This year’s cooling seems to have come very quickly.
Friends in the north huddle indoors and enjoy "spring all year round" in the heating;
Friends in the south use air conditioners, electric heaters, electric blankets, baby warmers and even heated insoles, put on long johns and hold your quilt tight to resist the severe cold. .
So the question is, in ancient times, how did people without heating, air conditioning, or baby warmth "fight" against the cold winter?
In this issue of ancient time, I will take you to see the ancient guide to keeping out the cold.
The ancients also practiced "both inside and outside" for heating, with one set for both indoor and outdoor use.
Sichuan peppercorns can also keep you warm? ——Jiaofang Palace
Jiaofang Palace belongs to the Weiyang Palace complex of Han Dynasty. It is the residence of the queen. The "jiao" used in Jiaofang Palace is Zanthoxylum bungeanum. Ancient craftsmen pounded Zanthoxylum bungeanum and mixed it with mud, then added flowers and plants to make a wall insulation layer.
In addition, the walls of Jiaofang Hall are hung with splendid tapestries, the floor is covered with thick Western Regions tribute blankets, and wild goose feathers are used as curtains. Living in such a room will naturally not feel cold.
Moreover, using Zanthoxylum bungeanum to have many seeds and coating the walls with Zanthoxylum bungeanum also means to keep warm and have more children. The record of the Jiaofang Palace in "Han Gong Yi":
The queen called the Jiaofang Palace, and she painted the room with Jiaofang, which means warmth and eliminating bad smells.
From this we can see that Jiaofangdian has at least two functions: first, to prevent cold and keep warm, and second, to maintain indoor aroma. What kind of wall is
sandwich wall? ——firewall
As early as the pre-fire civilization era, northerners paid great attention to keeping warm when building houses. Half of the semi-crypt-style houses lived in by Banpo civilization were underground to prevent wind and keep warm. A hole is dug in the middle of the ground inside the house, the surrounding area is tamped with soil, and water is used to burn a fire for warmth, which is called a "fire pit ".
Fire walls appeared again during the Qin and Han Dynasties. They were first used in the palace. In order to ensure the warmth in the palace in winter, the ancient palace architects built the walls into hollow "sandwich walls" during construction, commonly known as "fire walls". Fire walls have a long history in China. Simply put, they utilize the principle of hot air rising. A passage was dug under the fire wall, which is the "fire path". The charcoal port for lighting the fire was placed under the eaves of the corridor outside the palace. As long as the charcoal fire was burned in the charcoal port, the hot air would follow the fire path inside the wall and warm the entire palace. Moreover, in order to ensure smooth thermal circulation, there is an air hole at the end of the fire channel, and the smoke is discharged from the air outlet under the platform.
A derivative of the fire wall is the fire kang, which is particularly popular in the Northeast. "Song Wenzi" records that the Jurchen tribe in the north "circles the house as a scholar's bed, with a fire burning underneath it, and eating and drinking on it, called a kang, to keep it warm."
Today some rural areas in the north still use fire walls and fire pits. Especially in the Northeast, the warmest way to entertain guests is to heat up the kang and then invite you into the house to sit on the kang.
After talking about large-scale heating equipment, let’s take a look at the heating artifacts that ancient people could carry with them.
Everything is luxurious and affordable - animal fur and paper clothing
The most direct way to keep the human body warm may be to wear "thick" clothing, and the most natural and most effective clothing material is animal fur. This is how we judge the season of costume dramas an indicator of change. In fact, the winter clothing of the ancients was more exquisite and complete than the costumes. Warm hats, leather jackets, cloaks, cotton socks, and velvet boots. The ancients were armed from head to toe for the winter.
Clear smoked mink Emperor Dongji clothing crown, now in the collection of the Palace Museum
In "A Dream of Red Mansions", there are cloaks, crane cloaks, snow hats, fox fur jackets, sheepskin boots, etc. Jia Baoyu usually has a mink-cheeked and full-breasted warm coat that he wears at night. On important occasions, he also has a golden fur rewarded by Jia Mu and so on.
Clear golden yellow and dark dragon satin sweeping ferret fur coat, now in the Palace Museum.
Ordinary people still mostly wear cotton-padded clothes in winter. It doesn’t matter if it’s not warm enough, just wear two if one is not enough. If you can’t afford cotton-padded clothes, there are also paper clothes that are more cost-effective.
Temperature cannot stop the "imagination" of the ancients. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, people may have doubts when talking about using paper to keep warm. In fact, this was also a last resort for poor people in ancient times.Since most of the farmland was used to grow food during the Tang and Song Dynasties, the planting of hemp was relatively reduced. However, papermaking began to develop at this time, so clothes made of paper appeared, called "paper fur". It is not only cold-resistant and durable, but most importantly, it is cheap and suitable for poor people to wear when going out.
In addition to "paper fur", the ancients also used "paper tents" to keep warm. The curtains made of white paper were surrounded on all sides. Because they were printed with plum blossoms, they were also called "plum tents". It can keep out the cold while maintaining elegance, so it is also a bed favored by literati.
Ming Dynasty Min Qiji engraved the illustration " Romance of the West Chamber " "Beautiful Period under the Moon"
For the ancients, paper accounts also had the advantage of absorbing fragrance. Ancient literati attached great importance to fragrance, especially the fragrance of plum blossoms. The popular practice at that time was to hang a wall vase on each of the four tent posts, and then insert plum branches. At night, the moonlight could shine through the paper curtains and reflect the sparse plum branches. film.
A monk of the Yuan Dynasty Ming Dynasty version once wrote "Zhizhang Mei" to sing the plum blossom tent:
Chun melts into the snow of the people on the road,
The plain painting is surrounded by the fragrance on all sides.
