From these historical phenomena, we can understand that, first of all, the consciousness of the body in the Tang Dynasty was very different from the situation after modern times. Since the Northern Song Dynasty, Chinese society has become more and more conservative and restrained, associating the body with desire, especially sexual desire, so it is strongly opposed to showing the body and hiding it.
Active body, the aesthetics of a big face and a fat body
The body of the people of the Tang Dynasty was active, and the main means of transportation in that era was horses, and not only men rode horses, but women also rode horses. As shown in historical records, Mrs. Yu Guo often rode a horse, and she would not have to ride in a car just because she was a lady of the country. The same is true of the evidence in Tang paintings, where the figures are either walking or riding horses.
Horseback riding is common to a certain extent, and the average riding skill must also reach a certain degree before there will be the popular "Polo ball" sport in the Tang Dynasty. "Polo" is a sport in which a ball is played with a long stick on a horse. This sport is a good example of the progress of equestrianism; The emperors of the Tang Dynasty can be said to be very fond of polo, and almost all of them have left a record of playing polo.
This is in sharp contrast to the Song Dynasty and later. The emperors of the Song Dynasty and Ming Dynasty were delicate and constrained by the protection and restraint of various ritual systems in the palace, and could not be injured by accidents. Riding a horse and wielding a long stick was an intense sport, and of course it was easy to get injured, but in the Tang Dynasty, even the emperor loved to play.
In the Tang Dynasty, there was also a popular activity called "Xia Yu Carrying Ding", which was both a sport and a performance. The name uses an allusion to the Hercules of the Spring and Autumn Period, which is actually a weightlifting competition. Another type of rope that is both athletic and performative is "rope tricks", which have a variety of ways to use rope, somewhere between juggling and trapeze stunts.
In general, the view of the body in this era is "active", which can and should be moved. After modern times, the Chinese view of the body has changed to "main quiet", which is a big change!
The body consciousness of the Tang Dynasty was also reflected in the differences between men and women. In the previous Six Dynasties culture, it was men who paid more attention to physical appearance and loved beauty, and men in the aristocratic family! They ate "Wushi San" to make their skin appear white and red, and they also held the tail from time to time (a tool used by the ancients to repel insects and dust dust) when chatting, and swung the tail to increase the elegance and beauty of their actions, and that was an important part of the aristocratic value vanity.
By the Tang Dynasty, the situation had changed, and the ostentation of physical appearance was still valued, but the main ostentatious people changed from men to women. It is clear from the clothing of the Tang Dynasty people that women often have a topless chest, exposing a lot of the skin from the neck to the breast, and of course, the bulging shape of the upper breast.
Women of that era also used a lot of cosmetics, and heavy makeup was popular. From clothes to makeup, the body's performance is exaggerated, dramatic, and eye-catching, making people immediately cast their eyes on. The most commonly used in cosmetics is powder, there are white powder, there are also red powder, and often red powder is used more than white powder, so we can see that women in the Tang Dynasty would paint their faces and even their bodies red.
In addition, there is red rouge, which is lipstick, but the Tang Dynasty people are "point rouge" instead of wiping lipstick, in order to emphasize that the mouth is very small, only a small section in the middle is particularly red, and the other parts of the lips are deliberately hidden, and this is the aesthetic of that era.
The aesthetics of the Tang people also pursue a big face. In the text, I often see Tang people talking about "plump", which does not necessarily mean that the body is fat, but more importantly, the face gives people a sense of openness; The plumpness of the body is particular about "not explicit", they don't like to see bones, they must have enough flesh to wrap the bones, and the body should not give people an angular feeling. Then there is a big face on such a body, and in order to set off and make the face look bigger, the mouth is deliberately small. This is what a beauty should look like in the minds of the Tang people.
Makeup and hair are exaggerated (shown or boasted to others) performance, relatively equal gender relations
The Tang Dynasty also attached great importance to eyebrows aesthetically, and the cosmetics used to paint eyebrows were especially called "Dai", which was as important as "powder", so Bai Juyi's "Song of Long Hatred" described Yang Guifei's beauty above everyone was "Liugong Fan Dai has no color". Tang Xuanzong once ordered a painter to draw a "Ten Eyebrow Picture" to demonstrate the ten popular eyebrow painting methods at that time. Understanding the names of these eyebrow shapes will help reduce the misunderstandings that may arise when we read Tang poetry!
