On various online platforms, almost every beauty blogger will repeatedly emphasize the importance of sun protection. After all, in this scorching summer, sun protection or no sun protection is directly the difference between hard-boiled eggs and braised eggs. We modern people have long been proficient in using various sun protection methods, such as applying sunscreen, wearing sun protection clothing , wearing sun hats, etc. So, would the ancients who knew nothing about ultraviolet rays know how to protect themselves from the sun?
Sun hat: When men become fashionable, women have nothing to do with it.
Whenever the summer sun rises, we feel like we are in an air fryer. The temperature is so high that it can directly burn the fat in our bodies. Come out, and the sun above your head is even more piercing, making it difficult to keep your eyes open. Since we can't take our descendants with us at all times, we can only wear sun hats. At least we can open our eyes and see how hot the world is.
Regarding sun hats, the ancients had many more styles and patterns than we do. As early as the Jin Dynasty, ancient people liked to wear a "mat hat". The mat hat is actually a straw hat. Cui Bao of Jin Dynasty once mentioned in " Ancient and Modern Notes ": "The rattan mat is made of it, and the bone harness is used for it." The raw material of this straw hat is the same as the mat that our modern people spread on the bed. , worn on the head in summer, it must be sweat-absorbent and breathable.
However, this mat hat is a bit "bland" in style. After the unrestrained Tang Dynasty , curtain hat became a fashion item. The curtain hat originally belonged to the Hu costume, and the original style was called power fence . It is usually made of soap gauze, surrounded by a wide eaves, with a drooping silk mesh or thin silk under the eaves, reaching the length of the neck, so that the face can be covered. Because the soap yarn is relatively light and thin, it does not affect the line of sight. After the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the ancients shortened the hanging net around it and gave it a nice name, "Qianlu". One thing worth noting is that most of the soap gauze used in this kind of curtain cap is black gauze. This is based on sun protection, but also adds an invisible black sunglasses!
How cool is this look? In the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Museum there is a Tang Dynasty painted clay figurine of a lady riding a horse and wearing a curtain hat. I saw this young lady from the Tang Dynasty, wearing bright clothes and a curtain hat, with a heroic appearance. Yes, this kind of curtain hat first appeared in the northwest minority areas. It can not only protect from the sun, but also prevent wind and sand. It is a must-have outfit for young ladies from the Western Regions. Later, it was introduced to the Central Plains during the and Southern and Northern Dynasties periods. It became particularly popular in the early Tang Dynasty and became one of the top ten fashion items for traveling in the Tang Dynasty! According to the "Old Tang Book·Yu Fu Zhi": "In the early days, women used power barriers to cover their bodies. From the time of Yonghui , they began to use curtain hats and skirts and necks. During the reign of Empress Wu, curtains and hats became more popular, and after Zhongzong There is no more power fence... At the beginning of the Kaiyuan Dynasty, all the officials and horsemen wore beards and beautiful makeup, and they showed up without any obstacles. The families of the common people also followed suit... When they were galloping in the open, their curtains and hats were also discarded. "
Regarding curtain hats, many people think that they were most popular during the Tang and Song Dynasties, but most people don't know that in the Tang Dynasty, it was young ladies who liked to wear curtain hats, while in the Song Dynasty, it was young girls who liked to wear curtain hats. Brothers. Let's put it this way, the "Bei Mo Tian Tuan" we are familiar with, such as Su Shi, Ouyang Xiu, Wang Anshi... they all wore this kind of curtain hat. However, "cultured people" tend to be pretentious. These young men in the Song Dynasty wore curtain hats not only for sun protection, but also for a sense of ceremony.
They usually add a hat to the scarf. Like the ladies in the Tang Dynasty, they "made it with soap and a square brim", that is, a square piece of black ruffle hangs from the brim of the hat. There is a saying: When a man becomes enchanting, women basically have nothing to do with him. These little brothers in the Song Dynasty specially chose the sultry purple lining for their hats, and there were a bunch of purple silk ribbons under the hats. When the hat is put on, use this tie to tie a beautiful bow at the chin to secure the hat.
