Beauty, beauty, beauty, why is it called tofu beauty?

Xi was a beauty presented by Gou Jian, King of Yue, to Fu Cha, King of Wu in the Spring and Autumn Period, and was later regarded as another name for beauty. Also known as calligraphy. Tofu Beauty comes from the sister-in-law of Yang Er, Lu Xun's hometown. Calling Mrs. Yang Er "Beauty of Tofu" seems to praise her young beauty and point out her status as "owner of Tofu Shop", but it actually has a deep meaning. Southerners usually call teasing and insulting people "eating tofu". In the novel, the author wrote: "When I was a child, a Yang Er sister-in-law sat in the tofu shop across the street ... rubbing white powder ... At that time, people said: Because of Iraq, the business of this tofu shop was very good. But this is probably because of my age, but I'm not affected at all ... "From here, we can see that" Tofu Beauty "attracts customers with its young beauty, which inevitably leads to the frivolous and playful humiliation of some idle people. Because of this relationship, the store "sells well". Therefore, sister-in-law Yang Er is called "Tofu Beauty", which also means that she is often humiliated. This nickname is insulting [edit this paragraph] Tofu Beauty-There is an impressive character in Lu Xun's novel Hometown-Sister-in-law Yang Er, a Tofu Beauty. There have been some discussions about the origin of the elegant name Sister-in-law Yang Er. For example, (1) means that beautiful women sell tofu, which is a joke. Legend has it that she was a beautiful woman at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period and later became synonymous with beauty. (Notes on Lu Xun's Works in the Modern Literature Teaching and Research Section of Chinese Department of Hangzhou University, Zhejiang People's Publishing House, 1979) (2) The name "Tofu Beauty" has a reason. Sister Yang Er is of course just a fictional character. Fellow villagers remembered the story of diusim's name by listening to stories and watching operas, thinking that she must be a very tricky woman, so they used it as a name to swear; I don't know where I heard that there was a beautiful woman in ancient times (I don't remember her in Yue Opera), so I used this to describe her. Actually, he is a person who loves beauty, because there is some irony in it. There is probably such a coquettish person in the tofu shop nearby, leaving this name in Lu Xun's memory. As for real people, it is not clear. Sister-in-law Yang Er is just an ordinary neighbor woman. Please ask her to replace this nickname. (Zhou Xiashou's Characters in Lu Xun's Novels, page 34, People's Literature Publishing House, 198 1 year) (3) Bao Linniang, who opened a tofu shop when she was young, was very good-looking, tall and had thin eyebrows. Everyone called her "the beauty of the thatched cottage" and "the beauty of tofu". (Zhong Zhen's Analysis of Lu Xun's Works, page 228, Shaanxi People's Publishing House, 198 1) There are different interpretations, but they all think that "tofu beauty is stone" was a nickname given to sister-in-law at that time according to the fact that ancient beauty stone and sister-in-law opened a tofu shop. In fact, The Beauty of Tofu was not created by Lu Xun (or Sister-in-law Yang Er's Neighbor). There are two very interesting use cases in novels and notes of the Qing Dynasty: (1) Unexpectedly, there was a beautiful girl named Tofu Beauty in that village. Although not as good as smelly flower Niang, she is also one of the best beauties. I am a ghost with tofu soup and rice. I have some gold property and he is the only one. (Zhang Nanzhuang's He Dian Volume 8) (2) Later, Du Zhong mentioned the whole case, volumes and coffins. At that time, a county was a native of Zhili, and people laughed at it as "helping the coffin to return home", and his wife's name was "tofu beauty". (Ding Rouke's "Willow Arc" Volume III "Yang Naiwu Case") These two examples are different in nature. He Dian has a unique style. 1926, when Liu Bannong talked about the characteristics of this book in the preface of He Dian Reprint, he first recommended that "this book is good at using slang and dialects, even the words in the village are completely taboo". The words used in the book, including proper nouns such as names and place names, try to adopt the common sayings in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces at that time. The above example is that the book "Bean Curd Soup Rice" has the nature of real records, reflecting the actual language of the people at that time, without the author's personal humor. From these two use cases, one thing is clear. The woman named "Tofu Beauty", whether a country girl or the wife of a county magistrate, has nothing to do with this thing necessarily or directly. "Tofu Beauty" is actually used to address a certain kind of women, and "Tofu Beauty" contains some figurative meanings. Tofu is nutritious, cheap and good, and it is a home-cooked dish for ordinary people. Compared with chicken, duck, fish, delicacies, tofu and cabbage, it belongs to "cold goods". So at that time, there was a saying of "eating tofu and cabbage", which was used to describe the poor life of some poor officials with meager income. For example, He Gangde's "Guest Talk" in the fourth year of the Republic of China: "In the imperial examination era, Confucian officials made a living by eating alfalfa, which is called eating tofu and cabbage. Thus, from the social point of view, tofu has the cultural meaning of being cold or not rich. In addition, the appearance of tofu is white and delicate, and the color is very good, but compared with the glittering and translucent jade of pearls, it is greatly inferior. Its beauty is simple, cold and limited, which is different from the luxury and richness of jewelry. On the basis of such social psychology, it is naturally impossible to wait for a woman who is called "tofu beauty" to be defined as "tofu beauty", and it is also impossible to wait for a peerless beauty stone who was born in the countryside and later became extremely rich. Therefore, after the Qing Dynasty, there are still many places that call beautiful women from poor backgrounds "tofu beauty": semantically speaking, "tofu beauty" has such a connotation: a little beautiful but not absolutely beautiful, a little position but not rich, but self-esteem, which is a contradiction in itself. So when it is used to refer to people, it must be negative and ironic. Sister-in-law Yang Er in Hometown has such characteristics in appearance, status and personality: a little beautiful but not peerless, well-off but not rich enough, and her own behavior is not enough but she despises others. In addition, there is a tofu shop at home, which is literally the same as "tofu beauty". Therefore, it is indeed appropriate for Mr. Lu Xun (or the neighbor of Yang Er's sister-in-law) to use the popular "tofu beauty" as her nickname. " "Tofu Beauty" has since become a cultural allusion and is well known by people. Nowadays, in some places, women involved in tofu production and management are often dubbed as "tofu beauties".