历史:一战之前英国士兵必须留胡子.是什么改变了这个传统?

Did you know that you could be imprisoned for shaving your moustache? Between 1860 and 1916, every soldier in the British Army was forbidden from shaving his upper lip or else it would have been considered a breach of discipline.

你知道在曾经在英国有人会因为刮胡子而被监禁吗？在1860年至1916年间，英国军队中的每个士兵都被禁止剃上唇的胡子，否则会被视为违反纪律。

According to the Oxford dictionary, it was in 1585 that the word ‘moustache’ was first recorded in the translation of the French book, The nauigations, peregrinations and voyages, made into Turkie. The moustache would need close to another 300 years to become the emblem of the British Empire, the empire which in its’ heyday ruled a quarter of the world’s population.

据《牛津词典》记载，1585年，法语书《航海、游历和航海》翻译成突厥语时首次记录了“moustache”一词。300年后moustache成为了大英帝国的象征，大英帝国在其全盛时期统治着世界四分之一的人口。

During the Napoleonic Wars in the 1800s, British officers were inspired by the coxcombical Frenchmen with their whiskers being ‘appurtenances of terror’. In the newly colonized lands of India, the moustache was a symbol of male prestige. Tipu Sultan, the ruler of Mysore, commemorated his victory over the East India Company with a painting depicting the clean-shaven British soldiers as if they looked like girls or at least creatures ‘who are not fully male’.

在1800年代的拿破仑战争期间，英国军官受到了法国美男子们的启发，也把胡子当成“恐怖的附属品”。在印度新殖民地，胡子是男性威望的象征。迈索尔的统治者蒂普·苏尔坦（Tipu Sultan）为纪念他战胜东印度公司，画了一幅英国士兵的画像，这些士兵剃得光不溜秋，看上去像女孩或至少是“不完全是男性”的生物。

Whether it was this apparent contempt for the clean-shaven British by the Indian men, the need to assert the supremacy of the Imperial race or simply because they liked this new symbol of masculinity, British soldiers began to appropriate this Indian sign of virility. Thus began what became known as the ‘moustache movement’. In 1831, much to their delight, the 16th Lancers of the Queen’s Army were permitted to wear moustaches.

无论是出于反抗印度男人对刮得干干净净的英国人的明显蔑视，还是维护帝王种族至高无上的需要，还是仅仅因为他们喜欢这种新的阳刚之气象征，英国士兵开始使用这种印度男子气概的标志。于是开始了所谓的“胡子运动”。1831年，令他们非常高兴的是，女王军队的第16骑兵被允许留胡子。

However, growing a moustache was still condemned by many as ‘going native’ and the British were discouraged from adopting such fashion. In 1843, army officer James Abbot’s large moustaches raised eyebrows despite his heroic efforts in the far-flung corners of the Indian subcontinent. However around this time there was notably one public figure who dared to wear the moustache: Mr George Frederick Muntz, a Member of Parliament for Birmingham.

然而，留胡子仍然被许多人本土人士反对，多数英国人不愿意采用这种方式。1843年，陆军军官詹姆斯·阿博特（James Abbot）在印度次大陆遥远的角落做出了英勇的努力，但让他出名的还是他的大胡子。在这个时候，有一位公众人物敢于留胡子：伯明翰议员乔治·弗雷德里克·蒙茨先生。

In India, Governor General Lord Dalhousie was not in favour of ‘capillary decorations’. In his private letters Dalhousie wrote that he ‘hate to see an English soldier made to look like a Frenchman’.

在印度，总督达尔豪西勋爵不赞成“毛细管装饰”。达尔豪西在私人信件中写道，他“讨厌看到英国士兵被打扮成法国人”。

The Civil Service, on the contrary, welcomed such decorations. The press too echoed similar sentiments. By the 1850s, prestigious journals such as The Westminster Review, Illustrated London News and The Naval & Military Gazette commented extensively, giving birth to a ‘beard and moustache movement’. In 1853, a beard manifesto was published in Charles Dickens’ widely read magazine Household Words, entitled ‘Why Shave?’. This vociferous movement promoted the benefits of facial hair so well that by 1854 Lord Frederick FitzClarence, Commander in Chief of the Bombay army of the East India Company, gave orders making moustaches compulsory for the European troops of the Bombay unit.

