Have you ever heard such remarks: It would be great if I was born in the Tang Dynasty, then I would be chosen by the emperor.
So did the Tang Dynasty really regard fatness as beauty?
In other words, the most powerful evidence for the Tang Dynasty’s view of fatness as beauty is what a Northern Song writer wrote in "Sun Xinlao Qiu Mo Miaoting's Poems":
Then we came to the conclusion The idiom "The ring is fat and the swallow is thin".
The second is that some portraits of the Tang Dynasty and most of the female figures in the pottery figurines are bloated, so we can conclude that fatness was considered beautiful in the Tang Dynasty.
However, Qi Dongfang, a professor at Peking University and the “Guardian of National Treasures”, poured cold water on it.
Professor Qi Dongfang said in the lecture:
Teacher Qi Dongfang also explained the female images in murals and pottery figurines.
He said that if we were to count all the murals and pottery figurines that remain today, we would find that the proportion of fat people is not high.
As for a specific period, women in the early Tang Dynasty were generally slender with delicate faces; women in the middle Tang Dynasty were plump; women in the late Tang Dynasty had relatively few images, and they were not obese.
Putting aside Su Shi’s depiction of fat and thin women, let’s take a look at how poets in the Tang Dynasty wrote about contemporary women.
These people all use words like slim waist, which probably does not go with fat people.
So is Yang Yuhuan really as "environmentally fat" as Su Shi said in his article?
According to the description in "Old Book of Tang", she is "beautiful and beautiful", "New Book of Tang" says that she has "upright appearance and quality", and Du Fu's "The Journey of Beauty" says that she has "delicate texture and even bones" , there is no record that Yang Yuhuan is fat, and "beautiful + well-proportioned + good at singing and dancing" should not mean fat.
Although there is no detailed record of Yang Yuhuan's height and weight, we can also take a look at Tang Xuanzong's aesthetics through some small things about Tang Xuanzong.
According to Li Deyu's records in "Old News of the Ciliu Family", Li Heng was depressed when he was the prince. Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty saw that his son was in a bad mood and had gray hair when he went to court. So I went to visit my son after court. When I went to my son's house, I found that no one was cleaning the courtyard and there were not many maids.
So, when Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty issued an edict to select several women for the prince, what were the criteria? Slender and white, I don’t think Tang Xuanzong would cheat his son in this regard, although he was quite cheating...
And for Yang Yuhuan, Li Bai, the great poet of the Tang Dynasty, had really seen her.
May I ask who is similar to the Han Palace? Poor Feiyan relies on her new makeup.
He compared Yang Yuhuan to Zhao Feiyan. This is different from Su Shi's reverse comparison. Li Bai's is a positive comparison. Zhao Feiyan is as light as a swallow, and Yang Yuhuan is probably not too fat.
Therefore, the Tang Dynasty did not regard fatness as beauty, at least not throughout the entire Tang Dynasty.
Regardless of whether you are fat or thin, a healthy body is the goal we should pursue. Do not blindly lose weight or overeat. Moderate eating and proper exercise are the lifestyle we should promote.