Then let's take a look at how the ancients judged whether a woman could be gorgeous. Their aesthetic norms were as follows:
In the pre-Qin period, northern women took "body length" as beauty.
As far as the northern Central Plains is concerned, in the pre-Qin period, it was said that "Shuo" or "Qi" was "high" and "body length" was beautiful. The representative figure of tall and handsome man in pre-Qin Dynasty was Wei Zhuanggong's wife Zhuang Jiang. Zhuang Jiang is a princess of Qi. When she got married, the wedding scene was very big and matched the scenery. The poem Shuo Ren in The Book of Songs Feng Wei is about Zhuang Jiang's marriage. Zhuang Jiang's body is mentioned twice in the poem: "the spirit of being a master" and "the pride of being a master". Shuoren means short stature, while "Qi" and "Pride" further exaggerate the slender beauty of Zhuang Jiang's figure. Moreover, Zhuang Jiang not only has a slender figure, but also has beautiful hands, neck, skin, mouth, teeth and eyes: his hands are soft, his skin is like jelly, his collar is like salamander, his teeth are like rhinoceros, and his head is like a moth eyebrow.
The poem "The Book of Songs tang style Jiao Chat" also mentioned a tall woman: "His son has no friends" and "His son is loyal". Judging from the words "no friends" and "loyalty", this pepper picker is not only tall, but also strong and plump.
Who is Peter's son in Jiao Chat? There is constant controversy in the literary world. Some people regard this poem as "I'm glad that women are suitable for having children", which is a compliment to men's abundant and strong children; Some people think that "the son of the other party is not a woman, but a woman." In fact, during the age, no matter whether a woman is a woman or not, as long as she is stocky, she is eligible to participate in the selection of handsome men. From today's Zheng Guo and Guo Wei in Henan, to today's Qiguo and Tang Guo in Shandong and Shaanxi, this aesthetic view is prevalent.
The poem "Jane" in The Book of Songs describes a woman's feelings towards the leader of the dance when she plays the "Wan Dance": "A master is an insatiable person", which means that the dancer is short and mighty.
In fact, the aesthetics of taking height as beauty can be traced back to the Yin and Shang Dynasties. For example, Zhou Wang, the first monarch of the Shang Dynasty, was recognized as a handsome man in advance because of his short stature, which is what was said in Xunzi Feixiang: "The ancient man was huge and beautiful, and also a national hero."
How to make the body stronger and stronger? Predecessors advocated more activities and more rest, such as the "other son" in Zanthoxylum Chat, that is, taking part in the rest of picking Zanthoxylum bungeanum. In addition, dancing is also a fitness activity that seniors like. The reason why the dancers in Jane Xi have good figure is inseparable from their dance training. "Jane Xi, you can always dance."
In the pre-Qin period, northern women took "thin waist" as beauty.
In the pre-Qin period, in the eyes of northerners represented by Chu Shang, tall people no longer seemed to be loved, but "slim waist" was the beauty. "Thin waist" is also called "slim waist", "small waist" and "willow waist". According to Han Feizi's Second in Command, when explaining the influence of the likes and dislikes of the royal clique on North Korea's governance, Han Feizi cited such an example: "King Chu Ling has a thin waist, but there are many hungry people in the country." It means that the king of Chu browses people with thin waists, and the consequence is to reward and please him. Most people go on a diet to lose weight.
King Chu Ling was a famous confused and violent king in his time. Aesthetic comprehension was different when he lived in luxury and debauchery. The consequences of Mozi's hobby of "thin waist" are recorded in more detail: "In the past, King Chu Ling was a gentleman with a thin waist, so the ministers of the King Ling all took meals as a festival, threatened to rest and then took them, and then helped the wall. Compared with the previous year, the color of North Korea has darkened. " In the past, King Chu Ling liked people with thin waists. His servants ate a meal, went on a diet, took a breath, tied their belts and held the wall before they could stand up. A year later, the court official turned yellow and black with hunger.
From Mozi's point of view, the thin waist of the king of Chu is aimed at women, but it is the women of Chu who are most affected. Their waist height and kung fu are very complicated, so Yan, a poet in the Northern Song Dynasty, said in his poem Partridge Sky: "Chu women have waists, and Yue Nv has gills." When the king of Chu came out, the height of Chu people was beautiful with "thin waist", so it was also called "Chu waist". Besides King Chu Ling, I heard that Chu Zhuangwang used to be "very thin". This aesthetic has a great influence on later generations.
How to shape a slim waist? Judging from Mozi's records, there are two ways of predecessors: one is to go on a diet to lose weight and make Chu "hungry"; The second is to master the belt and "threaten to bring it again", which is this work. The popular diet now is also this diet slimming method.
During the Han and Wei Dynasties, women took "lightness" as beauty.
At present, the norms of women's good health have changed in Qin and Han Dynasties. Although "body length" and "thin waist" are still browsed, the aristocratic class prefers soft and weak bodies-taking "light body" as beauty.
According to historical records, concubines in the harem of the Han Dynasty were all light-skinned. For example, Mrs. Qi, the favorite concubine of Emperor Gaozu Liu Bang, has a charming figure and a sense of rhythm. Mrs. Qi can't do this if she is overweight. The most outstanding woman should be Zhao, the queen of Emperor Han Cheng, as light as a swallow. The phrase "swallow thin" in the idiom "surround fat and swallow thin" means Zhao. How light is your body? Song Qinchun's Zhao Chuan said: "Zhao has a thin waist and is kind. If someone shivers with a flower branch, others can't learn. "
Most of the handsome guys presented during this period are light-weight handsome guys with "light" as the beauty. For example, Wang Zhaojun, one of the "four handsome men" in ancient China, was light and "bent". Wang Zhaojun was originally the imperial concubine of the Han emperor, and later married Uhaanyehe, a Hun. This is the origin of the story "Zhao Jun went to the fort".
