How arrogant were the rich in ancient times? The luxury of the ancients was more than just "wearing gold and silver"

Modern people will show their success and wealth through famous watches and big-name clothing, especially the ancients.

As early as ancient times, people would show off their noble status by wearing headdresses and wearing. Even the color of the clothes had a high or low rank, and after the Tang Dynasty, yellow could only be the exclusive color of the emperor's relatives, and ministers and commoners were explicitly forbidden to wear this color of clothing.

Therefore, wearing a show of wealth has existed since ancient times. And in contrast, the rich in ancient times were more arrogant in dress than modern people!

Today Xiaobian will take stock with you about what luxurious wearing was in ancient times!

Phoenix crown

"Crown" is an ornament worn on the top of the head, and it is also a general term for the decoration of the head by the ancients.

In the eyes of the ancients, the crown was not exactly equivalent to our hat today, it was more like a sign of identity. So in ancient times, as long as you wear a crown, you are considered a decent person.

In ancient times, there were many types of crowns, according to different grades, different genders, different uses for crowns, long crowns, crowns, phoenix crowns, etc., of which the phoenix crown is the most luxurious and exquisite.

▲ Portrait of Empress Ming Xiaoduan

Many people mistakenly believe that the phoenix crown was the headdress of the empress in ancient times. Actually, this is not true. The phoenix crown is the highest grade of women's headdress in all dynasties, and is mostly worn on solemn occasions. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, ordinary women also wore phoenix crowns when they married.

The phoenix crown is developed from the development and evolution of phoenix-shaped jewelry such as phoenix and phoenix, and has a long history, according to the research of the Han Dynasty, the phoenix crown appeared. Fengguan to the Tang Dynasty development of the peak, auspicious "phoenix crown", meaning freedom and power, is the trend of wealth, followed by the five dynasties and ten kingdoms and the Song Dynasty to further strengthen the "wind crown" freedom, stability, turbulence and tall fashion sense, and finally ushered in a new peak in the Ming Dynasty.

▲ Ming Dynasty phoenix crown

The "wind crown" of the Ming Dynasty is precious and elegant, the collection of jewelry is magnificent, graceful and luxurious, the Qing Dynasty has increased the status and identity of the "phoenix crown" on this basis, and the king of the birds of Chinese culture is carved on gold, silver and gemstones, worn on the woman's hair bun, which can show the beauty, nobility and auspiciousness of women.

The decorative pattern on the crown of the phoenix is very elaborate, mainly based on the dragon and phoenix pattern, the dragon is welded with gold wire pile process, which is hollowed out and full of three-dimensionality; the phoenix is pasted with kingfisher feathers, and the color is long-lasting and gorgeous.

▲ Empress Xiaojing's Twelve Dragons and Nine Phoenix Crowns

The phoenix crown is also quite elaborate in the selection of colors, using the three primary colors in the color composition - red, yellow and blue as the main color, of which blue is the base color, accounting for the largest area, followed by yellow, and red is only embellished.

▲ Empress Xiaoduan of the Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty

The materials of the crown are mainly gemstones, crystal stones, gold, pearls, feathers and so on. The crown is decorated with pearls, gemstones and weights, and the largest crown has 128 gems and 5,449 pearls. The crown is inlaid with dragons, phoenixes, jewel flowers, green clouds, green leaves and sideburns, all of which are made individually and then inserted into the cannula on the crown to form a phoenix crown.

The phoenix crown is solemn in shape and exquisitely made, and its craftsmanship includes filigree, inlay, carving, dotting, wearing and so on. The final assembly is a very complex process, the placement of each ornament, the wearing of thousands of pearls, the inlay of hundreds of gemstones, many ornaments in one crown, reasonable arrangement, exquisite style.

Gold-encrusted jade with hooks

In ancient times, people's clothes were loose, and they needed to tighten their waists with belts.

The belt of the ancients was divided into two kinds: large belt and leather belt, the large belt was made of cloth for corset, and the leather belt was mostly made of raw leather, which was mainly used for wearing ribbons, seals, sacs, swords and other things. Because the leather belt is hard and thick, it cannot be tied like a large belt, and it is mostly used with the help of hook buckles. The belt hook is actually equivalent to the belt buckle used by modern people.

The origin of the hook is relatively early, the use in the middle and late Warring States period is quite common, the number of excavations and legends are quite large, many hooks are exquisitely made, inlaid with gold and jade, carved inscriptions, beautiful.

In the Ming Dynasty, the belt hook was the most prosperous, and in the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, the belt hook began to be quite popular with the literati and scholars, and became a common accessory in clothing.

▲ Jade with hook

In ancient times, the hook was a big thing, it reflected the status of the user, representing the modernity and fashion of that period. It can be said that all kinds of the most luxurious materials, the most advanced technology, and the design of the most time wall are used in the production of hooks, competing for glory to highlight the nobility of its status.

In the Huainan Zi, when talking about the hook, the words are used: "The seat of the full hall, depending on the hook is different, yu ring, belt one also." This means that, looking around, the guests' waist loops are full of luxurious hooks, and there is no same. And it is precisely in this "different eye hooks" that people's identities and status are fully revealed, and the hooks of princes, eunuchs, and people are clearly distinguished.

The texture of the hook is gold, silver, copper, iron, jade, stone and so on, and the jade hook is one of the more precious ones. Mainly Based on Hetian white jade and green white jade. Princes and nobles will generally use gold inlaid jade with hooks, which is beautiful and has a quite identity temperament.

In terms of shape and pattern design, there are reliefs and vertical sculptures of flowers and plants, animals, and the hook head is mostly dragon head shaped, and the dragon belt hook combined with dragon pattern is the most exquisite.

Gold leaf reeling

In ancient times, the role of clothes was not only to cover the body, but also to be a status symbol. Reflecting the hierarchy with clothing is a particularly important means in ancient times, so the ancients paid great attention to the material, color, pattern, and even pattern size of clothes.

In order to make clothes look more gorgeous, the ancient textile industry gave birth to a kind of silk fabric - weaving gold, as the name suggests, is to weave gold into clothes.

Many people will definitely wonder, the hardness of gold is not high, but at least it is still metal, how did the ancients turn gold into soft silk thread woven into brie?

This seems inconceivable to us, but the ancient craftsmen mastered it. They first beat the gold nuggets into thin slices, and then two gold leaf workers each held a 7-pound hammer and took turns to hammer hard, at least 25,000 times, before they could hammer into a gold leaf that was "thick and even, thin as cicada wings, soft as satin, and light as a feather".

The forged gold leaf is then attached to thin skin or leather paper, cut into a very thin and long thin line, which is a narrow strip of no more than 0.5 mm, called flat gold thread, and a kind of round gold thread is a spiral wrapped in cotton yarn or silk thread.

These gold threads can replace the general spinning thread to weave patterns and weave gold brocade.

Clothes made of gold wire, colorful and golden.

Although ancient science and technology were not developed, the rich people in ancient times were still very exquisite, from housing buildings to clothing and decoration, everywhere was exquisite and exquisite.

Xiaobian's heart inevitably sighed,

Sure enough, the life of a rich man is such a low-key luxury!