This style of hat was first inherited from the previous generation of "big tailoring hats". It was originally a daily commuting style for ordinary people, but later, people had to reach a certain official rank to be eligible to wear this kind of hanging gauze hat. Ye Mengde, who lived in and the Song Dynasty , has a detailed record of this in "Shilin Yanyu": "Today, the banquet hat and the tailoring hat are divided into two levels. A full length of soap gauze is added in front of the hat, and only half of it is a cut hat. If you are not a Taiwan official or above, and you are a member of the imperial family, you will not have a mat hat. "According to his record, in the Song Dynasty it was wanted. To protect yourself from the sun, do you have to be an official first? It's so hard.
In response to this, Zhu Yuanzhang of the Ming Dynasty smiled and said nothing. Zhu Yuanzhang has always been known for being strict and harsh, but he occasionally turns into an "old father" with a soft heart. For example, one day, Zhu Yuanzhang saw the students standing under the scorching sun. Suddenly, his heart ached a little. He was worried that these students would suffer from heat stroke due to the sun, so he gave them sun hats. Because this move was so touching, the sunhat became the official first uniform of the Ming Dynasty's candidates, tributes, and supervising students, which is also the "bachelor's hat" for us modern people. According to the records of "Qin Ding Xu Tong Dian Volume 56 Rites 12": "The sun hat was worn by scholars in the early Ming Dynasty." The Tang Bohu we are familiar with is wearing it in his portrait. Wearing a sun hat like this.
In addition to sun protection, the sun hats of the Ming Dynasty, like those of the Song Dynasty, also represented status. The difference is that in the Song Dynasty, people looked at the soap yarn on sun hats, while in the Ming Dynasty, according to " Ming History ", they looked at the hair on sun hats. Sunhats in the Ming Dynasty would be decorated with different numbers of swan feathers to indicate status. The noble ones would have three feathers on them, and the less privileged ones would have two feathers on them.
It can be seen from this that the sun hat, which is at the forefront of the fashion industry, also has a chain of contempt.
Sun protection clothing: Wear gauze if you have money, wear gauze if you have no money. Geyi
Since modern people have learned about the concept of "sun protection is the only way to prevent aging", not only sun hats have been worn, sun protection clothing have also gradually become popular. In the past few years, various ice silk fabrics were popular, and in recent years, skin clothing and sun protection clothing have become popular. If the ancients saw this, they would probably laugh out loud, and then use the tone of the internet to mock us moderns: "Just asking you, is it hot or not?"
The clothing materials of the ancients have always been extremely rich, and they are very particular about being rich. , the chic of poverty and poverty. A piece of plain gauze clothing was unearthed from Han Tomb No. 1 in Mawangdui, Changsha, Hunan Province. The entire piece of plain gauze clothing weighs only 49 grams, less than one tael. Excluding the cuffs and collar, the rest only weighs 25 grams. It can be said that It is truly as thin as cicada wings and as light as smoke. Archaeological experts have speculated that this plain gauze garment may be the sexy underwear of the tomb owner, Mrs. Xin Zhui (also known as "Avoid"), or it may be her daily blouse. Now it seems that it is also very possible that it is sun protection clothing.
In addition to the thin gauze clothes that were popular in the Han Dynasty, they were also popular in all subsequent dynasties. Especially fabrics like gauze and luo, which have fine pores on the surface, are light and breathable, and do not stick to the skin. They are an excellent item for summer. " Zhuizhongzhi" of the Ming Dynasty describes it this way: "On the fourth day of March, the court officials changed into Luo Yi. On the fourth day of April, the court officials changed into gauze clothes."
