The history of the late Qing Dynasty, which is more than a hundred years away from us, has long since dissipated into smoke, and it is difficult for us to know all the details of social life at that time. Fortunately, it also left a large number of fragments, and a little patchwork was enough to outline the general historical outline. Today, through a set of old photos, we will intuitively present the real social situation more than 100 years ago.
Figure 1:
At the end of the Qing Dynasty, a gorgeously dressed palace eunuch, facing the camera, appeared very nervous and unnatural, in order to take this photo is also painstaking, deliberately put on a rare python robe, python robe belongs to the ji cloth, in ordinary life is not allowed to wear, in order to reflect the majesty of the son of heaven, the eunuch of the royal family will only take out the python robe on some important festivals and auspicious days to wear.
Figure 2:
The picture shows the street barbers in the late Qing Dynasty, concentrating on getting haircuts for customers. Since the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the people of Guannei have been forced to keep their hair braids, because the finishing and cleaning of hair braids is very cumbersome, ordinary people will only clean once for a long time, the profession of street barbers has been conceived, their tools are very simple, and the effect of haircuts depends on the personal standards of barbers.
Figure 3:
The picture shows a "beggar gang" gang leader in the Longhua Pagoda area of Shanghai at the end of the Qing Dynasty. In many TV and film dramas, there are also the image of the beggar gang, in the late Qing Dynasty of social turmoil, the number of beggars is even more amazing, and over time it has produced the image of "beggar gang", and the helper of the "beggar gang" is mostly the elderly who are highly respected among the beggars. The gang leader in the photo is covered with all kinds of tattered equipment, holding a "dog beating stick" quite imposing, his main responsibility is to manage and divide the beggars and begging territory near Longhua Pagoda, and the materials they beg for are also uniformly distributed by the gang leader.
Figure 4:
At the end of the Qing Dynasty, a skinny poor man on the street had a clear ribs that people could not bear to look at directly. This photo shows the real physical condition of the poor people at the bottom at that time, affected by perennial social turmoil, the exploitation and oppression of government landlords, and the interplay of natural disasters, the people's life is extremely difficult, in order to survive, a large number of people have to leave their hometowns, wandering around begging, and it is not uncommon for the roadside to starve to death and freeze the dead in severe periods.
Figure 5:
At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the children of large families were smoking a big cigarette, sometimes collapsing on the bed, sometimes leaning on a stool, muddy, mentally weak, their eyes were dull and dull, and they did not have the slightest spirit. Since the end of the Qing Dynasty, the import of opium has caused irreparable and huge damage to the physical and mental health of the people of all strata of our country, and the whole society has been shrouded in a haze of poisonous gas, whether it is the royal power, the rich and the common people, they all smoke opium, and even more in order to be able to continue to suck, they do not hesitate to sell their property, their wives and children are scattered, and they have become thieves.
Figure 6:
The picture shows the soldiers of the Eight-Nation Alliance in the Tianjin area at the end of the Qing Dynasty, loading ordnance to prepare to launch an attack on Beijing, surrounded by people who stood up to watch the lively Qing Dynasty. This also reflects the pedantic and numb thinking of the people since the end of the Qing Dynasty and the dissatisfaction with the rule of the Qing government, and even more will help the foreign Kou army to carry the invading materials in exchange for remuneration, so it is inevitable that the Qing Dynasty, which does not adapt to the will of the people and squeezes the people, is inevitable.
Figure 7:
The picture shows the owner of a large family and his two wives and concubines in the late Qing Dynasty. The male protagonist is gorgeously dressed, tall and powerful, facing the camera is very serious, while the two wives and concubines on the side are very thin and petite compared to them, the most eye-catching is their three-inch golden lotus, in order to cater to the aesthetics of ancient men to women, the Han women of each family without exception have to carry out a painful foot binding process.
Figure 8:
The foot binding system has a long history, this system has long been deeply rooted in the marrow of the people, although since the Manchu Qing Customs entry has repeatedly stated the abolition of foot binding, but when the specific implementation was carried out, it was blocked by layers. A large number of Han women had to undergo painful torture from the age of several years, until they reached the age of eighteen, and their feet had long been squeezed and deformed, until after the founding of New China, this deep habit of persecuting ancient women was completely abolished. The picture shows a foot-binding woman who has formed at the end of the Qing Dynasty, and she can't bear to look directly.
Figure 9:
The picture shows the late Qing Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty Beijing city wall piled up under the sun-dried cow dung, we may not be able to imagine it now, but in that era this is a very normal thing, for the ordinary farmers living in poverty, cow dung is both green natural fertilizer and dry and flammable fuel, as a foreign photographer in the late Qing Dynasty said: "When you see several or even a dozen Chinese on the streets of China fighting for some cow dung, don't be surprised!"
Figure 10:
The picture shows a group of Chinese children in the Kowloon area of Hong Kong in the late Qing Dynasty who are eating after hard work, they are very curious in the face of the camera shooting, they are forced to work for their livelihood at a young age, and the most incredible thing is that eight or nine children only eat the two bowls of vegetables in front of them, which shows the hardships of their lives, but in that poor era, for them, it is already a very rare thing to be able to fill their stomachs.
Figure 11:
This photo is of a cowherd in a rural area in the late Qing Dynasty, and the small body looks so small in front of the fat buffalo that it is very painful to see. In the lives of the poor people in ancient times, there was no idea of formal education for their children, and the older one had to start all kinds of labor for the livelihood of the family.
Figure 12:
The picture shows a group photo of Zhan Shichao, the tallest man in the Qing Dynasty, and an adult man in the 1870s, and the height difference between the two is very abrupt. According to statistics, Zhan Shichao was as tall as 2.33 meters, and later he also began to walk to the world stage with his incredible height. When he was young, Zhan Shichao was discovered by international scouts while working in Shanghai, and then joined the circus in Europe and the United States to start a global tour, known as the "Chinese giant Zhan", ordinary adult men as short as a child as long as they stand by his side.
After reading this group of old photos, what do you readers and friends think?