"Story of Tang Dynasty" Princess was ridiculed when she appeared on the camera with a comb on the top of her head? Let's learn about the culture of "comb grate"

picture: Internet/invasion and deletion

The hit drama " Tang Dynasty Weird Stories " was a hit some time ago, I wonder if everyone is following it? There are not only a large number of live shooting, but also the makeup, picture quality and film-like shooting techniques, all of which make many netizens shout: Domestic conscience drama !

Although "The Story of the Tang Dynasty" has been broadcast for a while, its popularity has remained high. Netizens have expressed that there is a shortage of dramas and are looking for alternative dramas. Some netizens even directly shouted to the producer Guo Jingyu : When will it be A second season?

Under the praise of "The Story of Tang Dynasty", many people also questioned the actor's style, such as the following:

The Princess Taiping played by Yue Lina has a lot of scenes in the play , but judging from her appearance makeup, nearly half of her hairstyles are like the picture above, with a golden comb on her head.

Friends who don't know this kind of hair accessories may think that this style is not good-looking, but when you know its development history, its existence time will definitely surprise you.

This kind of hair accessory has a very elegant name, called comb (shū bì), a kind of hairdressing appliance, together with the hairpin, hairpin, hairpin, step shake, phoenix crown, Huasheng, hairpin, and is also called ancient Chinese Eight hair accessories.

is different from the combs we commonly use now. Combs are mainly divided into two forms due to different functions: is used for combing hair, with thin teeth as "comb"; for cleaning hair, with dense teeth as "grate".

Different from modern people, the ancients, both men and women, had long hair reaching their waists, especially women, with all kinds of buns on their heads and various headgears. If you want to take care of your hairstyle, a comb is essential.

The origin of combs can be traced back to ancient times.

According to " Han Shu ", Huangdi had a concubine named Fang Lei's , who was a noble, elegant and wise princess. After

entered the ancient civilization from the primitive wilderness, people began to have a sense of appearance, and Fang Lei was one of the pioneers.

In Fang Lei's harem, there are more than 20 women, and they are often unkempt, even in celebrations. In order to reflect the spirit of the tribe, Fang Lei's would call those women together before participating in the grand ceremony and smooth their long hair with both hands, but this method is not only time-consuming, but also easy to injure the fingers.

At a party, Fang Lei found that the big fish that had eaten had sharp bones and were used to comb their hair, and the hair was actually neatly arranged. But soon, Fang Lei discovered the problem again.

use those hard fishbones to comb your hair. If you are not careful, it is easy to pierce your scalp, which is not only dangerous, but also very inconvenient to use. So Fang Lei asked a carpenter to use the fish bone as a template to make a comb out of wood. Because the tooth spacing is too large, Fang Lei's family also asked people to change the wood plank into bamboo.

So far, the earliest human comb was born.

After the evolution of materials such as bone, wood, bamboo, horn, ivory, etc., the comb has gradually derived another new function from the original single function of combing hair.

Legend has it that during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, an official named Chen Qizi was arrested and imprisoned for a crime. Due to the extremely poor living environment in the prison, Chen Qizi developed a head full of lice in a short time, and it was extremely itchy.

Once, after being beaten by the jailer, Chen Qizi suddenly burst out when he saw that the ground was full of bamboo strips falling from the bamboo board.In a whim, pick up the bamboo strips, sharpen them all, fix them with a hemp rope, and use it to grate the lice in the hair.

Because the bamboo strips were very closely arranged, the lice on Chen Qizi's head were grate off one by one. It is precisely because of this craftsmanship that Chen Qizi was able to avoid being trapped in this prison for the rest of his life. After he was released from prison, he also opened a workshop to spread the craft of making grate .

There is no relevant written record of Chen Qizi's grate in history, but it is undeniable that the grate is an evolution of the comb. Among the unearthed grate objects, the earliest date can be traced back to the late Spring and Autumn Period.

And in Han Dynasty , the comb has also changed from its original practicality to an ornament.

" Taiping Guang Ji " records that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty "used ivory as a grate to give to Mrs. Li" , ​​a grate made of ivory was given to a lady surnamed Li. Here, the grate is no longer used as a tool for cleaning hair, but as a hair accessory.

In the Mawangdui Han tomb in Changsha of the same period, a pair of horny grate pans and a pair of boxwood combs were excavated. Their superb craftsmanship is enough to show that they are not just a haircut tool.

In the Tang Dynasty , the comb on the top of the head has become an iconic hair accessory on women's buns, which is reflected in many poems and paintings:

For example, Bai Juyi " " 銿The silver grate on the head is broken" , ​​and such as in Cui Ya's "Laughing at Li Duanduan" "put an ivory comb into the temple" .

In Wang Jian's "One Hundred Songs of Palace Ci ", there is a sentence in some life scenes depicting the inner courtyard of the palace: "The spring breeze blows to the ground when you dance, don't give a comb when you return" . It is said that a palace servant was rewarded when he met the emperor, and when he came back, his head was full of combs.

It can be seen that the comb culture at this time has become a symbol of status. The material of the comb has also changed from wood, bamboo and horn to gold, silver and jade, and the shape has become more and more gorgeous.

Part of Tang Zhang Xuan's "Dancing and Practice"

To say that the real heyday of comb culture, it should be in the Song Dynasty. Song people's love for combs is particularly enthusiastic.

In Meng Yuanlao 's " Tokyo Dream Hualu " Volume 3·Various Miscellaneous Sales, it is recorded that in Tokyo during the Northern Song Dynasty period, there were mobile vendors "bo selling crown comb , collar smear " , head and face, clothing, agents, copper and iron ware, trunks, magnets , etc." . In other words, combs have become a must-have daily necessities for every household, just like clothing accessories. For this reason, an industry dedicated to repairing combs has also been derived.

In the period of the Southern Song Dynasty, the comb culture began to decline. The main reason was that the comb culture that prevailed across the country also entered the land of fireworks. In order to differentiate themselves from brothel women, women from good families and court nobles voluntarily gave up comb hair accessories.

It is precisely because of this cultural shock that combs have become less important as hair accessories in the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, and they are no longer used as frequently as they were in the Tang and Song Dynasties, and it can even be said that they have faded out of people's vision.

seems,The comb has once again returned from a hair accessory to its status as a barber appliance.

The ivory comb used by Li Lianying to comb Cixi's hair

It is reported that the reason why the great eunuch Li Lianying won the favor of the Empress Dowager Cixi is precisely because he combs his hair very well, so he has been favored for 50 years.

And the comb used by Li Lianying to comb the hair of Cixi is the ivory comb customized by Changzhou . Therefore, Changzhou comb is also known as "Palace Comb Famous Grate" .

In 2008, Changzhou combs were included in the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage list. Compared with hair accessories and utensils thousands of years ago, today's combs are more of a work of art for the world to appreciate.

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