Original title: After thousands of years of accumulation, the awareness of beads in our culture should be said to be very high. In daily life, we are also willing to say that beads are round, jade-like, jewels and pearls. It's just that our understanding of beads today is a little different from that of the ancients. Today, it is generally believed that beads must be round, but there are actually square beads. In addition, there are two kinds of circles, one is a standard circle, and the other is a flat circle, such as abacus beads. Early beads, such as tubular beads popular in Liao Dynasty, were long. In the Qing Dynasty, officials were required to wear the beads when they went to court in the Qing Dynasty. The picture above is a series of standard beads, and everyone may be familiar with watching the Qing Palace Opera. In the court, it was the custom of the Qing Dynasty that all the emperors and ministers had to wear the beads. These three little beads have a strange name to commemorate, and the specific origin of the name is not clear to us. The composition of the Korean beads has profound meanings. Apart from the meaning of commemoration, 108 amber beads represent one year 12 months; Four jade beads are called festival beads, symbolizing the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter; The Buddha's head and the cloud hanging from the back mean a unified beginning. There is a very interesting phenomenon here. It hangs down three strings, which is asymmetric: one side is double-string, and the other side is a string. Some people say that one string represents ten days, then these three strings represent one month, which is also a chronicle method. When men wear it, they need double strings on the left and one string on the right; Women are just the opposite, that is, men are left and women are right. Pay attention to the portrait of the emperor. Both strings are on the left and one string is on the right. But the queen wears it the other way around, with a string on the left and a double string on the right. The part worn with the yellow belt is called the back cloud, that is, when it is worn, it is behind. The material is amber, probably worn by the third-grade officials, which is equivalent to a provincial-level cadre. The material of the beads is related to the official rank, so that the emperor can wear the East Pearl. The material of the beads reflects the status of the wearer. In the Qing Dynasty, there were strict regulations on what kind of beads people wore. According to historical records, emperors, empresses, queens, imperial concubines and concubines, as well as officials with five grades in civil service and four grades in military attache, can wear the beads. However, according to different ranks and identities, the texture of Chaozhu is also different. Only the emperor, empress dowager and empress can wear Dongzhu. In addition, Chaozhu is made of lapis lazuli, tourmaline, agate, ruby, opal and other precious stones. Now it is difficult to buy a string of beads, because after the demise of the Qing Dynasty, there was a time when we thought that dynasty was decadent, so many of its things were artificially cut off and then split up for other purposes. Nowadays, many tapestries of Chaozhu are not the original ones, but are made according to the ancient system. Our research on bead culture is far from enough. Most people may think that it is just a bead with a period characteristic. But in fact, in the process of China and even human civilization, bead culture has never disappeared. In our life, beads are everywhere. It can be the beauty of roundness, soft light and gentleness, and it can present all kinds of beauty. Appreciation of agate crystal beads in Liao Dynasty Tianhe stone hairpin gold beads in Liao Dynasty This string of agate crystal beads in Liao Dynasty (pictured above) was over 1000 years ago, but its decorative style was newly added later. At that time, the beads were not worn like this, but they were re-worn according to modern wearing methods. Qidan is a nomadic people, and nomadic people pay more attention to the decoration of their bodies. Their feelings for beads are sometimes higher than those of agricultural people, and so far. This is a string of Tianhe stone hairpin gold beads in Liao Dynasty (below). It is obviously different from the agate crystal beads, and it is very dim. This is a very special stone, called Tianhe stone, and the method of wearing it is also a new design now, which was not the case in ancient times. Note that its earrings are asymmetrical, so it is required to be made like this. This bead looks dull, but many people like this dull, not everything wants it to shine. A。 