However, in the ancient feudal social environment, women's "moral, intellectual and physical beauty" and wearing earrings have become a shameful behavior and are despised by people. Therefore, before the Song Dynasty, ear piercing was not popular among Han men and women. Until the Song Dynasty, the vigorous implementation of Neo-Confucianism in Zhu Cheng made women's social status plummet. Since then, in order to distinguish between men and women, earrings and foot binding have become a necessity for women.
Therefore, the Song Dynasty is not only a great turning point in women's social status, but also a turning point in the fate of China's earrings. After the Song Dynasty, earrings really became popular among the Han people.
1 The aesthetic tastes of all social strata tend to be secularized.
In the early days of the Tang Dynasty, with the further development of centralization and the strengthening of feudal monarchy. The imperial examination system was established by the imperial court to control power and select outstanding officials. The implementation of the imperial examination system fundamentally broke the old system of selecting officials restricted by family status, and allowed a large number of small and medium-sized landlords, yeomen and other intellectuals to enter the court to participate in and master political power at all levels.
As a result, a large number of emerging landlords and civilians in the Tang Dynasty became the main bodies of state officials and intellectual elites. By the time of the Northern Song Dynasty, these scholars had achieved all-round rule in economy, politics, law and culture. In other words, scientific research has become a bridge for these emerging scholars to move from the countryside to the palace and from the countryside to the city. Since then, the general trend of social development has begun to tend to the development of civilian society. After a large number of lower-class scholars entered the upper society through the imperial examination, they had secular and civilian aesthetic tastes.
Coupled with the stable political situation and increasingly prosperous economy in the Song Dynasty, the landlord activists did not need to continue their enterprising struggle and began to satisfy their immediate vested interests and pursue a vulgar and enjoyable life. For example, in the book A Course of Beauty, Mr. Li Zehou said: "This secular landlord class, which has ruled the upper class of society since the Northern Song Dynasty, although ostensibly flaunts Confucianism, is actually immersed in their various hobbies: pleasure, leisure or debauchery. Under the banner of Confucius and Mencius, the former advocated that literature and art should serve feudal politics and developed into the literary view of Neo-Confucianism and Neo-Confucianism in the Song Dynasty. The latter-the immersion and exclamation of real secular life, has increasingly become the real theme and object of literature and art. "
Therefore, since the secular landlord class became the dominant force of the ruling class, the aesthetic taste of the whole society has changed. They "indulge in sensuality and avoid everything." Pavilions and terraces are places where they are reluctant to part. The female beauty they pursue is weak and pretentious, and the secular beauty they guide is rich and gorgeous. Therefore, not only earrings, but also rings, bracelets, necklaces and ornaments have never flourished before the Song Dynasty.
2 the decline of women's status and the emergence of women in a specific class
The Song Dynasty is a transitional period from loose to strict in the relationship between men and women in China, and an important factor leading to this situation is that the moral concept of "keeping righteousness and destroying human desires" advocated by Zhu Cheng Neo-Confucianism once became a moral shackle that imprisoned and suppressed women. Therefore, under the feudal ruling ideology of ethics and women's studies, the differences between men and women in the Song Dynasty went to extremes.
On the one hand, women should not only abide by women's morality and education at all times, but also bear in mind the chastity concept of "hunger is small, humiliation is great", and their physical behavior is also restricted, such as foot binding and ear piercing. The three-inch golden lotus after foot binding makes it inconvenient for women to walk, and their weak bodies are trapped in the courtyard wall all their lives. Wearing ears makes it difficult for women to hide their identity, and they can no longer dress up as men and show their faces.
On the other hand, under the influence of Zhu Cheng's Neo-Confucianism, there are also complex Confucian moral conflicts between the two sexes. Men ask housewives to abide by women's morality, be chaste and love themselves, but they get together outside, especially some powerful nobles or businessmen. They spend a lot of time and money on prostitutes and fireworks to satisfy their pleasure.
In addition, the Emperor of the Song Dynasty carried out the policy of valuing literature over martial arts, and Song Taizu also publicly advocated that heroes "accumulate more money and silks in Tian Zhai to bequeath their children and grandchildren, and geisha dance to settle down", which further contributed to the corruption and indulgence of aristocratic bureaucrats. As a result, Goulan Washe and restaurant prostitutes once competed for favor, while those literati who knew Confucianism, believed in Buddhism and were good at poetry loved to sing with geisha and maiko who painted poetry.
For a long time, it has become a universally recognized phenomenon that women of a certain class entertain people with color. In order to make a living and meet the needs of society, these women naturally need to dress themselves up with all kinds of clothes and jewelry, which has contributed to the vigorous development of various jewelry categories, including earrings.
