Li Huiliang

The long history of traditional cosmetics

Whether judging from archaeology or from the developmental history of oriental mankind, as early as remote antiquity, Chinese primitive people already knew how to use things from the natural world to process ornaments to beautify themselves. In the relics of the“Upper Cave Man” of Zhoukoudian in Beijing 50,000-plus years ago (in the late period of paleolith), archaeologists have found many finely made ornaments, such as drilled teeth of animals, burnished stone beads, perforated sea clam shells and so on, and they used natural iron oxide to dye some ornaments to highlight their sense of beauty. In the relics of primitive people of the neolithic age, we have found more elegant and beautiful ornamenting articles in a greater quantity, and of more kinds, such as a bone hairpin for beautifying the hair, an animal bone chain for decorating the neck, an earthen hand ring, eardrops made of jade, etc. All these have shown the primitive people’s pursuance of beauty.

Maybe there is no way to find out the exact age when China primitive people began to use cosmetics.Yet, from written records and real objects discovered by archaeologists, we can conclude that the history of China primitive people’s beauty treatment, make up and use of cosmetics is at least 3,500 years. The inscriptions on oracle bones, discovered from the ruins of the Yin Dynasty, are engraved such characters as: “Mei (beauty)”, “Zhuang(make-up)”, “Yu (bath)”, etc.(Figure 1). “Mei (beauty)” is like a female wearing a long feather; “Zhuang (make-up)”is like a well-proportioned girl, sitting before the mirror,and dressing herself up; “Yu (bath)” is like a man stepping into a bathtub and bathing. It is evident that all those are the recorded beauty treatments of China primitive people(Figure 1).

Figure 1. “Beauty”; “Make-up” and “Bath” Engraved on the Oracle

Therefore, we can see, the history of the generation and development of China’s cosmetics and toilette art is the cultural essence of the Chinese nation handed down to us,through the struggle against diseases by using traditional Chinese herbal medicines. Archaeologists and experts in the study of China’s history of medical sciences, generally,hold the viewpoint that: The systematic and theoretic way of use of Chinese herbal medicines for beauty treatment,skin care and hair care by our country’s primitive people can be traced back more than 2,000 years. The history of utilizing Chinese herbal medicines for beauty treatment,make up, body cleaning, body perfuming, hairdressing and skin care, etc., is even longer.

Some evidence has shown, as early as the Great Yu of the Xia Dynasty, it was already usual practice for the primitive people to grind rice into a fine powder and spread it onto their faces, to get tender white skin; some people dyed the rice flour with red and spread it onto their faces to form a red make-up. In the history book Zhong Hua Gu Jin Zhu (Commentary on Things Old and New in China) written by Ma Gao of the Five Dynasties,there is such a record: “Since the time of King Zhou of Shang Dynasty, people began to use the juice of the red and blue flower as the rouge for making up. As the plant grew in the place of Yan, it was called ‘Yan Rouge’.This cosmetic was applied for a peach blossom makeup look”. The so-called “Yan Rouge” refers to the rouge of modern times. That proves: as early as the times of King Zhou of Shangh Dynasty, people began to spread rouge onto their faces to make them look ruddy and beautiful.What is even more worth pointing out is: In Gu Jin Zhu(Commentary on Things Old and New) written by Cui Bao of the Jin Dynasty, there is such an explanation on the Cathamas tinctorius: “Yanzhi; its leaf is like the wool grass flower, like calamus... the Chinese called it ‘red and blue’.It was used to dye the female face, thus, it is called “Yanzhi powder.” It is obvious that the red and blue flower used as “Yanzhi” was just a raw vegetable material. Other historic records have proved: the primitive people of those times also used plumbous compounds or animal lipids to beautify their eyebrows and eyelashes, and hair. Here it is believed that all such things as the red and blue flower,lead powder and rice belong to Chinese herbal medicines.

Continuation of development of traditional cosmetics

All researchers of history of cosmetics development know: the origin of make-up and cosmetics might have been related to religious etiquette. Along with the generation and strengthening of mankind’s awareness of their own aesthetical appreciation, make-up had become an indispensible constituent of their life and social activites. In China, the history of Chinese herbal medicine cosmetics,that can be studied through textual research, is as long as 3,000 years. Through the study of this long history, it is found: systematic development of Chinese herbal medicine cosmetics originated from traditional Chinese medicines typical of China, and also grew with traditional Chinese medicines. Just like the developmental history of China’s theory and practice of traditional Chinese medicines, it has experienced thousands of years of continual development,and has been developing until now.

