Last night, Xiaobian was attracted by an overwhelming piece of news. It turned out that our Xi'an Archaeological Session had made a new discovery! Since Xi'an City began to build the subway, news guides have discovered ancient tombs every three days. However, it is rare to see such a large movement. Last time, it was the excavation of the Great Tomb of the Sixteen Kingdoms in Shaoling Plateau. This time, a large-scale ancient tomb from the Western Han Dynasty was excavated in Gaozhuang Town, a new city in the Qin and Han Dynasties. More than 2000 burial objects, including various pottery, jade, etc., were found in the tomb. Among them, the most shocking are more than 80 exquisite Han Dynasty bronze mirrors unearthed. No matter how beautiful people are, they dare not take photos of these bronze mirrors, because the ancient burial objects were generally used by the tomb owner during his lifetime, or they were intended to enlighten gods, ascend immortals, ward off evil spirits and pray for blessings. With so many bronze mirrors unearthed at one time, it seems that people in the Han Dynasty loved beauty very much!

The love for beauty has been around since ancient times

There is a saying in the Book of Songs,"To the east of Zibo, the head is like a flying canopy. Is there no anointing? Who can tolerate it?" It tells the story of ancient women unwilling to dress themselves because their husbands traveled far away, which shows that dressing up was very common at that time. It is currently speculated that Chinese women began to make up during the Xia Dynasty, because the ancient book "Ancient and Modern Notes" mentions that lead powder was used for makeup during the Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties. In addition, jade pestle and other objects used to grind cinnabar were unearthed in Yin Ruins in Anyang, Henan Province, and cinnabar was the main raw material of ancient rouge lipstick.

Make-up is an innate behavior. In the Warring States Period "Han Fei Zi Zi", there is a description of "powder is used to apply the face, dress is used to brush the eyebrows, grease is used to dye the lips, and color is used to dye the hair", which is almost the same as the current cosmetic products and makeup steps.

The history of makeup, powder, eyebrows and lips

Apply powder first for makeup. Just mentioned that lead powder existed during the Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties. The name was "Feiyun Pill" to whiten the skin. Later generations gradually discovered that lead could be toxic, so during the Spring and Autumn Period, rice was used to rub the surface again. After the Han Dynasty, people invented making lead powder into powder after drying. This lead powder replaced rice flour because it was easy to preserve.

Apply powder before applying rouge. Rouge first appeared during the Shang Zhou period. However, the main raw material of rouge, red and blue, is not produced in China, but brought by Zhang Qian from the Western Regions. Before the introduction of red and blue, cinnabar was often used as a raw material for rouge.

The ancients attached great importance to eyebrows and believed that eyebrows had a high status in the face. There was a style of thrashing flowers during the Warring States Period. With the changes of times and the aesthetic changes of each dynasty and generation, the shape of eyebrows changed most extensively. Thrushes were originally painted again after shaving. Long eyebrows were popular in the Han Dynasty, and short eyebrows were popular in the Tang Dynasty, which looked like moth wings. During the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, he made a "Ten Eyebrows Picture" to demonstrate to palace maids. It can be seen that the eyebrows at that time were rich in shapes and different in aesthetics.

At the end of makeup, put a touch of red on your lips. The custom of lip touching has existed since the Pre-Qin period, and cinnabar is used for lip touching. Because cinnabar is not sticky and will be washed away by saliva for a long time, people add some animal grease, similar to today's lipstick.

In addition to the above-mentioned beauty steps, the ancients also applied mother-in-law stickers on their faces, wore earrings, and dyed nails, which were quite common. However, in ancient times, makeup was most popular among royal families and wealthy families. After all, makeup was a costly thing.

Dongfang Diwanggu

Qin and Han New City is located in Xixian New District. There are many cultural relics and historic sites in the area, including Qin Xianyang Palace, Lanchi Palace, and the original tomb group of the five tombs of the Han Dynasty. Wuling Plain has open terrain and excellent natural scenery. It is a treasure of feng shui in the eyes of emperors of past dynasties. The nine emperors of the Western Han Dynasty were all buried in the Wuling Plain. These imperial tombs were tall, majestic and majestic, and were known as China's "pyramids". Therefore, it is not surprising that a large-scale Western Han Dynasty tomb has been excavated this time. There may be much more unopened treasures here than you can see.

(Text: Peter Pan/Review: Ice Cream)