Beauty and Disaster

"Beauty" are two soft words. The beauty is dignified and cute, and her face is as delicate as the cardamom branches in February. On a midsummer night Under the full moon, the fairy walking on the water has "hands like catkins, skin like gelatin, a collar like a cricket grub, and teeth like a rhinoceros"; "its shape is as graceful as a startling giant, as graceful as a swimming dragon... as if "Like light clouds covering the moon, fluttering like snow in the flowing wind"; "Fragrant mist clouds dampen temples, clear and brilliant jade arms cold"; "Jie Wu's waist is delicate and soft", etc. are all descriptions of the beauty's outstanding appearance.

Du Fu's poem "Memories of Pei Daozhou's Notes in Late Autumn": "Recalling the son's first Wei Yongjia departure, the beautiful face and white face are reflected in the flesh"; Cao Zhi's "Jingsi Fu": "How can a beautiful woman be such a rotten monster, beautiful face "Yeerliuguang." The word "beauty" refers to the appearance of a beautiful woman, and later gradually evolved into a synonym for beautiful woman.

Beautiful beauty can be eaten with food. "It is difficult for a hero to be beautiful." It is human nature to love beauty. Regardless of the emperor's three palaces and six courtyards, and the three thousand beauties, it was also fashionable for the scholar class in the feudal period to seek beauty and beauty.

However, in the five thousand years of Chinese civilization, there is an idiom that has long been deeply rooted. It makes all the beautiful faces bear too heavy a blame in the face of the rise and fall of history and the change of dynasties, obliterating all the gorgeous colors of those beauties, leaving only the reputation of disaster, warning the emperors and generals of the past dynasties. Other men.

This idiom is------"beauties bring disaster".

The definition of "disaster" in "Cihai" is "a woman who causes trouble for others and ruins things".

"Beauty is a disaster", a saying that has been around since ancient times, which roughly means that beautiful women bring trouble to the country. It should be said that similar words are not uncommon in our cultural tradition. They are described in various texts. It can be said that they are common and have a long history.

Don’t think that “beauty is a disaster” refers exclusively to royal ladies, the enamored Concubine Si, the fallen businessman Daji, the Xi Shi of Wu, the troubled Concubine Yang of the Tang Dynasty... Even Chen Yuanyuan, Sai Jinhua, etc. Some ordinary women may not be able to escape the blame. China's lineup of "disasters" is truly vast and endless throughout history.

What is interesting is that since ancient times, all good people have been silent, and only "disaster" has left its name. Why? It's all because the "disasters" are all beauties, who have captivated the country, the city, or the family. They have been convicted because of their beauty, and they have become famous through the ages because of their beauty and "crime".

Countries, emperors and generals, beauties, disasters, love--these themes intertwined with endless stories of historical vicissitudes. Stories such as beauty is a disaster can be seen in "Spring and Autumn", "Zuo Zhuan", "Water Margin" and other books:

The reason why King Zhou of Shang was violent was because he had Daji by his side. The dynasty was ruined because of Shang Zhou's pampered Daji, which led to the destruction of the country; the reason why King You of Zhou lost his kingdom was because he doted on Bao Si and was surprised by Bao Si's smile. The country would not be subjugated; Fu Chai was defeated by Gou Jian because he was corrupted by Xi Shi. The defeat of Wu was because Xi Shi "turned back with a pair of smiles, and all the hundreds of thousands of elite soldiers defected", which made Fu Chai's fame and hegemony in vain; King Chu Ba Xiang Yu's Farewell Concubine by the Wu River committed suicide; Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty lost his head because of his love for women; Li Yu and Empress Xiao Zhou couldn't bear to look back on their fallen flowers in the moonlight; Li Longji was mediocre in his later period because of "the harem" There are three thousand beauties, and three thousand are favored by one person." The decline of the Tang Dynasty was all because Yang Yuhuan "looked back and smiled with all her beauty, and the six palaces were pink and white without color." The Ming Dynasty also fell because Chen Yuanyuan harmed Wu Sangui, the guard of Shanhaiguan. " Weeping bitterly that all the six armies are in plain clothes, and being angry at the crown for beauty"...

And so on, in history, some foolish kings selected the beauties in the world into the harem and locked them up, played with them, played and sang every night, Indulging in the three palaces and six courtyards, wine and sex, and ignoring the government and state affairs, he caused mourning and resentment all over the country, causing people to rise up and lose their country. The blame lies entirely on women. Almost all the allusions to national subjugation in history seem to point the finger at "beauties". Beauty = disaster. It seems that anyone who gets close to a beauty will destroy himself. Therefore, the idiom "beautiful woman brings disaster" was born.

The fall of every dynasty has its own historical reasons, but China’s authoritarian culture always makes people forget to look for fallacies in emperors and generals.

They always blame beautiful women for the fall or failure of their empires, and use the phrase "beauties are a disaster" to excuse themselves. They dare not assume the responsibility of being a ruler or even a man. It seems that without these beauties, their empires can continue for "tens of millions of years" ".

Why do many people always refer to these beauties around Hunjun as beauties? Are they the cause of the result?

"Beauties" are really "disasters" ? I always feel that people’s evaluations are unfair.

It is unbelievable that a weak woman, in the feudal era when husbands and emperors were powerful, had the ability to destroy a country and harm the king's life! When I think about it, I feel emotional. At the same time, I sigh for those unjust "beauties" and feel deeply helpless.

Take Chen Yuanyuan for example. In Wu Weiye's "Yuanyuanqu", the beauty Chen Yuanyuan, an ordinary Suzhou woman, entered the imperial palace several times, and then fell into the hands of Li Zicheng, which aroused the interest of Wu Sangui. Finally, Wu Sangui's jealousy triggered Wu Sangui's "feat of being a beauty" and opening the Shanhaiguan Pass to attract Qing soldiers. Chen Yuanyuan became famous.

When a large group of old people and young people pointed at Chen Yuanyuan and cursed her as a "disaster", they couldn't help but want to ask those who called her a "beauty, a disaster": How could such a person who has been in the palm of power be played by the emperors? What mistake did she make as a weak woman in the palm of her hand? Is it her sin to be beautiful? Why did it become a "disaster" and be mercilessly reviled by the world?

To this day, the liquidation of some corrupt officials after they are exposed always mentions the women behind them. This clearly means that behind every bad man, there is a bad woman. , therefore, without exception, when criticizing corrupt officials, a woman will always be introduced at the same time, and she will even be regarded as the source of evil. If a man does something wrong, if you get to the bottom of it, you can always find a woman's delicate hands behind him.

In a patriarchal society, men strive to maintain an absolute sense of spiritual superiority, becoming the idols and spiritual masters to whom women devote their lives. Helpless spiritual cowardice prevents them from facing up to the failure of destroying their country and losing their family. At the same time, they are unable to resist their desire for lust. So on the one hand, they are happy to pursue beauty, and if they fail, they will not hesitate to blame women.

China does not have a moral tradition of repentance and introspection. "Don't be angry and never make mistakes" means that among the three thousand disciples of the great sage Confucius, no one except Yan Hui can do it. If you don't think about self-reflection and sue yourself, you will only blame women, but you just want to cover up your own incompetence to relieve the loss of self-esteem.

Western religions advocate repentance and introspection. Therefore, the stunning beauty Helen, who caused a bloody war between the two countries for more than ten years, was not regarded as a "beautiful woman", but was regarded as the perfect unity of beauty, love and sex. ; The American widow who abdicated the throne for King Edward of England, who did not love the country but only the beauty, was not regarded as a "beautiful woman", but instead was regarded as a modern Cinderella who puts love first; China is different, and things are done. , naturally attributed to people with lofty ideals; failure, of course, attributed to beauty and misfortune.

It is easiest to blame women, because men have the exclusive right to speak, while women have been a speechless tribe in thousands of years of feudal society, with no chance to defend themselves. .

Generally speaking, Westerners are fearless, even admiring and intimidating towards beauty. The Chinese people are also full of desire for beauty, but they are frightened by this desire and show a kind of hypocrisy and pretentiousness of refusing to welcome.

