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Earrings are used for decoration now. What were they used for in ancient China?
In the long historical evolution, due to the constraints of etiquette, national cultural differences and social atmosphere, the shapes, wearing methods and customs of earrings in different periods are also different.

Women in China have a long history of wearing earrings. It is said that women in China have been wearing earrings for more than 2,000 years. Earrings are one of the most commonly used jewelry for women, and their ups and downs in history are the biggest among all jewelry.

But you may not believe it. In ancient China, earrings did not beautify the ears when they were born in the early days. Since primitive society, ancestors began to wear earrings. At this time, earrings are a kind of amulet or exorcism, and only witches in the tribe are qualified to wear them.

Some primitive tribes also regard earrings as? Humble people? The symbol of. It is also clearly recorded in the book Liu Qing Ri Za in the Ming Dynasty:? Whether women wear earrings or not has been a problem since ancient times. ?

Because primitive tribes often have wars, there must be prisoners of war when there is war. They regard prisoners of war from all directions, men, women and children, as slaves and wear iconic earrings as a sign of slavery. Once you put on the earrings, you must obey your master and never take them off without permission. Even the children they gave birth to will be nailed and continue to be small slaves.

Later, some people wearing rings moved to the Central Plains, which changed the meaning of wearing earrings. People began to wear earrings for some time by wearing rings to mark water and beauty. However, after the history entered the pre-Qin period, with the development of etiquette, earrings that need to be pierced became extremely rare in Han areas, because the ancients paid great attention to maintaining the whole body shape. The body is damaged, and parents dare not damage it. It is absolutely impossible to wear ears. Therefore, the development of earrings quickly fell to the bottom in Han areas.

During this period, the ancients invented a special kind of earrings. Han people invented a special kind of earrings called stuffing. Fill the fake earrings similar to our modern ones, instead of piercing the ears, they are tied to the hair pins and hung by the ears.

During the Han and Jin dynasties, people also hung ear beads on the ears of maids to remind them to behave themselves and act cautiously. At this time, the role of earrings in binding ethics is greater than decoration. This situation lasted from the pre-Qin Dynasty to the prosperous Tang Dynasty.

Ear piercing ornaments have been very popular among Han people in China since the Southern Song Dynasty. Due to the rise of ethical codes, women's ear piercing is unprecedented. Not to mention ordinary women, even the queen and concubines are no exception. Soon, ear piercing, like foot binding, became an important feature to distinguish men from women.

Classification of earrings

Ear praise and ear praise in the new timepiece period

Ear hairpin is a round jade with a notch. As early as the Neolithic Age, the jade-worshipping culture had arisen in China, and the jade block was also the earliest earring in the world, with unearthed objects all over the country. Among them, the jade earrings found in Xinglongwa Culture Site in Aohan Banner, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region date back about 8,200 years. 7400 years of history.

But as a relatively primitive earring, no one knows how to wear it until now. Some people say that wearing ear clips can clamp the gap in the ear, while others say that it needs to be tied to the ear with a string. It is also said that the ancients wore rings before their death and wore kings after their death. ...

Although I don't know how to wear it, the reason why I decided that Jade Jue was an earring was mainly because similar Jade Jue was found in other Neolithic tombs. Most of its storage sites are in the ears of the remains. At the same time, the ears of human idols have also been perforated, which proves the role of jade Jue as earrings.

In addition to earrings, the beautiful ancients also created another kind of earrings under limited conditions. Erjun's appearance is somewhat similar to that of a condensed hamburger, with round ends and narrow middle. It appeared about 1500 years later than Yujun's.

Of course, I fully understand that there was no mature metal smelting technology in the Neolithic Age, so most of the earrings we found were made of natural jade and other materials, and their shapes and styles were relatively simple.

Forgive vulgarity, like me, but really don't understand the beauty of ears. Earrings and Earrings In the Bronze Age, with the passage of time, metal smelting technology gradually appeared, human civilization entered the Bronze Age, and people began to make and use metal ornaments.

Interestingly, at this time, influenced by feudal culture, earrings gradually faded out of people's lives in the Central Plains and entered a low point of development. Zhuangzi? Inside? "DeChongFu" cloud:? For emperor penguins, they don't scratch or pierce their ears; A wife stops at home and can't make it. ? On the contrary, the surrounding ethnic groups set off a fanatical pursuit of earrings. Therefore, the earring wearers in Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties were mainly ethnic minorities, and both men and women wore them.

At this time, the materials of earrings are mainly gold and copper, but some nobles like to make earrings with gold and decorate them with turquoise, which is both beautiful and shows their identity.

From the Han Dynasty to the Three Kingdoms period.

As mentioned earlier, in the Han Dynasty, influenced by Confucianism, it was not allowed to wear ears, but how could the ancients willingly give up such beautiful ornaments? Since you can't get your ears pierced, why not get one? Modern ear clips? Good, so hairpin was born in Han Dynasty.

As we all know, hairpins are used to wear on the head. As mentioned above, earrings hang on the ears. It is easy to understand that the hairpin is a combination of these two objects. People connect their hair pins with their hair pins, and then insert them into the hair behind their ears. Earrings naturally fall behind their ears, even if they decorate their ears. This kind of jewelry has even been written into the clothing system of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and it has become an officially recognized essential jewelry for marrying women inside and outside marriage.

It is mentioned in the Book of the Later Han Dynasty that all empresses have hairpin, but? All pins are made in the same system, but are there levels? Based on this, it is inferred that hairpin should be a very common jewelry in Han Dynasty, and it can often be seen in ancient paintings of Han Dynasty.