In the film, Yang Guifei's makeup, at first glance, seems not much different from modern women's makeup. However, upon closer inspection, there are some distinctive features—her eyebrows are dark blue-black.
According to the Western Capital Miscellaneous Records, during the Three Kingdoms period, Cao Cao ordered the palace ladies to draw dark blue-black eyebrows, which were fine and light in color. This style remained popular until the Tang and Song dynasties.
In Bai Juyi's poem The White-Haired Woman of Shangyang, he writes: “The dark blue-black eyebrows are long and fine, the fashion of the late Tianbao era.” The color of the Empress's eyebrows in the film may be more historically accurate.
The Tang Dynasty was the period with the richest variety of eyebrow styles in Chinese history.
In the early Tang Dynasty, women preferred willow-leaf eyebrows and crescent eyebrows, shaped like a new moon.
During the reigns of Emperor Gaozong and Empress Wu Zetian, broad eyebrows became fashionable, characterized by their length, width, and thickness, making them very prominent on the face. The shape and drawing method of broad eyebrows varied over time.
In the prosperous Tang Dynasty (the period when Yang Guifei lived), popular eyebrow styles included moth eyebrows, distant mountain eyebrows, and dark blue-black eyebrows, which were finer and lighter compared to broad eyebrows.
From the middle to the late Tang Dynasty, other eyebrow styles such as the character-eight eyebrows, crying eyebrows, and cassia leaf eyebrows also appeared.
The images of women with these eyebrow styles can be found in silk paintings unearthed from the Astana Tombs in Turpan, Xinjiang.
The eyebrow style in the painting is called “moth eyebrows,” resembling the wings of a moth.
Materials for drawing eyebrows:
Ancient people referred to the material used for drawing eyebrows as “dài”, which is a mineral. When used, it needed to be ground into powder on a special stone and then mixed with water to apply to the eyebrows. (It's a bit like calligraphy, isn't it?)
There was a type of snail shell black dye, which was used by noblewomen during the Sui and Tang dynasties. It was said to come from Persia and did not require grinding; it could be applied directly after dipping in water, similar to modern eyebrow pencils.
Tang dynasty scholar Yan Shigu wrote in The Legacy of the Sui Dynasty: “(Wu) Jiangxian was skilled at drawing long moth eyebrows… As a result, the palace attendants competed to emulate her long moth eyebrows. The officials provided five hu of snail shell black dye daily, known as ‘moth green snail shell black dye,' which came from Persia and each piece was worth ten pieces of gold.”
Makeup Application Order:
The general order of makeup application for Tang Dynasty women was: 1. Apply lead powder, 2. Apply rouge, 3. Draw eyebrows, 4. Attach flower patches, 5. Apply beauty spots, 6. Draw slanting red marks, 7. Apply lip rouge.
1. Apply lead powder
Lead powder served a similar purpose to modern foundation and was applied before starting makeup.
Tang Dynasty women liked to apply thick layers of lead powder from their forehead down to their neck, creating a snow-white complexion, which was considered beautiful. This practice was known as “washing away the lead,” which is where the phrase comes from. (Note: Modern science has proven that lead is toxic, but ancient people were unaware of this.)
2. Apply rouge
Rouge was also known as “yan zhi” or “yan zhi shan,” and it originated from the Western Regions. Its main ingredient was a wild plant called red orchid, which grew abundantly on Mount Yan Zhi in the Xiongnu region.
Tang Dynasty poet Wang Jian wrote: “After returning to the courtyard, wash your face again, stirring the red mud in the golden basin.”
In The Legacy of the Kaiyuan and Tianbao Eras, it is written that when Yang Guifei was summoned to the palace in winter, she bid farewell to her parents before leaving, and her tears froze into red ice beads. Another time, it was written that she was so hot in summer that she wiped her sweat with a handkerchief, which turned red from the rouge.
3. Flower patches (huadian)
Skipping the eyebrow drawing step, let's talk about flower patches. Flower patches were mainly a type of forehead decoration. Their rich colors depended on the materials used, such as gold foil for gold, black glossy paper for black, and fish cheekbone for white. They could also be dyed according to the pattern requirements.
The adhesive used to attach flower patches was called “he jiao,” which was produced in the north and was said to be made from fish bladders, with excellent adhesion properties, originally used to bond arrows. To remove the flower patches, hot water was applied, and they could be easily lifted off.
4. Beauty spots (mian ye)
Beauty spots refer to two small round dots of rouge applied to the cheeks, usually located at the dimples, also known as “zhuang ye.”
The practice of decorating the face with red dots dates back to the Han Dynasty, known as “di.”
Explanations of Names states: “Applying red dots on the face is called ‘di.' Di means burning. This practice originally indicated that concubines who were menstruating should not be approached by the emperor. To avoid verbal communication, they would mark their faces with red dots, which would be recognized by the female historians, who would not include their names in the records.”
It appears that beauty spots initially served as a special marker in court life, indicating that a concubine was menstruating and could not be approached by the emperor. Later, this practice spread to the common people and gradually became a decorative custom.
Beauty spots could be applied using rouge, or they could be attached using materials like gold foil or green feathers, similar to flower patches. In later Tang Dynasty, the styles of beauty spots increased: some resembled coins, called “money spots”; others resembled peaches, called “peach spots”; and those decorated with various flowers around the original beauty spot were called “flower spots.”
Some women covered their cheeks with various flower patches, as described in the poem Nun's Cap by Ouyang Jiong of the late Tang Dynasty: “With a thin layer of peach-colored makeup, her face is adorned with countless flower spots.”
5. Slanting red marks (xie hong)
Slanting red marks are red crescent-shaped decorations on the temples of women.
Female figurines excavated from Tang Dynasty tombs often have two red crescent-shaped decorations on their faces, some of which are depicted as incomplete, appearing like scars on a fair face from a distance.
6. Lip rouge (tu chun zhi)
Lip rouge is similar to modern lipstick. Tang Dynasty people invented many types of colored lip rouges. When applying, they would first cover the original lip color with white and then draw the desired lip shape in the center of the lips.
Tang Dynasty people admired “small cherry lips” and developed a range of lip shapes, including circular and heart-shaped, with cherry and flower shapes being the most popular.
The desire for beauty is universal.
It seems that the number of steps in makeup application for Tang Dynasty women was no less than that of modern times, and some steps were even more complex and tedious. If the screen purely replicated Tang Dynasty makeup, many people today might find it hard to accept.
Still, we can appreciate the Tang Dynasty beauties portrayed in films.