相反，公务员对这种装饰表示欢迎。媒体也表达了类似的观点。到了19世纪50年代，《威斯敏斯特评论》、《伦敦画报》和《海军与军事公报》等著名期刊发表了广泛评论，催生了一场“胡须运动”。1853年，查尔斯·狄更斯的《家喻户晓》杂志发表了一篇胡须宣言，题为《为什么刮胡子？》。这场声势浩大的运动极大地促进了面部毛发的好处，到1854年，东印度公司孟买陆军总司令弗雷德里克·菲茨克拉伦斯勋爵下令强制孟买部队的欧洲部队留胡子。

The Crimean War started in October 1853 and British troops were permitted to forego the razor in order to protect themselves from the bitter cold and attacks of neuralgia. When the war ended three years later, the sight of the returning soldiers invoked inspiration. Queen Victoria wrote in her journal dated 13th March 1856 that the soldiers disembarking ‘were the picture of real fighting men……They all had their long beards and were heavily laden with large knapsack’.

克里米亚战争始于1853年10月，英国军队被允许放弃剃刀，以保护自己免受严寒和神经痛的侵袭。三年后战争结束时，士兵们归来的景象激发了人们的灵感。维多利亚女王在1856年3月13日的日记中写道，下船的士兵“都是真正的战士……他们都留着长胡子，背着沉重的大背包”。

During the war in Crimea, beards, moustaches and sideburns became symbols of courage and determination. Britons back home started sporting similar facial hair styles in solidarity with their heroes on the battlefield.

克里米亚战争期间，胡须、胡须和鬓角成为勇气和决心的象征。英国人在家乡开始做类似的面部发型，以声援战场上的英雄。

By 1860, moustaches had become mandatory in the British Army. Command No. 1695 of the King’s Regulations read: ‘……..The chin and the under lip will be shaved, but not the upper lip. Whiskers if worn will be of moderate length’

到1860年，在英国军队中，胡子已成为必须的。《国王条例》第1695号命令如下：“……下巴和下唇要剃光，上唇不剃。如果佩戴，胡须长度适中'

The unshaven ‘upper lip’ thus became synonymous with military uniform and service. Be it General Frederic Thesiger, who came to prominence during the Zulu Wars in the late 1870s, or Field Marshal Frederick Sleigh Roberts who became one of the most successful commanders in the nineteenth century, or the great African explorer Sir Richard Burton, all had a stiff upper lip decorated with a moustache. Burton in fact, during his teenage years at Trinity College, Oxford, challenged a fellow student to a duel as the latter dared to mock his moustache.

因此，未刮胡子的“上唇”就成了军服和服役的同义词。无论是在19世纪70年代末的祖鲁战争中崭露头角的弗雷德里克·塞西格将军，还是成为19世纪最成功指挥官之一的弗雷德里克·斯莱格·罗伯茨元帅，还是伟大的非洲探险家理查德·伯顿爵士，都有一个留着胡子的僵硬上唇。事实上，伯顿在牛津大学三一学院（Trinity College，Oxford）的青少年时期，曾向一位同学挑战决斗，因为后者敢于嘲笑他的胡子。

Not only in the army but after the mid 1850s, moustaches also stormed into British civil society. The moustache cup was invented in the 1860s to keep moustaches dry while drinking tea. In 1861, an article in the British Medical Journal suggested that America lost an aggregate 36 million working days in an average year just by shaving. Even in the colonies, it was social death for a British man if he forgot to curl the ends of his moustache. At the gentlemen’s club, to present yourself with a shaved upper lip was considered as shameful as forgetting to put your trousers on.

