In ancient times, it was stipulated that the emperor should not have anyone carrying sharp weapons around him, and even the guards should be far away from the emperor.
But there was a profession that was not bound by this rule, and he could use a knife not only next to the emperor, but also on the emperor's head.
Head shaver of the Qing Dynasty
Since ancient times, there has been a saying that "the body is born to the parents", which means that everything on the body is given by the parents, and the next sentence of this sentence is "do not dare to destroy the beginning of filial piety".
In the eyes of the ancients, caring for the skin of the hair and all parts of the body is a manifestation of filial piety, so the ancients almost did not cut their hair to change their hairstyles, and regarded hair as precious as life.
This tradition, which has been passed down for thousands of years, was broken in a "hairstyle revolution" in the Qing Dynasty, and all the men were forced to shave their heads into yin and yang, with a bare front and braids behind them.
As a result, the streets and alleys are shaving people's heads, if they do not shave their heads, they will lose their heads, and the shaving of heads is a new profession derived from this Qing Dynasty Manchu hairstyle.
In order to maintain this hairstyle, men must shave their heads every few days, otherwise the new hair will not only grow strangely, but also lead to the disaster of killing.
This "hairstyle revolution" made the shavers who walked the streets and alleys make a lot of money, and the common people could not help but think that those who shaved the heads of the royal nobles in the palace did not make a lot of money.
If this naïve idea let the shavers in the palace know that they would have to cry out for injustice, because they not only did not make money, but also carefully landed on their heads.
The emperor's head did not resemble ordinary people, and he could come as he wanted.
Shaving the emperor's head in the palace, except for the razor, all over the body, no one can touch the emperor, and this alone increases the difficulty coefficient by a large margin.
Shaving your head should be time-sensitive
The Qing Dynasty was a dynasty in which the emperor paid the most attention to hair, and the rules were cumbersome, and it was not serious to say that those shavers shaved the emperor's head once as tired as a doctor doing an operation.
Due to the growth rate of the hair, the emperor shaved his head three times a month to ensure that his forehead was clean, and the time of these three shavings was very exquisite.
The three days are all singular days, the first day, the eleventh, the twenty-first, in the eyes of the ancients, the single yang and the yin, just like the sun is yang, the moon is yin, the male is yang and the female is yin, and everything in the world is divided into yin and yang.
And unlike today's double number auspicious, the ancients believed that the singular was more auspicious.
The emperor is the son of heaven, and the incarnation of the heavenly dragon naturally chooses such an singular day and is the first day to shave his head, which is more powerful and more auspicious.
After the date of shaving is set, the time for shaving the head should also be stipulated.
Just like weddings and funerals, we must pay attention to the days and hours. The Son of Heaven's hair is as expensive as gold, and now that it is to be shaved off, it is natural that there must be an auspicious time to meet this moment, which can not only please a good omen, but also be more in line with the status of the emperor.
The time when the emperor shaves his head is not an accurate time, but when everything is ready, waiting for the moment when the sun rises to the southeast, there is no difference.
In feng shui, it is said that the southeast represents the dragon, which is also a position in charge of wealth, and it is a horn that cannot be ignored, so Tianzi gui is a dragon descendant, and it is more appropriate to choose this southeast.
In addition, the rising sun also has the meaning of the rising sun, representing the rising fortunes of the country.
After the date and time are chosen, it is necessary to choose the person who shaves the emperor's head, and who to choose and how to choose is a matter of the emperor's life.
Shave the head of the winter melon
Since you want to shave the emperor's head, you must prevent unscrupulous people, because this is the only job that can approach the emperor with a knife.
If it is exploited by a chaotic courtier and a thief, the consequences are unimaginable, so the selection of people needs special attention.
Shaving heads are preferred by people whose families are clean and know their roots, such as shaving their heads and other miscellaneous streams, most of which are people from humble folk origins, and some who have learned art from teachers after entering the palace as eunuchs since childhood.
Most of them are honest civilians, and there is no risk without complex social background, among which the most suitable candidates are selected.
Once everything has been finalized, the chosen shaver needs to practice diligently to ensure that he is skilled and cannot relax until shaving day.
They have to do training for surgery, whether it is winter or summer.
It is recorded in the "Tale of the Lady of the Palace" that these shavers used their arms to practice in the spring and summer, imitating shaving their heads by shaving off the sweat on the upper side.
The arm rubbed against the razor for many years, and finally there was no longer sweat, and the skin became extremely rough, which represented the degree of practice of the shaver.
In the winter, they practice with winter melons, which have just been picked with a fine layer of fluff.
The shaver shaves them off the uneven winter melon with a razor and ensures that it does not damage the skin of the winter melon.
After this set of training, the shaving skills of these shaving masters can be said to be fascinating, and they are many times more powerful than the shaving masters outside the palace.
But even if the technology is pure, these shaving masters are still nervous, after all, the arms and winter melons are difficult to shave, and they cannot be compared with the emperor's head.
