88-year-old Queen Elizabeth II of England is still riding a horse, which has caused a lot of sighs from the world. This has fixed a wrong idea that I have always had.
"Zizhi Tongjian " writes that in the first year of the magical merit, Wu Zetian "In the traveling garden, auspicious necks are held, and the empress dowager asks about external affairs." According to the description here, the female emperor Wu Zetian, who was 73 years old at that time, once rode a horse to wander around the inner garden to relax. The important minister Jixiang personally pulled the head of the horse's knife for her. So the emperor asked Jixiang who was accompanying him about the recent people's feelings. Originally, I always thought this deed was completely unreliable. Can a woman over 70 years old still ride a horse? However, Elizabeth II declared my suspicion with practical actions that did not hold true. His Majesty is almost ninety years old and is still steadily riding the imperial cavalry and strolling in the garden.
Because Tang Dynasty noble ladies are used to riding horses, so today's people often like to praise this era of openness and generous temperament. In fact, things are not that simple. In that era, the higher the status of a noble lady, the less she could not let mortals see her image. In addition to wearing a slut and a hat and when going out, she was even surrounded by " road barrier ". Wu Zetian was named "Queen Tian". After being called "Two Saints" together with Emperor Gaozong, she was in charge of the court and received the ministers. She hung a gauze curtain in front of her seat and discussed with male ministers through the curtain.
Recently, many people are very interested in the history of "what Wu Zetian looks like", with various texts and speculations. In fact, you really think too much. Even if you have the chance to be born in that era, even if you are a loyal minister at the prime minister level like Di Renjie and Ji Xiang, you will not have the chance to see the face of the female emperor.
Then, you think, if you can not only travel back to that era without bias, but also happen to transform into Tang Gaozong , when couples get along, there will always be a lot of opportunities to see your wife, right? However, in ancient times, women advocated heavy makeup. The most important thing is that every woman in the Tang Dynasty put on or painted "flower aluminum" on her face. Flowers are also called flower seeds. They are often small flowers cut from gold foil, silk or fish scales. They are also painted with colorful patterns and are attached to the forehead, between the eyebrows, the tips of the eyebrows, the temples, the cheeks, etc. What is particularly amazing is that the convention is that everyone must put a pair of round or flower-shaped fake dimples on both sides of their mouths. This pair of fake dimples may be black, red, or golden, and a green "green" is particularly popular! Can you adapt to a pair of women with green dimples smiling at you? Do you have the courage to read it carefully? In addition to the posting of
, women in the Tang Dynasty also had a creative spirit to draw on their faces with their own creative spirit, often drawing flowers on their foreheads, and on both sides of their cheeks are curved patterns similar to flowing clouds, flying clouds, and flying winds, which are semi-abstract and semi-concrete, which is particularly challenging to draw and look at both sides of their imagination. Therefore, about one-third of the area of a Tang Dynasty female face with complete makeup is occupied by flowers, and these golden or red green flowers are colorful and brilliant, which is probably more eye-catching than their facial features. The impressions of people in the Tang Dynasty about their beloved women were probably mainly derived from these gorgeous and changeable patterns! I doubt that once a woman changes the style of the delicate flowers on her face, such as changing from the main green to the red and purple, she originally liked to post small flowers, but suddenly looked so angry that her lover would recognize the wrong person or suddenly stop knowing her. This situation was not uncommon at the time. As for the uncles, nieces and nephews, they may not be able to figure out the specific appearance of their sister-in-law and aunts in their family in their lives. If they change their faces, they will be wronged by male relatives in the family.
So, although Emperor Gaozong of Tang and Wu Zetian can be regarded as living together day and night, the clever decorative patterns on his wife's face will have a great impact on his husband, and he has a considerable proportion of his wife's appearance.
So, at night, will your makeup be disabled? Can you reveal a little bit of true appearance? However, ancient noble women had long known to prevent the situation of losing makeup. At dusk, they must re-made makeup, which is called " night makeup " and "night makeup".Therefore, they painted exquisitely and neatly from morning to night. Through their luxurious and upright appearance, their noble status is intuitively convincing and convinced by others.
