When we watched the Qing palace drama, we often saw the harem women go up to the queen mother and go down to the palace ladies, with a cloth strip similar to a scarf around their necks. These cloth strips are different and all have styles. It is inevitable that people can wonder what role these "cloth strips" have. Is it just for good-looking?
These white cloth strips similar to scarves actually have a nice name called "Longhua". It can be regarded as an important part of Manchu costume culture.
Before the Qing Dynasty entered the customs, there was no such thing as Longhua in their costumes. When the Qing dynasty was outside the Guan, it made a living from fishing and hunting. For the convenience of doing things, clothes generally did not have collars. After
entered the customs, the Qing people became the poor and the landlords, and they didn’t have to work hard to make a living by fishing and hunting. At this time, the Qing people felt that women were always naked and unsightly, but they also wanted to preserve the characteristics of the original national costumes. As a combination of two requirements, "Longhua" came into being and became popular among concubines.
The uncle of Emperor Xuantong and Beile Zaitao in the late Qing Dynasty said in his book "The Life of Nobles in the Late Qing Dynasty": "(cloak, shirt) do not need a roll collar, and use a scarf and handkerchief instead." The scarf and handkerchief here refers to Longhua, which shows that Longhua was still popular among the nobles of the Qing Dynasty in the late Qing Dynasty.
This is also Longhua's first role: decoration.
As a substitute for the collar, Longhua can keep warm in addition to decoration. This is its second function.
Longhua The third important function is to reduce body exposure. After the Qing people entered the customs, obvious sinicization began to appear, and their views on women's clothing began to become as conservative as the Han people in the Central Plains at that time, to minimize skin exposure. At this time, Longhua can play a good role in covering the skin.
In addition to Longhua, another thing that can reflect the conservative dress of Manchu women is the "flower pot bottom shoes", also called "horseshoe shoes", which are very common in Qing palace dramas. They can be very good. Helping clothes to block the feet can also make people look graceful when walking.
But for the concubine of the harem, Longhua's importance is far more than that. It also has a fourth important role: identification.
The concubines in the harem of the Manchu and Qing Dynasty are divided into eight levels. They are queen, imperial concubine, noble concubine, concubine, concubine, noble person, permanent presence, promise, if you count the court ladies who can be fortunate by the emperor, get There are nine levels.
Each level is strict and there are many rules. There are many beauties in the harem, and the palace is big. It is inevitable that there are sisters who don't know each other and don't know each other. They are of different levels. It is not good if they accidentally collide with each other in etiquette.
Longhua solves this problem well. Different styles represent different identities, and the identity of the person opposite is clear at a glance.
Longhua is different in width, length, number of flowers, and pattern. Generally speaking, there is a white dragon flower from the show girl to the palace girl without any embroidery, and the dragon flower of the big palace girl will be longer and bigger than that of the little palace girl.
Which woman is upgraded and becomes a concubine, you can choose the pattern you like within the level. Concubines of different levels wear different Longhua styles, and concubines of different levels wear different Longhua styles.
The pattern of the queen in Zhen Huan's biography is butterfly dance and flying flowers. The pattern, material and embroidery of Longhua are higher than other concubines, showing the queen's nobility and authority.
The other little concubine’s Longhua may only have a few flowers and plants, which are few and far between, but the Queen Mother’s Longhua is embroidered entirely with patterns. The show is not ordinary flowers and plants, but "tuan longevity" and "longevity" alternately embroidered , Expressing the hope that the Queen Mother can live a long and healthy life.
As for Longhua's convenience for the emperor, it is naturally obvious. As the supreme leader of the country, the emperor is busy with business and manages everything. I can't use my brain to deal with political affairs and review memorials all day long. The harem is also composed of groups of wives and concubines in the Sixth Court of Sangong, and there are too many people to remember.
Long Hua solved the emperor’s unrecognizable situation. I said earlier that each concubine’s Long Hua is different. The emperor only needs to glance at Long Hua to know the identity of the woman in front of him..
If the emperor is temporarily interested, he will be lucky to a certain woman in the palace without the flop. After a while, I will miss the woman I met on that day. Just tell the eunuch about the Longhua style. This woman can be found immediately, and it feels like a keyword search.
The white cloth strip on the concubine of the Qing Dynasty harem is equivalent to the ancient harem version of the ID card. It is convenient for the eunuch on duty to record the identity of the lucky woman in the emperor’s personal notes, and it is also convenient for the concubines to meet and salute , But the emperor is of course the most convenient.