Calculating the literature, documents and old scriptures on traditional Chinese medicines in the 2000-plus years from the Pre-Qin Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty,it can found that the number of books existing now are as many as 2,300. Quite a lot of them have records on the theory of utilization of traditional Chinese medicines for beauty treatment, skin care and hair care. There are also records on the raw materials, recipes, manufacturing methods and even cases of using Chinese herbal medicines for treatment. For example, the Wu Shi Er Bing Fang (Recipes for Fifty-two Kinds of Diseases) discoverd in the ancient tomb of the Eastern Han Dynasty (BC 220), was the earliest medical work existing in China. The silk manuscript recorded about one hundred kinds of traditional Chinese medicines, and had recipes for curing acne and whitening the skin. The earliest pharmacological monography of China, Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing (Shen Nong’s Herbal Classic), which might have been written in the period of the Qin and Han dynasties, recorded 365 kinds of traditional Chinese medicines, and there were as many as 160 kinds with the function of beauty treatment. It also gave a detailed discussion on the beauty treatment efficacy of dahurian angelica root, pumpkin seed, white-stiff silkworm, etc.In the Huang Di Nei Jing (The Inner Canon of Huangdi),written before the Western Han Dynasty, the wholistic concept of beauty treatment and the unity of individual life and the natural world was put forward for the first time,which has laid the theoretical basis for beauty treatments by traditional Chinese medicines.

Zhou Hou Bei Ji Fang (A Handbook of Prescriptions for Emergencies), written by Ge Hong of the Jin Dynasty (265-420), contained the monograph on diseases of the human body causing damage to beauty, and it was one of the major representative medical books on beauty treatment by traditional Chinese medicines. Ben Cao Jing Zhu (Notes to Shen Nong’s Herbal Classic) written by Tao Hongjing, a medical scientist of the Northern and Southern Dynasties(420-581), collated and corrected the 365 kinds of traditional Chinese medicines recorded in Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing (Shen Nong’s Herbal Classic), and added some detailed contents on beauty treatments by traditional Chinese medicines, expanding the kinds of medicines to 730. Chao Yuanfang of the Sui Dynasty (581-618), in his book, Zhu Bing Yuan Hou Lun (General Treatise on Causes and Manifstations of All Diseases), summed up and classified the diseases and symptoms affecting physical beauty, and analyzed and discussed in detail the causes and mechanisms of those beauty damaging diseases.

What’s worth mentioning is: during the Prosperous Tang Dynasty, the use of cosmetics became very common,both in the royal court and among common people. For example, in Wang Tao’s book on medical formulary,Wai Tai Mi Yao (Medical Secrets of an Official), there is a monograph on beauty treatments, which carries 200-plus recipes for beauty treatments, covering almost all beautydamaging disease. The government of the Tang Dynaty organized 60-plus scholars, including Su Jing, to write Xin Xiu Ben Cao (Newly Revised Herbology), which carries 850 kinds of traditional Chinese medicines, with detailed descriptions. It was the first official pharmacopoeia of China, and was also the first national pharmacopoeia in the world. In the Song Dynasty, Chen Zhaotong, Wang Huaiyin and other scholars compiled, Tai Ping Sheng Hui Fang (Taiping Holy Prescriptions for Universal Relief),which carries 16,834 recipes, including more than 300 on the treatment of acne, skin care, hair care, body perfuming, etc. Sheng Ji Zong Lu (The Complete Record of Holy Benevolence), carries 20,000-plus recipes, with special topics on face and hair treatment, containing many recipes on beauty treatment, and detailed discussions on the pathogeny and mechanism of many beauty damaging diseases.

By the Jin and Yuan dynasties, there was a medical scientist called Xu Guozhen, who wrote a book called Yu Yao Yuan Fang (Prescriptions from Royal Drug Museum), which collected many secret recipes of the royal court about the cosmetics of Chinese herbal medicines, being China’s first royal court medical formulary published to the common people. The book compiled more than one thousand royal court secret recipes of the three dynasties of Song, Jin and Yuan. There were 180 recipes on beauty treatment, and most of them were published for the first time. In addition, there were beauty treatment procedures recorded as well.

In the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Su wrote a book called Pu Ji Fang (Prescriptions for Universal Relief), which carries 60,000-plus drugs, with many recipes on beauty treatment.It also classified different categories according to different parts of the body, and gave detailed discussions on the causes and mechanism of the diseases, and proposed the word “beauty cream” for the first time. Ben Cao Gang Mu(Compendium of Materia Medica), written in the same period, carried as many as 1,892 kinds of medicines, and 11,000-plus prescriptions of all kinds, including many folk recipes on beauty treatments.

