What Did the Historical Chinese Beauties Look Like? An Analysis of Portrait and Biography of 100 Beauties ( , 1792).

The aim of this study was to elucidate the appearance of historical Chinese beauties by analyzing Portrait and Biography of 100 Beauties (1792).The 103 women who appear in this work were categorized as historical or mythological figures, and the reason for their inclusion was classified as beauty, talent, or both. Descriptions of beauties were classified as general literary descriptions or specific descriptions of their appearance.Among them, 42.7% were depicted as both beautiful and talented, while 42.7% were only described as beautiful. The remainder were included because of their talent only. Almost four-fifths (78.6%) were described as chaste, while the remaining one-fifth (21.4%) were presented as licentious. About half (48.5%) were queen consorts, princesses, imperial concubines, or palace women. Courtesans and singing girls (17.5%) and concubines of influential officials and scholars (16.5%) followed. Forty-six women had specific descriptions of their appearance, most often of their face (33.5%), followed by their body (16.5%), manners (7.3%), fragrance (4.3%), and clothes (2.4%). The most frequent descriptions of specific attributes were found for the hair (7.4%), eyebrows (6.7%), eyes (5.5%), skin (5.5%), and body shape (4.9%). Among the 114 talents possessed by 59 beauties, the most celebrated talents were entertaining skills (42.1%), followed by literary skills (27.2%), and intelligence (21.1%). Three women were included owing to their make-up skills. Chaste beauties were depicted as more likely to have a happy fate than licentious beauties (OR: 16.8, P < 0.01).This analysis might be helpful for understanding the concept of beauty throughout Chinese history.