In the last years of the Qing Dynasty, men, both Han and Manchu, began to grow tired of the braids that had been dragged to the back of their heads for a long time. Especially on the body of the trendsetters of the times, this braid has become a symbol of burden and embarrassment.
Sun Yat-sen's League, which began cutting braids in 1895, was one of the first groups to cut hair. After that, the Chinese lived outside the mainland and also had the desire to cut their hair.
In 1898, Chinese Singaporeans publicly proposed to cut their hair; After the Gengzi Incident in 1900, Japanese students proposed to cut their hair; In 1903, some students in Hubei Province in the mainland were influenced by the advanced ideology and also advocated cutting off their braids.
And surprisingly, the attitude of Qing ** also began to soften. On October 3, 1910, the Qing Dynasty passed the "Cutting Braids and Changing Clothes with the World", openly advocating cutting braids; On January 11, 1911, he passed the "Cutting Braids and Removing Hair, Improving and Changing Clothes" submitted by Councilor Zhou Zhenlin, and once again publicly put forward the idea of cutting off braids.
The Qing Dynasty underwent a major transformation in 1911, when 300 officers and men of the Qing Dynasty Navy "Haiqi" were the first to cut off their braids. Subsequently, Yuan Shikai, a member of the imperial court, also took the lead in cutting off his braids, which laid the foundation for the Qing court to be able to comply with public opinion and abdicate the Qing emperor.
However, the Qing Dynasty itself could not complete the major task of cutting braids, and had to rely on the power of change of dynasty and revolution. It wasn't until 1912, when the Qing Dynasty fell, that the common people were able to cut their braids freely, marking the end of an era.
So, what is the attitude of the general public towards this change? According to common sense, the Han people should actively remove this hairstyle, which symbolizes humiliation for more than 200 years, just like removing the pig's tail, changing the image for thousands of years.
However, surprisingly, many Han people are already very familiar with this hairstyle and are used to it, but they feel uncomfortable without it. Even Wang Guowei, a master of Chinese studies, refused to cut off his braids, and until 1927, he still dragged this braid into the lake and committed suicide.
Therefore, ** was very troubled by this, and the great ** Sun Yat-sen even issued a braid-cutting order, ordering that within 20 days of receiving the order, all braids must be cut, otherwise it will be considered a violation of the law.
It's like when Dorgon issued a shaving order, very harsh.
Although ** took strict measures, such as Beijing ** issued the "Six Regulations for Admonishing Hair Cutting" on June 23, 1914 and Nanjing Zhong ** promulgated the "Regulations on the Prohibition of Hair Braids" in May 1928, there are still some places where people are reluctant to cut their hair, resulting in different hairstyles on the street, which has brought trouble to ** in various places.
As for the time when the last emperor Pu Yi cut off his braids, although he himself was willing to cut them, because as Emperor Xun, cutting braids was a high-profile event, especially those concubines who were firmly opposed to him cutting off his braids.
It wasn't until later, when Pu Yi's English teacher, Johnston, laughed at his braids that he was stimulated to make up his mind to cut off his braids.
In 1922, Pu Yi, the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty, made a bold decision to cut off the braids that symbolized the rule of the Qing Dynasty. At first, he asked the eunuchs to help him cut it, but the eunuchs refused his request for fear.
In the end, Pu Yi decided to personally cut off the last braid that represented the Qing royal family. This action not only marked the end of the Qing Dynasty, but also symbolized the arrival of a new era.