If someone says you're a well-dressed beast, you're going to have to be anxious with him. After all, everyone knows that the well-dressed beast literally means a well-dressed beast with a hat. It is often used as a metaphor for those who have a vain appearance, but never do anything, and have corrupt morals and despicable behavior.
So, obviously, well-dressed beast is a derogatory term. Some people say that you are a well-dressed beast, that is scolding you, who can not be anxious?
But many people don't know that in ancient times, people were proud to be "well-dressed beasts". If someone uses this word to describe you, not only will your own face be bright, but your entire family will feel supremely honored.
How so?That's because the original meaning of the word is very different from what it is expressed now. Next, let's take a look at the original meaning of this idiom.
In ancient feudal societies, as a symbol of power, the "clothing crown" has always been highly valued by the ruling class, who have established an extremely strict hierarchy of people's dress.
For example, in the Ming and Qing dynasties, only Xiu could wear a square scarf and a blue shirt. Others who wore it like this were to be sent to the government for punishment. So at that time, square scarves and blue shirts became synonymous with Xiucai.
As early as the Tang Dynasty, in order to facilitate the distinction between the grades of civil and military **, Wu Zetian asked people to embroider birds on the robes of civil officials and beasts on the robes of military officials.
This system tended to be perfect in the Ming Dynasty, according to the "Ming Huidian" record, in the third year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang made strict regulations on what "beasts" should be embroidered on the ** "clothes" at all levels:
Civil officials embroider birds to show civilization: a scarlet robe, embroidered cranes;Second-grade scarlet robe, embroidered brocade chicken;Three-grade scarlet robe, embroidered peacock;Four-grade scarlet robe, embroidered cloud goose;Five-grade green robe, embroidered white pheasant;Six-grade green robe, embroidered heron;Seven green robes, embroidered streams;Eight green robes, embroidered yellow orioles;Nine-grade green robe, embroidered quail.The military attache embroidered the beast to demonstrate the fierceness: the first and second grade scarlet robes, painted lions;Three-grade scarlet robe, painted tiger;Four-grade scarlet robe, painted leopard;Five-grade green robe, painted bear;Sixth-grade, seventh-grade green robes, painted biao;Eight-grade green robe, painted rhinoceros, nine-grade green robe, painted seahorse.
Therefore, the "beasts" in "well-dressed beasts" actually refer to the "birds and beasts" embroidered on the complements of civil and military official uniforms.
It can be seen that at that time, the word did not have a derogatory connotation, but was just a sign to distinguish the **grade, a symbol of identity and status, and also referred to the powerful **. At that time, the greatest pursuit of people was to become famous and official, so everyone was proud to be a "well-dressed beast".
But in the last years of the Ming Dynasty, due to the corruption of the imperial court, the dictatorship of eunuchs, the love of money for civil officials, and the fear of death for military generals, these people bullied the people but were ruthless and did all kinds of evil, which caused great public anger.
Therefore, at this time, the meaning of "well-dressed beasts" has undergone earth-shaking changes, and it has become synonymous with those civil and military ** who are evil and morally corrupt. The common people believe that they are beasts in human skin, and it is very appropriate to describe these people as "well-dressed beasts". Since then, the idiom has become a derogatory term.
In fact, there are many idioms like "well-dressed beasts" that have changed their parts of speech and meaning. For example, the original meaning of this idiom was "a person who is wise enough to protect himself", but now it means "a vulgar style of avoiding the struggle of principles in order to protect one's own interests because of fear of endangering oneself." ”
Another example is "big idioms", which originally meant "to make extravagant rhetoric and speak freely", but now it is a description of people who "make big fallacies and exaggerate their rhetoric", which has a strong irony connotation.
Chinese culture is vast and profound, and in the long years, the original meaning of many words has been little known, and it is very worthy of our exploration.