Careful people may find that after the Spring Festival holiday, there is an industry that is much longer than the statutory holidays stipulated by the state, and that is the hairdressing industry. Many barbershops will not officially open until the tenth or even the fifteenth day of the first month. Some friends who know folk customs may have guessed that this is related to a custom in our country. Yes, it means "No haircut in the first month".
Because the first month is Chinese New Year, many people have their hair cut in the twelfth lunar month in order to have a new look for the Chinese New Year, so there are naturally fewer people who shave their heads and have their hair cut in the first month. You can't shave your head in the first month, because you have to make money in the New Year.
When the Qing army entered the customs, in order to "smooth the periphery and leave the Central Plains", the Qing court decided to have a strange hairstyle: shave the hair from the front to the top of the head, and then shave all the hairlines around, leaving only a piece in the middle and a long big braid (suncus murinus tail). In order to unify the country, especially the ruling ideology, this hairstyle should be widely promoted among Han people. The medium of implementation is hairdressers, and the Qing government gathered all the barbers in the country and gave everyone a "flagpole" with an imperial edict on it.
Then, these hairdressers walked the streets and took off people's hair one by one. At that time, the slogan of Manchu was "keep your hair, keep your hair and keep your head". This tough approach was unexpectedly opposed by the traditionally weak Jiangnan people: Jiangnan scholars thought that shaving their heads was a great insult to their personality, so they rebelled, hoping to make the Manchu people converge through the strength of the masses. However, with the order, tragedies such as "Yangzhou 10th Day" and "Jiading Three Tragedy" appeared one after another. As a pioneer, Prince Duo of Manchu sent troops to the south, which met with stubborn resistance from the soldiers and civilians of Nanming. Later, many people in the Ming Dynasty paid a heavy price for shaving their hair. In Jiangnan, Shandong, Hebei, Henan, Hubei and surrounding areas, people deliberately let their hair "grow short" in the first month of each year to commemorate the demise of the Ming Dynasty, "there is a sadness of" millet separation "!
money rat tail
A taboo ballad that has been circulated among the people so far: "If you don't shave your head in the first month, you will die if you shave your head." . Now elderly people still have taboos about this. Some media reported that in Changchun, it was very unpleasant because my uncle found my nephew had a haircut. In the uncle's view, this nephew is "too headstrong" and rude. The first month of haircut is undoubtedly a "curse" for him. Finally, under the adjustment of relatives, it was forgotten.
No haircut in the first month is still passed down by word of mouth in many places, especially for children with uncles. Some exquisite parents will be extra careful, fearing that a haircut in the first month will be bad for their uncle. Of course, it seems a little fussy, far-fetched and superstitious.
"Don't shave your head in the first month" and "Dead Uncle" are two seemingly unrelated things, and the source is a kind of attachment and misinformation. According to "Customs", Volume II of Ye Xianzhi published in the 24th edition of the Republic of China, the mystery of customs is revealed: "It is said that in the first month of the fourth year of Shunzhi, the system of Ming Dynasty changed, and the people missed the old man because of shaving, so it was called" thinking about the old ". After a long time, I mistook it for a' dead uncle'. " It is a kind of "nostalgia" not to shave your head in the first month. That is to say, when the Qing army entered the customs, it forced the Han people to shave their heads and keep braids, but the Han people didn't shave their heads in the first month because they were worried about their homeland to show that they didn't forget it and became "homesick." After a long time, "thinking about the past and thinking about the future" became the homonym of "dead uncle", and finally became the folk taboo of "don't shave your head in the first month, shave your head and die uncle"
"Don't shave your head in the first month" is also related to the ancient Han people's attention to hair. "The Book of Filial Piety" says: "Parents who suffer from skin damage dare not. Filial piety begins. " The ancient Han people thought that "hair" was given by their parents and they had no right to "dispose of" their own hair. Hair was considered as important as their own life, so ancient people often tied their hair in a bun. Only when a person sees through the world of mortals and wants to become a nun will he shave his head to show his determination not to love the world. The ancients did not cut their hair, but also remembered their ancestors. Ancient people thought that the importance of hair was almost equal to that of the head, so "shaving" means "shaving". Nowadays, people call "shaving" a haircut, which means just tidying up your hair. It can be seen that with the changes of the times, the concept of "haircut" has been very different.
From this point of view, "it is not appropriate to have a haircut in the first month" is partly a traditional concept and partly a superstition. Today, there is no need to do too much research on the correlation between "haircut in the first month" and "dead uncle" From the point of view of TCM health, it is reasonable not to have a haircut in the first month. "Huangdi Neijing" contains: in March of spring, this is called Chen, heaven and earth are born, everything is glorious, lying at night and getting up early, striding to court, walking slowly, so as to live, live without killing, give without taking, reward without punishment, which is the answer of spring and the way of health preservation. Otherwise, it will hurt the liver, it will be cold in summer and there will be few elders. "That is to say, spring is the season when everything germinates and brings forth the new, and it should not stop the growth of new things. Corresponding to hair, it is to let it hang freely and let it grow freely, but it can't be cut off, which is against the spirit of spring.