During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, male literati often expressed their privileged position through storage armor, and women could not avoid customs. In fact, women's habit of keeping armour in China is much longer than that of men, which stems from the unique aesthetic of women's fingers in China.
The Long Nails of Fujian Scholar Ding in the Late Qing Dynasty
There are three main aesthetic standards for female fingers in ancient China: sharp, long and white. "The Book of Songs Feng Wei Shuo Ren" Yunjiangzhuang "hands are as soft as jelly"; Peacock Flying Southeast describes Liu Lanzhi as "pointing to the root of an onion", while the singer by Han Wo, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, is even more straightforward: "The wrist is white and the skin is red, and the bamboo shoots are pointed".
The whiteness of the skin comes from nature, and the "sharp" and "long" can be made up the day after tomorrow. This is the direct purpose of female nail storage: let nails extend fingers and make hands look sharp and long.
According to the Biography of Chen Shu's Great-Great-Emperor, Empress Zhang, Emperor Wu of Chen in the Southern Dynasties, was ice-smart, handsome and handsome. Her nails are five inches long and red and white. Every time there is a funeral, a nail will be broken first. In the Tang Dynasty, Gu Kuang praised that women also have "long hair and long claws" in Yicheng Piano Song.
In "Golden Flower in the City" set in the late Tang Dynasty, the queen played by Gong Li also wears finger protectors.
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, women from all walks of life took armor storage as beauty. Ling Mengchu's "Two Instances of Surprise" Volume 9 wrote that Miss Sumei opened the door in a hurry. "Two or three long nails were pulled cruelly and broke together." Qingwen, a girl in A Dream of Red Mansions, also has "two long nails like onion tubes". "Yanjing Local Records" records: "The women in Qijia are well-fed and carefree, and have nothing to do in their boudoir, so they raise more nails to entertain themselves. 」
The old version of Dream of Red Mansions is somewhat conservative in restoring Qingwen's nails.
However, people's long nails are very fragile and it is particularly troublesome to care for them. For example, Empress Dowager Cixi should soak her nails in hot water before going to bed every night, correct them with tools, brush them inside and outside with a small brush, and finally apply nail polish evenly with a feather tube to protect her nails.
Nails that are so troublesome to maintain naturally need extra care, and a hard protective cover is essential. So the Qing Dynasty developed various finger protectors.
In Qing dynasty, most finger protectors were rolled into a cone-shaped tube, covering the middle and upper parts of fingers, with a wide bottom and a sharp top, which was called bow-shaped, and gathered from the root to the fingertips, which was natural and smooth. Moreover, hand guards not only have a protective function, but also are important jewelry for women. When the flag bearer is engaged, the man's engagement partner for the woman must have finger protection.
Gold-plated bamboo leaf nail cover in Qing dynasty
Most of the finger protectors we have seen so far are palace relics. Finger protection paper for Qing Palace is expensive in material and complicated in technology. Textures are gold, silver, jade, tortoise shell, copper, enamel, glass and other materials. In the production art, carving, hammering, welding, carving, carving, screen printing, mosaic and other technologies. They are all used, combining the methods of protruding, negative line, positive line and hollowing out, plus gold jewelry.
Take the nail sleeve of tortoise shell inlaid with jewels and flowers as an example. This nail sleeve is 10.5 cm long, made of top-grade tortoise shell, delicate, moist and translucent, with yellow, black and mottled colors. After polished into a sharp corner, the opening is inlaid with gold edges and decorated with various jewelry.
Moreover, the finger protector is more exquisite to wear: you can wear up to four fingers, usually on the ring finger and little finger every day. Moreover, although finger protectors are made in pairs, queens usually wear them in pairs.
De Ling recorded in "Two Years of Qing Palace": When I first saw Cixi, I saw Cixi's "right hand with a golden finger, about three inches long; The two fingers of the left hand are covered with jade to protect the fingers, and the length is the same as that of the right hand. Catherine Carr, an American female painter, recorded in Empress Dowager Cixi in My Eyes that the fingernails of Empress Dowager Cixi were worn on the middle finger and ring finger. Her left fingernail is made of jade, and her right fingernail is made of gold, inlaid with rubies and pearls. 」
Of course, foreigners generally don't understand the jewelry aesthetics of China people. Catherine Carr also wrote: "The Queen Mother thinks it's best to take off her golden armor inlaid with pearls and rubies, and expose her fingernails. I am very happy, because I feel that the fingernails destroy the symmetrical beauty of my hands. 」