The ethos of "putting beauty first" also influenced the choice of female sculpting in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and the norm of "learning from foreigners" in the pre-Qin period was completely maintained by women in this period. According to "Southern History", Zhang Jingwan, a famous geisha in the Southern Liang Dynasty, could dance on the palm of a person's hand as long as her waist was one foot six inches. This kind of dance is called "palm dance", which is said to be an original dance by Zhao.
Why did the Han Dynasty take "lightness" as beauty? Perhaps it has a lot to do with the propaganda of Ban Zhao, a female historian in the Eastern Han Dynasty. She put forward such an idea in Women's Commandments: Caution: "Yin and Yang are different, and men and women are different. Yang takes rigidity as virtue, Yin takes softness as utility, men look at gravity, and women value weakness as beauty. " The phrase "women take weakness as beauty" attracted the whole Wei, Jin and Six Dynasties to advocate "quiet and relaxed, gentle and generous".
In the Tang dynasty, the beauty of the body was "fullness"
Before the Tang Dynasty, the "thin waist" and "light body" were changed. Women's bodies are "plump", but their waists are not valued. The handsome men in the Tang Dynasty are all rich. For example, in Yan's Travel Map, none of the ladies around Emperor Taizong was thin. The longer the time, the fuller the paintings of the ladies in the Tang Dynasty. The female abstraction in the murals of the prosperous Tang Dynasty invented by ancient archaeology also proves this point. Everyone is plump, no fat people.
The appearance of this good physical norm in the Tang Dynasty was also related to the hobbies of the lower class. Judging from the pen and ink recorded in the Book of the Whole Tang Dynasty, firstly, the Han and Wei emperors indirectly denied the "thin waist", and the "two-step dance and dry feather fu" written by the Tang people said: "My gentleman is a wonderful flower in the court, with a thin waist in his palm."
After denying the beauty of thin waist, a brand-new concept of "bodybuilding" was born in the Tang Dynasty-people should be strong, preferably strong, and even the court exaggerated bodybuilding in advance when selecting officials. According to the "Selected Records of the New Tang Dynasty", "There are four ways to choose a person: one is handsome and magnificent?"
It should be noted that the plump beauty in the Tang Dynasty does not mean that being fat is beautiful. In the existing figure paintings of the Tang Dynasty, all women have a "beer belly" instead of a "pregnant belly", and their figure proportions are well-proportioned, with a natural and robust beauty. Yang Yuhuan, the favorite concubine of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, was a highly respected representative of handsome men in the Tang Dynasty. "Biography of Yang Guifei in Old Tang Dynasty" commented on her beauty: "It's really beautiful, good at singing and dancing, fluent in music and brilliant."
"Exactly" is Yang Yuhuan's name. The comments on the humanities room in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties can be described as incisive. He said in the poem "Untitled": "Its customs are rich and colorful, although fat does not hurt meat."
After the Tang Dynasty, slimness was a beauty.
Influenced by politics, economy, civilization and many other aspects, Song people began to advocate the beauty of simplicity and richness. Feminine beauty has changed from gorgeous and open to elegant and introverted. The beauty of women is generally based on the original appearance of Guanyin Bodhisattva, and people's requirements for beautiful men tend to be weak and handsome: shoulder cutting, flat chest, thin waist and thin feet. The wind of foot-binding prevailed in the government in Song Dynasty, and "three-inch golden lotus" became the fundamental requirement for female beauty. In the Song Dynasty, it was very popular for women to wear an ornament called "Corolla", which was made with precision and exquisite workmanship, adding charming temperament to women in this period. The cosmetic powder used by women in the Song Dynasty has been made into powder blocks, each with a diameter of about 3 cm, which are round, square, quadrilateral, hexagonal, sunflower petal-shaped and so on. On the appearance of each powder block, concave and convex plum, orchid and lotus patterns are also printed. During the Yuan Dynasty, although the society in China was not ruled by the Han people, the foreigners did not have much influence on the aesthetics and aesthetic aspects of the Han people.
With the germination of capitalism, people's aesthetic taste began to change with fashion. However, the norms of female beauty are still not much different from those of previous dynasties. However, there are more and more social constraints on women, which are reflected in women's hair accessories, clothing and so on. Women's hairstyles in the Ming Dynasty were boring, and their clothes were tightly wrapped, with no features at all. It can be said that the beauty of women is firmly wrapped. It was not until the early Ming Dynasty that some characteristics were gradually acquired. In the Qing Dynasty, euphemistic and restrained beauty was still the basis of female beauty. Juck Zhang, a scholar in the Qing Dynasty, also mentioned in the book Shadow of Dreams that the so-called beauty takes flowers as the face, birds as the sound, the moon as the god, vitamins as the bone, ice and snow as the skin, autumn waters as the posture, and poetry as the heart. Through vivid metaphors, we can see that a literati has aesthetic standards that require appearance and appearance. This aesthetic understanding persisted until the Republic of China.
Tired of watching, let's have a joke to make you happy:
Jinshi, Jinshi
Son: Who is Han Yu? Father: He is a great writer. He became a scholar at the age of 25. Son: I am better than him. I was nearsighted when I was 6 years old. Father: