Beauty, for women, has become more important since it lost its dominant position in society. With the rise of the patriarchal society, women often become obedient to men, and the past pursuit of strength and primitive beauty has become weak and submissive beauty. The role of eyebrows in modifying and changing women's appearance can not be ignored.
During the Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties, people paid more attention to natural beauty and seldom decorated it except powder. It is speculated that the wind of thrush rose during the Warring States period. The practice at that time was to shave off all the eyebrows and then draw them with tools. The most primitive and crude thrush tool is burnt willow branches. Later, a black mineral called Dai appeared. Shuowen: "Dai, thrush stone also." The use method is like graphite, which is melted with water and then forced. The discovery of inkstones for grinding and wearing in tombs of the Han Dynasty shows that stone wearing was very common in the Han Dynasty.
During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, a kind of black jade named "Black Jade Bird's Head" was introduced into the Central Plains from the Western Regions, and its color was dark gray. During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, snail Dai was introduced from Persia. Spirodendron is a kind of processed diamond with high quality. When in use, it can be directly dipped in water without grinding. In Song Dynasty, duckweed was very popular in society. In the Yuan Dynasty, all the female thrushes used by the imperial court came from Xizhaitang, Mentougou District, Beijing. The same is true in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
With the development of handicraft industry, the production of Shi Dai is becoming more and more exquisite. In addition to the raw material Dai, spices or pigments will be added. The method of making thrush ink with smoked ash and spices was recorded in Shilin Guangji in Song Dynasty. Generally, there are sesame oil, sandalwood, borneol and musk. It's all added, and the thrush is accompanied by fragrance.
At first, Shi Dai was all black, and people also took it as beauty. During the Qin Dynasty, "Pay attention to red makeup and green eyebrows in Qin Shihuang's palace" (Jiyuan incident) set off the wind of "green eyebrows". The aesthetic of the Han Dynasty is "retro", and the thrush is black and blue. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, because of the popularity of bluebirds, eyebrows were dark gray.
In the Tang Dynasty, black eyebrows became popular again. As for the ancient eyebrows, it is even more varied. The distant eyebrows in Han dynasty, the long moth eyebrows popular in Sui dynasty, the eight-character eyebrows, the May eyebrows, the moon eyebrows and the horizontal eyebrows in Tang dynasty, and the willow eyebrows and frowning brows in later generations. They all show the aesthetic changes of the ancients in thrush.