Soldiers with crooked bows and arrows, black bears performing shows, workers with tools... 10 photographs of the late Qing Dynasty, constructing a "ukiyo-e" of social life more than 100 years ago.
Carpenter with various tools in hand.
In agricultural society, the common people were divided into four classes: soldiers, farmers, workers, and merchants, and carpenters belonged to the third class, "workers". Due to the nature of the work, craftsmen often have to run around to collect work, make money and make a living, to use the current hot word, they are the "hit workers" of the late Qing Dynasty. Facing the camera, their expressions are relaxed and natural, and maybe the income for this day is very good.
Dignified woman.
Picking flowers in one hand and holding a handkerchief in the other, sitting in a dignified posture, there is a rich wife's temperament. She wore leather shoes on her feet.
A Qing soldier with a bent bow and archery.
This photograph was taken on September 18, 1871, when an Eight Flags soldier was paraded at the Andingmen School Yard in Beijing, demonstrating the level of archery. Even in the modern war into the era of hot weapons, the Qing army still regarded archery as an important subject in training, and archery was also taken as an important content in the martial arts examination.
Group photo of lepers in Guangzhou.
Leprosy is contagious and no effective treatment has been found during the Qing Dynasty. At that time, the treatment of lepers in various places was simple and brutal, driving them to deep mountains or isolated islands, isolating them from healthy people and leaving them to fend for themselves. In 1891, Dr. Fu Te from England built a leprosy hospital in Beihai, Guangdong, which was the earliest professional hospital in China to treat leprosy, and adopted a new treatment method.
Qing dynasty officials pose with foreigners.
The scene was supposed to be a picnic, with tea bowls and foreign wine on the table, officials dressed in civilian clothes, and a relaxed atmosphere. They were protected by soldiers behind them, and there were also servants who were waiting at any time, although they were not above the court, they were still full of faces.
Wei Guangtao, the governor of Liangjiang (a fan holder), took a group photo with foreign guests.
In August 1903, on the occasion of the Guangxu Emperor's 33rd Birthday Festival, Wei Guangtao led local officials to hold a banquet at the Liangjiang Governor's Palace, inviting foreign guests stationed in Nanjing to attend and celebrate the emperor's birthday. After the banquet, everyone came to Xuyuan garden without tying a boat for a group photo.
Animal shows on the streets.
A black bear is performing hard to please the crowd. At that time, people's cultural and leisure activities were relatively small, and watching the circus was a rare entertainment. Of course, from today's perspective, animal performances should be restricted or prohibited.
Zhan Wujiu, who is unusually tall.
Zhan Wujiu is Zhan Shichao, and Wujiu is his milk name. He is 8 feet tall and weighs 364 pounds (165.1 kilograms), and was spotted by foreigners while working in Shanghai and packaged as a juggler on a world tour. The English text at the bottom of the photo says that he was born in Beijing in 1847, inaccurately, his birthplace is in Wuyuan.
Sit on the kang and do needlework while chatting.
Some foreigners described the living conditions of women in the late Qing Dynasty: "When you see Chinese women, their hands are rarely not in the soles of their shoes, even when they chat in the alleys, they talk like this; perhaps you see them spinning threads, and they are always idle." ”
Street shops.
The shop sells a variety of scales, but the most notable is the lottery business. In fact, during the reign of Empress Dowager Cixi, people's enthusiasm for buying lottery tickets (both private and official) was already very high, and the people called it "fortune tickets".