Traditional color numbers in Tang dynasty

Lipstick is an essential part of modern beauty products. Nowadays, the mouth red number is rich and varied ... lipstick has long been an indispensable part of women's daily cosmetics and an important product of economic development.

People in a society will only pursue beauty on the basis of eating and wearing warm clothes. Exquisite makeup reflects the economic development of a period, and lipstick as a part of makeup is no exception.

The lipstick we are talking about now was called "lip fat" in ancient times, and after Sui and Tang Dynasties, lip fat was also called "oral fat".

The earliest raw material for making lipstick in ancient times was cinnabar (Cinnabar). In Liu Xi's explanation of names and jewelry in the Han Dynasty, lip fat is explained like this: "If you make it with Dan, it will be like red lips."

Cinnabar is a red mineral. Grind into powder and apply it to your lips, which is uneven, easy to fade and toxic. It is conceivable that it will take a long time.

So the ancients learned to add animal fat to cinnabar, such as bovine pith and tallow, and beeswax replaced animal fat pith in the Tang Dynasty. In order to pursue the fragrance of lip fat, people began to add various spices.

The Tang Dynasty was the best period for the development of oral fat, and the development of oral fat also reflected the social development of the Tang Dynasty.

In the Tang Dynasty, many spices were added, such as tulip and dragon saliva. These spices are not local products, but come from places outside the Tang Dynasty, such as western countries and Vietnam. Tulips were presented by Karp in the 21st year of Zhenguan (647).

Since Zhang Qian was sent to the Western Regions in the Han Dynasty, the Silk Road was opened and spices from the Western Regions were introduced. The Tang Dynasty was the peak of the development of feudal society. Through the Silk Road, the exchanges between the Tang Dynasty and other countries in the western regions deepened and foreign trade was frequent.

All kinds of spices from western countries were introduced into the Tang Dynasty along the Silk Road, such as tulips and dragon saliva incense. The variety of spices has increased, which promotes the variety of sesame oil that can be added in the production of oral fat.

In the Tang Dynasty, sesame oil was added to make oral fat, which was called "fried nail" at that time. What is nail-frying? According to Sun Simiao's records, Jiaxu is a sesame oil made of Jiaxiang, Aquilaria Resinatum, Musk and Pogostemon Pogostemonis.

Many oral fat raw materials, including more than a dozen imported raw materials, are recorded in the Secret Recipe of Wai Tai. According to statistics, the main spices imported into China from the Western Regions at that time were wisteria, camphor, pepper, Java, musk, benzoin, borneol, frankincense and myrrh. , recorded in Xiangcheng and Xiangpu respectively.

The Silk Road and Maritime Silk Road in the Tang Dynasty were smooth and the sources of spices were extensive. Spices introduced through foreign trade are added to the production of oral fat, which makes it possible to upgrade lipstick.

A small box of lip fat embodies the openness and tolerance of the Tang Dynasty and reflects the prosperity of foreign trade in the Tang Dynasty. As the saying goes, "the lips are still fresh, and the mouth is still fragrant". The lipstick of Datang exudes all kinds of fragrance, and it does not lose the modern lipstick at all.

Ancient books such as Qian Jin Fang Yao recorded the method of making oral fat in Tang Dynasty. In the Tang dynasty, the production technology of oral fat was exquisite, with both color and fragrance.

In the Tang Dynasty, the color numbers of oral fat were not single, including bright red, light red, pink, tan (flesh color), black, purple and so on, with rich colors. How to get oral fat with different color numbers? As long as the raw materials are mixed in the production process.

For example, a method recorded by Cui Zhiti, if you want purple lipstick, first melt the yellow wax and then fry it in Lithospermum; If you want a flesh color, use a little yellow wax and purple wax; If you want red, add cinnabar to the wax.

In the production of oral fat, the proportion of raw materials is also particular. For example, to make red oral fat, you need one or two waxes and two cinnabar the size of soybeans.