For example, there is a type of eyebrow called "mandarin duck", so if there is a "mandarin duck" in the poem describing the resentment, don't think that you are talking about birds, or borrowing birds to describe the phenomenon of pairs, it is very likely that the pairs are just a pair of eyebrows of the women in the poem.
In addition, Wen Tingyun's word "Bodhisattva Man" describes:
The hills overlap and the gold is extinguished, and the sideburns and clouds want to be fragrant and snowy. Lazy to draw moth eyebrows, late to make up and groom.
Before and after the flowers, the flowers reflect each other. Newly embroidered robes, double golden partridges.
The first two words, "hill", are also an eyebrow shape, not a "mountain" in a courtyard or landscape. What he wants us to see in the words is the kind of more delicate mountain-shaped eyebrows, and the popular ones at that time, in addition to the small mountain eyebrows, also have "Wuyue eyebrows" and "three-peak eyebrows". In addition, there are "weeping bead eyebrows", as well as "moon edge eyebrows" and "inverted halo eyebrows", which should be related to the moon and moon halo. There are also "split eyebrows", "smoke eyebrows", "cloud eyebrows" and so on.
It is really a "eyebrow culture" that is far richer and more detailed than modern makeup.
Women's appearance can boast of performance, as well as hairstyles. The basic hairstyle of women in the Tang Dynasty was the "high bun", that is, the hair was piled high, higher than the top of the head, and about two-thirds of the face was so high; Of course, not everyone has so much hair that can be piled up so high, so people with thinning hair must wear "wigs". Making wigs and wigs for women was a very prosperous industry in Chang'an at that time.
The popular hairstyle of the high bun is implicated in the hairpin. When Tang Dynasty poems describe women, hairpins are very important, which is a striking decoration that protrudes from the high bun. Many hairpins also have hanging beads on them, called "step rocking", which vividly shows the dynamics of the beads on the head of women swaying with the rhythm of their steps when they walk.
At that time, women's bodies were prominent, and they deliberately created prominent visual effects, and they would not even prohibit the display of sexuality, exposing their breasts to attract men's attention. At the same time, this phenomenon also shows that the social status of women is relatively high, and the social relations between women and men are relatively equal, of course, this is a relative comparison with the later modern society.
More equal gender relations are also reflected in the institution of marriage. Chinese tradition has long been the "seven-out system" in marriage, which is the seven reasons why a man can terminate a marriage and expel his wife: "disobedience to parents", "childlessness", "adultery", "jealousy", "evil disease", "excessive speech" and "theft". However, in addition to the original "seven outs", "Tang Law" added "three nos", that is, in three special circumstances, a man cannot use the "seven outs" reason to drive his wife away.
The first article of the "three don't go" is "don't go through the funeral of your aunt":
If the wife waits for her in-laws at home until her in-laws pass away, and she experiences the funeral of her in-laws, it means that her in-laws did not dislike her during her lifetime, and she has fulfilled her responsibility to serve her in-laws, and she cannot be kicked out when she is old.
"Three don't go" The second article "don't go when you get married":
It means that when the husband's family is poor, and the wife has lived a hard life with him, and has been a "poor couple", then the husband's family cannot be prosperous and rich in the future, so he will drive his wife out. This also means that the husband's family can be so cheap and expensive, and the wife has a certain amount of merit and should be guaranteed fairly.
In traditional dramas, such as the story of Bao Long Tuquan and Chen Shimei, the laws and ethics behind it are an extension of this article in the "Three Don'ts" - men are forbidden to abandon their bad wives in pursuit of wealth.
Article 3 of "Three Don't Go" "If you have something to suffer, you can't go out without returning":
A man accepts a daughter as a wife from someone else's mother's family, and if her parents are no longer there at this time, and the woman has no family to return to, then she cannot be thrown out. She has nowhere to go after leaving her husband's house, and she can't be allowed to live on the streets, so she must have basic human care.