At first glance, these words are worth pondering. Later, when I read novels or even movies, whenever I meet a radiant female image, this sentence will unconsciously appear in my mind. What makes these women so beautiful? What is this illusory "state"? I want to explore this aspect with my shallow literary knowledge, so as to get closer to the eternal topic of "beauty".
First of all, it should be clear that aesthetics really varies from person to person. Writers also have different aesthetics.
In my humble opinion, the female aesthetics in China's literary works I have seen can be roughly divided into two schools: one is the traditional school, such as the old-fashioned women in Zhang Ailing's novels; The second is modernism, such as Yi Shu's city girl.
There is no difference in aesthetics. The difference between the two is probably that the latter pays more attention to the spirit of women's freedom and independence. Therefore, girls in Yi Shu love pants more than skirts, so they are handsome and petty. It is not that the former has no independent spirit at all, but that the differences between the times and social environment have created women with different styles and different beauty.
Today, this paper mainly discusses the aesthetics of the traditional school.
1 About appearance
Form is the foundation of God, just as appearance is a state. Traditional aesthetics seems to attach great importance to women's eyes and skin.
Cao Gong's description of Lin Daiyu's eyebrows should be familiar to everyone: "Two bends are like frowning eyebrows, and a pair seems to be happy." Daiyu's eyes are as bright as smoke, which comes from sighing about her life experience and also from her disappointment about where to go. Those eyes, which can shed tears instantly, not only confirm the past origin of the crimson pearl fairy grass crying, but also conform to the love concept of "the daughter is made of water" of the secular God Ying.
When it comes to China writers' vivid descriptions of women, it must be Zhang Ailing. The most famous of her books is a Shanghai middle school girl who studied in Hong Kong in the early days of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, and an old-fashioned Shanghai lady who sought love in Hong Kong before the Hong Kong War.
"agarwood crumbs? Ge wrote in "The First Furnace Incense": "Her eyes are long and charming, and the deep marks of her double eyelids sweep straight to her temples", while in "Love in a Beautiful City": "A pair of delicate eyes that are about to drip". Ge Weilong's long and charming eyes have to be said to be the finishing touch of her "out of breath" face. Because of these eyes, my face is not pale or mushy. Or, because of these eyes, there is a later story. Bai Liusu's face "used to be as white as magnetism, but now it has changed from magnetism to jade-translucent light green jade". In this face, dotted with two clear eyes, still delicate. A picture of a classical girl with charm comes to mind. The tragedy of classical beauty is that she can only catch a person who is willing to fall for her with those clear eyes. The sorrow of old-fashioned women is nothing more than this. They can't be trees, but vines. They can only grow if they are attached to others.
It is not difficult to see that a writer's eyes of beauty must be full of emotion and content. Can be a touch of sadness, can be shallow flattery, can be charming. The eyes are the windows to the soul. With "emotional eyes", beauty has a soul.
Regarding the skin, it seems that there is no specific description of Daiyu in the book, but it is conceivable that it has nothing to do with black and yellow. Ge's nickname when he was studying was "steamed pork with rice flour" because his skin was white and he had jade-like skin. In Bai Xianyong's work Yin Xueyan, the protagonist Yin Xueyan has "a snow-white skin". Thus, beauty must also have fair skin. Historically, it may be because the daughters of ordinary families in the ancient farming period usually had rough and dark skin because of their work, while the ladies of official families had no wind and rain and delicate skin, and their hearts always yearned for heights, thus forming the concept of taking white as beauty; On the other hand, Asian facial features are not three-dimensional, and fair skin helps to enhance the salience of facial features.
Compared with another woman in Love in a Fallen City, Sahe Yi Ni, who is of foreign descent, has a very western style, which is in sharp contrast with the beauty of the East. Fringe is a soft ink painting, quiet and charming; Saheyini is a colorful oil painting, gorgeous and rare.
About words and deeds and others
With the development of plastic surgery technology and medical beauty today, it is easy to get white skin and beautiful eyes. In contrast, words and deeds that can be called "beauty" are harder to get. Because it depends not only on the individual's personality characteristics, but also on the connotation and habits.