In addition to the good materials, the sun protection clothing of the Tang Dynasty The style is also beautiful, I think girls will be stunned when they wear it! This painting is said to be from Zhou Fang of the Tang Dynasty. The "Picture of Lady with Hairpin Flowers" now stored in the Liaoning Provincial Museum will be an eye-opener for us. In this painting, the ladies of the Tang Dynasty were very good at dressing. They all wore high-waisted skirts, and outside the high-waisted skirts, they wore a layer of sun protection clothing. This sun protection garment was called Pizi in the Tang Dynasty, which is equivalent to what we modern people understand as a shawl. Most of the trousers in the Tang Dynasty were made of gauze or Luo, which not only provided protection from the sun, but also had a gorgeous and elegant feel. Tang Dynasty Legend " Youxian Cave " once described this kind of sun protection clothing called "Pezi": "Pezi tulips in the wind, pomegranate color in the sun." After wearing such sun protection clothing, it not only protects from the sun, but also You can also transform into a little fairy!
The above are sun protection clothes for ladies in ancient times. If they didn’t have so much money to buy gauze and silk clothes, would ancient people still wear sun protection clothes? Of course wear it! This is like wearing a mink in the Northeast winter. No matter how good the fur is, you must have one.In ancient times, most of the special sun protection clothing for "earth-eating girls" was Ge Yi.
Speaking of "Ge Yi", you may be very unfamiliar with it, but have you heard of a fabric called ramie recently recommended on a certain website? It is the legendary Ge Yi. Geyi is a fibrous fabric. It is not only as light and translucent as tulle and gauze, but it also absorbs sweat and feels particularly refreshing when worn on the body. It has been the summer favorite of ancient people as early as the Neolithic Age.
Regarding Ge Yi, the earliest record comes from "The Book of Songs·Ge Tan": "The Ge Tan comes, and it is applied to the Zhonggu. The leaves are mossed, and they are cut and dried. They are used to make money, and they are not used." And it The earliest spokesperson was Mozi, a great celebrity in the pre-Qin period. If there was a live broadcast room in ancient times, Mozi would definitely be the anchor in the live broadcast room. He once said: "Xia Zeyi is light and fuzzy enough." In the words of our modern people: "This Geyi is cool and cool." It’s comfortable, especially suitable for summer. Buy it for me! I won’t let you not know about such good clothes!” In the Confucius Museum, there is a collection of natural Ge robes from the Ming Dynasty. It looks loose and fat, tough and breathable. Excellent.
The choice of these two fabrics is actually also found in our modern sun protection clothing. So far, in shopping malls, we can see sun protection clothes made of silk fabrics, and sun protection clothes made of Gebu (also ramie fabric). It can be seen that the sun protection clothes we wear in summer were originally given to us by the ancients. Inspiration!
Sunscreen powder and after-sun repair mask: no one can match the exquisiteness of the ancients
In addition to wearing sun hats and sun-protective clothing, we modern people also apply sunscreen, and girls also use powder with SPF. Sunscreen powder can not only modify the skin color and absorb the oil secreted by the face, but can also be used to isolate and protect the face from the sun. This is the best physical sunscreen for the face! After all, on this hot day, if you don’t want to wear a sun hat, you will not only get sunburn spots but also sunburn on your skin.
Young ladies in ancient times also had this awareness. In ancient times, the first step in makeup was the same as ours, applying foundation. In ancient times, this step was called "powder application." Different from the nude makeup look we pursue now, young ladies in ancient times advocated heavy makeup. Judging from the existing ancient paintings, young ladies in ancient times applied a lot of powder. The heavy feeling makes people wonder if they put the powder in a basin and then put their faces directly into the basin. The amount of powder makes me feel like my head is shaking, and the powder that falls can weigh three kilograms.
Thick and thick, the ancient sunscreen powder is very effective. Many people think that the earliest sunscreen powder was lead powder, but before lead powder, ladies in ancient times used rice powder. The raw materials of rice noodles are divided into rice and millet, and it is not easy to make these raw materials into rice cakes. The rice must first be washed, fermented, and vinegar gas removed, and then ground into a slurry in a sand basin. After the rice slurry dries, it becomes a powder cake. This is not over yet. Next, we need to remove the rough white foggy and smooth parts around it, leaving the snow-white and smooth part in the middle. The ancients gave this kind of sunscreen powder cake that uses rice flour as its raw material a nice name, "Fenying".