So, before going to bed, you must remove your makeup. At this time, Wu Zetian would have a picture without makeup. From , Li Zhi, to the palace servants around her, she would definitely be able to see clearly what she looked like. However, in that era, women who focused on appearance would apply light makeup before going to bed, and even apply a piece of flower aluminum on their eyebrows. Just pasting a small flower is as colorful as the daytime, in people's concepts at that time, it is already low-key and simple. More importantly, women need to apply a lot of powder on their face, neck, front and back chest, arms and even the whole body before going to bed. This powder is the main ingredient of rice flour and adds Chinese herbs and spices for skin care. In traditional beauty concepts, applying powder on your body at night can allow the skin to fully and calmly absorb the nutrients in the powder while sleeping, so it is the most important way to maintain the skin. Any self-loved noble woman can never ignore the program of powder before going to bed.
Therefore, literati of the Tang and Song dynasties often wrote in poems that the woman who slept with her had half-removed makeup the next morning, and the white powder on her face was stained with half-dead cicada temples. What's more, the sweat at the moment of love will mix with the white powder on a woman's body, and bright pink marks will be revealed on the pillow, on the brocade quilt, and on the mat, and it will also exude a strong fragrance. This phenomenon completely became part of the sexual experience of men in the upper class at that time, so that the talented men among them repeatedly described it in literary works with the mood of enjoyment, not dislike it, but were chanting with relish.
If you are an ordinary person, you will probably have nothing left after light makeup. But the palace was very diligent, and the emperor got up before dawn to prepare for the morning court! Therefore, even if you are as close as Li Zhi, you may not have seen Wu Zetian's bare face in decades.
In fact, Wu Zetian knows the power of makeup very well and attaches great importance to shaping his image through makeup and careful dressing. "Zizhi Tongjian" records: "Although the Empress Dowager spring and autumn is high, her eyes are fragrant, and she doesn't feel her decline even if she is left and right." She knows that in order to rule the world, in addition to governing the country's achievements and defeating the ability of political opponents, a persuasive demeanor is also very important. Therefore, even when she is old, she still pays great attention to makeup. Because she manages her personal image so well, the ministers around her think from the bottom of their hearts that she is not old. In their hearts, she is always a goddess-level existence and is the reincarnation of a holy Buddha.
Wu Zetian was summoned to the palace when she was fourteen years old because of "beauty stop". The innate basic version is naturally good. However, under the circumstances at that time, her real face actually didn't have much chance to appear. Therefore, it is through exquisite and careful makeup, the makeup that never witheres day and night, and the jewelry, hairstyle and dresses to make your image bright and outstanding from the moment you enter the palace, creating a beautiful and wise image for yourself. Not only that, she also had to rely on the long hanging gauze curtains in the hall to protect her from walking onto the Fengshantai, creating a unique charming aura, which was filled with the sexy aura of noble and beautiful women, and also shining with deliberately created deified colors. Therefore, Wu Zetian is different from the masculine strong women that some people understand today. She deliberately transforms femininity into a positive factor in politics.
Or it can be said that Wu Zetian’s true appearance is actually not that important, because even if you are her contemporary and are still someone around her, you basically have no chance to see her face without makeup. Perhaps, only the female officials and palace maids who serve her to wash and dress up every day can briefly see the original face of this female politician. In addition, even as her husband, Emperor Gaozong of Tang can only see a carefully decorated and impeccable image.
This is very consistent with the French concept. In the French, there are no ugly women, only attractive women. Any woman, even if she is born with poor facial features, can become charming and become sexy as long as she discovers her characteristics, focus on processing and plays with her strengths and avoids her weaknesses. A sexy and charming woman is a beautiful woman.This kind of acquired talent self-created sexiness and beauty will not fade away by the passing of youth. On the contrary, just like fine wine, time will only make the charm of a smart woman more mellow and more essence.
Therefore, don’t believe in the saying “the lotus comes out of clear water, and it is naturally decorated.” Wu Zetian is the best example, confirming the French people's view that natural beauty may be very important, but more importantly, it is the unremitting self-shaping of life, which shapes from the heart to the appearance, thus forming a personalized charming aura that others can clearly feel and recognize.
