Was Wei Yinglou Manchurian or Han? She had the three ear piercings but used her hair in the Bodhisattva picture for the Empress Dowager. I thought Manchurian people couldn't cut their hair? Or could Han women wear the three earrings too?
The historical figure Wei Yingluo was based on - Ling Fei/Empress Xiaoyichun - was originally Han.
Cutting hair: both Manchurian and Han cultures generally had a taboo against cutting your hair, but it’s more strict against gratutiously cutting your hair for no reason rather than being entirely against cutting of hair for significant symbollic uses (e.g. weddings).
In terms of Yingluo using it in the tapestry for the Empress Dowager: since this is not a historical event but a scene in a drama, it’s difficult to really confirm if this would have been acceptable in real life. But for the sake of providing some in-universe justification for this, I would say that, as the main reason behind hair cutting taboo was that hair was considered part of your body which is sacred, then using it as to create a tribute to the dowager empress would be considered a mark of devotion. Basically context matters.
This sort of “sacrifice” of bodily parts for rituals/expression of religious devotion basically goes along the same line as Langhua writting scriptures in her own blood to pray for her son or Ling Ron cutting her own blood into medicine brewed for Zhen Huan to supposedly show her loyalty and care for Zhen Huan. It wasn’t sincere, but Zhen Huan was meant to think it was.
Earrings: Yingluo was Han but she was a member of a Manchurian court and for all intents and purposes married into a the Manchurian imperial family so would have been expected to conform to the imperial family’s dressing standards.
