Chapter 46 Section five
The closer the Liao aristocratic ruling group came to the later stage of its rule, the more sinicized it became.That is to say, the Liao nobles conquered the Han people militarily, but after several years, they were conquered by their conquerors culturally, in the fields of life and ideology.Conquest in the field of culture, life and ideology is pervasive, and in the end it is inevitable to disarm the military conqueror and make him a complete captive.The court of the Liao Dynasty came to this period, even the old-school nobles who held the narrowest national views looked down on the Han children, but they themselves recited the books of Confucius and Mencius, recited the poems of Li and Du, and had to write lyrics and compose music in their spare time .Ordinary clan nobles are even more obsessed with the wind, chasing songs and chasing colors, and feasting without festivals. It seems that they don't live like a Han scholar-bureaucrat, which is not commensurate with their noble status.This has become an irresistible historical trend at that time.
Empress Xiao was the leader of the nobles of the Liao Dynasty, and she was no exception in this regard. The more she was among the crowd, the more polite she was—the etiquette system of the Han family was self-reliant.
Her husband's long-term chronic illness had exhausted this noble woman who was physically and mentally healthy.She wanted to be such a big "family", and she had to take care of his illnesses carefully, at least on the surface so that she had to taste every bowl of soup and medicine before sending it to her husband with confidence.She has always enjoyed the respect and dependence of her husband.The husband finally died inevitably. His death not only allowed her to sit on the throne of the emperor, but also freed her from the responsibilities, obligations and all the shackles that a virtuous wife should have for a sick husband measured by the standards of Han family etiquette. She let out a long breath from her heart.
But it doesn't end there, a wife who measures her dead husband by the same standard has as many, perhaps more, obligations and constraints.She couldn't forget that she had to suppress the relaxed feeling of taking a breath and the inner joy that sometimes couldn't help showing in front of her officials.Every day, she had to get rid of her pretensions and attend the court as a widow in plain clothes. She could never forget to refer to the "late emperor" with a mournful voice and a mourning expression.This title is always accompanied by tears, and then she conscientiously expressed to her officials that she would keep this precious legacy left by the "former emperor" (tears).
From this performance alone, it can be said to be very successful.The courtiers of the Manchu Dynasty, including the old-school Khitan nobles and Xi nobles, were very satisfied with the queen.The Han children naturally needless to say.
But after dusk, when the empress had already retired to the inner court, only a group of trusted court ladies and inner eunuchs followed her.That is to say, when the object of her play has left the auditorium, she can do what she wants to do as she pleases, instead of reluctantly appearing in a tragic role.She did not hesitate to abandon the "From now on, never look into the Linghua mirror" - in that long period of history, it has become a precept that all widows must abide by. Under the light, she stood in front of a large bronze mirror as long as her body to try on her new makeup.
She has countless sets of new makeup, and even after she became a widow, she has not changed her hobby of designing new makeup, tailoring new makeup, and changing new makeup.This can really be regarded as "the addiction of the widow".But the new set of makeup that Ling Wan wanted to try out was different from the usual ones.It took a few days and hurriedly produced a set of all-silver pure vegan light fish-scale fine armor and a shining phoenix-winged helmet for wearing when I personally went to the battlefield to supervise the battle tomorrow.They hung on the wall next to the bronze mirror, blinking thousands of devil's eyes, as if they were scratching the itchy spots in her heart, but they didn't scratch very well.This constituted a great allure to her, and she couldn't wait to put them on, and couldn't help but let out a cheer from her heart.
Empress Xiao can be given many honorable titles:
She is a lady, a concubine, a queen, and now the de facto empress.
When she is full of opportunities, coordinating officials at every turn, and attending the court, she is indeed a statesman; when she negotiates with envoys freely and manipulatively, she is very like a seasoned diplomat; After the concubine, she persuaded Yeluchun to donate more than 100,000 yuan of money to repair the temple. Today, in the three ancient temples of Yanjing City, the Minzhong Temple, the Beiji Temple, and the Jinggu Temple, there are tributes for the good man Yeluchun and the faithful daughter Xiao Puxian. The stone pagoda that she helped to repair, where she worshiped and concentrated on the Buddha, seemed to be a devout religious person; who would have thought that when she was a girl, she would like to go to the northern part of the mouth to participate in the large-scale hunting of noble men , Sandwiched among the warriors who rode and shot superbly, she still rode bad horses, held a bow, and sometimes shot down one or two elks. In terms of courage and skill, she was worthy of being a well-trained hunter.
She is also a language expert, fluent in Khitan, Chinese and Xixia, and can speak different languages with people from several tribes at the same time.
Finally, on the stage of life, she is also a performing artist with excellent acting skills and realistic expressions. In several scenes of a scene, she can play the mourning widow, the solemn female emperor, and the commander leading the army at the same time. And so on, the different roles are played in every detail, just right.In short, she is omnipotent. Her intelligence and ability are reflected in the fact that she can become the person she needs to become at will.Even so, in essence, she is first and foremost a coquettish woman.A beautiful lady who is good at self-grooming can never do without a mirror and a new set of makeup in her life.When these two combined together occupy her whole mind, she can completely forget about her political, diplomatic, military activities, and the various roles she is playing, and put on this new makeup, facing this precious face. The mirror conjures thousands of expressions and arouses thousands of associations, and finally fully reveals the deepest part of her heart, until she reaches the level of mind and spirit.
