The name of the cicada as one of the four beauties is widely known, but how can a beautiful woman be related to the two small animals of "mink" and "cicada"? When we look at the hat on her sideburns, all doubts may suddenly open up.
Regarding whether there is a mink cicada in history, in fact, many scholars are skeptical, and even many times, people think that among the four great beauties of the ancient world, Guifei, Xi Shi and Zhaojun are real, but this mink cicada is most likely a completely fictional character.
Of course, the prototype of the beauty plan is not a sudden inspiration after the novelist's head is patted, and this extremely interesting record in Chen Shou's "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" may be the source:
Ran Zhuo was rigid and stubborn, angry and difficult, tasted a little frustration, and pulled out his hand and threw a cloth. Bu Fist Jie avoided it, for Zhuo Gu Xie, Zhuo Yi also understood. By being yin and gloomy. Zhuo often made Bu Shouzhong, and Bu had an affair with Zhuo's servant, fearing that things would be discovered, and his heart would not be at ease.
This servant of Dong Zhuo, although she does not yet have a name, has undoubtedly become a key figure in the eyes of novelists. Among the many interpretations of the Three Kingdoms story, the miscellaneous drama "Jinyuntang Secret Serial Scheme" written by the Yuan Dynasty Anonymous not only gave her the name of "Sable Cicada", but also gave the answer to the connection between beauty and mink and cicada.
In the second compromise, Situ Wang Yun found the mink cicada burning incense and making a wish in the back garden, and under questioning, the woman revealed her origins:
It turns out that the reason why the beautiful woman is called a mink cicada is actually because of a special hat - "mink cicada crown"! This statement is actually very reasonable, because the "mink cicada" is indeed the decoration on the crown worn by the palace attendants during the Six Dynasties of the Han and Wei Dynasties.
Mink is the tail of the mink, and cicada is the golden cicada.
So why did the ancients decorate these two small animals on their hats? In fact, the ancients themselves sometimes did not understand. It is recorded in the "Han Guanyi" that one day, Emperor Huan of the Eastern Han Dynasty suddenly looked at the hat of his close attendant in a daze, and in the face of this strange, cute and loving hat, he asked in puzzlement:
"What is the law of the mink cicada"
The royal court naturally did not lack gold and silver jewelry, so why should the hat of the emperor's close attendant be decorated with unrelated golden cicadas and mink tails? However, the astute and erudite close attendant was also confused by this question, and could only answer honestly: "I don't know the method."
It can be seen that the source of the sable cicada crown is indeed quite secretive and tortuous.
So, where does the mysterious mink crown come from? The Interpretation of the Han Officials mentions a saying:
That is, when Qin unified the Six Kingdoms, a large number of official costumes of the Six Kingdoms were incorporated into the new dynasty uniform system, such as the Chu Crown of the Chu State and the Alpine Crown of the Qi State, and the Hu Crown imitated by King Wuling of Zhao was also among them.
According to legend, this is a new hat created by King Wuling of Zhao when riding and shooting, the hat is not only decorated with golden bells, but also inserted with a mink tail in front, of course, this kind of hat can only be worn by senior generals of the Zhao Kingdom.
Obviously, by nature, this kind of hat belongs to the "martial crown" and the like, who ever thought that this kind of hat aroused the interest of the Great Qin Dynasty, so it was not only decorated with cicada patterns on the golden bell, but also used as a special crown for the attendants Chinese.
Scholar Wang Xianqian believes that the mink cicada crown system has gone through two stages: the earliest Zhao Wuling King created the mink cicada crown, but the shape system is relatively simple and rugged; on the basis of his father's invention, King Zhao Huiwen used gold and jade for decorative beautification, which promoted the pursuit and promotion of the Zhao state throughout the country, and then swept the world.
Therefore, the marten cicada crown also has an alias, known as "Huiwen Guan", interestingly, King Huiwen of Zhao is the son of King Wuling of Zhao, that is to say, the father and son have joined forces to create a hat that can change history.
After the "Hufu Riding and Shooting", the military strength of the Zhao State increased rapidly, and in the past twenty years, "Wang Slightly in the mountains, to Ningye." As for Yuzhong, Lin Hu offered horses. ”
In fact, the sable cicada crown is far less important than this. This kind of hat imitated by the Hu people was not only of great benefit to the Zhao state at that time, but also stepped into the official costume of the Great Unification Dynasty with the Han nationality as the main body and became an important part of the Chinese crown.
Next, we seem to have to figure out the question that even emperor Huan of the Eastern Han Dynasty was afraid of:
Why do you have to be mink and cicadas?
Whether it is the "Later Han Shu Youfu Zhi" or the "Han Guanyi", it is mentioned that there are two groups that often wear this kind of mink crown, namely "Shizhong" and "Zhongchang Waiter", which seems to be their special crown clothing in the Qin and Han Dynasties.
What is a waiter? "The servant is left and right, and the emperor is lifted and lowered, the pawn is close to the pair, the missing pieces are filled, and among the hundred liao, Mo Mi Yuzi" It is not difficult to see that the attendant is often accompanied by the side of the king, and can be called the emperor's personal secretary and nickname.
As for the Zhongchang waiter, it was first set up in the Qin, followed by the Western Han Dynasty, and initially used scholars, and after the Eastern Han Guangwu, it was often used by eunuchs around him to hold this position. The ten permanent servants at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty are enough to show that the power and dignity of this position are noble.
