The ancients said: "The body is skinned, and the parents dare not destroy it." Under the influence of this thinking, the ancients, both men and women, always grew long hair. And the ancient sanitation and cleaning conditions were relatively backward, and there was no shampoo and hair dryer, so lice on the head of the ancients were a common thing.
The classic hairstyle of the Qing Dynasty people is "money rat tail", that is, the front hair is shaved off, and then the back hair is braided into a long braid to hang down behind, because the hair has been shaved off most of the half, so after combing into a braid, only the thickness of a rat's tail, and can even pass through the copper money hole.
Because the hair is so long, men often hang their hair around their necks several times when they work. Sweat inevitably arises from labor, and in this case, the Qing dynasty's pigtails are even more disgustingly dirty.
This scene is not imaginary, a beautiful woman in the Qing Dynasty recalled: "It was so dirty that people wanted to vomit, and they couldn't even eat for the next few days!" ”
Hair is grown without head, and money sage tails are prevalent for a while
Since the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty, the ancients have had the habit of wearing crowns with their hair, and after Emperor Wudi of Han "deposed hundreds of families and respected Confucianism", the idea of Confucian culture "the body is skinned, and the parents are accepted" has penetrated into the bone marrow. Coupled with the hair binding, both men and women will add a "mature, dignified, solemn" image, which is basically in line with the cultural image of the Han people.
Until the Ming Dynasty, although the dynasty changed several times, people still retained the habit of wearing crowns with their hair. In 1644, the Qing army entered the customs. Since the Qing army entered Shanhaiguan, in order to facilitate further ruling the ideology, the Qing army issued a shaving order with lightning speed.
Like the Qing army's style, the shaving order was also "simple and rude", "keep hair without head, leave head without hair", under the strong implementation of the Qing army, money rat tail soon became popular. So why is the traditional hairstyle of the Qing army "money rat tail"? This has to start with the living environment of the Jurchens.
Compared with the Han people, who often live in the plains, the living conditions of the Jurchens are relatively harsh. They either live in forests infested with wild beasts or in grassland areas, relying on nomadic herding for their livelihoods.
Because they are often chased by wild beasts and do not have enough to eat. The Jurchens also did not have the extra energy to take care of their clothes and hairstyles, but all of them were cut short or shaved into a shaved head, which was not beautiful enough and could not withstand the cold. So the Jurchens shaved off most of the hair on their heads and braided the rest into a braid.
At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the ruling class imposed a shaving order on the whole country, essentially to assimilate the Han people, so as to suppress the Han people's idea of resisting the Qing army and opposing the Qing Dynasty. In essence, the shaving order is no different from the literal hell, it is just a tool for the ruler to rule the mind.
Money rat-tail makes British beauties gag
Money sage tail is not static, everything has its own laws of development, money sage tail has also gone through different stages.
By the Jiaqing period, the Qing Dynasty men's hair became the front half of the hair shaved, and the back black hair. At this time, the man's hair became thicker and thicker, even looking like an ox's tail, and could no longer pass through copper coins.
When watching the palace drama, we will find that many Qing soldiers are used to wrapping thick and long braids around their necks, one is to facilitate action, and the other is to use as a protective effect to prevent their necks from being cut or even cut off by enemy troops.
Although braids have many functions, there are advantages and disadvantages to everything. First of all, if such a long braid is cleaned and groomed, it must waste a lot of time and energy.
For the working people, it already takes a lot of time to make ends meet every day, so washing and braiding hair has become a very troublesome thing. Many Qing Dynasty men may only wash their hair once a year, which also leads to the fact that Qing Dynasty men's hair is often very greasy and rough, and the poor living environment also causes the heads of the Qing Dynasty toiling people to often be covered with dandruff and lice.
And braid washing also has a variety of elaborate, nobles and rich people use pig ling, and even add some spices to it. Ordinary people generally use soap horns to make rich foam, just like washing clothes to wash their braids. Poor people use tofu water or grass ash to wash their hair, but the cleaning with grass ash is not thorough, and there will still be a lot of oil residue.
The wife of a British diplomat once came to China by boat, and when she came to eat at a restaurant, she found that the man at the next table had many lice and lice eggs in his hair, and between talking, the man's dandruff would fall on his shoulders and shake with it, which made the British lady almost vomit on the spot and not eat for several days.
After the diplomat's wife returned to her home country, she wrote a memoir in which the British woman wrote: "Whenever I eat, I think of that afternoon in China, the man's braid wrapped in oil, grass clippings, worm eggs, etc., and I find it difficult to swallow food." ”
The times developed, and the braid head was eventually abandoned
Since the Xinhai Revolution, literati and politicians with advanced revolutionary ideas have compared the braid of the Qing Dynasty to a tool to imprison people's minds. Reminiscent of the early purpose of the "money rat-tail" approach, this metaphor is not exaggerated.
In the late Qing Dynasty, the country was closed and decayed. After the late Qing government signed a series of treaties that humiliated the country, advanced revolutionary ideas were further disseminated and promoted because they met the interests of ordinary toiling people, and many people cut off their hair for many years on the street to express their dissatisfaction and resistance to the Qing dynasty's rule.
When revolutionary ideas were promoted, there were also opponents. What's more, they feel that the braids they have kept for many years are part of their bodies, and they carefully store the cut braids, hoping to replace the braids in the grave and make themselves "complete".
However, the wheel of history rolls forward, and moving in the opposite direction with the flow of historical traffic is like a mantis as a car, useless. Zhang Xun, Yuan Shikai and others tried to restore the imperial system, and they called on people to wear braids, hoping that they could ascend the throne, rule a dynasty, and make the people of the world submit to it, in fact, it was just a sweet dream!
To the wife of a British diplomat, Qing dynasty braids were dirty and disgusting. Because of the braids, the Qing Dynasty people became "inferior people" in the eyes of foreigners and became a laughing stock. As for braids, we admit that it once had a certain positive meaning, but "the times are developing, and the sun and the moon have changed." ", the braid head was eventually abandoned!
Resources:
Chen Yanyi's "Siwen Ji"
Chen Que's Chen Que Collection (Volume 30)
Nakagawa Tadahide "Chronicle of the Secular"