Few modern Chinese people are aware that hair used to be considered a holy and deeply personal item in ancient China.
In the book of Filial Obediences (Xiao Jin), sages tell that “our body, hair and skin are granted by our parents and we should not be allowed to destroy them. That is the base of filial obedience.”
Hair-style rules
Ancient people followed the words of such sages and seldom cut their hair throughout their whole lives. Women’s hair-styles witnessed some changes, depending on the aesthetic standards in different dynasties, while men’s remained static. But there were still some general rules to be followed, making it easy to specify people’s ages, sexes, marital situations and social positions at first sight.
In general, teenage children would tie their hair up in plaits on the top of their heads, one on each
buns-like hairstyle
kid’s hairstyle in the ancient time
side. After boys reached adulthood, they would comb all their hair into a top-knot (called a Jiefa in ancient Chinese), which they either covered with a square cloth or with a hat. People at Jiefa age are expected to get married and in ancient Chinese Jiefa Fuqi means a wife and husband who married when they were young.
Adult Jiefa
Girls would not be allowed to coil up their hair with hairpins unless they were married, if she did so her husband and parents-in-law would look down upon her because she hadn’t followed the rules for women’s behavior.
Ancient unmarried girl
Imperial women always guided hair-style fashion in ancient China and there were many professional hair dressers serving in the palace, creating many different hair styles patterns, using beautiful gold, jade or pearl hairpins.
Ancient married woman
People valued their hair highly and seldom cut it short unless there was something really important happening.
The best-known story involving hair-cutting is set in the Three Kingdoms (AD 220-280) when Cao Cao, the famous politician, strategist, led an army out to battle. Cao commanded that the soldiers should keep their horses off farmer’s crops and anybody daring to break the rule would be killed.
Unfortunately Cao carelessly let his own horse step into a field of crops. The commander tried to commit suicide but was stopped by his followers. Finally Cao decided to cut his hair as a penance.
Ancient emperor
Chinese women in ancient China were not supposed to go out and be seen in public. They usually cut off a lock of their hair and sent it away with lovers or husbands who were going to leave them for imperial examinations or other business. The hair would remind the men that somebody was waiting for them at home and they should hurry back quickly.
Cutting hair short was also a way of marking prisoners in ancient China. Even after they had been released from prison, people would continue to classify them as bad people upon seeing their short hair, which would become a long-term sign of their criminality.
Monks and nuns however believed that hair was a source of troubles. They shaved off their hair upon deciding to devote their life to Buddhism, symbolically announcing their liberation from all attachment to mundane reality.
Revolutionary symbol
Hair has also been seen as a symbol of revolution. In China’s several thousand years of imperial rule, rebellions and revolution continuously occurred, replacing dynasties and pushing history onwards. When the old sovereignty was overturned and the new dynasty set up, the new ruler would set out a series of social regulations and on many occasions hair-style alterations were involved.
When the Manchus overthrew the Ming Dynasty and established the authority of the Qing Dynasty
Jet Li-Fang Shiyu
(1644-1911), the first emperor was worried that the Hans wouldn’t be obedient to the rule of the Manchus. He asked all the Han People to follow Manchu traditions, shaving their hair from the front of the head and wearing a thick plait at the back. Anybody who dared to defy the order and retain their old hair was to be killed.
Many Han people lost their lives because they were unwilling to cut the hair bestowed upon them by their parents.
Many Chinese films adapting stories from that time were seen in the United State and Europe. As a result, in the imagination of many foreigners, Chinese people - even today - are envisaged with the front of the head shaved and a thick plait hanging at the back, wearing a long robe.
In 1911, revolutionaries with Sun Yat-sen as their representative launched the Xinhai Revolution. Students introduced democratic ideals from the West and called on the masses to cut their long plaits and fight imperial domination.
Lu Xun, the famous writer and thinker, wrote a novel titled “Legend of Ah Q”, revealing that ordinary people had little understanding of the revolution and blindly identified plait-cutters as revolutionaries. In his story Lu Xun humorously call non-revolutionists “Ah Q”. Q is a pictographic letter, mimicking the Manchu hair-style.
Modern Short hair
With Chinese people’s gradual ideological emancipation during the 1920s and 30s, Chinese men totally gave up their long plaits and adopted the short hair style. Today, Chinese hair-styles are gradually revealing their potential diversity.
Cockscomb Style
Short Explosive Style
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