Special spices need to be added after color matching. In this process, oral fat and lip fat can be distinguished: "If the mixture fried with nails is made into paste and kept in a box, it is called oral fat. If there is no nail-fried mixture, it is called lip fat, but it is not mouth fat. "

Chen Zangqi, an expert in traditional Chinese medicine in the Tang Dynasty, explained it more directly. He said: "Jiaxu is made of various medicines, beautiful fruits, flowers, ashes and wax."

The production process of fried armor is complex and exquisite. Soak a variety of spices, cook with low fire, seal and bake with low fire to form fried nails with different smells.

Tubular oral fat appeared in the Tang Dynasty. "The Secret of Outer Taiwan" records the practice: "Take bamboo tube composite paper and wrap it with rope, fill it with melted fat, and stop cooling to form oral fat."

However, the production of tubular oral fat was more complicated, so most of the oral fat at that time was still packed in boxes.

It is more convenient to pack oral fat in a box. If necessary, open the lid, take out a little with your fingertips, click it, click it, or even put it on your lips. Bai Juyi vividly described this picture: "Lips are even."

The production of oral fat belongs to handicraft industry, and the production process of oral fat is complex and fine, which is enough to reflect the development of handicraft industry in Tang Dynasty.

Oral fat was valued by the government in the Tang Dynasty, and was used by both men and women. Every year, Emperor Lari's routine reward includes oral fat.

From the poems of Bai Juyi and Du Fu, we can know that they all got oral fat from the emperor.

Bai Juyi received a reward from the emperor in the twelfth lunar month and wrote an article to express his gratitude. The twelfth lunar month wax-like gratitude reads: "I owe you today and give you some wax, red snow, bath beans, etc." Du Fu wrote a poem to express his gratitude. "La Ri" said: "The medicine of oral fat and flour is favored, and the jade tube is full of silver."

Why did the emperor reward officials for taking fat orally in the twelfth lunar month? Actually, it has something to do with the climate in Xi. At that time, the twelfth lunar month was the twelfth lunar month, not the winter.

Xi belongs to warm temperate semi-humid continental monsoon climate. Winter is cold and dry, and people's lips will peel and crack. At this time, oral fat is an artifact to moisturize lips. Therefore, the items given by the emperor to the minister included oral fat. What's more, the oral fat at that time also had medicinal value, so the oral fat and facial fat given by the emperor were more medicinal value than cosmetic value in the modern sense.

Of course, men in the Tang Dynasty painted mostly flesh-colored lipsticks.

The Commercial Pharmacy Bureau is a court institution in the Tang Dynasty, which specializes in making beauty and skin care products with spices, and oral fat is one of them. The harem women used to decorate themselves, and the oral fat that the emperor used to reward the ministers also came from commercial pharmacies.

The variety and good quality of oral fat consumed by the court stimulated other groups to pursue oral fat. Therefore, it can be said that the official attention has promoted the development of oral fat economy and further promoted the development of spice economy.

In order to satisfy the consumers outside the court, shops specializing in rouge gouache and spices appeared in the Tang Dynasty market.

Men in modern love will give their girlfriends lipstick to show their love. In fact, this trick is not unique to modern people. Through time and space, we found that as early as the Tang Dynasty, men would give lipstick to please women.

In tang legends's novel Biography of Yingying, Cui Yingying wrote in a letter sent to Zhang Sheng that Zhang Sheng gave her "five inches of oral fat", indicating that Zhang Sheng wanted her lips to be moist.

In the Tang Dynasty, men in love presented women with lip fat, and men also presented oral fat (with practical value), which promoted the overall development of social economy to a certain extent.

The development of oral fat reached its peak in the Tang Dynasty, with complex and diverse materials, fine technology and rich and diverse formulas, which not only reflected the social and economic development at that time, but also reflected the social and economic prosperity in the Tang Dynasty.

Main reference materials:

A preliminary study on aesthetic concepts and methods in the prosperous Tang Dynasty

Related problems of spice consumption in Tang Dynasty

Lip makeup of ancient women in China

Facial makeup of ancient women-lips

Research on Female Consumption in Tang Dynasty

Some reference materials come from the Internet.