1 Earring pattern pursues "image distortion"
According to historical records, the Song Dynasty was the dynasty with the most perfect imperial examination system in the history of China, and it was the first dynasty to fully implement the imperial examination to select officials for the court. In addition, the imperial court encouraged and gave preferential treatment to scientific research in all aspects. Therefore, among the senior officials of the Song government, those who were born in the imperial examination accounted for an overwhelming advantage, which can be described as "full of scholars". Therefore, the Song Dynasty is also called the "Wen Zhi" era.
These literati are not only masters of state power, but also creators of art. They are also officials, writers and painters. Driven by their superb artistic accomplishment and passion for secular life, the style of the whole era is biased towards the elegant aesthetic field.
For them, "poetry can have a meaning, music can have a meaning, and painting can have a transcendental image". As a result, many images with metaphors, ambitions and feelings appear as decorative patterns in secular life.
Among them, plum, orchid, bamboo and chrysanthemum, which symbolize the spiritual character of literati, are common themes in decorative patterns. As we all know, plum blossom is independent of spring, which is often used by literati as a metaphor for nobility and strength, and is widely used in women's clothing and jewelry. For example, a plum-shaped eardrop was unearthed from the Southern Song Dynasty tomb in Santianmen, Huzhou. Two plum blossoms were connected, and the flower was a double plum blossom.
Ornaments related to bamboo can often be seen in earrings in the Song Dynasty. For example, a pair of gold earrings with bamboo leaf patterns unearthed from Sanxiang Winery in Changde, Hunan Province, are small and exquisite with pieces of bamboo leaf patterns carved sporadically on the hook ring.
Chrysanthemum is also a hermit of flowers. For literati, chrysanthemum symbolizes "good, independent, elegant and pure feelings", so chrysanthemum is often used in jewelry patterns, such as a pair of chrysanthemum gold earrings unearthed from the Song Tomb in Wang Xia Village, Dayang Town, Jiande, Zhejiang Province.
For the scholar-officials, in the noisy social environment, expressing their feelings and expressing their feelings through things may make them pin their hopes on their ideal life.
Earrings are often very popular and full of life.
Mr. Qi Xia, a famous historian, once said: "During the 300 years of the Song Dynasty, China's economic and cultural development was at the forefront of the world and it was the most advanced and civilized country at that time." Indeed, although the political development of Song Dynasty was not smooth, it was the most prosperous era of commodity economy in the ancient history of China. The development of commodity economy and the urban system of "store-city integration" make the city scale expand continuously. In addition, the land system in the Song Dynasty changed the "land equalization system" in the Tang Dynasty and implemented the "tenancy system", which worsened the economic situation of farmers to a certain extent, and a large number of farmers lost their land and flowed into cities.
The development of the city has driven the entertainment industry to blossom everywhere. For example, in the northern song dynasty, the capital of song dynasty "increased by more than a dozen people with its vast population, but it didn't feel less." The so-called flower array wine pool, Xiangshan medicine sea. No secluded alleys, Yan Guan Gelou, there are thousands of alleys. I don't want to be complicated. "
With the prosperity of business and the increasing number of citizens, the secularization of urban life has accelerated, and decorative patterns full of street flavor have also emerged. The specific performance is that folk people use things from daily life to create patterns, such as the windowsill courtyard of ordinary people, common plants in the field, and various flowers and fruits are used as jewelry patterns in large quantities. In addition, many earrings with auspicious patterns appeared in this period.
For example, there are two symmetrical melons in the middle of the golden melon earrings unearthed from Yangming's Northern Song Dynasty tomb in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, which means "melons are full of flowers", and the purple eggplant earrings unearthed from Santianmen Song Tomb in Huzhou have purple robes, which means that high officials win prizes and many children are blessed.
It can be seen that as long as the patterns go to the market and blend into the secular life, those so-called noble and solemn image forms will become rich and auspicious, because "what people like to see and hear is the real purpose of market art"
For modern people, whether to wear earrings is a personal choice, an aesthetic attitude and a personal preference. Even earrings are no longer women's patents, and a large number of men have joined the ranks of wearing earrings. But in China feudal society, wearing earrings is not so simple.
Mr. Qian Mu, a famous historian, once said: "The characteristic of China culture is' ceremony', which is the norm of all customs and behaviors in the whole China world and marks the particularity of China". In fact, families, clans and countries in ancient China were established according to the principle of "etiquette", and people's basic necessities of life and earrings also met the requirements of etiquette system. Therefore, in ancient times, earrings not only represented women's social status, but also represented the symbol of rank marks, and also reflected the cultural characteristics and living customs of various dynasties.