Why did men in the Qing Dynasty braid their hair, and why did Han people in the past have long hair?

Before the Qing Dynasty, Han men did not wear braids. The tradition of the Han nationality (until the end of the Ming Dynasty) was to store hair, tie it in a bun and not shave it. Men always have long hair and never cut it all their lives. The so-called "parents who are suffering from flesh and blood must not be harmed in the slightest."

Shaving one's head and leaving one's pigtails was originally the custom of Manchu people. 162 1 year, after Nurhachi captured Liaoshen, the Han people were forced to shave their hair and braid on a large scale. 1644, Qing soldiers entered the customs. After the capture of Beijing, especially after the capture of Nanjing, they strictly enforced the haircut order, "telling the officials and the people to shave their heads", and those who violated the order were "killed without forgiveness". At that time, there were not only orders to "keep hair but not hair", but also orders to "not shave the whole family and not shave the whole village".

[1] Because there was an ancestral motto in ancient China that "the strength of the body is influenced by parents", shaving and braiding hair actually violated the historical traditions and thoughts and feelings of the Han nationality. Therefore, many people in the early Qing Dynasty would rather lose their heads than have their hair cut, such as the famous "Top Ten Yangzhou" and "Jiading Massacre". After the unification of China in the Qing Dynasty, the custom of shaving one's head and leaving one's pigtails changed from Manchu to Manchu by virtue of the power of the regime.