This pink powder can both conceal blemishes and protect against the sun, but its adhesion is too poor, it is too easy to remove makeup, and it cannot whiten. Therefore, in the Qin and Han Dynasties, a new product of sunscreen powder was ushered in: lead powder. This kind of sunscreen powder can be used wet or dry. The dry one is called "tile powder", and the wet one is called "hufen" or "gouache". Their raw material is lead. Probably the emperors during the Qin and Han Dynasties were refining elixirs in pursuit of immortality, which indirectly affected the beauty industry at that time.
lead powder can not only make the skin delicate and smooth, but also has the effect of sun protection and whitening, which is comparable to the BB cream applied by our modern ladies. In particular, the wet "Hu powder" used in lead powder also has a certain high-gloss effect, and it is also called "lead powder". However, the biggest bug of lead powder is that it has a certain degree of toxicity. If used for a long time, it will make the skin sensitive and accelerate aging. What’s even more frightening is that lead powder can cause hair to fall out, the face to turn blue, and the makeup to appear poisonous all year round.It is not difficult to understand why the concubines in the harem who are less than thirty in costume dramas sigh in the mirror: "But they are not as old and yellow as the people in this palace..."
In the past few years, many colors of sunscreen have become popular among us modern people. , choose different colors of sunscreen isolation according to different skin colors, such as green, purple, pink, white... Did you know? This kind of sunscreen cream had appeared as early as the period of Emperor Wen of Wei Dynasty. It was called "purple powder" at that time. This kind of purple powder is made by adding one part Fenying loose powder and Hu Fen powder together and mixing thoroughly, then adding Kuizi , which is the vegetable juice of annatto, and then mixing it thoroughly, and finally it is dried into a powder cake. We modern people all know that purple sunscreen can remove dark yellow skin. This principle is called the "complementary color principle" in color science, and purple and yellow are complementary colors. It’s amazing that the ancients invented such sun protection so early without any scientific awareness!
After the Tang and Song Dynasties, new varieties of sunscreen powder appeared on the market. Among several famous brands, "Jade Girl Peach Blossom Powder" ground from motherwort and gypsum powder, "Stone Powder" made from talc, containing purple jasmine pearls Powder...especially pearl powder, not only can block ultraviolet rays, but also has the function of whitening and moisturizing. Yang Guifei , Empress Dowager Cixi, pearl powder is their daily essential powder!
In addition to sunscreen powder, ladies in ancient times also knew how to repair after-sun exposure. Before going to bed, they would remove their makeup from the day and apply beauty powder again, which is called "sleeping makeup." A few years ago, the "bathing powder" that became popular in Japan was learned from our ancients! Suzhou makeup mainly consists of applying some powders with beauty functions, the most famous ones are "Antlers Peach Blossom Powder", "Qian Wang Hongbai Powder", etc. In ancient times, young ladies hoped to absorb the nutrients in these powders through sleep, so as to make the skin Restoration is done at night. Wen Tingyun seems to be particularly interested in this point. He has written more than once, such as "The musk smoke is long in the depths, and the makeup is thin when lying down", and "the hills overlap and the golden light disappears, and the clouds on the temples want to cover the fragrant snow on the cheeks"... The "thin makeup" and "cheek snow" here are the repairing foundation masks that young ladies in ancient times applied on their faces before going to bed. They lived such a delicate life!
It can be seen from this that the ancients had many ways to protect themselves from the sun. As modern people, the sun hats we wear, the sun protection clothing we wear, and the sun protection powder we use are all sun protection experiences left to us by the ancients. We have to admire the great wisdom and creativity of the ancients.
Jinling Xiaodai
["Xiaodai Reading History" is a column specially opened by Jinling Xiaodai for "Micro Histories". Jinling Xiaodai is a Nanjing writer and the author of the best-selling "Stories in Cultural Relics" series. 】
