The wisdom of the ancients turning waste into treasure: Taking Cai Lun as an example, talk about why the ancients want to make the best use of their materials?

"Eastern Han Dynasty Guanji" records: "The classics are prescriptive, and the intention is to use bark, cloth, and fish nets to make paper. In the first year of Yuanxing, the emperor is good at his ability, and he does not need it. The world is salty called'Caihou paper "." bark, hemp, etc. are garbage that is of no use value to people, but Cai Lun turned them into treasures. Papermaking has become one of the four ancient inventions in China. Take Cai Lun as an example. From this we can see that the ancients turned waste into treasure and turned decay into magical wisdom. So why did the ancients make the best use of everything and turn waste into treasure?

1. Due to the strict laws and regulations

The ancient Chinese admired nature, and paid great attention to the harmony between man and nature. Although the ancient commodity economy was not very developed, the ancients produced a lot of domestic waste every day, and the disposal of these domestic wastes It has become a big problem for , because the laws of all dynasties and generations have stipulated that trash can not be thrown away on the streets at will, and the heavy punishment prevents the people from easily breaking the ban. For example, "Han Feizi·Nei Chu Shuo Shang" once recorded that "the law of Yin, the one who abandoned the ashes in the street".

As everyone knows, Qin law is strict, even in the aspect of garbage management, there is a legal provision in "Qin Law" that "those who throw ashes into the Tao are to be punished", and its sentence follows the commercial law. Even in the open and tolerant Tang Dynasty, random dumping of rubbish would be severely punished. The "Tang Law Commentary" stipulates: "Those who pass through the walls and get dirty, stick 60; those who get out of the water, don't talk about it. Can’t help but be the same.” Under such strict laws, the ancients did not dare to violate the prohibition. They could only reduce the garbage as much as possible, or rack their brains and find ways to recycle the garbage and turn it into treasure.

2. Driven by the benefits of it

However, the criminal law alone is not enough. It also needs to be driven by profits to turn garbage into treasure. The emergence of ink was driven by profit. In the Ming Dynasty Zhu Changchao's "Shu Gu Calligraphy Compilation" , it was recorded that in the Western Zhou Dynasty "Xing Yi began to make ink, and the characters were made of black soil, soot, and soil." and ink. The predecessor of is worthless soot, which is not only worthless, but also causes troubles. Soot has strong adhesion and is difficult to clean. So the ancients took advantage of this feature to process it into ink.

In the eyes of ancient literati, ink is not only a necessity, but good ink also has a blessing effect on their own works. For them, "has good ink as if there is a good horse" , so good ink is in short supply. For example, the ink of the famous ink maker Li Tinggui in the Southern Tang dynasty made people lament , "It is easy to get the ink of Li family". Z2z is not only that. Many ancient literati have a hobby of Tibetan ink and taste ink, which promoted the development of the ink industry centered on Huizhou . Today, the name of Huimo is still thunderous. The emergence and existence of ink provided the ancient ink workers with a job to support their families, and the famous ink maker made profits from it.

Not only that, but there are also people who see business opportunities from garbage disposal and recycling, and profit from it. For example, Zhang Zhuo of the Tang Dynasty’s "Association of the Court" records : "Chang'an Fumin Luohui used to remove manure, It’s called a chicken restaurant, and if you return to it, you can earn money by accumulating dung. You will be left behind and have a lot of wealth.” The record of shows that in the Tang Dynasty, someone was already engaged in garbage collection. This makes a fortune.

"The world is booming, all for profit; the world is bustling, all for profit." was driven by huge interests, which made the ancients make soot into ink, which is also driven by profit. Luo Hui used to "tick "Shit" is an industry, which makes huge profits. It is precisely because is profitable and , ancient people will make full use of their wisdom to turn waste into treasure, and garbage into treasure.