The serpent gives B. Fisherman presents treasure C. Ancestral treasure d Ma Weidou's Comments on the Lost Big Clam: The Sui Hou here is not a vassal of the Sui Dynasty, but a vassal of the Sui State. During the Warring States period, there were many small countries besides the seven known countries, and Sui was one of them. Sui Hou surnamed Ji. According to the records in ancient books, he once met an injured serpent when he was traveling. According to the present statement, he loved animals very much, coated the serpent with medicine, bandaged it up, and then released it. After several years, once he was on a boat, he caught up with a strong wind and it was dark. At this time, the river opened and a big snake with a treasure in its mouth appeared. The serpent lifted the orb and gave it to Sui Hou. When Sui Hou met this big snake, it was evening, and it was already dark. This pearl was recorded in ancient books as Mingyue Pearl, which is the night pearl. A。 Pearl B. Silver bead C. Golden bead D. Shi Zhu Ma Weidou's comment: In ancient times, the luminous pearl was also called luminous jade, bright moon pearl and so on. The Night Pearl is the most mysterious treasure in the history of China civilization, and it is privately owned by the royal family. The night pearl has a profound historical background. As early as prehistoric times, Shennong had the king of stone balls, known as the night mine. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there were blue hanging Li and hanging thorns, which were of great value; Qin Shihuang was buried with a luminous pearl, and a candle was used in his mausoleum. The most famous one is the night pearl in Cixi's mouth to protect the corpse. It is said that this pearl can see hair within 100 steps at night. So why do you say the night pearl is so mysterious? This is very simple. Historically, the light source in the dark must use fire. One characteristic of fire is that it can't be touched directly, and it burns when it touches people. Only this kind of night pearl can be held in your hand. It has no temperature but light, which is very important to the ancients. I tried to stick a small luminous pearl on paper, and its light was enough for people to see the words on the paper, so the ancients thought it was amazing. A.99 B. 10 1 C. 108 D. 180 Ma Weidou's comments: Chaozhu is a unique etiquette in the Qing Dynasty, which was only worn in the dynasty. It evolved from beads, so its number of beads has maintained the original number, that is, We mentioned the grade of Chaozhu earlier. The highest grade is worn by the emperor, which is recorded very clearly in the archives of the Qing palace, that is, Dongzhu. Dongzhu is a pearl, and Manchu people are rich in white mountains and black waters. Black water drops refer to pearls produced in Heilongjiang River basin. They think Dongzhu is produced in their hometown, so they think Dongzhu is the best. Dongzhu is also called Beizhu because it is produced in the northeast. A。 Qu yuan B. Fu Xuan c. Bai Juyi D. Cao Xueqin's comment on Ma Weidou: First of all, look at Qu Yuan. We have searched Qu Yuan's works, but we have never found this concept. Look at Fu Xuan in the Jin Dynasty. He wrote a short song, in which he said that once you regarded me like a pearl in your hand, you didn't want to abandon me once. That is to say, you used to look at me like the apple of your eye, but today you threw me into the ditch. This is a very sad concept. Today, when we say "the eye of the eye", we generally mean the daughter, but Fu Xuan's concept at that time was not quite the same as what we mean today. The second person who introduced this concept was Bai Juyi. Bai Juyi was one of the nine old people in Xiangshan, and lived to be 75 years old. But he has a regret in life. When he was 58 years old, he had a son. His name was Atui, and the son died at the age of 3, that is, when Bai Juyi was 60 years old. Bai Juyi wrote that he didn't expect his temples to turn into snow, so he put forward the concept of the eye of the pearl, and he mentioned it more than once in his poems. He wrote in "Crying Cui Er": Zhang Zhuzi was three years old, and his father was sixty years old. He said that my son died at the age of three, just like a pearl in the palm of his hand, but I was 60 years old and my hair was already white. Finally, Cao Xueqin As we all know, Cao Xueqin described in A Dream of Red Mansions that Lin Daiyu's parents regarded her as the apple of their eye. From the arrangement of the whole process, we can see that the pearl of the eye is a cherished concept at the earliest, and it gradually evolved from boys to girls. Today, we usually say that the eye of the eye refers only to girls.