Chinanews client, Beijing, December 23rd (Reporter Song Yusheng) The recently broadcast "Fu of the Great Qin" brought heated discussions about Qin Shihuang.
At the same time, many netizens are also speculating about Qin Shihuang's appearance: some people say that Zhang Luyi is not like Qin Shihuang, and some people think that the image of Fu Dalong is more suitable to play Qin Shihuang.
The image of Qin Shihuang in "The Da Qin Fu".
Picture courtesy
But what did Qin Shihuang look like?
The first reaction of many people is probably: Wasn't there a portrait of Qin Shihuang in the textbook when he was in school?
But in fact, that portrait is not the real appearance of Qin Shihuang, but an image that was deduced by later generations based on the "Picture of Emperors of Past Dynasties" by Yan Liben of the Tang Dynasty.
There is no image of Qin Shihuang in "The Picture of Emperors of Past Dynasties".
In fact, searching for historical materials, we did not find a realistic portrait of Qin Shihuang's appearance.
Although the portraits of Qin Shihuang in books such as "Sancai Tuhui" in the Ming Dynasty are clear, their "painting style" is obviously not realistic.
Moreover, the time when the book was written is far from the time of Qin Shihuang. To what extent these paintings can reflect the true appearance of the Shihuang in history is even more difficult to determine.
The image of Qin Shihuang in "Sancai Tuhui".
Since it is impossible to intuitively understand the appearance of Qin Shihuang through the portrait, we can also see how the ancients described it in words.
But these records are not uniform.
"Historical Records: The Book of the First Emperor of Qin" contains, "The King of Qin was human, bee-like, long-eyed, bird of prey, sound of jackal, less grace and heart of tiger and wolf." And "Tai Ping Yu Lan" described, "Hukou, sun horn, Big eyes, rhinoplasty, eight feet six inches long, big seven circumference..."
This is actually two paragraphs with quite different descriptions.
Sima Qian's passage in "Historical Records" comes from the statement of Qin State Minister Wei Liao.
The translation is: Qin Shihuang has a high nose, slender eyes, a chest like an eagle, and a voice like a jackal. This kind of person is mean and kind, and his heart is like a tiger and wolf.
According to this description, Guo Moruo even believes that these characteristics of Qin Shihuang are "physical defects" because he suffers from "chondrosis."
This is of course all speculations based on the literature and materials of later generations, just a family statement.
The image of Qin Shihuang in the movie "Jing Ke Assassinate King Qin".
In "Taiping Yulan", Qin Shihuang seems to change his image.
The record is a typical emperor that we can imagine.
Just from the phrase "eight feet and six inches long", Qin Shihuang's height is close to 2 meters based on the Qin system's 1 feet and 23.1 centimeters today.
Judging from the rest of the words and sentences, it should feel like a thick waist, thick eyebrows and big eyes.
On the one hand, it was speculated by later historians to have "chondrosis", and the record on the other is tall and burly.
Even in historical records, Qin Shihuang's appearance is not clear.
Probably because of this, Qin Shihuang's film and television images are also different nowadays: some are obviously like emperors, and some look like passersby.
The image of Qin Shihuang in the movie "Hero".
In fact, these records are all related to ancient Xiangshu.
It is probably not a completely objective description of someone’s appearance, but a description of their temperament, destiny, etc. through their appearance.
Compared with these seemingly facial descriptions, newly discovered materials and archaeological results provide us with a deeper understanding of the image of Qin Shihuang.
The image of Qin Shihuang in "Qin Song".
"Zhao Zhengshu" comes from the bamboo slips of the Western Han Dynasty that Peking University received donations from the society.
Some of these records differ from the handed down documents.
For example, in "Zhao Zhengshu", Qin Shihuang was seriously ill when he traveled around the world, "The flow of the nose and the long sigh of relief, the left and right sides said:'The destiny is immutable? I have never experienced the disease like this...'"
Judging from such records, Qin Shihuang's image seems to be more humane: when he knew that he was about to die soon, he cried and asked people around him, can his destiny be changed?
Before his death, Qin Shihuang was still very concerned about his child, "I pity the frailty of my son."
Unfortunately, in these bamboo slips, we did not find records about the appearance of Qin Shihuang.
As for what Qin Shihuang looked like, the results of archaeological research may give some guesses.
Screenshot of "The Mystery of Qin Ling's Skull"
A few years ago, researchers restored the appearance of male skulls unearthed near the Qin Mausoleum.
It is said that the owner of the skull may be one of Qin Shihuang's sons.
This means that we may be able to see the shadow of Qin Shihuang from this restored appearance.
Now, if you look at the still picture of Zhang Luyi at the beginning of the article again, will you feel a sense of sudden enlightenment?
(Finish)
Reference materials:
"Historical Records", "Taiping Yulan", "Three Talents", "The Complete Works of Guo Moruo", "The Mystery of the Qin Ling's Skull", "The Appearance of the First Emperor", "On the Image of Qin Shihuang", "The Image of Qin Shihuang in the Bamboo Slips of the Han Dynasty "Zhao Zhengshu" in Beijing University The Record and Evolution of Emperor's Appearance in History Books" "The Origin of Xiangshu and the View of Destiny in Ancient China"