Revealing: Are Tang Dynasty women really very open-minded? Below, the History Encyclopedia editor will bring you a detailed article introduction.
In terms of the openness of women in the Tang Dynasty, modern people cannot compare. The following two points explain everything!
In the history of our country, the Tang Dynasty can be said to be a very prosperous dynasty, but it was also a relatively open dynasty. So, how open was the Tang Dynasty? In fact, many people find it hard to imagine. After all, in ancient China, many people were quite conservative and traditional. Therefore, we cannot imagine how chaotic the relationship between men and women was in the Tang Dynasty. Today, we will share the degree of openness in the Tang Dynasty, and analyze it from the following two aspects.
Firstly, we can understand how women in the Tang Dynasty generally dressed. Many people can tell from the descriptions in TV dramas or books that women in the Tang Dynasty generally wore very revealing clothes. How explicit is it? We can describe it in three words: thin, transparent, and exposed. In many TV dramas, we can see that women in the Tang Dynasty generally exposed all the parts of themselves that could be revealed, and it is said that at that time, the thinner they dressed, the more they could prove their status. Although we cannot understand this idea now, it was the common belief in that dynasty. Moreover, there was a female emperor like Wu Zetian in that dynasty, so the status of women was naturally quite high. As for the impression of conservatism and tradition in ancient times, it is generally not applicable in the Tang Dynasty.
Secondly, we can understand the relationship between women and men in the Tang Dynasty. Let’s take a well-known example. Originally, Wu Zetian was actually Li Shimin’s woman, but she ended up with Li Zhi when Li Shimin was seriously ill. In fact, such a phenomenon was absolutely against ethical relationships in ancient times and was definitely a capital offense. But not only was Wu Zetian not punished, but she was also married back home by Li Zhi. This phenomenon can be said to be because her father’s concubine became her own woman, and Li Zhi’s political power was eventually taken away by Wu Zetian, so Wu Zetian became the emperor. This also shows how chaotic the relationship between men and women was during the Tang Dynasty, so the openness of women in the Tang Dynasty was actually quite high.
So from the above two points, we can see that the level of openness of women in the Tang Dynasty is simply beyond our imagination. Perhaps looking at them now, some of their behaviors are incomprehensible to us. Therefore, the level of openness of women born in that era cannot be compared to today. Although people’s impressions of ancient women are conservative, looking at the Tang Dynasty, it is different because the level of openness of women in the Tang Dynasty is something you cannot even imagine.