It is about to be the New Year, for many girls, the New Year must do these things: buy new clothes, perm new hairstyles, but also a big red nail art, so as to "qualified" to welcome the Spring Festival.
Now the "nail art" is amazing, not only is it plastered with "diamonds, gold leaf" and other decorations, many young girls also wear a long "fake nail piece", this fake nail as long as it is pasted on the guest's nails, both to achieve the nail art effect, but also will not damage the guest's nails, can be described as the best of both worlds.
Since it comes to "fake nail pieces", I have to say that the "armor sleeve" that the concubines of the Qing Dynasty like to wear the most is the long object that often appears in the Qing Palace drama, you don't underestimate this "nail set", which can be very exquisite, if anyone is mistaken, it is likely to lose a small life.
Armor cover, also known as "finger guard sleeve", in fact, it appeared as early as the Ming Dynasty, but it did not become popular, and in the Qing Dynasty, harem ladies and ladies wore armor sets, which was popularized. So why did this invention come about?
According to the records of "Han Feizi", as early as the Warring States period, Korean courtiers began to grow long armor, but long armor really affected daily life, so gradually, men no longer had long armor. But they transferred their love for the long armor to the women.
The Tang Dynasty poet Qin Taoyu wrote: "A pair of ten-fingered jade fibers is not a wind and flow. Han Yi wrote: "The wrist is white-skinned red jade shoot buds, and the tuning line is exposed and oblique." The "jade shoot bud" here is to praise and describe the woman's slender hand, like a fresh and tender shoot bud that has just been born.
In fact, like "foot binding", ancient women only made it in order to meet men's hobbies, so they left long nails, but long nails are too easy to break, so "nail sets" came into being.
In 1644, the Manchurian noble army, led by Wu Sangui, entered Shanhaiguan, quickly defeated Li Zicheng and captured the Jing division, and the Shunzhi Emperor became the first emperor of the Qing Dynasty to enter the customs. At that time, Manchu Noblewomen, in order to reflect their "sense of superiority", also began to wrap their feet and keep long armor (they believe that this is a symbol of not having to work).
As we all know, China had a strict feudal hierarchy in ancient times, with regulations on all aspects of clothing, food, housing, and transportation, and this hierarchy was also reflected in the "armor cover". At that time, the harem of the Qing Dynasty was divided into 9 grades, and things were issued strictly according to the grades on weekdays, taking the "armor cover" as an example, the higher the level, the longer the armor cover; the higher the level, the more exquisite the armor cover.
Taking the portrait of Empress Dowager Cixi as an example, almost every portrait of her wore a variety of armor covers, her armor cover was also the most advanced of the harem women at that time, it is said that her 2 ring fingers and little fingers, nails up to 7 inches (about 23 cm), in order to protect her nails, first soaked in warm water every day, specially trimmed, then smeared with essential oil, and finally wearing her exclusive hollow inlaid silk enamel nail set.
In addition to the nail sets made of enamel, the nail sets preserved by the Qing Dynasty also have gold, silver, jade, tortoiseshell, copper and other materials, and hollowed out, hammered, inlaid and other treatments, the pattern is very exquisite, unique, is a symbol of the identity of each concubine, but when wearing must pay attention to the grade, for example, in addition to the queen's armor sleeve can be inlaid with dongzhu, others are not eligible to use, if you dare to use, I am afraid there will be a disaster of killing.
With the demise of the Qing Dynasty, this deformed aesthetic gradually withdrew from the stage of history.