Chapter 20 Five, half plate Hu Hua

The one who destroyed the Uyghurs was Kirgaz. Xiajiasi (pronounced as Xiajiasi) is a branch of Tiele in name, but in fact they are Caucasian.They were tall, with fiery red hair, fair skin, and green eyes.Anthropologists believe that this is a physical characteristic of the Teuton people.In other words, the Germanic barbarians were also active in the Tang Empire. Barbarians can rewrite history, and so can Kirgiz. However, after Xia Jiasi beat the Uyghurs to pieces, he didn't know where he was going, and he didn't return to the stage of history until the rise of the Mongols.As for their descendants, they are called Cossacks in Russia, and they are brave cavalrymen; they are called Kazaks in China, and they are hardworking herdsmen.

It is impossible to know when the Kirghiz people entered China. We only know that they were called Jiankun in the Han Dynasty.The custom of Jiankun is: if a child is born with black hair, it will be regarded as auspicious; if it has black eyes, it will be regarded as the descendant of Han general Li Ling.It can be seen that they have already mixed blood, but insisted on their white identity. In fact, the people of Kirgiz don't need to care about it, because mixed blood is a big trend. The trend started during the period of the Five Hu and Sixteen Kingdoms, and it intensified in the Sui and Tang dynasties.Before, it was just a racial variation caused by intermarriage, but later it developed from nature to culture.Hu people's way of life affects all aspects of clothing, food, housing and transportation, and imitating Hu people's customs has become common practice, and even leads the fashion trend.

This is called Hu Hua, also called Hu Feng. Huhua spread from Chang'an to the whole country.This is of course because the capital is always the first to open up, but also because there are a large number of expatriates gathered there.After the Anshi Rebellion, the resident population of Uighurs in Chang'an was always about a thousand, and the number of Sogdians pretending to be Uighurs doubled.During the Zhenguan period, there were more than 10,000 Turkic overseas Chinese, accounting for at least one-thirtieth of the total population of Chang'an at that time, which is an astonishing number.

More importantly, there is no shortage of leading figures who are either rich or expensive among the expatriates.Persian princes, Turkic generals, Tubo envoys, eminent monks from the Western Regions, predators from Sogdia, and Huihe merchants are the backbone and mainstream of this special group.They bought luxury houses in Chang'an and Luoyang, built high-rise buildings, bought land, held important positions, married wives and had children, and never thought of leaving home, just like members of the capital of the Chinese Empire. Those who associate with them are the high society of the Tang Dynasty, including the royal relatives, dignitaries and literati.They linger in Chang'an West City, which is an international trade center, indulge in high-end clubs opened by Hu people, and take part in various parties with great pleasure, because there are not only good Kucha music, beautiful Huxuan dance, delicious wine, but also Orchid, who is as beautiful as flowers and jade, acts as a hostess.

In this regard, the poet Li Bai once said bluntly: when the spring breeze falls in the drizzle, you can drink straight to the orchid with a whip;what!It's no wonder that he "couldn't get on the boat when the emperor called him, and he called himself a minister of wine". Celebrities take the lead, how can the groupies remain indifferent? What's more, the Hu people's lifestyle is indeed very exciting.Playing polo shows the strength of a man, while wearing a Hu suit shows the sexiness of a woman.The former is an invention of the Persians, so it is called polo.The characteristic of the latter is that the sleeves are narrow and cut close to the body, highlighting the figure and curves of women as much as possible. Its demeanor can be summarized in the following two poems: Uighur clothes wear Uighur horses, which are called small waists in the middle.

Haha, little waist. All of these have stimulated the adrenal glands of the young man in Chang'an and increased the secretion of hormones.Li Chengqian, who had long been established as the prince by Li Shimin, even wanted to be a Turkic man wholeheartedly.Not only did he speak Turkic language and wear Turkic clothes, but he also set up a tent in the courtyard of the East Palace and erected a wolf-headed flag, playing the role of Turkic Khan solemnly. The performance is extremely serious.Li Chengqian found a group of people who looked like Turks and asked them to wear sheepskins and braids to pretend to be Turkic warriors. He pretended to be a Khan who died in a tooth tent, and then ordered these extras to cut their faces and bleed according to Turkic customs. Riding a horse around the tent of teeth in silence.Until then, Li Chengqian suddenly sat up and said: If this is really possible, wouldn't it be great!

