When I was a child, I grew up in the northeast rural area. Even with cotton-padded clothes, cotton shoes and gloves for body protection, I had frostbite in winter. So how did the ancient people who had more difficult conditions keep out the cold in winter?
The ancient warm clothing
wears cotton in winter. It is now commonplace. However, you must know that the large-scale cultivation of cotton and the popularity of cotton fabrics across the country have been things since the Song Dynasty.
Before the Song Dynasty, what did the ancients wear to withstand the cold?
The oldest solution: wear animal skins.
Animal skins are the earliest cold protection items used by mankind. The Chinese characters used "fur" as a representative for animal skin clothes. During the Warring States period, there was an allusion of "chicken crowing and dog thief", which was related to fur. "Historical Records of ·Meng Changjun Biography " contains: Qi State Mengchangjun was envoy to Qin State, but was detained by King Qin Zhao. One of Meng Changjun's guest pretending to be a dog entered the Qin Palace and stole the white fox Qiu and offered it to King Qin Zhao’s beloved concubine, and the concubine was overjoyed. After she interceded, King Qin released Meng Changjun.
After China entered the farming society, the population increased, and it was dominated by planting. Unlike nomads who easily obtain animal skins, people instinctively turn to mulberry raw materials. Burlap or other plant fibers are the most commonly used clothing materials for ordinary people. In order to keep warm, people have adopted two methods. The first method of
is to thicken the clothes, that is, the interlayer, which is similar to the so-called "windbreaker" today. "Su Yi" has two layers, one with a layer and one with a lining. Su Shi once wrote in "Early Autumn Sending Child You" that "Ziqi looks for clothes and sighs holding my hand". In late autumn and early winter, the clothes can be used as warm clothes. The second method of
is to install fillers in the interlayer. For wealthy people, the silk floss with good thermal insulation performance at home is the interlayer of reeling scraps. Shen Congwen mentioned in the "Research on Ancient Chinese Costumes" that the clothes unearthed from Tomb No. 1 of Chu Tomb in Mashan, Jiangling, contained cotton clothes with floss inside. However, most of the poor people use rough hemp and Ge to fill. There is a story of "whipping reed flowers" in ancient times. It is said that Min Ziqian, a disciple of Confucius, was very harsh on him when she was young. She used silk cotton for her two sons, and reed flowers for Min Zixu. Min Ziqian drove out with his father. Because his hands were frozen and unable to hold the whip, his father was furious and gave him a whip, cursing: "You wear thicker than two younger brothers. Why are you afraid of the cold!" The reeds flew around the place, and I knew my son had been wronged. The story of
whipping reed flowers
Before cotton was used, winter clothing was indeed a big problem, so "cold clothes" were also particularly valued. "Meng Jiangnu crying on the Great Wall" is exactly the story that happened because Meng Jiangnu gave her husband thousands of miles away. In ancient times, the first day of the tenth month of the lunar calendar was the "Winter Clothes Festival."
In ancient times, the border guards were mostly in the cold northern Xinjiang. There are many stories about the connection between sending cold clothes and guarding the borders. Among them is a beautiful legend. During the Kaiyuan reign of the Tang Dynasty, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty ordered the palacemen to make "robes" for the frontier army. As a result, a soldier found a poem in his robe: "Conquering the guest on the battlefield, the cold is like sleep. The battle robe is made by hand, knows who Side? Deliberately add more lines, more affectionate. This life is over, and we will get the future life." The soldier told the commander. The commander entered Cheng Xuanzong again. Upon searching, Tang Xuanzong found the poet-writing palace lady, and said, "Complete your relationship in this world" and asked them to get married. This poem is the "Poetry in the Robe" which was later included in the "Poems of Originality".
Kaiyuan Palace's "Poetry in the Robe"
cold-proof "sacred fetish" cotton began to enter the lives of ordinary people in the late Song Dynasty and early Yuan Dynasty. There are two theories about how cotton came from. One is that it was imported from abroad; the other is that the origin of cotton is China. The main basis for
externally is the record in the "Song History" written at the end of the Song Dynasty and the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty: "It was planted in China between the Song and Yuan Dynasties. Shaan is connected to the Western Regions." The "Dianhai Yuhengzhi" written by Tan Cui, a jinshi in Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty, said: "Song and Yuan derives its seeds from the sea countries and returns to them." The main evidence for
's claim that the place of origin is China is the 3,000-year-old cotton fabric unearthed in Chong'an, Fujian.
It seems that the contradiction in the origin of cotton is not easy to solve: the unearthed cotton woven piece has proved to be true through scientific experiments of carbon reduction. However, since the cotton is of Chinese origin,Why did no one wear a cotton jacket before Song Yuan?
However, since the Yuan and Ming dynasties, Chinese people have had a better winter than ever before, because they can afford to wear warm cotton clothes.
The ancient cold protection equipment
fire kang is the oldest heating method in China. The bedrooms of the northern dwellings are equipped with a kang, which is connected to the stove in the kitchen. The heat generated by the burning of the firewood in the stove pit enters the inner channel of the kang to warm the room, especially when sleeping. This method of heating is still in use in the Northeast rural areas until now.
