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lilsuika — Painted Eyebrow Trends in Tang Dynasty

Published: 2014-08-04 18:36:13 +0000 UTC; Views: 79562; Favourites: 1108; Downloads: 568
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Description This is a chart showing different eyebrow trends in the Tang Dynasty. It's based on a chart in Chinese Clothing by Hua Mei and Gao Chunming (2004), you can find it on pg 37. I wanted to create a chart that had the eyebrows on faces. You can see the refs on my tumblr .

Interesting notes

"Women of the Tang Dynasty paid particular attention to facial appearance, and the application of powder or even rouge was common practice. Some women's foreheads were painted dark yellow and the dai (a kind of dark blue pigment) was used to paint their eyebrows into different shapes that were called dai mei (painted eyebrows) in general. There were literally a dozen ways to pait the eyebrows and between the brows there was a colourful decoration called hua dian, which was made of specks of gold, silver and emerald feather." (5000 Years of Chinese Costume, 77)

"...during the years of Yuanho in the reign of Xuanzong the system of costumes changed, and women no longer applied red powder to their faces; instead, they used only black ointment for their lips and made their eyebrows like like the Chinese character '八'." (5000 Years of Chinese Costume, 77)

The black lipstick style "was called the 'weeping makeup' or 'tears makeup'." (Chinese Clothing by Hua Mei, 37)

Related content
Comments: 35

alexyorim [2019-12-01 05:39:54 +0000 UTC]

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LeDaverix [2018-04-13 17:56:15 +0000 UTC]

really interesting .. fascinating actually   ... though some of them kinda look weird

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CARIBOULEX [2018-04-12 11:28:14 +0000 UTC]

impressive history and art work

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cyberneticwolf [2018-04-12 00:52:01 +0000 UTC]

late tang dynasty is one you see in a lot of Japanese paintings so .. . . . is it possible that those looks carried over?

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Alecto3263827 [2018-04-10 03:47:14 +0000 UTC]

Wow. This is really cool... Super helpful for world building, as well!

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salyssong [2018-04-09 20:48:06 +0000 UTC]

I'm probably the only person that will use all of the references on a single character.

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Redilion [2018-01-10 20:48:55 +0000 UTC]

they definitely had fun back then)))

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Shintsuka [2015-07-27 09:21:24 +0000 UTC]

I didn't realize women painted their eyebrows back then ;o
Cool!

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HEIADOLFHITLER [2015-07-03 14:17:01 +0000 UTC]

我大唐朝 

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Karinta [2015-06-01 03:58:54 +0000 UTC]

803 - WTF?

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rnanic-rnaniac In reply to Karinta [2016-09-14 23:33:21 +0000 UTC]

Ikr? Oh my god.

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Karinta In reply to rnanic-rnaniac [2016-09-17 04:35:16 +0000 UTC]

Yeah...

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rnanic-rnaniac In reply to Karinta [2016-09-17 11:05:08 +0000 UTC]

It's just weird, not to be racist or anything

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Sushaly In reply to rnanic-rnaniac [2017-02-11 09:34:39 +0000 UTC]

Every culture had weird trends, it's not racist. it's just your opinion.

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Starlight-Glaxy In reply to Karinta [2015-08-02 23:26:25 +0000 UTC]

the marks of a shiba inu dog forehead,or as I personally called the,pickle eyebrows.

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seprira [2015-05-23 12:17:04 +0000 UTC]

How did you find this?
This is so pretty

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NaKaJi143 [2015-03-24 06:46:41 +0000 UTC]

so that's where it originated .... Omg, now things makes sense in (iforgotthenames) animes.  Woot

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QNAMAN [2015-02-24 23:56:45 +0000 UTC]

Do at that time, a similar fashion been in Japan?

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tpaulanny [2014-09-21 06:20:46 +0000 UTC]

wooowww

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darklord86 [2014-08-16 06:53:21 +0000 UTC]

Awesome!

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mayshing [2014-08-13 05:03:03 +0000 UTC]

I. LOVE. YOU. Sweet reference. Absolutely. Thanks so much for doing this. 

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NDLevett [2014-08-05 17:08:51 +0000 UTC]

Nice, very interesting^^

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TemBrook [2014-08-05 05:36:41 +0000 UTC]

I'm just picturing this lady as immortal, just like "oh time to change the eyebrows again, well that era didn't last long"

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ShanaMcEris [2014-08-05 04:43:21 +0000 UTC]

I find eyebrows fascinating because they have so much of an effect on how we perceive emotions and expressions.  So this was really interesting!!! 

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Ameban [2014-08-04 21:04:59 +0000 UTC]

Very interesting! It seems there is alternance between "large eyebrows" and "fine eyebrowns" in every dinasty. Is there some reason for that?
Zhenyuan style is scary for me.

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Laugh-Butts [2014-08-04 20:59:51 +0000 UTC]

WOW!!!

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irwingreylord [2014-08-04 20:53:22 +0000 UTC]

713-714

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Mlle-Airas [2014-08-04 20:22:10 +0000 UTC]

It's a very interesting document.

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SaintOfTheDragons [2014-08-04 20:11:19 +0000 UTC]

Really interesting watching how art trends and styles develop culturally.
Thanks!

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Chris000 [2014-08-04 19:58:39 +0000 UTC]

What the hell were they thinking in 803...

Talk about an outlier. 

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MaximumDoodie [2014-08-04 19:55:57 +0000 UTC]

Last year of Zhenyuan Period. 
Brilliant eyebrows! XD

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CalmCoolOwl [2014-08-04 19:55:51 +0000 UTC]

Thanks for making and sharing this! Informative and interesting .

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quee-n [2014-08-04 19:37:57 +0000 UTC]

It's very interesting

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wxzhenghoppytruffles [2014-08-04 19:24:54 +0000 UTC]

ha awesome!!

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le-chat-fou [2014-08-04 19:22:46 +0000 UTC]

Very interesting.

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