The bright moon makes the bed clear and clear, and
sparse flowers can be seen among the white clouds.
Easy to carry, worry-free winter - small heating supplies
Fire basin
In addition to relying on clothes to keep warm, the most important source of heat for humans is fire. In the early Paleolithic Age, 300,000 years ago, people in Beijing had learned to use and control fire.
This milestone progress has had an immeasurable impact on human civilization. Most of the heating methods of the ancients in costume dramas are still closely related to fire. "Fire" is a key source. Starting from "fire", people started from simply "fire". "Fire-warming" has transformed into various heating methods and derived various heating utensils.
The brazier used for burning charcoal is placed in the palace or courtyard in winter. It is mainly made of cloisonné enamel and copper. In the archives of the Construction Office of the Household Affairs Office of the Qing Palace, you can often see records of fitting cloisonné enamel braziers with seats or washing them into new ones.
Ming dynasty filigree enamel hook-shaped lotus pattern-like three-legged stove, which is now in the collection of the Palace Museum
The charcoal used for burning charcoal is also particular. Some costume dramas have also described disputes about charcoal, and different levels of official positions are allocated different charcoal. "Silver charcoal" and "black charcoal" are mentioned in "The Legend of Zhen Huan", "Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace" and "Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace" "Hongluo charcoal", which has a high sense of presence in charcoal, is the name of charcoal.
A filigree enamel brazier from the mid-Qing Dynasty, now in the Palace Museum.
Xu Shen's "Shuowen Jiezi" of the Han Dynasty said: "Charcoal is the remainder of burning wood." The remainder of burning wood is charcoal. "Book of Rites·Yue Ling" records: "In the autumn month, when the vegetation turns yellow, it is time to cut down firewood and burn charcoal." This shows that as late as the Shang and Zhou dynasties, people already had the technology to make charcoal.
"Zhou Li·Di Guan" has the position of "managing charcoal", and the imperial court has officials and institutions in charge of charcoal. In the Tang Dynasty there were charcoal mining and transportation envoys, in the Song Dynasty there was a firewood warehouse, in the Yuan Dynasty there was a firewood bureau, and in the Ming and Qing Dynasties the Xixin Secretary was in charge of the firewood used in the palace.
Hand stove
In addition to being burned in a brazier for warmth, charcoal can also be placed in a hand stove or foot stove to cover your hands and feet. Hand stoves are often seen in costume dramas. They are small appliances specially used to warm hands in winter. The hand stove can even be placed in the sleeve to warm the hands, and is also called a hand warmer or fire cage . Most hand stoves have round and oval shapes as their basic shapes, with decorative changes added.
A begonia-style hand stove with enamel paintings of the Qing Dynasty and consecration of flowers, birds and animals, now in the Palace Museum.
The structure of the hand stove is divided into two layers: the outer shell and the inner tank. The shell can be made and decorated with lacquerware, copperware, enamel and other techniques as needed. The inner tank is made of copper, ready for burning charcoal, and is placed within the edge of the outer shell. There is a hollow cover on the edge of the mouth for ventilation. Through the air conduction between the inner and outer layers, the hand stove is warm but not hot. For portability, most hand stoves have movable lifting beams.
The poet Lu You once mentioned the hand burner in "The Poem of Xilin Fu'an Master Qiding'an":
Karma drives people all over the world to be busy,
Xilin has a burning incense in his sleeve.
If you fail to become a Buddha, you will have to sit in the dojo for ten kalpas.
Foot Stove ( Tang Pozi )
Su Shi once mentioned in a letter to his friend Yang Junsu: "Send a copper foot-warming can, fill his mouth with hot soup every night, and still wrap it with a cloth, and he can survive. "Cold." Zhao Yi "Yi Yu Cong Kao" said: "Today people use copper and tin utensils to put soup in quilts to warm their feet, which is called 'Tang Pozi'." Tang Pozi still retains it until now.
A foot stove is slightly larger than a hand stove. It is a flat bottle made of tin or copper, usually in the shape of a pumpkin, with a mouth with a screw cap on the top. Hot water is poured in from here. After filling with hot water, you put it into the bed. In this way, you will be very warm when you sleep at night. Therefore, the foot stove is also called "foot woman", " Tanglao" and "Tangbozi".
Huang Tingjian once wrote in "Ode to a Foot-Warming Bottle":
I sold my feet for a thousand dollars and slept until dawn every night.
said that its warmth can make people sleep soundly all night.
Incense stove
Incense stove, also known as warm stove and red stove, is a stove used for incense and heating in ancient times. The smoker is a fire storage device made of clay or copper and iron. The ones used in the palace are usually made of copper and have exquisite workmanship. Among the people, they are mostly made of clay or iron and are used to heat rooms. As early as the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the aristocracy used bronze incense burners. Among them, the most famous one is the gold-inlaid copper Boshan furnace of the Han Dynasty.
Staggered gold and copper Boshan furnace One of the famous bronzes of the Western Han Dynasty was unearthed from the tomb of Liu Sheng in Mancheng, Hebei in 1968.
The effect of the smoker is similar to the current "central air conditioner", and its appearance is similar to the coal stove where a family sits around to keep warm.
Tang Dynasty poet Bai Juyi called the incense burner "Farewell to the Spring Furnace". There is a poem that goes:
Spring comes in at the warm pavilion, and the warm stove is a little late.
The evening wind is still cold, and the night fire is left to watch.
Stay alone and stay together for a long time. , Don’t be too passionate
Who can share the language of heaven? The four seasons of coldness
This time’s “travel” ends here.
This year is a "Twin Peaks La Nina Year". I would like to remind everyone to keep warm. As long as we dress thickly enough, the cold will not be able to catch up with us.
See you next time when you "travel"!
Source: New Hainan client
