Ancient China attached great importance to the beauty of human appearance, and formed different aesthetic characteristics in various eras, such as the sturdiness and health of the pre-Qin period, the delicate and weak of the Han Dynasty, the natural elegance of the Wei and Jin dynasties, the grace and luxury of the Tang Dynasty, and the slender and charming after the Song Dynasty...... The historical changes in the aesthetics of human appearance in ancient Chinese history condense the cultural characteristics of an era and the aesthetic consensus of the whole people, and are an important part of traditional Chinese aesthetics. What kind of cultural characteristics of the times are reflected in the historical changes in the aesthetics of ancient appearance? Let's take a look.
"The Book of Songs" has a saying: "What is the point of immortality if a person has no ceremony?" Although life is in the world, whether it can become a respectable and valuable life does not depend entirely on appearance, but more on the inner personality, a truly beautiful soul will make ordinary people also show beauty. But it is undeniable that the external appearance, manners, posture, and temperament will undoubtedly make people more attractive when they meet for the first time, which is the "first cause effect" in psychology. Because of this, in traditional Chinese culture, the beauty of appearance is a manifestation of the aesthetic consciousness of an era, and the evaluation of the beauty of appearance is also different in various eras due to different economic development and cultural customs.
The understanding of physical beauty in various eras
The ancient Chinese have always not concealed their appreciation for the beauty of appearance, and even Mencius said, "As for the son, the world knows its beauty." Those who don't know the beauty of the capital are also those who have no eyes." The grandsons are all the grandsons of Zheng Huan in the Spring and Autumn Period, with handsome appearance and superb martial arts. Mencius believed that those who could not appreciate the beauty of Zidu did not have long eyes. The ancients' understanding of the beauty of appearance is most known today from the depictions of poems and texts of the past dynasties, and we can also get a glimpse of it from the well-preserved paintings. In addition, from a series of idioms, we can also see the beauty of the ancients, such as the direct description of the beauty of the eyebrows, bright eyes and bright teeth, the head of the moth eyebrows, ice muscles and jade bones, etc., and from the abstract point of view, the sinking fish and geese, the closed moon and the shy flowers, the national color and heavenly fragrance, the country and the city, etc.
Specifically, there are many descriptions of the appearance of men and women in the Book of Songs, the most representative of which is the praise of beauties in the Book of Songs, Wei Feng and Shuoren: "The hands are like soft wattles, and the skin is like clotted fat." The collar is like a grub, and the teeth are like a rhinoceros. The head of the mantis is eyebrows, the smile is clever, and the beautiful eyes are longing. This poem was written by Wei to praise Zhuang Jiang, the Duchess of Wei Zhuang, and the description of her beauty is from the outside in. The aesthete Zong Baihua once commented on this poem: "The first five sentences are full of images, very 'real', and they are 'carved with wrong gold and carved eyes'. The last two sentences are white drawings, elusive laughter, ethereal, and 'virtual'. These two sentences do not need to be used metaphorically, so that the image of the first five sentences is active. Without these two sentences, the first five sentences can make people feel that it is a statue of Guanyin Bodhisattva in a temple. With these two sentences, a beautiful image such as 'the first hibiscus, natural and cute' is completed. It can be seen that since the pre-Qin period, the ancients' understanding of beauty was both internal and external.
The same is true for the praise of men's appearance, such as the words of "The Book of Songs, Weifeng, Qi Ao": "Zhan Bi Qi Ao, green bamboo is like a basket." There are bandit gentlemen, such as gold and tin, and gui and bi. Generous, heavy, good at banter, not abusive. "The Book of Songs, Qin Feng, Xiaorong" has: "A gentleman of words and thoughts, warm as jade." "The Book of Songs, Qin Feng, Zhongnan" said: "The gentleman stops, and the fox is fur in brocade." "Gold, tin, gui, bi, jade, and Dan were all precious things at that time, and their characteristics were also different, so to describe the gentleman's physical and spiritual temperament, in addition to the praise of his appearance, but also the praise of his spirit. At the same time, the ancients in the pre-Qin period have realized that the most important thing for the beauty of appearance is appropriate, Song Yu's "Deng's Disciple Lustful Fu" is the most typical example, not only praising people's appearance, skin, and shape, but also paying attention to their natural beauty, without applying powder: "If you increase one point, it will be too long, and if you subtract one point, it will be too short; if you wear powder, it will be too white, and if you use Zhu, it will be too red; the eyebrows will be like green feathers, and the muscles will be like snow; the waist will be like a bundle of elements, and the teeth will be like shellfish; ”