Tomorrow's war might be a life-and-death battle, and she thought about it so as not to disappoint her a little.She is an optimist, let's put it aside for now, let's first appreciate her beautiful figure reflected in the mirror.Empress Xiao was already approaching the dangerous age of middle age. Even though she worked very hard every day to deal with military and state affairs, she still couldn't completely digest the fat she had ingested from rich nutrition, which made her appear smaller than she wanted to see. Fuller.
The noble ladies of the Liao Dynasty, like the noble ladies of the Tang Dynasty, like plump skin and slightly fat bodies. This is the traditional aesthetic standard of the exploiting class since the "big and tall" praised by the slave-owner poets.However, after all, a plump figure indicates that a woman has entered middle age, and if she is a little too plump, she will become bloated.An absolutely perfect woman should have a bit of coquettishness amidst her plumpness.Therefore, Empress Xiao paid more attention to controlling her diet and preventing gaining weight, and she tried her best to keep as slim as possible.She called her practice of vegetarianism "recommending blessings for the former emperor".What a smart and virtuous woman!She does one thing and says one word to achieve several goals.It's a pity that the former emperor knew underground, and he would certainly not get comfort from her recommendation-if the former emperor became a little smarter underground than when he was living in the world.
This set of silver armor was made according to her plump and slender figure.She personally drew the size of the pattern with the unique care of a woman, and revised it twice after sending it for production, so it was possible to make it so perfect.Wearing it on her now, there is neither a feeling of being too wide, nor a feeling of being too tight, both of which will ruthlessly destroy the beauty of the wearer.For her, the practical value of armor to protect the body is far less important than the aesthetic value of adorning herself and looking spectacular.In all fairness, she spent far more thought on this set of armor than she did on preparing for this personal expedition.Her hard work paid off.Now when she puts it on, she just feels that there is no place where it does not fit properly, and no place does not make her look exquisite.Even the two plain silk ribbons specially used to mark mourning, hanging long on the chest, have become a beautiful decoration.She has always cherished her own beauty, and has always been satisfied with the new makeup she designed ingeniously, but it was the first time she discovered today that a set of plain silver armor that cannot be decorated with colors can achieve such an unprecedented effect.For this, she really wants to thank the former emperor for giving her this unique opportunity.
She kept stroking the two streamers on her chest, constantly changing her posture, turning sideways from one side to the other side, her eyes never leaving the mirror.Countless thoughts and reveries quickly appeared in her active mind: the sky is full of stars tonight, and tomorrow must be a fine weather.Before Chaoyang showed up, she rushed to the front line under the escort of 300 palace guards led by Li Shi.At this time, the heavy frost on the ground has not yet melted, and the mountains and fields are covered with a world of silver, and the wind is hunting, and the silk banner bordered with blue canine teeth is fluttering and waving.At this time, they were already approaching Lugou, and the early winter sun was rising, turning into thousands of golden rays, illuminating her silver outfit, the white horse with silver mane, the harness made of silver, and the stirrups. Sparkle.Amidst the crowd's uproar, she didn't have time to say hello to her brother, so she brought these three hundred guards in scarlet burqas into the battle, and rushed into the Song army's position, rushing east and west.Those Song soldiers must be wearing dark gray armor and howling like wild boars. In an instant, they were beaten to pieces by her guards, and they were defeated.They chased across the Lugou River to the Baigou River, and then she sat in the barracks, stepped on a chair, raised her eyebrows, and accepted the surrender form personally sent by Tong Guan and Liu Yanqing. , ordered the guards to fork them out of the tent.
in the imagination.The blue-encrusted Subo banner and the three-hundred-collared scarlet burqa both occupy important positions.She has always been an expert in pattern and color design, plain white needs to be set off by bright red, and her heroism and charm must be set off by these three hundred guards. These are issues that she has repeatedly considered beforehand.Once it will become a reality, her smug look can be imagined.No wonder she smiled sweetly in the precious mirror.
Then, with the help of several court ladies, she reluctantly took off the silver armor.Not because of its weight, but because it has so many decorative accessories, it takes a lot of time to put it on and take it off, and it takes a lot of hands to do it successfully.
Trying on the armor was just a prelude to Empress Xiao's evening makeup.After removing the silver helmet and armor, and putting on casual clothes, she really started her evening makeup.Evening makeup is a big event in her life, and it takes almost as much time as she spends sitting in court.Cosmetics, creams, eyebrows, and accessories that are not suitable to appear in front of the public are fully compensated here.She combed and combed, painted and painted, put on and took off ornaments, took off and put on another.She stayed by the dressing table for so long that she saw in the mirror a close-fitting maid standing behind her who dared to show such a sarcastic smile at the corner of her mouth: "Why do you want to shine through this big bronze mirror?" Only when the light is illuminated through, and a few holes are formed, is it enough to be addicted to looking at the mirror.” The maid was negligent for a moment, thinking that the ridicule hiding behind Ke Dun’s back was safe, but she didn’t expect that there was no small movement in this mirror room to escape. Got her eyes.Mirrors have always been secret detectives and informers who reveal privacy. If you are not vigilant about it, you will bring serious consequences to yourself.Fortunately, at this time, Nu Womo also has her own privacy, and she is also afraid of being peeped into her heart by others through the mirror.She was not angry with the maid of honor.Instead, he sent them away one by one in a good voice, and then retreated into a secret room alone.
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