Beauty And Beauty In Ancient China

In ancient China, throughout many dynasties like the Xia, Han and Tang, fashion, beauty and intelligence played an important role in women’s lives. Although women did not have as many rights as men they still had many grooming rituals and standards they followed, as a means of societal position. Examples of characteristics that defined beauty were related to features and aspects of the body. Some of these traits are still valued and practice today and some of the more gruesome practices are now against human rights and laws. Women also had to be intelligent to be attractive to men. It was said by Queen Yangguifei, who ruled during the Tang dynasty, “That is to say, as a beauty, a woman must be both pretty and bright. A perfect face is not enough;

One of the first ways they did this was through makeup. “It is believed that makeup was originally practiced to please the gods in religious occasions. As time passed by, people realized that it could liven up one’s spirit and sometimes even could reveal one’s social status.” (Shanghai Xinhong, 2.) Starting off with the face, ancient Chinese women would strive for an extremely pale face. In order to achieve this look they would paint their faces with a cosmetic power. This powder was made of rice. To make this powder they would first put the rice into water. After ten days of sitting they would strain the rice and mash it into “rice slurry.” After all the moisture is entirely evaporated, they scrape out the rice slurry and the cosmetic powder is made. Later, the ancient royals began to make their cosmetic powders out of more valuable ingredients. Some made theirs out of pearls and others made theirs out of expensive spices. Next were the eyebrows. Women of this time had very dark defined eyebrows. Some women would cover theirs with cosmetic powders and other would shave theirs off completely and then draw on their eyebrows with pigments. Women typically had very pointed shaped eyebrows and would sometimes be drawn on diagonally for more emphasis. Lastly, and the part of the face that was that was thought to have to most sex appeal was the mouth. Ancient Chinese women would strive to have extremely white teeth and red lips. Rouge was used a lot starting from the Han dynasty onwards to achieve this red lip look. Women of this time would also ornament their lips into different shapes. There were as many as seventeen different shapes for the lips and some of these shapes include hearts, flowers and circles. Although red lips were the main desired color for lips, there was a short period of time in the