At that time, women's hairstyles in the Tang Dynasty were mainly elegant and beautiful, combining Chinese and western styles, which mainly presented the spiritual outlook and aesthetic fashion of women in the Tang Dynasty, fully demonstrated the beauty of women, and gave people a refreshing, free and easy, soft, smart and charming feeling. A large number of archaeological materials recorded the changing process of women's hair styles in the Tang Dynasty, which was closely related to the rise and fall of their country, thus expressing the spiritual outlook of the Tang Dynasty at that time. There are mainly three stages, namely, the upper comb in the early Tang Dynasty, the flat comb in the middle Tang Dynasty and the lower comb in the late Tang Dynasty.
In the early Tang Dynasty, just after the armistice, everything was in a hurry. Women's hairstyles are fashionable and comb upwards, which fully expresses people's beautiful yearning for future life and shows positive, energetic, healthy and capable beauty. During the Wei, Jin, Sui and Tang Dynasties, women's hair styles were mainly simple and simple, but in the Tang Dynasty, women's hair styles became more and more prosperous, and the bun was combed higher and higher. The lower part is solid and steady, while the upper part is soaring, which is fully demonstrated by hairstyles such as half-turned bun, surprise bun and inverted bun. After that, more and more people followed suit and gradually formed a social atmosphere.
An official once asked Tang Taizong to order the ban on this kind of steamed bread, but Tang Taizong did not agree, but reprimanded it. But he also wanted to know why the woman raised her bun. Ling Hood told him that the position of the head on it is also very important, so it is not without reason that it grows taller. Because of his remarks, Gao Ji is no longer subject to any restrictions, but has become more diversified, such as flying buns and steamed buns.
Women in this period generally like to wrap their hair tightly and let it stand high on the top of their heads, so as to create a clean and compact aesthetic feeling visually, and also to show their heroic posture when riding a horse, so as not to cause messy hair due to bumps. "The city is one foot long, not the height of my bun", which is Yuan's description of women's pursuit of bun height in Li Wa Xing. But the average woman's hair can't reach this height at all, so wigs were very popular at that time.
When women do styling, they will first put fake crowns and hair pads made of wood in their hair to improve the height of their hair. At that time, Yang Guifei especially liked to use wigs, calling them Yiji. Later, another hairstyle appeared, called cicada wing, which combed the hair at the sideburns into a very thin and open layer and finally made a high bun on the top of the head. Later, spherical double bun, flat diagonal bun and vertical bun appeared.
During this period, women's hairstyles were characterized by combing upwards and exposing their ears, which more showed people's positive and energetic living conditions at that time.
In 7 13 BC, under the rule of Li Longji, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty opened its golden age and ushered in its most prosperous period. Because of the political openness in this period, the Tang Dynasty absorbed many foreign national cultures, which influenced and promoted each other, and also injected new blood and breath into the Tang Dynasty at that time. Therefore, women's costumes, hairstyles and makeup at that time were fully integrated with foreign cultures, which had a great impact on the social culture at that time. For example, at that time, Wuman steamed bun and Toujia steamed bun were all absorbed from Hu people.
Social harmony and people's lives are comfortable. Under such a rich background, people's requirements for beauty are also extremely high. Different from the comb-on hairstyle in the early Tang Dynasty, women's hairstyles in this period were mainly flat combs, and their bodies were much larger than those in the early Tang Dynasty, which made them more stable and dignified. Half-cover or slightly cover your ears, weave various shapes, and highlight the five senses of the characters. Not only that, they also like to do all kinds of embellishments on their hair, mostly jewelry.
The most obvious example is Princess Le, the favorite daughter of Zhongzong. It is rumored that she is extremely luxurious, and she is extremely particular about the collocation of hairstyle and clothing and makeup. She has dozens of beauticians and hairdressers. She wears different clothes and makes different styles every day, which is very fashionable. This also attracted rich ladies and wealthy women to imitate each other. It embodies the characteristics of the Tang dynasty, such as prosperity, peace, favorable weather, rich people's lives and mature people's aesthetics.
Under the rule of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty experienced a prosperous period of 44 years, with rapid economic development, stable political situation and increasingly prosperous country. However, this social state has also changed after the migration of time. The phrase "born in sorrow and died in happiness" is more suitable to describe the Tang Dynasty at that time.
Officials began to be depressed, and they became more and more addicted to debauchery and greed. Since Tianbao, the world has lost rules and discipline because of division, which has led to increasingly intensified internal contradictions in officialdom. The whole society is ambitious, fame and fortune, a mess, only greed.
The Anshi Rebellion was the turning point of the Tang Dynasty from prosperity to decline, which brought great psychological impact to people and changed people's mentality. Without their previous self-confidence, they become more depressed and lazy. This change is also thoroughly reflected in women's hairstyles.
During this period, women's hair style changed from flat comb to bottom comb, giving people a feeling of laziness and a little decadence. The hairstyle of the bottom comb completely covers the ears, and the curl of the hairstyle is more exaggerated. The fluffy and flat bun has become a particularly popular "overlapping and complicated bun style" at that time, and its creative techniques are becoming more and more complicated. The hairstyle of sweeping makeup bun is famous for its massiness. Not only is the hairstyle complicated, but women also like to decorate it with all kinds of gorgeous and expensive jewelry, which is extremely extravagant.
Women's hairstyles in this period did not return to simple and simple style with the decline of the national situation, but were more complicated and gorgeous than those in the previous prosperous Tang Dynasty. What is more manifested is the weakness and negative attitude of the people towards the status quo at that time. Fat figure, thick hairstyle, where can I be as happy as before, I can't come if I want to.
It can also be seen that people in the society at that time were impetuous, not striving for progress, and very sloppy. People's pursuit of beauty is inevitably reminiscent of the declining Tang Dynasty, which is no longer in full swing and swaying in the wind and rain. At that time, people's negative attitude also doomed the demise of the Tang Dynasty.
Generally speaking, women's hair styles in the early Tang Dynasty were mostly combed upwards, which reflected the vibrant and energetic social situation at that time. In the prosperous Tang Dynasty, women's hairstyles were mainly flat comb, which was the most prosperous period in the Tang Dynasty, making women's hairstyles more and more stable and mature, while in the late Tang Dynasty, the bottom comb hairstyle showed the social state of negative depression at that time.
It can be seen that the evolution of female hairstyles in the Tang Dynasty is closely related to the rise and fall of the dynasty, which fully reflects the social situation at that time. In fact, the most important thing is people's attitude at that time. A positive attitude and a vigorous social atmosphere are the fundamental reasons for the peak of the Tang Dynasty, and the peak of the Tang Dynasty is human efforts. In the late Tang Dynasty, the extravagant and decadent attitude of the Tang people also doomed the decline of the Tang Dynasty. This shows how important the ethos of a society is to the prosperity of a country.
References: the historical draft of women's wear in Central Plains, ancient women in China, and cosmetics in China.