3. For the purpose of improving the environment

long ago, the ancients were aware of the adverse effects of garbage on the natural environment. According to "Sui Shu·The Biography of Yu Ji Cai" : Chang'an City "Han Ying is a city now 800 years old, and the water is salty and unpleasant." At the same time, they also realized that it was because of hundreds of years. The nitrate content in the groundwater of Chang’an City increased due to improper disposal of people’s feces and garbage, and the water quality deteriorated and became salty. The Ming Dynasty Yuan Huang’s "Book of Quan Nong" mentioned: "Only no manure is collected, so the streets are not clean. The earth is dirty and the well water is too salty."

Domestic garbage not only affects the natural environment, but also the living environment. According to "Yanjing Miscellaneous Notes" records: "The things people cleaned are all poured out of the door, stove ashes, porcelain shavings, piled up like a mountain , The street is higher than the house for more than ten feet, and people follow the steps, like falling into the pit.” It can be seen that it was because of the improper disposal of garbage by the ancients that they piled garbage outside the door for a long time, which caused the living environment to deteriorate and travel. inconvenient.

Under this situation, people have to make the best use of their materials, prolongs the lifespan of items , , or find ways to turn rubbish into treasure, thereby reducing rubbish output and improving the environment.

4. Needs derived from agricultural production

In ancient China, agriculture was the foundation of the country's economy. In order to increase production, the ancients racked their brains. "The Book of Songs" has a related record: "The tea is decayed, and the millet is prosperous." shows that at that time, it was recognized that plant fertilizers helped agricultural production. But these alone are not enough to meet the needs of agricultural production. Slowly, people have discovered that not only manure can be used for fertilizer, but also household garbage can also be used to make fertilizer. Chen Yan's "Nongshu" records: " The soil that is swept away, the ashes of burning, the chaff that is raised, the fallen leaves of the stubble, are accumulated and burned, and the fertile is burned with dung juice, and it is accumulated for a long time, and it is not noticed." is not only that, but also can make use of animal feathers. Fertilizer production is recorded in Wang Zhen's "Nongshu" : "All animal hair and muscle-friendly things are the most fertile, and they accumulate as dung, which is better than vegetation."

These domestic garbage can not only fatten the land, but also increase the soil power. It can also be used in other production and life. For example, "Summary of Farming and Mulberry Food and Clothing" records: "The colored bean stalks can be fed to cattle and horses in winter, and the damaged ones can be used to plant taro yam." And animal feathers are also different. Usefulness, soft feathers, can be used to screen young silkworms, "Silkworms are born with goose feathers to brush them, but placed in a sieve." and "Book of Pan Sheng" recorded the other silkworms One usage: "For those who can't dung in Susada, use the original silkworm and arrow hybrids to plant them, and the grass will not be insects." Wrap the seeds with silkworm and then plant them, which can effectively prevent pests. Z3z

is a glimpse of the leopard. From the above example, we can see that these difficult-to-dispose household garbage, , were necessary fertilizers and insect repellents for ancient farmers. The reason why they racked their brains to turn rubbish into treasure, was because of the low grain output in ancient times, and needed to increase agricultural production. They had to try their best to achieve the goal with the lowest cost, and the lowest cost What doesn't even cost is the daily garbage.

V. Summary

In summary, the reason why the ancients of China wanted to exhaust their wisdom to turn waste into treasure and make the best use of was because of their respect and love for nature and the need to improve the natural environment and living environment , Z1z is due to legal restrictions and production needs, and because is indeed profitable, the ancients would go to great lengths to make the best use of and turn waste into treasure.

Today, with the rapid development of materials and the rapid renewal of production, we generate countless garbage every day. Although the punishment for littering is not as severe as in ancient times, , and the pressure of survival is not as severe as that of ancient people. It is heavy, but if it cannot be handled properly, the garbage will be effectively recycled and reused, which will destroy our ecological environment, and will eventually affect us.

References

[1] The wisdom of the ancients turning waste into treasure.

[2]The history and achievements of farmyard manure in China.

[3]Summary of food and clothing for farming and mulberry