The Qing Dynasty was the peak era of development of Chinese traditional medicine and pharmacology, and of course, the development of Chinese herbal medicine cosmetics was no exception. During the Reign of Emperor Qianlong, Wu Qian’s Yi Zong Jin Jian (The Golden Mirror of Medicine) covered many subjects including internal medicine, surgery, gynecology, pediatrics, and so on, and especially used the form of verse to record many proven recipes, with many illustrations on beauty treatment.During the Reign of Emperor Daoguang, Bao Xiang’ao and Mei Junzhao compiled a book called Yan Fang Xin Bian (New Compilation of Proven Recipes), which collected a great many folk recipes, classified in terms of the parts of the body from the head to the foot. It contained original recipes on the treatment of wrinkles, black face and thick skin. Through analysis of these ancient books on traditional Chinese medicines, it can be seen that the development of Chinese herbal medicine cosmetics was stressed by medical scientists from all dynasties. Also,the development process from remote antiquity to the end of the Qing Dynasty can be found out, namely, from simplicity to complexity, from few kinds and forms to numerous kinds, and from serving the few privileged to popularization to the general public.

Diversity of traditional cosmetics in variety

Just as we have mentioned before, existing books about traditional Chinese medicines and medical formulary are as many as 2300-plus. According to incomplete statistics, in these literature, old scriptures and medical formulary books, 100,000-plus recipes with different kinds of medicine have been recorded, and the recipes on Chinese herbal medicine cosmetics in the modern concept are several thousand. Through the searching and classification of these recipes, it is found: many varieties of modern cosmetics already existed in the ancient times.

Classification of traditional cosmetics

In terms of the part of the body, traditional cosmetics can fall into the following categories: the head and face, the oral lip, the hair and mustache, body cleaning and perfuming, the hand and foot, and so on. They have basically covered all parts of the body. In terms of purpose, they can fall into the following categories:whitening the skin and beautifying the face, removing spots and black spots, moistening the skin and removing wrinkles, adding good odor to the mouth, protecting the teeth and beautifying the lips, blackening and nourishing the hair, removing scars and warts, preventing and curing acne and cracked skin on hand and foot, etc. In variety,there are the face rouge, hand cream, mouth rouge, face drug, paste rouge, face brightener, jade polishing powder,hair moisturizer, face powder, beauty treatment powder,bathing bean, facial cleanser, face ornaments, eyebrow blackener, bathing dew, fragrant dew, etc. In usage, there are the spreading method, friction method, bathing method, infusion method, grinding method, etc.

As for the production methods of daily used face rouge, as early as in the book, Qi Min Yao Shu (Important Arts for the People’s Welfare), written by Jia Sixie of the Northern Wei Dynasty, there were records about them.For example: face rouge making method: “Use ox marrow.Use a little ox marrow, and add some ox fat...Use a warm wine to soak the clove or giant hyssop. The decoction method is the same as that for making perfumed hair oil. Some sweet wormwood is added for coloring. Use a cotton to filter and put it into a porcelain utensil. Put it into a shallow plate for congealing. In making of the lip rouge, use ripe cinnabar to mix into it and a dark oil to cover it... For those who will go out far away in frost and snow, some garlic should be used to rub the lips, then, the lips will not split and can also keep away evil factors”.

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the methods of making flower dew became quite mature and common,and rich and politically influential families usually made it by themselves. Gu Zhong of the Qing Dynasty wrote a book, Yang Xiao Lu (Records of Small Techniques), and in it he introduced the methed of making “various flower dew products”: “Use a tin bottle for white spirits, and a small wooden cask, to make a utensil, to braize the flower dew”.

In his Li Weng Ou Ji (Collection of Hat-wearing Oldman’s Essays), Li Yu also mentioned the method in the essay “Fragrance”: “The flower dew is made in this way: take some flower petals and put them into the bottle,then brew them. Rose is the best, other fresh flowers are secondary”, “however, we should not use it too much.After each washing or bathing, take several spoonfuls of it to put it onto the palm, then wipe the face evenly with it.The aroma is both like a flower and unlike a flower, both like a dew and unlike a dew; it has the fragrance without the flavor, thus, it is the best thing. It is not like other kinds of flavoring essence, as they can easily melt or sink, and by a simple smelling, we can tell what kind of flower it is”.Such a flower dew is very rare and expensive. “Rich and politically influential families need it”.