It is conceivable that His Royal Highness is like this. Women in the Tang Dynasty were not far behind, and their attire was consistently "worshiping foreigners"—wearing earrings was learned from Persians, called Buyao; wearing a shawl was learned from Indians, called scarves (read as matching ); the hairstyle is learned from the Central Asians, called bun pile; the face makeup is learned from the Tubo people, called face ocher.Of course, they will never have only one decoration style, but Chang'an is definitely the vane of fashion. Their hats keep pace with the times.Before Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty, the brims of women's hats had cloth drooping down to the knees; later they only had silk nets hanging down to the neck;

In short, women in Tang Dynasty wear smaller clothes, show more body, and participate in activities more and more frequently.They will even wear men's clothing and ride horses to go outing or play ball.On the court, the heroic women galloped and shouted coquettishly, and the men onlookers responded with bursts of applause. It seems that all the men and women of Datang have "wild minds". Of course there are problems.Therefore, in the second year of Xianheng Emperor Gaozong of Tang Dynasty (671), the imperial court ordered the rectification, but unfortunately the effect was very little.The subjects of this mixed-blood dynasty seem to have made up their minds to become culturally mixed.The only change is that with the rise of Tubo and Uyghur, women's makeup changed to Uyghur hairstyle and Tubo face, although they were told that this is by no means what a Chinese son and daughter should look like.

Excuse me, should this be considered half-baked, or full-blown? Let's just count! But even if there is only half a plate, it is enough to make Datang's world colorful.Few people may have imagined that at that time, Chang'an could already eat the pilaf that was popular in Central Asia, India and Islamic countries, and after Kaiyuan, it was even more fashionable to eat nonsense food.There are as many "Western restaurants" in Chang'an City as there are in Shanghai today. And, of course, wine is indispensable. The luminous cup of grape wine, if you want to drink the pipa, immediately urge it.The relationship between wine and Tang people is too close.Although it was introduced to China in the Han and Wei Dynasties, it was brewed after the conquest of Gaochang.Emperor Taizong even served as a brewer himself, modified the original formula and supervised the production of eight new varieties.

Such an emperor is also rare. In fact, the prosperity of Hu Feng in the Tang Dynasty had a lot to do with the emperor.In the Tang Dynasty, Chang'an was popular in playing basketball, because Emperor Taizong of Tang Dynasty was the first to open up the atmosphere.Li Longji, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, was even a master of the game, and once made the stars of Tubo feel ashamed.Since then, Xuanzong and Xizong are all players, and Mu Zong and Jingzong are all fans. How can playing football not become a trend? There are also buildings. The materials and styles of West Asia were popular in the architecture of the Tang Dynasty, and the technology of cooling in the hot summer was adopted.The designer cleverly let the water flow down from the eaves to form a water curtain to cut off the heat wave outside, and at the same time use the running water to push the fan to send air indoors, which is of course very cool.Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty once received an admonishing official who loved to give opinions in this kind of cool hall. As a result, the official suffered from diarrhea due to a cold and was in a panic.

So, which country is this technology from? Eastern Roman Empire. Hehe, it's not far away. In fact, the so-called Hu in the Sui and Tang Dynasties did not only refer to the ethnic minorities in the north and northwest of China, but also included Persians, Indians, Arabs and Romans.In the two "Books of Tang", they are regarded as part of the Western Regions like Gaochang, Yanqi, Qiuci, Shule, and Khotan, and their importance is second only to Turks, Uighurs, and Tubo. Perhaps, this is a world vision. The world vision is unique to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, because they are all mixed-blood dynasties.I am a mixed race, so I don’t care too much about other people’s races, even though they all regard themselves as Chinese, they all think that China is the center of the world, and they are all ambitious and self-righteous to incorporate other countries and nations into the Chinese system.Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty even said proudly: I mention the three-foot Longquan to rule the world, no worse than Emperor Qin and Hanwu, right? certainly. In fact, although the Qin and Han civilizations were already worldwide, the Sui and Tang Dynasties were even more of a world-wide super empire, whose influence far exceeded its territory.The only thing that needs to be added is: Although Datang has influenced the world, the world has also affected Datang, and the influence is two-way.Moreover, it is not only the power of Emperor Taizong and the Tang Dynasty that we can create a world-wide civilization, but also Emperor Sui Yang.

---

Notes: The second is Du Fu's "Song of the Eight Immortals in Drinking".He reads like a melon, a little yellow horse with a black mouth.