Can't wash away the "lead" powder? If you can't wash it away, then use it to cover your face!

"The hair is loosely tied up, and the makeup is lightly done. The green smoke and green mist are light, and the flying catkins are uncertain. It is better not to see each other, and how can love be heartless. After the music and singing, I just sobered up, and the moon is slanting in the deep courtyard, and people are quiet."

Sima Guang, a politician in the Northern Song Dynasty, was not only good at smashing jars, writing "Zizhi Tongjian", and being strict with himself, but he also had a side that showed his true feelings for beauties. In this poem "Xijiang Yue", he described a beautiful dancer with a loose bun on her head, a light face of makeup, and a graceful figure. The makeup mentioned in the poem is a powdered cosmetic made of lead through special processing, which has the effect of whitening. We often hear the phrase "wash away the makeup", which originally means to wash off the makeup on the face, and is extended to mean to break away from the hypocrisy of the world.

Beauty makeup (Picture from the Internet, please delete if infringed)

Lead is a common metal element with a low melting point, easy smelting, strong ductility, easy casting, corrosion resistance, and beautiful luster. It is one of the earliest metals used by humans. For example, the ancient Roman Empire was extremely dependent on lead. Lead products can be seen everywhere, from tableware to toys, from jewelry to currency. Lead barrels can not only store wine longer than containers made of other materials, but also make the wine sweeter (wine and lead react chemically to form lead acetate). The entire empire was intoxicated with the beauty of lead, and other materials had to say awkwardly, "Then I'll leave!"

The ancient Roman Empire was extremely dependent on lead (picture from the Internet, please delete if infringed)

In my country, the technology of making copper-lead alloy was mastered as early as the Shang Dynasty. For example, in 1969, the Freer Gallery of Art in the United States tested 30 bronze wine vessels from the Shang Dynasty and found that the average proportions of their components were 77.2% copper, 12.5% ​​tin, and 7.2% lead.

Bronze is an alloy of copper, lead and tin (picture from the Internet, please delete if infringement)

After the Shang Dynasty, the research and application of lead and its compounds became more detailed. For example, in the "Compendium of Materia Medica", which states that everything can be used as medicine, it is recorded that "Jin Gong has the most changes: the first change becomes Hu Fen; the second change becomes Huang Dan; the third change becomes Myrrh; the fourth change becomes Bai Shuang." Jin Gong is the ancient writing of the word "lead", which is split into "鈆". The four changes become four compounds of lead. Hu Fen is basic lead carbonate, which is the lead mentioned above. It is white and delicate in color. It is used for makeup on the face, hence the name "Hu", and it does not mean it was imported from the Western Regions; Huang Dan is yellow lead oxide, which can generate red lead tetroxide (red lead) after calcination, which is used for alchemy or external disinfection, as well as making preserved eggs; Myrrh is also lead oxide, used to reduce swelling and kill bacteria; Bai Shuang is lead acetate, also known as lead sugar, which, in addition to making wine sweeter, was used in ancient my country to stop bleeding, detoxify and make alchemy.

Lead-based medicine (Picture from the Internet, please delete if infringed)

Lead is not only widely used, but also widely distributed in nature. It is produced on all continents of the world. There are currently more than 60 known lead-containing minerals, among which galena is the most important because its lead content is as high as 86.6%. In addition, galena is produced in medium- and low-temperature hydrothermal deposits and contact metamorphic deposits. It is not only often associated with pyrite, sphalerite, chalcopyrite, quartz, calcite, etc., but is also often mixed with silver. In some deposits with high silver content, the income from refining silver even far exceeds that from smelting lead. It is also one of the important sources of silver mines.

Galena specimens in the collection

However, as a toxic metal element, lead is also harmful to the environment and health. For example, the demise of the Roman Empire mentioned above was also related to the abuse of lead. Today, we still need to use lead, and it even plays an irreplaceable role in many fields, such as the manufacture of lead-acid batteries. The use of lead is like the makeup on the face of human civilization that can never be washed off. Since it can never be washed off, at least don't use it to cover your face.