Make-up for the eyebrow includes the following kinds: mandarin teal eyebrow, hill-like eyebrow, the-fivegreat-mountain eyebrow, three-peak eyebrow, hangingbead-like eyebrow, moon-ridge-like eyebrow, branched eyebrow, fog-like eyebrow, cloud-like eyebrow, halo-like eyebrow. Make-up of the oral lip includes the following kinds: paste rouge halo, pomegranate-like charm, bright red spring, shallow red spring, tender fragrance, half-side charm, golden red, dewdrop, pale red heart, orangutanlike halo, etc. In terms of color, there are such colors as white, red, yellow, purple, black, etc. Figure 2 shows the lip make-up of females from all dynasties.

Figure 2. Women’s lip style in different dynasties

Materials used for traditional cosmetics

Materials for traditional cosmetics fall into raw mineral materials (such as mica, red lead, mineral tallow,talcum, jade powder, gold dust, ferric oxide etc.), raw animal materials (like the fat of ox, sheep and pig, pearl,donkey skin, etc.) and raw vegetable materials (like the root, stem or leaf of trees, flowers and grass, and starch,etc.). The packaging materials are chiefly: pottery,stoneware, porcelain ware, jade ware, bamboo wares,lacquer ware, gold ware and silver ware, etc.

Most Chinese herbal medicine cosmetics, in China ancient times, had both a beauty treatment function and disease curing function, and some already had the embryonic form of modern cosmetics. In his Wai Tai Mi Yao (Medical Secrets of an Official), Wang Tao recorded the preparations for beautifying the oral lip and curing its diseases. The manufacturing engineering is as follows: “…cool it down, filter it with cotton, then Jiajian (a traditional chinese medicine mixture) is done. Mix seven jin wax with one jin and five liang cinnabar and grind it finely. Add eleven liang gromwell, decoct the gromwell in the wax to make the gromwell change color, filter it with cotton and cool down. Melt the wax on hot ashes, to which Jiajian is added and mixed. If it is too hard, add some Jiajian; if it is too soft, add some wax. Test it with a knife to see whether it is hard or soft. Put the gromwell into a copper utensil, use a thick bamboo tube with paper wrapped and rope wound to mix it. When the tube is filled with the gromwell blend and cooled, the lip rouge is done. The mold production method is like this: Take a dry bamboo as long as one inch and a half, use a saw to cut off the two ends, remove the hard knot, split it into three parts, remove the middle part. Glue the outer two pieces together tightly by coating cold Jiajian along the gap in the joint. Use four layers of paper to cover the bottom of the tube and use paper to cover the sides to prevent leaking of the rouge. Use a rope to wind it firmly.Pour the rouge into it. Cool down and open it. Take about 40% of the rouge out of the tube and cut it with a bamboo knife to make the stick head flat and smooth. Then take the rouge and spread onto the lips”. It can be seen clearly that the lip rouge made by the ancients had already had the embryonic form of the modern lipstick.

Traditional cosmetics are characterized by chinese herbal medicines

So to say, China’s traditional cosmetics are a kind of cosmetics using Chinese herbal medicines as the main ingredients of the recipe, under the guidance of the theory of traditional Chinese medicines, and are also the type of cosmetics typical of China. Their characteristics are not only that they take natural animals and plants or minerals as the raw materials, but what is most important is the theory and philosophy of the combination and recipes. Thus, the way to study and master Chinese herbal medicine cosmetics should be different from that for studying other kinds of cosmetics. Therefore, finding and interpreting the recipes of ancient cosmetics to work out Chinese herbal medicine cosmetics with modern features and bring them into the world, is also one of the major tasks of Chinese researchers of cosmetics.

As for the features of Chinese herbal medicine cosmetics,more people will think: since most materials used for Chinese herbal medicine cosmetics originate from the natural world in comparison with the so-called modern cosmetics made of artificially synthesized or half synthesized materials, Chinese herbal medicine cosmetics are better in safety. As a matter of fact, it is an incomplete understanding. In addition to the materials, Chinese herbal medicine cosmetics are chiefly characterized by the following aspects:

1) The properties of traditional Chinese medicines are stressed and used to guide the preparation and application of Chinese herbal medicine cosmetics. In the making of the recipes of traditional beauty treatment drugs, Chinese herbal medicine cosmetics are formulated based on the basic theory of traditional Chinese medicines, utilizing the drug property theory of the “Four Properties ” (cold, hot,warm, and cool), “Five Tastes” (pungent, salty, sour, bitter,and sweet) , and “Five Directions of Medicine Actions” (rise,fall, sink and float), following the dignosis and treatment rule of “reason, method, recipe and drug”, as well as the prescription rule of “monarch, subject, assistant and guide”,to treat and cure diseases that damage human beauty.