After the Wei and Jin dynasties, the pursuit of the beauty of the human form began to diversify and pay more attention. For example, Liu Yiqing of the Southern Dynasty Song Dynasty's "Shishuo Xinyu" has a special column "Rongzhi", which tells 39 stories about the appearance, attitude, and behavior of commentators in the Wei and Jin dynasties. Among them, Ji Kang is described as "Yushu", "Langlang enters the arms of the sun and the moon, and the decadent Tang Dynasty is like the collapse of the Jade Mountain"; praises Xiahou Xuan; he praises Xiahou Xuan; he uses "Xiao Xiao Susu, hearty and clear", "Su Su is like the wind under the pine, high and Xu Yin", "Yanyan is like the independence of the lone pine; and its drunkenness, if the puppet is like the collapse of the Jade Mountain"; and there is also "the right army of the king of the time: 'floating like a cloud, like a frightened dragon'", and Wang Xizhi, who is so elegant and chic, saw Du Hongzhi, who "has a face like clotted fat and eyes like paint", and is like a man among the gods, and he is also ashamed of himself. It can be seen that at that time, scholars were also very fond of appearance aesthetics. What's more, the stories of "Throwing Fruit and Winning the Car" (Pan An) and "Watching and Killing Wei Jue" (Wei Jue) reflect that the admiration for physical beauty at that time was national. Wei Jue was a famous Qing scholar and metaphysician after He Yan and Wang Bi during the Wei and Jin dynasties, and the official to the prince washed horses, and he was also one of the famous beautiful men in ancient China. Du Fu's poem "Flower Bottom" has a famous sentence: "I am afraid that it is Pan'an County, and it can be left in Weijieche." I know that good colors, don't make mud and sand", using flowers as a metaphor for Wei Jue's "good color", indicating that the beauty of human appearance is obvious to all.
The Tang Dynasty's admiration for the beauty of human appearance has also changed. The so-called "ring fat swallow thin" means that although they are also famous beauties, the Han Dynasty paid attention to Zhao Feiyan's beauty of being as light as a swallow and small and exquisite, while the Tang Dynasty pursued Yang Yuhuan's beauty of muscles like snow and plump body. From the Tang Dynasty paintings and sculptures that have been handed down, we can also see the elegant and plump demeanor of women in the Tang Dynasty, because this is a prosperous era in Du Fu's poems, "rice flows fat and corn is white, and public and private warehouses are abundant". In addition to the beauties who are "strong and true, with delicate texture and even flesh and bones", the beauty of the man's appearance of "Zongzhi's chic and beautiful boy, looking at the blue sky with white eyes, and being as bright as a jade tree in front of the wind" cannot be ignored.
Entering the Song and Ming dynasties, due to political, economic, and cultural changes, the aesthetic tendency of the Song people to treat their appearance has also changed significantly compared with the Tang Dynasty. It was obvious in the poems of some literati at that time, such as the Northern Song Dynasty lyricist Zhou Bangyan's "A Falling Suo: Mei Gong Chun Mountain Show" wrote, "Mei Gong Chun Mountain Show, poor and wrinkled, Mo will clear tears wet flower branches, afraid of flowers, such as thin." Qingrun jade flute has been idle for a long time, and bosom friends are rare". Yue Fei's grandson Yue Ke's "Man Jiang Hong, Small Courtyard Deep" is particularly vividly depicted: "The winding path wears flowers to find butterflies, and the parrots are taught in the evening." Laughing thirteen willow daughter's waist, the east wind dance". This aesthetic taste for women's physical beauty continued until the later period of Chinese feudal society. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, this was probably the case, the most typical is Lin Daiyu in Cao Xueqin's "Dream of Red Mansions", when she first entered Jiafu, the first impression she gave people was this kind of weak beauty: "Two bends seem to be frowning and not frowning, and a pair of eyes that seem to be crying but not crying." The state is full of sorrows, and the disease of the whole body. Tears are dotted, and the pant is slight. When it is quiet, it is like a beautiful flower shining on the water, and the action is like a weak willow supporting the wind. The heart is more than the dry, and the disease is like Xizi winning three points. ”
Ancient China attached great importance to the beauty of people's appearance, and formed different aesthetic characteristics of each era, roughly speaking, it was basically strong and healthy in the pre-Qin period, delicate and weak in the two Han Dynasty, natural and elegant in the Wei and Jin dynasties, graceful and luxurious in the Tang Dynasty, and slender and charming after the Song Dynasty, but they all attached great importance to both internal and external cultivation. With the development of the times, people's appreciation of physical beauty today is becoming more and more diversified.
A dialectical understanding of the aesthetics of appearance
The beauty of a person's appearance is composed of many aspects, not only referring to the facial features, but also including skin type, shape, posture, temperament, etc. Regardless of ancient or modern, when appreciating the beauty of characters, it is not only limited to the face, but also a series of beautiful idioms to describe people, such as ice muscles and jade bones, skin like coagulation, pink makeup and jade, slim and elegant, graceful and graceful, graceful and graceful, and so on, are all aimed at the overall evaluation of people. In addition, the aesthetics of appearance should also be looked at comprehensively, not limited to appearance, because human life is limited, no matter what kind of natural beauty, with age, the loss of vitality, will cease to exist. Therefore, when aesthetics of appearance, we should pay attention to taking into account both natural and modified, external and internal, instant and eternal.