The saying "beauties bring disaster" has been popular to this day, and eventually became an inherent rhetoric, which has accumulated into profound cultural traditions and social psychology. In fact, if you think about it carefully, the saying "beauties are a disaster" is extremely scary. It anesthetizes history and society, and is a portrayal of women's sad subordinate social status.

Look at the love between emperors, generals and beauties. There are also some that are based on love, but they are often tragedies. Many things will be inhumanly distorted once they are entangled with the power of the emperor, and the same is true for love.

In Bai Juyi's "Song of Everlasting Sorrow", the sorrowful love between Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty and Concubine Yang Guifei is heartwarming. As the emperor of the Tang Dynasty, Li Longji, who had ascended to a high place and looked down on the world, had the power of the world, but could not grasp his love. What a sad thing. Country and love, which one is more important? If you choose love, it is tantamount to winning the jokes of a romantic emperor and the eternal infamy of "the king of the subjugated country"; choosing the country means giving up your life's love and happiness, and spending the rest of your life in regret and loneliness.

Of course, history cannot tolerate his choice.

In a generation of emperors, love, as the most beautiful aspect of human nature, was ruthlessly obliterated by the need for power. Emperors are also human beings, and beauties are also human beings. However, the conclusion that "beauties are a disaster" deprives them of the right to love each other. In the confusion and despair of "the blue sky above is poor and the yellow spring is below, and neither place is visible", the life and country of this generation of emperors have become bleak.

"On July 7th, in the Palace of Eternal Life, in the middle of the night, when no one is whispering. I wish to be a winged bird in the sky, and a twig on the ground. The eternity of heaven and earth will eventually end, and this hatred will last forever." It's just those thousand times. Can the ever-changing emotions arouse people's sorrow and helpless sympathy for the person who longs for love but cannot love, and in exchange for pity for a beauty who was innocently charged with "disaster" and died as a result? !

Countries, emperors, generals, beauties, misfortune, love, all the troubled past events in the past, in "beauties and misfortunes", are chaotic into the gloomy joys and sorrows of separation, love, hate and sorrow. Each and every "beautiful woman" who was once magnificent has become a ghost through the ages, but those "endless" hatreds may not easily dissipate in the smoke of history.

Although the aesthetic vision can be divided into high and low, elegance and vulgarity, beauty is the hero after all. People who like beautiful women and covet beauty are common in ancient and modern times, both at home and abroad. If you think about it carefully, how many gentlemen in today's society can read through and understand the eloquent moral teachings of China's ancestors, the great sages Confucius, Mencius and Zhu Xi's Neo-Confucianism? However, the saying "food and sex are the same" is well known to everyone, and no one can learn it without a teacher. Otherwise, how could there be a saying that "it is difficult for a hero to be a beauty"? !

The different attitudes of Chinese and foreign men towards beauty are quite thought-provoking. How can some Chinese men compare with King Edward of England who did not love the country but only the beauty?! When they are favored, men would like to use all the material resources in the world to please beauties; but once it affects men's power and enjoyment, beauties will be treated like sinking rivers, throwing rings, or giving doves, and the beauties will be as miserable as grass. .

The world is like clouds, and beauties are like water. In the long time ago, they were extremely graceful, performing their own stories of singing and crying, and then disappeared. The youth, beauty, love, pampering... are all lost to the trees of Confucius, the decaying grass of Wu Palace, and the jackdaws of Chu temple. They are all like the bright moon in the water and the glory in the mirror!

When Xizong, the last emperor of the Tang Dynasty, was fleeing, he once again passed through Maweipo. Someone wrote a poem in the post house and said satirically:

Mawei smokes and Liu Zhengyiyi, and it is good to see Luan Yu again and return to Shu.

Aman should have something to say under the spring, but this time he will not blame Concubine Yang.

The long history is full of profound cross-examination.

In fact, it is only weapons and war that conquer a country, not beauty. Therefore, beauty is not a disaster, and beauty is not a sin.