a song called "Picking Lotus," which includes the line "Lotus leaves and skirts are cut in one color, and hibiscus blooms on both sides of the face," describing a lotus picker who was as beautiful as a flower.

The ancients liked to use the word "flower" to describe women, but why did they favor the word "hibiscus" to describe their faces? Perhaps because, hibiscus flowers change color three times a day, early in the morning when the flower is pure white, at noon gradually become delicate pink, withering in the afternoon to become a beauty of the first drunken crimson, exactly like a woman's life.

The white and red hibiscus face is the unified aesthetic standard of Chinese people from ancient times to the present. Nowadays, there are many cosmetic brands that commonly use the selling point of "white and red" to promote their products.

Seven, not fat, not thin length appropriate

While there was a brief history of "fat for beauty", but the entire history of the cross-section, the standard aesthetic is still "not fat, not thin length appropriate, increase a point is too fat, reduce a point is too thin. " This is very different from the present day, when people emphasize "thinness as beauty".

Eight, willow waist and breast

Why put these two standards together? It is because I personally find it incredible, but also to "not fat and not thin", but also to "waist fine breasts" - a natural product of the woman, can do very few it.

The cult of the ancients on the willow waist and breasts, in poetry can also be seen in general - the Yuan Dynasty Zhang Kejiu "wuye'er - the seat on the gift" song: "hibiscus face, willow waist, nothing more than enchanting."? ?

There is also this line: "The willow is weak and curly, just like the waist of a fifteen-year-old daughter." The poem about "breasts" is not listed here. Of course, the ancients said that the breast, not necessarily in the modern sense of the "big", but refers to the meaning of the satin smooth and delicate.

Jiu, catkin

"Poetry - Shuoren" in the "hand like catkin, skin like grease", meaning that the beauty of the hand like a newborn thatched stem as tender and small, skin as smooth as mutton fat. Since ancient times, the ancient people's hand aesthetic standards, has been very unified. Catkin has also become the standard of beauty. In ancient costume dramas, the general appearance of beautiful women, are first a pair of luxuriant jade hands as a guide, attracting people's reverie.

Today's dramas, the aesthetic pursuit of men's hands, on the contrary, exceeds that of women.

Ten, cloud temples

Ancient famous beauty, the South Dynasty, Princess Zhang Lihua, is a typical long-haired beauty, legend has it that her hair is seven feet long, dark as lacquer, glossy can be seen, dyed hair cream, combed into a high bun, radiant.

The description of hair in ancient poems, that is more numerous, Wen Tingjun "Bodhisattva barbarians - hill overlap Jin Ming extinction": "? The first time I've seen this, I've seen it. The sideburns of the clouds want to be? The snow on the cheeks. Mulan Poetry" wrote: "When the window to take care of the cloud temples, to the mirror to paste flowers yellow.

One of the signs of mankind's progress from ignorance to civilization is "aesthetic consciousness". And aesthetics, to some extent, represents the culture of a nation, a country, an era. And culture, in turn, depends on the political and economic context of the time.

Since ancient times in China, the power of speech is basically in the hands of men, women's aesthetic standards are basically also made by men, by the generations of literati and ink masters for repeated ideological indoctrination, and gradually solidified into a unique aesthetic culture.

Today, with the rise of women's status and voice, society has begun to pursue male aesthetics. The beauty industry, which overrides aesthetic standards, has also gradually expanded from traditional female beauty to male beauty. In short, to understand the beauty, to understand the beauty, can not be separated from the larger pattern of social macro perspective.