The "Royal Secret Recipe" of Ancient Women's Beauty and Skin Care
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Since ancient times, women have loved to use beauty and skin care products to maintain their skin.
The Song Dynasty official Ye Tinggui wrote "Hailu Sui Shi", the fifth volume of which contains "rouge, originating from Zhou, condensed with red and blue flower juice to make fat, thinking of peach blossom makeup", which can reflect that at least in the Shang and Zhou periods, my country had beauty treatments skin care products.
Most of the beauty and skin care products in ancient my country are traditional Chinese medicine formulas, and they have been very mature in the Qing Dynasty, which can achieve better beauty, beauty and skin care effects.
With the help of beauty and skin care products based on traditional Chinese medicine formulas, the female members of the Ming and Qing imperial families can maintain their beautiful faces for a long time.
For example, in the twelve paintings of "Concubine Yinzhen's Leisure Picture" in the Palace Museum, the woman in the painting is the concubine of Emperor Yongzheng.
In one of the paintings, there is also a poem made by Yongzheng, in which "Xiaozhuangchuchu" is used to express Yongzheng's praise.
Another example is the book "Cixi in the Eyes of an American Female Painter" written by American female painter Catherine Carr. The second chapter "The Appearance of Her Majesty the Empress Dowager" describes the 69-year-old Cixi as having "an almost magical appearance".
There are many kinds of beauty and skin care formulas used by court women in the Qing Dynasty, and one of the typical representatives is Yurong San.
Wu Qian, the imperial physician of the Qing Dynasty, wrote the "Golden Mirror of Medicine", and his volume 63 "Keys to the Heart of Surgery" contains the formula of Yurong Powder: white leeks, white asarum, white morning bull, tuan powder, sweet Pine, pigeon dung, Baiji, white lotus, Angelica, Atractylodes, white silkworm, white Poria each one or two, Nepeta, Duhuo, Qianghuo each five money, white aconite, Yingtiaobai, white lentil each one or two, Fangfeng five Money, a couple of white cloves.
Mix the above medicines, grind them into powder, and store them properly.
When using, take a small amount in the palm of your hand, add a small amount of water to make it evenly into a paste, apply it to your face, and then wash your face with water after a period of time, twice a day.
"Yizong Jinjian" believes that Yurong Powder can change the face from black to white, and achieve the effect of beauty and skin care.
It is not difficult to find that the above-mentioned prescriptions are mainly composed of formulas for treating facial sores, wind evils, and beauty formulas.
For example, the book "Benjing Fengyuan" written by Zhang Lu, a medical scientist in the Qing Dynasty, contained in the second volume of "white scorpion cold and detoxification, applying swelling and sores, and having the effect of dissolving"; Prescriptions, Volume 48 and Volume 276 respectively contain that pigeon dung has the effect of treating bald thorns and poisonous wind sores on the body. Xin emits a strong fragrance, which is beneficial to evacuate wind and evil; Volume 267 of "Puji Fang" contains "picking sweet pine for bathing, warding off bad qi, and making clothes fragrant"; "Shen Nong's Herbal Classic Hundred Kinds Record ” believes that Baiji is beneficial to the swelling of the face and restores a beautiful appearance; “Compendium of Materia Medica”, “Fruit Section Thirty-third Volume Fruit No. 6”, believes that the white lotus core has the effect of “black hair, pleasant color”; Song Dynasty medical scientist Tang Shenwei wrote "Zheng Lei Materia Medica", in Volume 6, Atractylodes Rhizoma can "mainly brighten the face and remove (black dry) (black face)", and Volume 8 contains Angelica which can "grow skin, moisturise, and can be used as facial grease", etc. .
In addition, the prescriptions of Yurong San are mostly white, which is closely related to the thinking of "taking analogies" in ancient Chinese medicine.
The so-called "taking analogy" is to inductively deduce the properties of unknown things according to the commonalities between related things.
Correspondingly, ancient Chinese medicine used white Chinese medicine, or Chinese medicine with the word "white" in its name, to prepare beauty-related prescriptions, hoping to achieve the effect of "whitening whiteness and treating blackness with white".
For example, Volume 52 of "Pu Ji Fang" contains "Seven White Paste", that is, a beauty product mixed with angelica, white stalk, white asarum, peach kernel, Xinyi, white aconite, winter melon kernel, and chicken white (egg protein). paste.
According to the book, these 7 kinds of white medicaments are mixed to make ointment, which can achieve the effect of "beautiful, not wrinkled, and all (black dry)".
In addition, the use of white drug whitening can avoid skin staining and is conducive to the beauty of skin appearance.
It is not difficult to find that the "Royal Secret Recipe" for women's beauty and skin care in the Qing Dynasty, Yurong San, its formula not only reflects the excellent use of wisdom and rich experience in ancient Chinese traditional Chinese medicine, but also reflects my country's extensive and profound traditional Chinese medicine culture. The development of cosmetology also played an important reference role.
(The author is a research librarian at the Palace Museum)