Natural and modified, the beauty of a person's appearance can be innate, or it can be changed by artificial modification. The former is based on genetics, beauty is natural, is the most perfect and most respected appearance in the eyes of the ancients, just like the aforementioned beauties and beautiful men, Li Bai described the beauty of Xi Shi with "beautiful colors to cover the present and ancient, lotus flowers are ashamed of jade face", Bai Juyi described Yang Yuhuan also said that "natural beauty is difficult to give up", this natural beauty is rare. The pursuit of beauty is understandable, people are social people, and appearance will have a great impact on their lives, so from ancient times to the present, there have been practices to modify appearance through external means to make people obtain acquired beauty. In ancient societies, there was a traditional sense of ethics that the body was affected by the skin, so most of them used various cosmetics to change their appearance. In today's technological society, there are many ways to change one's appearance through surgery and maintain one's youth through medicine. It should be clearly understood that all changes in external means have a price, and the beauty of the appearance for a while may be paid for the harm to life or body. In this era of "looking at faces", it is most beneficial to improve one's inner quality and show personality charm from the inside out.
This brings us to the second aspect we want to mention about the aesthetics of appearance, that is, the dialectical relationship between external beauty and inner cultivation. Femme fatale, red face and disaster water is a description of those who are beautiful in appearance but vicious in the heart, Li Ji, Yang Cheng Zhaoxin, etc. are typical representatives, they have won the favor of the emperor by virtue of their beautiful appearance, but they are jealous and jealous, ruthless and vicious, and cruel to others. On the contrary, some people with ordinary appearance or even ugly appearance have left their names in history because of their kindness and strength in their hearts. Zhuangzi created a series of such characters in the fable, such as fragmentation, mourning it, fragmentation, urn and gall, etc., some of these people were born with disabilities, some were extremely ugly, but they were full of wisdom, open-mindedness, and knew the avenue, and Zhuangzi also derived his concept of character beauty and ugliness, that is, "lifting the Zhu and the Ying, Li and Xi Shi, recovering the strange and strange, and the Tao is one". Liu Ling in the "Seven Sages of the Bamboo Forest" during the Wei and Jin dynasties is a true portrayal of Zhuangzi's fables. He is short in stature and ugly in appearance, but he can be prodigal, unbridled, friends with all things in heaven and earth, live a chic and free life, and has a strong personality charm. It can be seen that traditional Chinese aesthetic thought has a unique concept of the beauty of the human body, emphasizing the integrity of the body, that is, the so-called "form and spirit" and "unity of form and spirit", and further speaking, "the unity of heaven and man".
In addition, even if there is a certain consensus on the beauty and ugliness of appearance in various periods, there will be different views due to the different visions and realms of the aesthetic subjects. Esthetician Zhu Guangqin said in the article "Lover's Eyes Out of Xi Shi - Beauty and Nature": "Saying that a beauty is beautiful is also like saying that she is tall or short, fat or thin, her height and fat are determined by her stars, which she brought from her mother's womb, and her beauty is the same, which has nothing to do with you who watchs." This insight is not limited to the general public, and many philosophers and scientists think the same way. This means that natural beauty exists objectively, but he also stresses: "But there is no accepted standard for the evaluation of beauty." If you say that a person is beautiful and I say that she is not beautiful, how can you convince me? Some people like Xin Jiaxuan and hate Wen Feiqing, and some people like Wen Feiqing and hate Xin Jiaxuan. This is what he calls "a lover's eye is out of the eyes." Further, if the understanding of human beauty is related to subjective taste, then even the same person's aesthetic taste will change with the continuous change of age, experience, and knowledge accumulation. After modern society becomes more artificially beautiful, people will also have "aesthetic fatigue", and the problem of appearance aesthetics will become more complicated. And the person who is the object of aesthetics will also lose his original beauty with the passage of time.
This leads us to our third dialectical understanding of the aesthetics of appearance, that is, the question of the ephemeral and the eternal, which is also a philosophical question that has always puzzled people. "Instant into eternity" seems to be a contradiction, but it contains a wealth of philosophy. We live in the present, in every day's clothing, food, housing, transportation, study and work, but we also live in an eternal moment. The love and admiration for the beauty of people's appearance are also temporary, but the infinite years, for every living person, all the understanding of beautiful things are grasped in the "palm" of our moment. We are also aware that infinite eternity is composed of countless finite moments, without which there is no eternity, and that it is impossible for people to have eternity directly, but they can live the moment into eternity through meaningful moments. What kind of physical beauty is the real beauty? Of course, it is the beauty that is still as bright as new and intriguing after the eternal erosion of time and the precipitation of history.
(Source: People's Tribune, Author: Luo Yunyun, Professor, Department of Philosophy, Sun Yat-sen University, Ph.D. supervisor)