First, the history of "one ear and three tongs"
One ear and three tongs is an old custom of the Manchus, which means that after the Birth of Manchu girls, they wear three holes in both ears and wear earrings, which is called one ear and three tongs. The so-called tongs are earrings, and women from wealthy families will use gold, silver, jade as textures to make tongs, while women with relatively poor families will wear copper rings as tongs as earrings on their ears.
Last year's two popular Qing Palace dramas "Yanxi Raiders" and "Ruyi Zhuan" brought the history of the Qing Dynasty into everyone's field of vision again, and the two dramas not only conveyed the true historical stories of the same period to people completely, but also restored the customs of the Manchu people of the Qing Dynasty to the greatest extent, whether it was eating or dressing, they were interpreted in great detail according to the historical records.
Those who have seen the play must be impressed by the earrings of the women of the Qing Dynasty court, of which the earrings of the actresses are all worn in accordance with the traditional custom of the Manchu people of one ear and three tongs. According to the records of Qing Dynasty data, one ear and three tongs were indeed mandatory for women in the Qing Dynasty.
I think there are two reasons why the one ear and three tongs are vigorously respected, one reason is that the Qing Dynasty was ruled by the Manchus, as the second ethnic minority to unify the dynasty throughout China, the Manchus and the Qing Dynasty have an inseparable relationship, and the second reason is that the one ear and three tongs are for the Manchus to distinguish themselves from the Han people, so they will attach great importance to the traditional custom of one ear and three tongs.
When Qianlong was selecting women in the forty years, Qianlong said: "The flag woman wears three tongs in one ear, which is originally an old Manchurian style, and must not be decorated, and the show women who are jointly selected with a collar and a collar all carry a pendant, and as far as one ear and one tong are concerned, they are not Manchurian and are immediately prohibited." This custom has continued for a long time, and the scene of the empress wearing three tongs is also recorded in the historical records of the Guangxu Grand Wedding Ceremony.
Again, according to the information. In the former Qing Dynasty, men also had the custom of wearing earrings, from the portraits of emperors of the early Qing Dynasty such as Nurhaci, we can see the existence of earrings, and with the development of the Qing Dynasty, the phenomenon of men wearing earrings is becoming less and less, but the custom of Manchurian women with one ear and three tongs has still been circulating.
Second, the "one ear and three tongs" reveals the status of Manchurian women in the Qing Dynasty
Different from the one ear and one tongs worn by Han women, the one ear and three tongs of Qing Dynasty women show the difference in women's status. Historical records say that "the empress dowager and the empress dowager earrings are three on each side, and each golden dragon street is used with two first-class east beads; the imperial concubines and noble concubine earrings use second-class eastern beads; the concubine earrings use third-class eastern beads; the concubine earrings use fourth-class eastern beads; and the rest is the same." "From these, it can be seen that the earrings are a symbol of the status of Manchurian women.
In the court, the same as "one ear and three tongs" also has a distinction between high and low, in the harem, the earrings of concubines are three strings, while the earrings of palace women are one string plus two rings, so it seems that it is also based on distinguishing the dignity and inferior status of women in the clan from one ear and three tongs. As we all know, the Qing Dynasty is a Dynasty respected by Manchuria, whether it is a system or a custom, it reflects that the Manchus are more honorable than the Han people, and this difference has been very significant in the former Qing Dynasty.
"One ear and three tongs" as a prominent feature of Manchu women, but also a symbol of the dignity of Manchu women, if you see a woman on the street wearing three tongs, you will easily identify that this is a Manchu woman rather than a Han woman, which shows how respected the status of Manchu women is.
As mentioned above, when Qianlong selected women, he put forward a strict prohibition on some people who followed the customs of Han women and wearing tongs in one ear, and the words of the Son of Heaven were the holy will of the court and even the people, and no one dared to despise the words of the Son of Heaven, so this traditional custom was continued for a long time in the Qing Dynasty.
Third, from the film and television drama to reflect the history of the Qing Palace", "one ear and three tongs"
In many Qing Palace dramas, not every drama restores the tradition of women wearing three tongs in the history of the Qing Dynasty, and we can say that the two dramas of "Yanxi Raiders" and "Ruyi Zhuan" that were fired last year can be said to be relatively restored to the history of the Manchu people in the Qing Dynasty.
In the first few episodes of "Yanxi Raiders", there is a dialogue between the emperor asking Nalan Yue why he wears earrings so much, which tells the explanation of why Shu Guiren wore earrings in this way, and her inquiry to the emperor explains that this is a tradition left by the ancestors and must be strictly observed, if not, how can you say that you are a Manchurian. From the perspective of following historical materials alone, this is indeed a big reason why I insisted on watching this drama.
Then we turn our attention to "Ruyi Zhuan" and we will find that this drama "Yanxi Raiders" more accurately restores the custom of Qing Palace women wearing earrings, in fact, from a large number of historical records, it is not difficult for us to confirm that in the Qing Dynasty, not all Manchu women in the Qing Palace had to follow the traditional custom of one ear and three tongs, and not all Manchu women in the palace had to wear three tongs.
In some grand banquets in the court, the concubines were to wear the three tongs strictly, and in normal times, except for the empress dowager and the empress, there was no need to wear the three tongs completely, which was also a more rigorous arrangement in "Ruyi Zhuan" than in "Yanxi Raiders". In many Qing Palace film and television dramas, the custom of "one ear and three tongs" is also reflected in the "Secret History of Xiaozhuang", the empress dowager's one ear and three tongs, and the "Kangxi Dynasty" Empress Xiaozhuangwen wearing three tongs.
4. Summary
As an ornament, earrings have always been loved by the world, and the style of earrings has become more colorful, but as modern people, it is difficult for us to associate earrings with status and inferiority, and through today's exploration of the traditional custom of "one ear and three tongs" for Manchu women, we find that earrings will indeed represent the dignity of status.
For this dynasty that is closest to modern society, both communications and historical records have reached a more advanced point than previous dynasties, leaving posterity to study not only words but also pictures and even photos. Nowadays, we can analyze the honor and status of a nation just by starting from the earrings worn by Manchu women in the Qing Dynasty, which is why history and culture attract people to constantly explore.
Reference Books:
[1] Deng Zhuyin: "A Brief Analysis of the Customs of the Manchus in the Qing Dynasty "One Ear and Three Tongs"", Splendid Embroidery
[2] Song Lili, "One Ear and Three Tongs": Landscapes in the Ears of Manchu Women in the Qing Dynasty, CNKI, 2014
[3] Xu Shuangshuang, "Teasing the Manchu Customs of One Ear three tongs", Kaifeng Zhejiang, 2015