Review
In many film and television works, we can often see the qing dynasty people with very characteristic hairstyles of the times. Qing Dynasty men had to keep long braids, not only to comb the braids back, but also to shave off all the hair in front of them; one side was hairless and the other was long, which looked almost like "yin and yang head".
But in fact, this head shape is presented after artistic processing, the real hairstyle of the Qing Dynasty is not the same as in tv, don't be deceived by TV.
The Manchu Qing Dynasty forcibly required the Han people to shave their braids
In 1644, with the last Ming emperor, Chongzhen hanged himself, ending the 276-year reign of the Ming Dynasty, the Qing army entered the customs to replace the Ming Dynasty and established a new political power in the Central Plains.
Whenever the dynasty changes and the country is in turmoil, the original social structure will be disrupted, and there will be no small changes in various economies and cultures, and the same was true at the beginning of the Qing Dynasty.
So what did the Shunzhi Emperor make for the Han people after entering the customs?
If nothing else, first shave the heads of the Han people all over the world!
The Manchus originated in the White Mountains and Black Water, and their ancestors lived on fishing and hunting, and lived on horseback. Therefore, the Manchus have a very different hairstyle from the Central Plains, shaving their hair in front of their heads and then forming a debate, which is so that the Manchus' hair is not entangled in branches when they cross mountains and mountains.
And this braid has another great advantage, during the day on the head do not worry about the braid will be messy, at night to untie it can also be used as a pillow, which is indeed in line with the life habits of nomadic people.
In Han culture, the body hair skin is subject to the parents, the hair can not be easily moved, even if it is killed in battle, it must bring a strand of hair back, pay attention to "the soul returns to the hometown, into the soil for safety."
After entering the customs, the Manchus accepted the Han culture, but also put forward a stricter requirement: they must shave their braids!
Shaving the head and braiding represents the Manchu conquest of the Han, and now that the Central Plains regime has changed hands, it must follow the Manchu rules. Those Han people who resisted were labeled "rebel thieves", and those who were serious were directly killed, without giving you the slightest chance to defend themselves.
Therefore, in the more than 200 years of Manchu Rule in the Central Plains, the Han people have always resisted the bad habit of "braiding" to varying degrees, and countless Han people have fallen to the ground because of this.
But bad habits are bad habits, and this way of braiding has no benefit to the Han people in the Central Plains, and seems to have no other value than to symbolize the influence of the Manchu Qing regime.
In the early Qing Dynasty, the Manchus had the idea of "enslaving" the leadership of the Han people, for example, the Manchu government introduced a strict "shaving order": all civilian men must take the Manchu attire as the standard, remove a strand of hair in the middle of the head, and the rest of the hair needs to be shaved.
The hair left behind is braided into a small braid and naturally hangs on the back, and this small braid is also exquisite, and its thickness must just pass through the small hole in the middle of the copper coin, otherwise it is unqualified! This is also what we call "money rat tail".
So what if there are Han people who are unqualified for pigtails? There will be regular spot checks by the Qing soldiers, but those who are unqualified will be directly beheaded and will not be given any opportunity to argue.
The development of shaved pigtail culture in the Qing Dynasty
Under this kind of "strong law", even if there are thousands of unwilling people in the Hearts of the Han People, the power of the Manchus still has to obediently do so. Our descendants can also see the buns that are full of people's requirements from many film and television works, objectively speaking: it is really ugly! The front is slippery, and the back is braided, which looks similar to the "yin and yang head", which is really not in line with the aesthetics of the Han people.
Was the Manchu requirement that the Han people shave their braids at that time the appearance of the "yin and yang head" in film and television works? This one really isn't!
The Manchu Qing ruled the Central Plains for 268 years, and in the past two centuries, various fields of folk economy and culture have been developing, and the hair bun culture will naturally change to varying degrees. The "yin and yang head" we see is actually a product of the late Qing culture.
When the Manchu Qing Dynasty first entered the customs, all of them demanded the Han people with "money rat tails". How fine are the rattails everyone knows? So at first the Head of the Han People was almost bare, and a very thin pigtail came down from the top of the head.
How does this feel that the "yin and yang head" is not as good-looking, no wonder the hairstyle in the early Qing Dynasty was collectively resisted by the Han people, it was too ugly! The Han people can't accept the fact that they are ugly.
At the same time, in order to match the bun on the top of the head, the Manchu rulers also required the Han people to only keep about ten upper lips on their beards, which is not known how many people resisted at that time. But with thousands of Han Chinese dying as a result, the money rat tail was finalized.
After the middle of the Qing Dynasty, the Manchu and Han cultures were integrated to a certain extent, plus the rulers' regulations on hair buns were also relaxed, and the "money rattail" gradually evolved into "money pigtail" and "money cowtail", to put it bluntly, that is, the front was bare and unchanged, and the small braids in the back were getting thicker and thicker.
Originally, the thickness of the braid could be the size of a dollar, and now it is at least 4-5 yuan the size; there is no strict requirement for beards, and the Han people can finally renew their thick beards.
In the late Qing Dynasty, that is, from the Jiaqing period, men's hairstyles gradually evolved into shaving only inches around the edges of the top hair, while retaining long hair in the middle, braided in three strands and hanging on the back, which is what we call "yin and yang head".
Up to this point, the Manchu Culture of Shaving braids has not developed again, because soon after the Republic of China came, the new culture required the people to shave their braids, leaving a more refreshing short hair, and the era of the Han people being ruled by shaved braids finally ended.
epilogue
For the Manchu rulers, they did not care whether the shaving system was suitable for Han life or whether the external image was beautiful; the rulers cared about the imperial significance of the shaving itself.
The more important the psychological sustenance for the Han people, the more they have to forcibly change, and it is no wonder that this almost pathological ruling ideology will be strongly resisted! The Qing Dynasty eventually died at Cixi, and the shaving culture that had been practiced for 268 years was finally ended.