Xu Zhimo once wrote a poem: "The gentleness of bowing is the most, like the shyness of a hibiscus out of water." In "Love in a Fallen City", Fan Liuyuan once praised Bai Liusu for being the best at bowing his head. The ancient poem also said, "Eyes full of shame, lips smiling." Asians regard modesty as beauty, which seems to be three or four points. Coupled with several degrees of eye movements and several degrees of graceful posture, it can be called "cute". But it doesn't seem enough.
Bai Xianyong described the protagonist in his work "Sister-in-law Jade Qing": "She is so beautiful that she is nothing like the enchanting appearance of our newly married girl Jin Chan. Her every move is always so quiet. ""She is gentle and gentle all the way, and she doesn't talk much. "
Lin Yutang wrote in "Clouds in Beijing": "The difference between a good girl and a rich girl is easy to tell as long as she takes her time."
Mulan and Mochow are both rich women. They are well-educated, discerning and open-minded. It is natural that they should show their inner self-restraint through words and deeds. Just like that sentence: my mind is full of poems and books.
Although I don't know if Bai Xianyong's sister-in-law, Yu Qing, has ever studied, she used to be a housewife of a decent family and only came out as a wet nurse because her husband died of opium smoking. Inferred from this, Qing Yu's sister-in-law's background should not be bad, so she describes ordinary people with different temperament. Even if she degenerates, it will not change her elegance.
Today, knowledge is at your fingertips and the world can gallop at will. If in addition to the consideration of beautiful appearance, you can make more efforts in this respect and repair both inside and outside in time.
If the beauty of tassels can be described as "charming", Mulan and Yuqing call it "quiet", and further, I call it "proud and charming".
Mo Yan once described a girl who was envied and vilified because of her beauty and family background in his short story Snow Beauty. She went to the clinic when she was seriously ill, but the doctor did not treat her first because of prejudice, which eventually led to the girl's sudden death. In the last few hours of the girl's confrontation with death, she was always so polite, so elegant and calm. Her forbearance and strength forced me to use this word-respect.
The girl who is filthy in the outside gossip, readers deeply feel the nobility of her personality in her efforts to maintain dignity.
3 About clothing
In Li Bai's poem, there is a cloud: "Clouds want clothes, flowers want capacity", which tells the beauty of Yang's clothes and looks. The gorgeous face of flowers is matched with the elegant clothes of clouds, and the word "fit" is perfect.
Qian Zhongshu once wrote in Fortress Besieged: "Modern girls who hate small cities most in life, outdated fashion and urbanization with rural flavor are just like the first suit imitated by China tailors." From the perspective of words alone, it is full of contradictions, which can confirm the importance of clothing and people from the opposite side.
In Bai Xianyong's A Dream in Youlong, Qian Furen, who has woken up from her dream, likes "emerald-like" silk instead of "rough" and "dazzling" Taiwan Province. But when she stayed in the banquet living room, she found that the cheongsam was reflected by the lights, and she regretted it. Yue Hong, who "specially picked his own sister to step on", "wore a big golden satin cheongsam, gorgeous as a parrot". Clothes are clothes, clothes are clothes.
At the beginning of Paradise Lost, Junichi Watanabe describes that Rinzi, the heroine, is wearing a plain kimono, decorated with bean paste ribbons, and the kimono is dotted with clusters of plum blossoms. The hero was fascinated and said, "Plum blossoms are better than cherry blossoms" and "Plum blossoms are better than the beauty of branches". The author may use clothes to set off the elegance of the heroine.
In any case, the word "fit" is the most important. Saheyini, mentioned earlier, wore a goldfish yellow tight-fitting gown, her nails were polished very brightly, and the neckline was dug into a narrow V shape, reaching to the waist, which was also very suitable for her temperament. On Yi Shu, there are both hardcore women like the cool girl Shi Nansheng and gorgeous rose girls like Zhang Xiaohui!
The topic of "beauty" is too grand. Speaking of life application, some people say that you can learn to study painting at night to feel the beauty of color. I want to say, dive into the ocean of literature and have a full meal, and you can also feel the soul of beauty. May you learn something today.