Hi everyone, I’m Ally. Welcome to Five Thousand Years
I received many comments asking about this, like what is it, why am I wearing it, and does it mean anything?
So in today’s video, let's talk about it
First of all, the one on the forehead is called Huadian in Chinese
There’s a legend about how this became popular
During the Northern and Southern dynasties, there was a princess called Shouyang
She loved plum blossoms and was admiring them in the palace
Well I can’t find any plum blossom trees near me so here I am with cherry blossom trees
The princess got tired so she laid down beneath a palace roof and fell asleep
There was a plum blossom tree nearby, and a plum flower fell onto her forehead
When she woke up, it left a floral imprint. She couldn’t get it off until three days later
All the ladies in the palace loved it, so they tried to copy it. And it became a trend
This story happened during the Southern dynasty era
However there are paintings and clay figurines with red decorations on their foreheads
that date back many dynasties before the Southern dynasty
It was believed that the history of wearing Huadian can be traced back to as early as the Warring States Period
This fashion trend became extremely popular by the Tang dynasty, when women wore all kinds of designs
They would draw them in the shapes of animals, stars, the moon, water droplets, coins, and of course flowers
especially plum blossoms because of Princess Shouyang
They would also cut paper into the desired shapes and paste them on
as well as using butterfly or dragonfly wings, bird feathers, and gold leaves
By the late Tang dynasty, it expanded to putting huadian all over the face
We can see many examples from Dunhuang cave murals
These decoration on the temples are called Xiehong
Doesn’t it look like a scar to you? It actually is supposed to resemble one
The story goes that during the Three Kingdoms period, Emperor Caopi had a consort in the palace named Xue Yelai
She was new and wasn’t familiar with the surroundings
The emperor liked to read under the candle, and he was surrounded by tall crystal screens
One night Yelai came and accidently ran into one of the screens and hit her temple
After she wiped off the blood, her face looked like a beautiful sunrise
Her scar didn’t make her less popular, on the contrary, she won the heart of the emperor with her amazing sewing skills
So all the other consorts tried to copy her by drawing the scar on their temples. And that became a new trend
The ones on the dimples are called Yedian. As you can guess, it’s supposed to resemble the dimples on the face
There is also a story behind it
In another country Wu during the Three Kingdoms period, the crown prince Sun He had a favorite concubine Lady Deng
One night the prince was waving a crystal ruyi around, which is a curved decorative sceptre
He accidently hit Lady Deng’s face that made her bleed
So he asked the doctor to make some topical medications that could get rid of the scars
The doctors used expensive materials like amber powder in the formula, but they added a little too much
After Lady Deng was healed, she had red dots on her face, which in the crown prince’s eye made her even prettier
The other concubines then also put red dots on their faces
During the Tang dynasty, the huadian on the forehead, xiehong on the temples, and yedian on the dimples
were part of the standard makeup routine for ladies
By the Song dynasty, empresses would use pearls in place of huadian, xiehong, and yedian
Yuan and Ming dynasty ladies would also use facial decorations during special occasions
By the Qing dynasty, ladies were no longer wearing any facial decoration like this
Only kids would wear a red dot on the forehead for good luck
So unlike Bindi from Hindu culture which represents a woman’s marital status
the facial markings in China were mostly ornamental
with the exception of a record from the Han dynasty
that said consorts and concubines used to put a red dot on the face to indicate their menstrual period had arrived
and therefore they could not serve the kings or emperors
Out of the three types of facial decorations in ancient China, which one do you think is the most beautiful?
Or which story do you like the most? Let me know in the comments below
I hope you learned something useful in today’s video
I’ll be making more videos about traditional Chinese culture and values, as well as Chinese fashion and history
so don’t forget to subscribe if you want to learn more
Thank you for watching. I’ll see you next time!