2) Traditional Chinese medicine thinks: the human body is an organic whole, each organ and each tissue inside the body has different functions, but they perform their own duty and coordinate with each other, to maintain normal vital activities. Whether the skin is good or bad,whether the hair is good or bad, are related to the operation of the internal organs of the body; and at the same time, the person and the outer natural world also form an organic whole with mutual influence and mutual dependence.According to traditional Chinese medicine, the internal physiological functions and pathological changes will produce some symptoms on the outer parts of the body;and the physiologic and pathological changes of the internal organs are closely related to the person’s Seven Emotions(joy, anger, worry, thinking, grief, fear and surprise), and Five Minds (joy, anger, worry, thinking, and fear). Thus,the superficial problems of the body such as the acne,coloured spots, dark and coarse skin, etc, are mostly caused by dissonance between the internal organs and tissues,or dissonance between the human and the natural world,being manifestations of abnormal physiological function of the visceral organs revealed in the outer parts of the body.

In the process of research on these recipes of Chinese herbal medicine cosmetics, it can be found: when our predecessors treated these beauty damaging diseases, they often adopted the policy of in corpore treatment to solve external problems, or treatment of both internal and external problems. For example, for the colored spots of the face,or dark skin, they usually treated it this way: give Chinese herbal medicines for both oral administration and external application, and stress abiding by the time rule of work and rest, paying attention to dietary hygiene, and adjusting the person’s mental state. Secondly, the human and natural world may coordinate with each other, for example, changes in climate or season, or changes in geographic environment will also affect the performance of the skin. For instance, in summer, it is easy to get dermatitis, and in winter it is easy to have dry and coarse skin. All such diseases are results of lack of coordination between human and nature.

3)The “Yin and Yang” Equilibrium Theory. Traditional Chinese medicine holds such an idea: the human body is an organic entity. All the organizational framework and vital activities of the human body can be classified into two parts, yin and yang, which are related to each other while being opposite to each other at the same time. The normal physiological activities of the human body result from the unity of opposites of yin and yang. Under certain conditions, yin and yang can transform towards the opposite, namely, so long as yin and yang lose the balance,the human body will be in a pathological state, and that will cause a disease that might damage the beauty. Many recipes of traditional Chinese herbal medicine cosmetics embody the thinking of nourishing from inside to outside,and adjusting each visceral organ inside the body to reach a balance between yin and yang.

Moreover, what is worth pointing out is, while beautifying the outer appearance, Chinese herbal medicine cosmetics place stress on the internal result of beauty treatment,pay equal attention to ornament and internal cultivation;stress the harmonious unity between essential beauty and body surface beauty. Hence, Chinese herbal medicine cosmetics do not only have the apparent effectiveness of beautifying the face, but also have the inherent function of nourishing and protecting the skin. Traditional Chinese beauty treatment cosmetics have rich connotations from Chinese culture, and also fully embody the verve of the orient females. “In retaining their youthful looks, we must take nourishing the blood and vital energy as the priority. If not, only ornamenting the face or hair will lead to nothing:such a saying has uttered the connotation of Chinese herbal medicine cosmetics.

Way of thinking and viewpoints on the research of chinese herbal medicine cosmetics

Through the discussion of the history, variety and attributive character of traditional Chinese herbal medicine cosmetics, it is easy to see that traditional Chinese herbal medicine cosmetics have their features and connotations different from Western cosmetics.“Chinese herbal medicines” are kinds of substances with special meanings, in which there is a connection between the tangible and the intangible, or between the exterior and the connotation. The application of Chinese herbal medicine cosmetics is certainly not a simple addition of different things, nor is it a mechanical superposition of the natural chemical constituents from Chinese herbal medicines. It has deep cultural meaning distilled for thousands of years, has guidance from the theoretic system of traditional Chinese medicines, and furthermore, uncountable facts have proven that Chinese herbal medicine cosmetics are effective.

Brief summary

Chinese herbal medicine cosmetics have a long history in China, and are closely related to Chinese herbal medicines. The features of traditional Chinese herbal medicines with a profound theoretical basis are natural, and diversiform. Along with the progress of science, China’s traditional beauty treatment will combine closely with modern science and technology,to generate more and better cosmetics that will conform to the body constitution and skin quality of modern people, as well as their usage modes and their aethestic standards.