Bai Juyi's "Song of Everlasting Sorrow" is very popular. The line "Looking back and smiling brightly, the six palaces are pink and black has no color" has become a famous sentence through the ages and will last forever. Fendai here refers to the concubines and maids in the palace, and its original meaning refers to the cosmetics used by ancient goddesses.
In fact, there were many types of cosmetics in ancient times, not just pink and white. Compared with modern cosmetics, they were no less popular.
Zhuangfen
In Qu Yuan's "Chu Ci Da Zhao", there is a poem about "pink is white and black is black, Shi Xiangze is only". From this, it can be distinguished that powder and black are divided into white and black. color. Different colors have different functions. Powder, to be precise, it should be makeup powder. makeup powder appeared during the Warring States Period. Its purpose is equivalent to today's whitening foundation.
The production of primary makeup powder is recorded in "Essential Art for Elevating the People". Makeup powder is made from rice or chestnut rice. After soaking, grinding, settling, and exposure to the sun, the surface soil is scraped off, and the finished product is called "Powder Ying". Rice-based "fengyin" is not sticky enough and is easy to lose powder, while "fengyin" made from corn is more sticky. Add spices when using it to whiten and increase fragrance, killing two birds with one stone.
Since there are basic makeup powders, there will also be advanced makeup powders. During the Qin and Han Dynasties, a new type of makeup powder called "Hu Fen" appeared. It was white in color, fine in texture, and most importantly sticky, and was deeply loved by girls. The development of Hu powder has gone through the process from paste to lump. It has good effect and is easy to carry. It soon replaced the status of Fenying and became the mainstream makeup powder. However, Hufen contains heavy metals such as lead, tin, aluminum, and zinc. Long-term use can affect the functions of the nervous system, cardiovascular system, and immune system, causing brain, liver, kidney and other diseases. Guliang, who loves beauty, really wants beauty over her life.
Hu fans were also favored by literati. During the Three Kingdoms period, Cao Zhi, in his "Ode to the Goddess of Luo", described the beauty and refined beauty of the Goddess of Luo as "fragrant and lustrous, plump and beautiful." "Mulan Song" by Wei Yuanfu, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, describes the legend of Mulan joining the army in place of her father with the line "Easy to change her dandy clothes, wash away her leaden makeup". In "Moon over the Xijiang River" by Sima Guang, a writer of the Song Dynasty, he wore a loose bun with precious hair and a light make-up. ?Reflects the daily life of women at that time.
Thrush-Dai
After talking about fans, it’s time to talk about Dai. In ancient times, the goddess used burnt willow branches to apply on her eyebrows. This method was obviously too low. Xu Ling, a poet of the Southern Dynasties, recorded a kind of eyebrow thrush tool called "Shidai" in "Preface to the New Odes of Yutai". This is made by grinding a stone inkstone into fine powder and adding water to mix it to form eyebrow ink.
During the Daye period of the Sui Dynasty, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty forcibly recruited fifteen or sixteen-year-old palace servants to pull fiber for his ships. Soon, he was attracted by Wu Jiangxian, who had eyebrows painted with eyebrows, and brought her into the harem and named her Mrs. Kongtong. Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty gave Luozidai to Wu Jiangxian to show his love. Even in the troubled times of the late Sui Dynasty, Wu Jiangxian still used expensive Luozidai.
The question is, how expensive is Luozidai? Yan Shigu of the Tang Dynasty recorded in "Sui Sui Lu": Luo Zida came out of Persia, and each one was worth ten gold. Later, when the levies were insufficient, they were given mixed with copper and lacquer. ?The price of Luozidai is actually as high as ten gold. The copper Dai mentioned in the records is much cheaper than Luozidai, and it is a copper-rust-like compound. Both come from Persia and are imported cosmetics, so the price is reasonable.
In addition, there is also a green sparrow head black from the Western Regions, dark gray in color, which was introduced to the Central Plains during the Southern and Northern Dynasties. Juqu Mengxun, King Wuxuan of Northern Liang, once donated a hundred catties of green bird's head daisy to the Song Dynasty of the Southern Dynasties. This shows that the amount of green bird's head daisy was considerable at that time. Luozi Dai, Tongdai and Qingquetou formed differentiated competition in the black Dai market during the Sui and Tang Dynasties and became the main tools for thrush.
Rouge Face-saving project? It is a matter of great importance. Fendai alone is not enough, you must also have rouge. In fact, rouge is the collective name for facial grease and lipstick, which is equivalent to current skin care cream and lipstick. The raw materials of rouge are mainly red and blue flowers. This flower contains two kinds of pigments, red and yellow. After repeatedly hammering in a stone bowl, the yellow juice is drained to make a red dye, which is dried in the shade to form a grease.