It is precisely because the position of "Shizhong" and "Zhongchang Waiter" is so important that the cage crown worn on its head is particularly special, and the golden cicada and mink tail both mean remoteness.
Gold, hard, strong and immortal, refined and without loss, means that being in an important position requires upholding justice and not losing honor;
Cicadas, high and drinking, mouth under the armpits, meaning that being in a high position needs to be clean and self-righteous and not to speak vainly about state affairs;
Mink, strong on the inside and warm on the outside, means that it is around the emperor, it must be rounded on the outside and square on the inside, adaptable, and act cheaply.
It is nothing more than a bit of an official way, but these beauties, which are concentrated on a hat, may be most of the time just scholarly fantasies and the expectations of those in power, and whether the ministers can do it or not may only be clear in their own hearts.
Of course, most of the time, this is indeed a naked symbol of noble status, so that in the "Biography of Zhao Wanglun", there is a very humorous and funny side:
(After Zhao Wanglun usurped the throne) The conspirator Xian Chaoyue was inferior and invincible. To the slaves, they were also knighted. Every pilgrimage, mink and cicadas sit. As the saying goes, "The mink is insufficient, the dog tail continues."
When the sable's tail is not enough, the wild dogs on the side of the road may have suffered. In this way, the mink tail seems to be able to load and unload at will. So, how are the golden cicadas and mink tails on the hats assembled?
From the available information, it should be first inserted on the crown of the cage mink tail, followed by a cicada pattern on the golden bell. In the Book of Jin, it is said: "Insert mink hair, gold as a rod, the waiter inserts the left, and the waiter inserts the right." ”
It is said that it is a mink hair, the actual use is indeed a mink tail, and the mink tail is especially the tail of the sable, Xu Guang's "Car Costume Miscellaneous Notes" said: "The mink takes the purple wei warm and the brilliance is not bright."
Its use is to tie a golden rod to the tail of a moderately sized mink for easy insertion into the crown of the cage. This is because the mink tail is inserted in the crown of the cage, not fixed together. That's why we saw an interesting scene in history:
It is said that when Emperor Wen of Song had a long talk with the attendant Yin Jingren, this furry mink tail made the emperor itchy, so he directly pulled it out and put it on top of several cases, and after the conversation, he inserted it for people.
As for the golden bell attached to the cicada, it means that there is a golden bell on the crown of the cage, and the bell has a cicada pattern. In general, the position of the golden bell is in front of the crown of the cage, in the position of the forehead. At present, the cicada-patterned golden bells found include the tomb of Feng Sufu of Northern Yan in Liaoning Province, the tomb of Gao Wu, a famous minister of the Eastern Jin Dynasty in Nanjing Xianheguan, and the tomb of the Western Jin Dynasty.
This cicada-patterned golden bell also has a name, called "Jin Bo Shan", or "Golden Face":
"Explanation": Jin BoShan, the cicada for it, called the golden face.
However, the fixed collocation commonly found in historical documents such as "mink tail + golden cicada" often does not appear on the head of the same person at the same time in the current archaeological cultural relics image data, either there is a mink without a bell, or there is a bell without a mink, or there is a bell but there is no cicada on the bell. For example, in the mural of the Tomb of Northern Qi Lourui, there are mink with bells but no cicadas.
The reason may be that the painter's brush stroke is wrong, or it may be that the mink cicada crown has gained or lost in real applications and has been different from the times. In the Sui and Tang dynasties, there were still mink cicada ornaments on the left and right scattered riding attendants, but after the Tang Dynasty, the mink tail on the official hat disappeared in the long river of history, and the pheasant tail became a new ornament with the golden cicada.
Returning to the Yuan Dynasty miscellaneous drama mentioned at the beginning of the article, some people can't help but wonder what the mink cicada said, can a female stream also wear a mink cicada crown? Indeed, before the Han Dynasty, mink cicadas were only seen in male officials, and it was not until the Western Jin Dynasty that female court officials began to wear mink crowns.
During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the use of the cicada crown became more and more chaotic. In order to decorate the court, some emperors of the Northern Dynasty would set up maids in the palace and let them bring mink crowns to accompany the empress.
Such a ridiculous act as Shi Hu' would have been strongly condemned by the chancellor Wang Yuancheng if it had been in the first year of the Northern Wei Dynasty's Xiaoming Emperor Shen Gui: "Jiangnan pseudo-Jin Mu Hou Shangshu and mink bells, this is a world of decay, a demon's obedience." “
He believes that the mink cicada crown is an ornament for male servants and regular attendants, and if it is given to women, it is a woman wearing male clothes, which is a sign of yin qi invading yang qi, which is not only harmful to morality, but also causes instability in the state society.
Of course, by a gorgeous and honorable crown dress, imagining the beauty of nature, although the later generations of literati fictionalized the mink cicada, it did not affect the historical charm and emotional charm attached to the mink cicada crown, and many people's life trajectories were entangled with the ups and downs of the mink cicada crown, such as Jiang Yan, such as Ruan Fu.
Of course, if someone asks you, is it comfortable to wear the crown of the mink cicada (close attendant), or the hood to wear comfortable (warrior)? You can completely use qi ren Zhou Panlong's clever answer:
Children make choices, I want both!
"Southern Qi Shu Zhou Panlong Biography": "Panlong Watch is old and weak, can not be on the edge of the town, seek dismissal, see Xu, but also for the scattered riding changshi, Guanglu doctor." The ancestral drama: 'Why is it like a cicada with a mink cicada?' Pan Long said: 'This mink cicada comes out of its ear. ’”