Empress Dowager Cixi

In the South, there are beautiful women, Whose beauty is like peach and plum. In the morning they wander by the northern riverbank, In the evening they rest on the Xiao-Xiang shore. In "Dream of the Red Chamber," it is written that Baoyu likes to eat rouge. When I was young, I didn't understand: can rouge be eaten? Later, when I watched the TV series, there was a scene where Baoyu makes rouge with flower petals, which gave me an idea that ancient people might have used flower petals to make cosmetics. Scene from the 1987 TV series "Dream of the Red Chamber" showing the making of rouge In "The Fragrant Drifts of the Imperial Palace," it is written that Empress Dowager Cixi's rouge was made from the finest rose petals. The petals were ground into a thick paste using a clean stone mortar, then filtered through fine silk to extract the juice. New silk from the same year was cut to fit the size of the rouge container, soaked in the flower juice until fully saturated, and then dried. This process produced high-quality rouge. It seems that in ancient times, rouge could indeed be eaten and probably had a…