Rouge, known as Yanshi in ancient times, has two theories about its origin. One is that it was invented by women in the Yan region at the end of the Shang Dynasty using red and blue flowers. The other is that rouge originated in the Yan area controlled by the Xiongnu in the northwest. Zhishan. The queens of the Huns at that time often used the name Yan to make up their faces. Therefore, the queen became the nickname for the queen of the Huns. After the opening of the Silk Road, rouge from the Western Regions became a necessity for women in the Central Plains.
The "Secrets of Waitai" written by Wang Tao of the Tang Dynasty recorded the method of making kouzhi: "Qianjinyi" kouzhi recipe: 2 liang of cooked Zhu, 5 liang of powdered Lithospermum, 2 liang of clove, and 2 liang of clove. One liang of musk, four flavors, mix it with armor decoction and make a paste, put it in a box, it is the armor decoction and mouth fat. If there is no armor decoction, it is called lip lipase, not mouth fat. ?This lipstick was colorless and acted similar to today's lip balms, which is related to the dry climate of the time.
Unlike now, men in the Tang Dynasty also used lipstick. The poet Liu Yuxi said in "Thanks to Li Zhongcheng for the Gift of Zixue Facial Fat and Other Tables": "In accordance with the imperial edict, I was given a combination of Zixue, Hongxue, facial fat, and oral fat, and a bag of bath beans." ?Another poet Bai Juyi also mentioned in "Thanksgiving Gifts for Mouth Wax Shapes on the Last Day": ?Today I have received a favor, and I have given my ministers and other gifts mouth wax, red snow, bath beans, etc. ?It seems that it was normal for the emperor of the Tang Dynasty to reward ministers with lipstick.
Facial Mask
In ancient times, facial masks were also popular among aristocratic women. Princess Taiping of the Tang Dynasty was a facial mask expert.
She ordered people to collect peach blossoms in the third month of the lunar calendar, dry them in the shade, grind them, and mix them with the blood of silky chickens in July to form a paste. It is said that this facial mask has the effect of whitening the skin.
In addition, the Taizhen ruby ??ointment commonly used by Yang Yuhuan, the favorite concubine of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, is also a facial mask. It is based on fresh almonds, light powder, and talcum powder, supplemented by borneol and musk. Made with egg whites. Yang Yuhuan uses it after washing every morning to keep her skin rosy and shiny. The ingredients of the two masks are different, but the effects are similar.
Hua Tian
In addition, there is a kind of cosmetics that is not common today. Huadain is a flower ornament that ancient women put on their foreheads. There are three colors of flower mother-of-pearl: red, green and yellow, with red being the most common. They are made of gold foil, paper, fish cheek bones, shad scales, camellia flower cakes and other materials. The shapes of the flowers include plum blossoms, birds, fish, ducks, etc., which are novel, unique, and charming.
The appearance of Huadian is purely accidental. Princess Shouyang, the daughter of Emperor Wu of the Song Dynasty Liu Yu, was lying under the eaves of Hanzhang Palace. The plum blossoms fell on her forehead, forming five-flowered flowers that could not be brushed away , after three days of washing, it fell off. The palace maid was strange and effective. Therefore, Huadian is also called "Plum Blossom Makeup" or "Shouyang Makeup", which became popular in the Sui and Tang Dynasties.
An interesting story is recorded in "Yu Yi Lu" written by Tao Gu of the Northern Song Dynasty: "People in the palace of the Later Tang Dynasty caught dragonflies from nets and loved their green thinness, so they painted their wings with a gold pen and made small branches. . ?The beauty-loving palace maids of the Later Tang Dynasty caught dragonflies with nets and cut off their wings to make flowers. It was really imaginative and eclectic.
The decals are made of glue, which is said to be made from fish. It is breathed into glue and is very sticky. The effect is equivalent to the current self-adhesive, but the Lun family is purely natural. In the famous "Mulan Ci", there is a line about trimming one's hair at the window and applying yellow decals to the mirror. This is what is said. When removing makeup, just apply hot water to remove the makeup, which is convenient and practical.
Comparing ancient and modern cosmetics, you will find that ancient cosmetics are rich in types and colors, and they can still dress up goddesses beautifully. Different from modern cosmetics, ancient cosmetics are mostly made of pure natural materials, which are green, environmentally friendly and pollution-free. They should be given a big thumbs up. Whether in ancient times or today, one thing has not changed, that is, everyone has a love for beauty.