不仅在军队中，而且在19世纪50年代中期以后，胡子也风靡英国公民社会。胡子杯发明于19世纪60年代，用来喝茶时保持胡子干燥。1861年，《英国医学杂志》上的一篇文章指出，仅仅刮脸，美国平均每年就损失3600万个工作日。即使是在殖民地，如果一个英国男人忘了卷曲他的胡子，那就是社会的死亡。在绅士俱乐部，剃光上唇被认为和忘记穿裤子一样可耻。

However by the end of the 1880s, the popularity of moustaches was in decline. Fashionable men in London started preferring a clean shave. Facial hair was considered to harbour germs and bacteria. Shaving beards, while patients were hospitalized, became a norm. In 1895, American inventor King Camp Gillette (he himself with a prominent moustache) came up with the idea of disposable razor blades. The practice of being hair free had never been so cheap and easy.

然而到了19世纪80年代末，胡子的流行程度开始下降。伦敦的时尚男士开始喜欢刮干净的胡子。人们认为面部毛发含有细菌和细菌。在病人住院期间，剃胡子已成为一种常态。1895年，美国发明家金·坎普·吉列（King Camp Gillette，他自己留着一把大胡子）提出了一次性刀片的想法。脱发的做法从来没有这么便宜和容易。

Another serious blow to beards and moustaches came at the onset of the First World War. It was difficult to put your gas mask on if you had facial hair, as the seal would work only on a hair-free skin. Finding clean water at the front was tough too, so shaving became a luxury. Also, as many as 250,000 boys under the age of 18 fought for Britain in the Great War. These recruits were too young to sport a moustache; all they could manage was a thin mousey streak. Even before the war started in 1914, there were reports regarding the infringement of the military order that a moustache had to be worn.

第一次世界大战爆发时，胡子又受到了严重的打击。如果你有面部毛发，很难戴上防毒面具，因为密封圈只会在没有毛发的皮肤上有效。在前线找到干净的水也很困难，所以留胡子成了一种奢侈。此外，多达250000名18岁以下的男孩在一战中为英国而战。这些新兵年纪太小，还没有长留胡子；他们所能做的就是留下一条细细的老鼠纹。甚至在1914年战争爆发之前，就有关于必须留胡子违反军事秩序的报道。

An army council was set up to debate this further and on 8th October 1916, it was decided that moustaches would no longer be mandatory in the British army. The King’s Regulations were amended to delete ‘but not the upper lip’. The decree was signed by General Sir Nevil Macready, who himself hated moustaches and who dropped into a barber shop that very same evening to set the example.

1916年10月8日，成立了一个陆军委员会进一步讨论这一问题，并决定在英国军队中不再强制留胡子。国王的条例被修改为删除“但不是上唇”。这项法令是由内维尔·麦克雷迪将军签署的，他本人讨厌留胡子，并在当天晚上来到一家理发店以身作则。

Later as Britain’s once indomitable empire started to falter, the moustache too beat a retreat. Lieutenant General Arthur Ernest Percival, blamed for the British defeat at Singapore, had an uninspiring moustache. Even Prime Minister Anthony Eden, whose mishandling of the Suez crisis in 1956-57 led to a permanent loss of British prestige as a superpower, had a barely visible moustache.

后来，英国这个曾经不屈不挠的帝国开始动摇，胡子也开始退缩。阿瑟·欧内斯特·珀西瓦尔中将（Arthur Ernest Percival）被认为是英国在新加坡战败的罪魁祸首，他留着一把令人不快的胡子。就连首相安东尼·伊登（Anthony Eden）也留着几乎看不见的胡子。他在1956-57年对苏伊士危机的错误处理导致英国作为超级大国的声誉永久丧失。

The fate of the moustache could be seen to be intertwined with that of the Empire. As the red mark on the map, which at its zenith was seven times the size of the Roman Empire, was reduced to few insignificant dots, so were the decorated upper lips, a bygone symbol of imperial supremacy.

可以看出，胡子的命运与帝国的命运交织在一起。现在地图上的小红点在其鼎盛时期面积是罗马帝国的七倍，但随着它被缩小为几个无关紧要的点，作为帝国至高无上地位象征的胡子也不见了。

By Debabrata Mukherjee. I am an MBA graduate from the prestigious Indian Institute of Management (IIM), currently working as a consultant for Cognizant Business Consulting. Bored with mundane corporate life, I have resorted to my first love, History. Through my writing, I want to make history fun and enjoyable to others as well.

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