"The heart of love of beauty, everyone has it", whether in ancient times or modern times, love of beauty is not only the exclusive of women, men also have their own pursuit of beauty. Women apply grease and powder, wear ornaments, and use incense to make their bodies emit a burst of fragrance. Although men do not apply grease and powder, from the jewelry worn on the body, the ancient men's love of beauty is no less than that of women.
Ancient men wore a wide variety of ornaments, such as hair crowns, smears, jade pendants, dié xiè, wrenches, sachets, purses, seals, belt hooks (hooks used on the belt, mainly for corsets), etc., which are only a more common part of men's accessories.
People are different, there are many men in ancient times wearing some other items, it can be said that there are many types of ornaments, and each ornament has a variety of shapes, materials, colors of the classification, so that it is no longer exhaustive.
Although the purpose of wearing jewelry with men has something in common with women, it is different from women, and women wear jewelry mostly because they look more charming and beautiful. But the jewelry on men's bodies is not only used to make themselves "beautiful", but to show their power and status, and another point is to pay more attention to practicality. To talk about practicality, the most representative of ancient men's ornaments is the hesitation.
When it comes to hesitation, many people know the meaning of taking small steps back and forth. But in fact, it has another meaning, that is, an ancient jewelry, is the ancient man's belt around the waist, called the belt, referred to as the belt, can also be called "functional belt", mostly made of leather material.
When did it originate? During the Warring States period, when King Wuling of Zhao promoted Hu costume riding shooting, the Costumes of the Hu people were very distinctive, including belts, and a lot of small rings were played to carry small objects with them, which was convenient for riding and shooting activities on weekdays. This belt style played an important role in changing the style of the belt in later dynasties.
The Mengxi Pen Talk once made a detailed account of this: "The Chinese clothing crown, since the Northern Qi, has been all hu clothing. Narrow sleeves crimson green, short clothes long boots, belts, beard clothes also ... The draped cover wants to wear a bow and sword, pleasure, counting bags, knives and the like. ”
During the Southern and Northern Dynasties of the Wei and Jin Dynasties, it evolved into a jade belt with only a square type of belt on the ting (a sound). In the Sui and Tang dynasties, it was once regarded as a special object for civil and military officials, and it was very popular, and hundreds of civil and military officials, high-ranking officials and dignitaries, were proud of the jade belt. From the background color of the jade belt, the size and rank of the official position can also be discerned.
For example, the Tang Dynasty stipulated that only officials with more than three pins could use the jade belt, and tianzi used the thirteen-ring jade belt, that is, the jade belt was the highest level. The number of materials and numbers of decorations on the belt indicates the level of the wearer's identity.
The New Book of Tang and the Chronicle of Public Opinions once recorded that in the Tang Dynasty, the grades of the tang dynasty were golden (kua, three sounds); the three to six products were made of rhinoceros horns; and the seven to nine products were made of silver.
At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, the Sui Dynasty Tianzi was followed by the system of the thirteen-ring jade belt, and soon after, the Tianzi ring belt was changed to the nine-ring jade belt. Later, it was divided into one to three products with gold and jade belts, four products with gold belts, five products with gold belts, six to seven products with silver belts, eight to nine products with silver bands, exile officials and common people with copper and iron, and all have a certain number of regulations, which cannot be exceeded. For example, the copper and iron medals of exile officials and civilians must not exceed seven.
The belt plate of the belt is also made of a variety of materials, such as jade, rhinoceros, gold, silver, stone, copper, iron, etc., so in addition to practical decoration, there is also a most important role, that is, to distinguish the different levels of official positions.
The better the quality of the decoration on the tarsus, the higher the official rank, the best jade, followed by gold, silver, ore, copper and iron, etc.; the darker the color and the greater the number of ornaments, the higher the man's official rank. During the Sui and Tang dynasties, the symbol of the hierarchy of power was particularly pronounced.
The New Book of Tang and the Biography of Li Jing: "When Jing broke Xiao Milling, he was given the Khotanese jade belt with thirteen pins, seven squares and six knots, and each of the rings, and was solidified with gold, so he was a devotee." There are also fire books, large sticks, calculation bags, etc., which are often worn by the bearer. ”
It should be noted here that the system of the Sui Dynasty was still continued in the early Tang Dynasty, and it was not until later that it was changed to the Nine Ring Belt.
In addition to representing the rank, the reason why the belt was so popular in ancient times is because it is practical and can hang many items. For example, the "Seven Things of The Tang Dynasty" recorded in the "Tang Hui Yao Youfu Shang" and the "Old Book of Tang Andu Fu Zhi" are the seven items that are more commonly hung:
Syringes, knives, sabers, syringes, gravel, flint bags, chimes
。
In addition to these seven items, if a man still wants to hang around his waist and can hang it around his waist, he can also hang it at the same time, such as kettles, musical instruments, wallets, hand towels, sachets, martial arts swords, literati pens... It is indispensable, so that it can be called practical to the extreme!
Until the later reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, new changes took place, officials no longer wore it, but gradually in the folk, especially women, that society has lost the status symbol and practical value, only used as decoration.
During the Song Dynasty, the economy was prosperous and handicrafts were developed, and at this time, the belt had been exquisitely made, the production process was very mature, and the dignitaries and dignitaries still wore it.
Even at that time, the neighboring countries of the Song Dynasty, the Liao State, were also very popular, detailing the differences in the objects hung by civilian officials and military attaches wearing weed belts.
History of Liao? The Yi Wei Zhi (Yi Wei Zhi) reads: "Civilian officials wear hand towels, calculation bags, knives, stones, and goldfish bags; military attaches wear plates and seven things: sabers, knives, grinding stones, and qixinzhen, and flint bags." ”
In the Ming Dynasty, most of the official clothes were beautiful with ease, decorated with a set of belts of hammers, and any precious materials could be used, such as gold, inlaid gems, agate, etc., but the most popular and popular was still jade materials, so it would not be called a belt, but renamed "jade belt".
In the Qing Dynasty, supporting supplies such as purses hanging from the belt were fixed as part of the ceremony, and the flag men would also hang the daily necessities on the belt. However, the material of the belt has changed, from the previous leather to a silk belt.
After the death of the Qing Dynasty, the jade belt also disappeared, and the most representative accessories of ancient men ended here.
As an indispensable part of ancient clothing and ornamentation, it played a very important role in the life of ancient feudal society.
From the initial practicality, to the later representative hierarchy, and then to the later decorative role, it reflects the development and evolution of the ancient Chinese ceremonial society, and also clearly reflects the changes in the social conditions and social ideology of the ancient ceremonial system.
While the ancients pursued the beauty of clothing, they actually gave more cultural significance to costumes and utensils!
The belt can still be seen in some museums, has a high collection value, and is a "witness" to the ancient centralization of power, the status of men and the development of dynasties and dynasties. It not only contains the charm of the East, but also fully expresses the "state of etiquette" of the mainland since ancient times.
References: Mengxi Pen Talk", "New Book of Tang , "Youfu Zhi", "Tang Huijiao , Youfu Shang", "Liao History? Yi Wei Zhi" and so on