The emperor is the king of a country whose status is incomparably noble, and if there is a mistake to shave a small hole for the emperor, then the shaver's neck will have a bowl-sized opening.
Under such psychological pressure, if you want to do your job well, you need great concentration.
Shave the emperor's head
On this shaving day, the shaver has to get up early in the morning before dawn to freshen up to ensure that he is clean, and then wait for someone to summon him.
When he arrived at the place, the shaver had to take off his clothes for examination, and after inspection, he changed into special clothes prepared for the emperor to shave his head.
This kind of clothing is different from the usual wide-sleeved clothes, the cuffs to the arms are made of narrow sleeves, and the sleeves do not slip off the arms.
This prevented the cuffs from touching the emperor's head and made the shaver lighter at work.
When everything was ready, the shaver was taken outside the palace to wait, waiting for the emperor inside to wipe his face and wash his hair before entering.
In the folk, the work of wiping faces and washing hair is also the responsibility of the shaver, but unlike in the palace, these are the tasks of the palace women.
When the Emperor's side was ready, the shaver entered again, first kneeling on the ground to ask the Emperor for peace, and then asking the guards for a razor.
This razor was specially made by the craftsmen in the palace, and the workmanship is sharpened, and it is also equipped with a carved wooden box.
The box is of high value, and the knife is covered with an embroidered bright yellow cloth sleeve, symbolizing that it is the exclusive use of the emperor.
The razor had previously been kept and placed by eunuchs, and the shaver could not see it at any time except for shaving the emperor's head.
Please take out the razor, and when the auspicious time comes, the shaver will hold his breath and bend down to shave the emperor's head, keeping a distance between the body and the emperor, and the left hand hanging and the side of the body must not move.
The purpose of holding his breath was to prevent the shaver from exhaling turbid breath on the emperor's head, staining the emperor's body, or making the emperor angry by making the emperor angry.
Hanging hands is to prevent the shaver from making dangerous moves, or from touching the emperor, and it is not possible for the shaver to shave the emperor's head.
When the shaver shaves his head, there will be guards and eunuchs around him, staring at his every move.
If the left hand is raised, or if the razor is a few centimeters away, the guards will come forward to stop him and even kill him on the spot.
Therefore, the shaver even shaves the head and wipes the shaving knife, there are rules, you must be careful.
In the tense atmosphere of being able to breathe, if a timid person were to fall to the ground with weak legs.
It can be seen that being an emperor's shaver is really not an easy job, not only to be skilled but also bold.
After shaving their heads, the shavers then shave the emperor's face, which is why the name "shavers" comes from, they not only shave their hair, but also the hair on the entire head.
Shaving the emperor's face is also a rule, both clean and neat, but also to grasp the direction.
Folk shavers, how convenient it is to shave the faces of the people, up and down, left and right, this and that time, it doesn't matter.
But unlike the emperor, when shaving his face, the shaver must shave the emperor's face clockwise in one direction.
This was done mainly to prevent scratching the emperor in the direction of hair growth, and secondly, to be more disciplined, and to scratch the emperor's face was disrespectful to the emperor.
When the face is also shaved, the shaving of the head is complete, and the palace maid who is waiting outside the palace will come in to wipe and comb the emperor's hair, and the shaver will kneel and wait to leave.
If the emperor is in a good mood and satisfied, then this shaver can get a rich reward, not in vain, but the emperor's mood is elusive, and the reward is only a minority.
At this point, a shaving of the head is over.
The shaver arrives refreshed, but leaves sweating profusely.
The palace maid He Rong'er recalled in the conversation that her husband's legs were soft every time he went back, and his body seemed to have been blistered, and it took a long time to rest to ease his mind.
At the end of a shaving day, it is also considered to be the half-life of the shaver, but unfortunately they cannot resign, and they have to continue to practice on the second day.
Even if the next time it wasn't the same shaver who shaved the emperor's head, the shavers couldn't stop practicing because they had to face the examination every year.
The people employed in the palace are all capable people, or people with backgrounds behind them.
The shaver and other miscellaneous people are from poor backgrounds, and if they don't have a background, it is better than craftsmanship.
Examinations would be set up in the palace, and eunuchs would examine whether their skills were mature, and if they were unqualified, they would no longer be eligible to serve the emperor and become inferior slaves.
Therefore, these shaving masters have to practice every day, which is several times harder than the shaving smiths outside the palace.
A "shaving order" some people are happy and some people are sad, and the shaving of the head in the palace is not as bright as the people think.
In the century-old situation of the Qing Dynasty, there were not a few shavers who lost their lives because of small mistakes.
They did not die of bad skill, but simply had bad luck and became the shaving head of the emperor.
Bibliography:
"Palace Women Talk" Jin Yi, Shen Yiling
"High-Risk Occupation: The Emperor Shaves his head" Zhang Chunxing