Ten tokens of love for ancient Chinese maidens

7. True lover's knot

Sources of Poems had a story in which Wen Zhou fell in love with his neighbor Miss Jiang. He sent her a crystal pin as a token of love. Miss Jiang opened up her workbox, fetched twin threads, threaded them into a twin needle, and wove a true lover’s knot to return it to Wen. Plain threads imply purity, while needle sounds the same as chastity in Chinese.

Weave a brocade belt into a circular true lover's knot and return it to the lover, It has contained all the unbroken love and passions. Xiao Yan, who was Emperor Wudi of Liang Dynasty, wrote a poem with the lines “dual-Yee waist belt, dream for the end of one mind.” Lin Bu, a poet of the Song Dynasty, left us a Ci-poem reading “Tears from your eyes, tears from mine eyes, could silken girdle strengthen our heart-to-heart ties? O see the river rise!”

Words are the voice of the mind, as in the lines “heaven is forever young, love never gives up, my heart is bound like a net, with thousands of knots inside.” The Chinese word “knot” was simply like a net “bear in mind constantly, fasten the emotions with knots.” However, it could not catch all in one draft the stories of the idiotic lovers in the world. We could only witness the sight with dismay.

8. Hairpin

Hairpin is a long needle used by ancient people to fix wispy bun or fasten a hat with the hair. It was later exclusively applied to refer to an ornament of women for fixing wispy buns. As shown in Historical Records•The Jesters, “there are sinking earrings in the front and hairpins at the back.” Du Fu also left us a line in Spring View that “I stroke my white hair．It has grown too thin To hold the hairpins any more．”

China’s ethnic minorities have the tradition of using hairpins to fix up hair and make hairdressing. Their hairpins are of diversified varieties, with long histories and rich national features and cultural implications.

In the Tang, Song and later dynasties, hairpins became increasingly popular. Women in the Dunhuang frescoes of the Tang Dynasty were decorated with all kinds of charming hairpins. Paintings of the Tang Dynasty were also permeated with women wearing hairpins. Chronicles of the Song Dynasty.Records of Traveling presents that “At the sixth year under the reign of Emperor Yuanjia of Song Dynasty, women in the society would knot their hair…. Their heads are decorated with pattern-based hairpins.” Lu You, a poet of the Song Dynasty, wrote in Story about Going to Sichuan that women of Southwest China bore headwear comprising “six silver hairpins, backed with elephant tooth comb as large as hand.”

During the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) periods, hairpins presented multiple styles, featuring great many changes at the tip of hairpins. The most popular forms included flowers, birds, fish, insects and beasts. The frequently borrowed flowers were plum blossoms, lotus flowers, chrysanthemums, peach blossoms, peonies and lotuses.

Hairpins were favorites of men when they present gifts to their lovers. Women often took them as tokens of love for their boyfriends. Many miserable love stories took place, simply because of one hairpin. The currently popular hairpins almost fully duplicate the ancient ones in external looks and materials. Gold and silver hairpins remain the best loved for women these days.

9. Twin-hairpins

Twin-hairpins are largely flower-shaped ornaments made of pearls, jade, gold or silver. They are connected with two or more long needles to fix up wispy buns of hair. They are inserted to the side of the temples.

Twin-hairpins are not only ornaments. They are objects expressing loves. When lovers or couples parted in the old days, the women would pick up twin-hairpins from the hair, presenting one to her lover or husband while keeping the other with herself, till they were reunited. Xin Qiji wrote in his Ci-poem Near Zhu ying tai. Late Spring that “The precious hairpin is open, besides the peach ferry, willow mist darkening the eastern beach.” It expressed her reluctance to part. Nalan Xingde also expressed similar pains of parting with the beloved in a Ci-poem, reading “Separated are the precious twin-hairpins, I wet my garment to win fate with you.”

10. Skirt

"Whereto answer the exultation? Three white fine skirts."

In ancient China, thin silk was referred to as Wan Su (white, fine gauze), while skirts were developed from Chang. Ancient cloth and silk fabrics were narrow in breadth. One skirt would be made by putting together a number of fabrics. Thus, there came the term Qun (skirt), a homophone of “many”, as illustrated in Explanation on Names • Explanation on Clothes, by Liu Xi of Han Dynasty. Xin Yannian, a poet of Han Dynasty, wrote in his poem Captain of the Guard that “In a long gown with double girdle, Wide sleeves and a jacket with mimosa design.”

"I feel chaos in the world to see red turn green, wan and sallow I remember you of fond. Refuse to believe I shed tears, open the case I take megranate skirt.” The most heart-warming poem on skirts was As One Wishes， composed by Wu Zetian, China’s only empress in history. For whom did she write the poem? For herself! They might be as heroic as Wu Zetian, but women in this world would equally feel tired in the human society. When they saw cherry bays under moonlight, they also had no way to flee from longing and languish in the long night….

People prefer to witness their love with tokens of love. Each token is endowed with loyal faith in love. Some of the tokens of love as mentioned above have stood apart from our present lives. Some others remain delivering passion among lovers.