History is a little girl dressed up, especially in some literary works or film and television works. For the "harem beauty three thousand" this saying, contains enough moisture, enough to fill the entire Pacific Ocean.
Five thousand years of history, there are many articles or paintings that have survived to describe the beauty of the emperor's harem, but I think that this credibility is not very large, why?
The arrogant Li Bai once also wrote "The cloud wants to dress and flowers, and the spring breeze blows Revlon", saying that this poem must have used exaggerated rhetorical techniques, as for the degree of exaggeration, only Li Bai himself knows. There are also some historical records, just imagine, the emperor's harem three thousand, if you are a historical official, this is good to look at, can not be said to be good? Can you say that the emperor harem is a bunch of ugly monsters?
When the emperor says it looks good, the minister must say it looks good, after all, no one dares to joke about it. Everyone says that it is good-looking, and the emperor naturally feels good-looking after watching it for a long time, in fact, after being together for a long time, it is not the same to look good and ugly.
The invention of the camera brought the truth to the surface
Time came to the Qing Dynasty, and in 1846, a Frenchman brought a camera into the imperial palace and became the new favorite of the Qing court. Just like the first sight of electric lights, the concubine eunuchs of the Qing court were full of curiosity about the camera, but also full of fear.
They thought that taking pictures was to imprison their souls on paper, and at first they avoided them.
As his understanding of cameras gradually deepened, Cixi Lafayette took the lead in showing a strong interest in this new thing, and gradually fell in love with taking pictures. This made the concubines and concubines in the palace go to the public's field of vision, and when we saw these photos more than a hundred years later, we suddenly realized that the imperial concubines of the Qing Dynasty looked like this.
And by the way, there is also a question, the concubines of the Qing Dynasty are all selected through layers of selection, why are they so ugly in the photos?
This problem has been briefly summarized by a small editor, and I think there are mainly the following reasons:
There was a difference between the aesthetics of that time and the aesthetics of modern people, and the Manchu Qing were a Jurchen clan outside the Guanxi, and their aesthetics and lifestyles must be different from those of the Central Plains, and they were certainly different from our modern times.
In the selection of the emperor's harem, birth is more important than appearance, and generally choose a banner woman with red roots. The emperor did not have much power to say no in this early stage, in the imperial family, sitting firmly on the throne was the most important thing, so the woman chosen was not the daughter of a heavy minister or a niece, and the identity seemed at that time, which was much more fragrant than looks.
After all, at that time, the emperor was still young, the little boy was better to fool around, the emperor himself looked bad, but the people around him said that it was good-looking, and how you let the emperor think, it must feel good-looking.
To win over ministers, nobles, and looks and so on; many times, the emperor chooses noble concubines not out of his own preferences, but there are certain other factors in it.
The emperor also needs to have his own group in the court, without his own team, directing the movement of others where to direct. In order to win over these ministers, it is inevitable to add a layer of relationship, and marriage is the best way to connect two strangers.
The emperor only needs to vacate the number of places in the harem, and the rest will be handed over to "Providence", and no one can turn the flop card.
Most of the emperors of the late Qing Dynasty had no power; in the late Qing Dynasty, even the emperors had no dignity, let alone their concubines.
Therefore, these concubines on the photo alone do not fully represent the emperor's harem color, in my opinion, there must be a few cute-looking ones.
Man depends on clothes and horses by saddles, and there are no ugly women but only lazy women. It is precisely because of the weakening of the emperor's ruling power in the late Qing Dynasty that the resources available to the imperial concubines are becoming less and less.
In addition, the emperor's body in the late Qing Dynasty has not been very strong, so the mood of the harem concubines competing for favors is not so high, which in turn affects the overall appearance.
Everyone envied that the emperor had the power of life and death, and could control the life and death of others, in fact, the emperor was not easy. They must always be wary of generals and soldiers doing things, and weigh the forces of various interest groups.
For the throne, all kinds of marriages, even if they are women they don't like, must be included in the harem, which is undoubtedly cruel to the emperor himself and the women of the harem.
postscript
Harem concubines look "patriotic", in fact, this is also the benevolence of the wise. In fact, the appearance of the ancients and the current people can be worse, if the current women do not wear makeup, do not plastic surgery, do not use beauty cameras, then how many such beautiful women can there be?
In fact, we are all misled by the beauty camera, feeling that in the selfie video, just like the heavenly immortals, thin and white legs and long, in fact, after deceiving the audience for a long time, even they have been deceived, so the emperor's concubines are ugly and handsome.