Fire kang diagram
The fire kang in the northeastern countryside
The ancient palace heating is more advanced. Craftsmen built the walls of the palace into hollow "walls", commonly known as "fire walls". There is a fire channel dug under the wall, and the charcoal port for adding fire is set under the eaves of the corridor outside the temple. Burn the charcoal fire in the charcoal mouth, and the heat can warm the whole hall along the wall. In addition to the fire wall, the ancients also did research on insulation materials. The ancient book "Sanfu Huangtu" records that in the Han Dynasty, there was a Jiaofang Temple in the Weiyang Palace, which used pepper and mud to coat the walls as thermal insulation materials, "taking the warmth and fragrant", which has the effect of keeping warm from the cold. Does Zanthoxylum bungeanum have heat preservation performance? There is no scientific identification. Even if it has this function, how much Zanthoxylum bungeanum does?
uses pepper as the thermal insulation material
Western Han Dynasty Weiyang Palace Jiaofangdian restoration picture
The ancients’ indoor heating equipment included stoves and braziers. "Green ant wine, a small red clay stove. In the evening, you can drink a cup of nothing." In this poem, Mr. Bai Juyi tells two little secrets to keep out the cold, drinking and stove heating.
Green Ant New Brew, a small red clay stove
"sitting around the stove" is a very common winter scene in ancient times. If possible, use delicate copper braziers and unconditionally use clay pots. In fact, clay pots have the advantage that no matter how strong the charcoal fire in the pot is, the outer pot wall is not hot. This kind of clay brazier, when I was young, every family still had it. The most impressive picture is the old ladies in the northeast, dangling long pipes and chatting around the brazier.
The painting below is "West Lake Yinqu Picture Scroll" by Qian Xuan of Song Dynasty. In the painting, the child is warming the fire while looking up at the owner, which is full of life.
Part of "West Lake Yinqu Picture Scroll"
This picture of " Yongzheng Xingle Picture ", the Emperor Yongzheng crossed his legs, put one foot on the foot stove, read the book, smiled on his face: "This TM, Too comfortable!"
One of the "Yongzheng Xingle"
hand stove is an ancient version of hand warmers. The hand stove, evolved from the brazier, is small in size and can be held directly in the hand. The inner tank of the hand furnace is mostly made of copper, which emits burning charcoal to generate hot air; while the outer shell wraps the inner tank, which can not only save the heat of the inner tank, but also conduct the heat from the hollow furnace on the edge of the inner tank. The cover exudes. When we read classical novels or the figure paintings of the Qing Dynasty, we will find that there are many times of hand-burning out of the country. The young lady in "Dream of Red Mansions" often uses a hand stove to keep warm in the cold winter.
The ancients also invented the foot warmer, commonly known as the soup woman, usually in the shape of a pumpkin, filled with hot water, and placed in a quilt to keep warm at night. Its use is the same as modern hot water bottles. In the Song Dynasty, Huang Tingjian had a poem saying, "A thousand dollars will buy a footwoman, and I will sleep every night", referring to this kind of heating appliance.
Qing Dynasty bronze "Tang Pozi"
Qing Dynasty "Xian Qing Ou Ji" author Li Yu, is a rare "high-end technical house" among ancient literati. In this book, he specifically introduced his design of warm chairs: under the chair A drawer is designed to put the charcoal stove, sitting on such a chair, the whole body can be warm.
All kinds of stoves need fuel. If you don’t smoke indoors, and you won’t be poisoned by carbon monoxide, the best fuel is coal. China is the first country in the world to discover coal and use it to make fires for cooking and heating. Yesterday, my article "The Earliest Existing Wood Carving Works in China Was Found Here" introduced that coal products have been excavated from the Xinle site, indicating that the history of coal use in my country has been 7,200 years.
"Selling charcoal, cutting charcoal and burning charcoal in Nanshan. The face is full of dust and smokeColor, black on the temples. Where can I get the money from selling charcoal? The poor shirt is single, worrying and wishing for the cold. "This is "Selling Charcoal Weng" by Bai Juyi, a poet of the Tang Dynasty. It shows that in the Tang Dynasty, the use of charcoal in the homes of wealthy people was very common.
In ancient times, people with conditions often used artificially fired charcoal for heating. There will be many specialties. The family of Yang Guozhong, the prime minister of Emperor Xuanzong Li Longji and the cousin of his beloved consort Yang Yuhuan, uses unusual charcoal for heating in winter. The charcoal scraps are molded into a double phoenix shape with honey. Spread the bottom of the furnace with precious white sandalwood, and it is spotless.
In the Song Dynasty, the welfare of officials every winter was to give charcoal. The prime minister and privy envoy each issued 200 scales. In the Ming Dynasty, this monthly salary subsidy was changed to "chaixinyin", which means that the "heating fee" was not issued in kind. The ancient royal family set up a special "winter heating leading group", which was called in the Ming Dynasty "XinXin Division", specializing in the supply of firewood and charcoal used in the palace, and the supply of firewood and charcoal for officials in the 24th Yamen, Shanling, etc.; later in the Qing Dynasty, it was changed to the "Building Office", and a "Sin Bank" was set up in it. The procurement and distribution of firewood and coal used in the storage and transportation palace are divided into "charcoal army" and "coal army".
In the palace, the charcoal fire is also divided into three or six classes. The distinguished queens and concubines, you can Use the finest red charcoal, burn for a long time, and there is no smoke. The lower the rank, the less charcoal will be allocated, and the quality is poor. It can be seen that if the ancient concubines were not favored, they were really lonely and lonely. It’s cold!
However, compared with the impoverished concubines in the palace, ordinary people’s lives are the worst. It is difficult for ordinary people to afford coal, so the fuel can only choose the so-called "hard wood fire" debris to put into the brazier. When the firewood is not burned out in the stove, the wood firewood is pulled out and put into the brazier. Like plain areas, there is very little wood. When I was a child, I often used sorghum stubble (after the sorghum stalk was cut). The part left in the ground), in addition, there are also corn cobs, which burn for a long time and have little dust. They are better fuel materials. The
era is progressing. Now, there are heating and air conditioning in the winter room, and there are All kinds of cotton-padded jackets and down jackets, hot water bottles, hand warmers, etc. You don’t have to shake your legs in the winter! Compared with the ancients, even the emperor, we are much happier!
