Qilu Evening News, Qilu One Point Reporter Zhang Di

  In the recently hit urban drama "Thirty Only", three characters with different personalities and experiences intensively reflect the struggle and anxiety of modern urban women. Among them, the story of Gu Jia bravely breaking into the "wife circle" for family and career has aroused people's discussion of women circle.

Mrs. Guo Guo's Tour in Spring

  When it comes to ancient women, people often have the inherent impression of "the door cannot be opened, and the second door is not open", but the female circle such as the "wife circle" has existed since ancient times. Especially in the Tang Dynasty, when the folk customs were open, on the one hand, the developed economy made the whole society more vigorous. On the other hand, the Tang Dynasty accepted and integrated the customs of many northern peoples, so the women of the Tang Dynasty acted more freely.

  In such an environment, women in the upper class of the Tang Dynasty had their own colorful social activities, and it was not small just to go out. For example, in the painting "Madame Guoguo Touring Spring" by the painter Zhang Xuan of the Tang Dynasty, a group of people are traveling on horseback. Looking from right to left, the leader of the team is two middle-aged prisoners and a maid. Behind them, the elderly waitress hugged a little girl, escorted by the front and back attendants, and everyone was surrounded by Mrs. Guoguo in a red dress. Mrs. Guo Guo is the third sister of Concubine Yang. Because Concubine Yang missed her sisters in the palace, Tang Xuanzong took them into the palace and named them his wife. It was the end of the Kaiyuan Prosperous Age. Guotai Minan in the prosperous Tang Dynasty had quietly turned to arrogance and luxury. Concubine Yang and her sisters could be said to be the "wife circle" at the top at that time.

  Compared with the modern "wife circle" in "Thirty Only", the leisure and social activities of upper class women in Tang Dynasty have a lot more cultural flavor. In the poems and documents handed down from the Tang Dynasty, we can see some records of women communicating and singing and answering through poems in gatherings. The music education for women in the Tang Dynasty was as important as the female red and poetry and belonged to the basic abilities of aristocratic women. Therefore, music activities were also the main items in the gathering. Because there was no strict protection against men and women, in the Tang Dynasty men and women could live in the same room and have banquets and parties together. "Men and women sit together and enjoy singing and singing" has become the social norm.

  In addition to these cultural activities, women in the Tang Dynasty also popularized game games. Game can be roughly understood as a variety of game activities, among which dice are used in gaming, such as dice, double land, pot throwing and other entertainment activities; game refers to chess, including go, play chess, etc. Many of the specific gameplays of these game activities have been lost, and the only ones that have been circulated to this day may only be Go. The Tang Dynasty chess figures unearthed from the Astana Tomb in Turpan include paintings of women playing Go.

  The ruling class in the Tang Dynasty originated from the Guanlong warrior group, and martial arts prevailed in the society. "Wife circle" gatherings will also be held outdoors. For example, horseback archery was popular among upper class women in the Tang Dynasty. Of course, female archery on horseback is not meant to kill the enemy, but a game with many ways to play. For example, "Shooting Duck" is to put a wooden duck model on the water, which is better than anyone can shoot. Polo, which was popular in the Tang Dynasty, often featured upper-class women. The poet Zhang Ji has a verse of "Xiang Qi in front of the temple", "Xiang Qi" refers to women riding horses. However, women are relatively short in stature and lack strength. Playing polo is more dangerous. Therefore, the women of the Tang Dynasty also invented the "donkey ball" which was easier to popularize. At that time, it was called the "donkey ball". Compared with the horse, the donkey was more docile and more suitable for women to ride.

  Nowadays, after gatherings, wives often take photos together to send a circle of friends. In the Tang Dynasty, there were painters who were dedicated to depicting the life scenes of the ladies circle. For example, the Tang Dynasty painter Zhou Fang had many such paintings handed down. His "Tuning the Qin and Sipping Tea" depicts several Tang dynasty ladies stroking the qin and drinking tea on a stone in the forest. There is a large blank in the background of the painting, and two trees and a slate are used to tell people that it is in nature. A noble lady sits on a stone slab and plays the piano, and the two next to sit face to face listening to her playing the piano, and the maid next to her is holding a tea tray. Several characters stand and sit, and all angles are scattered, making people feel the relaxed mood of these women.

  Ladies who are inconvenient to go out can visit their garden, so flower viewing has become an essential item in the spring garden. In "The Picture of Hairpin Lady", several idle ladies stand beside flowers, each wearing a different flower on top of their heads. From right to left, they are peony, purple-green tulipa, lotus, begonia, and peony. The lady twiddled flowers, attracted butterflies, or teased the dog, and looked lazy and relaxed under the separation of flowers, puppies, cranes and a maid.

  To join the "wife circle" is to cross a certain threshold, and spending tens of thousands of yuan to buy a brand-name bag is Gu Jia's entry action. It was the same in the Tang Dynasty. The first step in getting into the circle of ladies was to have a beautifully dressed dress. You know, the noble ladies of Datang are really armed to their teeth in order to fight for beauty.

  As the Tang Dynasty tooth brushing equipment was not so popular, people had some problems with their teeth. But the ladies who love beauty have found some ways to improve their teeth. Blacking out teeth is the simplest and rude method once and for all, and is extremely suitable for lazy ladies. Tooth staining is to cover up stains and to prevent dental disease. But the tooth stains were not easy to get at that time, so "black teeth" itself was also a status symbol. This custom spread to Japan in the middle and late Tang Dynasty. During the Heian period in Japan, “whitening the face, crimson lips, and black teeth” once became the fashion makeup of the elite ladies in Kyoto.

  Datang monk Yijing's "Nanhai Jigui Neifa Biography" contains a chapter "Dynasty Chewing Tooth Wood", which records that Indian monks "have to chew tooth wood and wipe their teeth and tongue every day of the dynasty." This practice has also spread to the Chinese people. The so-called "tooth wood" mainly refers to poplar branches. When the ladies wander around the garden, they can pick a few poplar branches and soak them in a pot to make wood chips for cleaning the mouth. Just bite poplar sticks when you use it. It sounds like modern chewing gum with cleansing effect. After doing “oral beauty”, the noble ladies of the Tang Dynasty had to burn incense to bathe, comb a high bun that was popular at the time, decals on their foreheads, put on a skirt and shirt, and step on cloud-head shoes. Go to the party with a golden invitation letter.

  Generally speaking, the leisure social activities of the noble women circle in the Tang Dynasty can be said to be cultural and military, and there are static and dynamic. These leisure social activities not only require a certain status and economic foundation, but also a relatively strong cultural atmosphere, which is a lot more advanced than the gathering of rich ladies today.