At first, there was no cotton in our country. Cotton, a plant, first appeared in the Indus Valley in 5000 BC. It was not until the 9th century AD that the Moors introduced cotton planting methods to Spain. /kloc-In the 5th century, cotton spread to Britain, and then to the British colonies in North America. In fact, cotton has existed in Central America for a long time, and the indigenous people have learned to use cotton to weave clothes and blankets.
/kloc-In the 6th century, when the Spanish entered southern Mexico and Yucatan Peninsula, they found that the local cotton cultivation was very developed. The islanders even spun colored cotton into cloth and made beautiful clothes.
In 2000 BC, China, Guangxi, Yunnan and Xinjiang have adopted cotton fibers as textile raw materials. But in the Central Plains, people only regarded cotton as an ornamental plant at first, and did not know its practical and economic value.
According to the Travels of Suleiman, the cotton seen in Beijing is still a kind of plant and is regarded as a "flower" in the garden.
"Biography of Liang Shu Gaochang" records that "the grass is as real as a cocoon, and the silk in the cocoon is as thin as silk, which is called a white pile.
It can be seen that cotton, which plays an important role in today's textile industry, was originally regarded by the ancients as a plant like flowers and grass in China.
According to historical records, cotton was introduced into China through the following channels:
Spread from north to south to the central plains
South road:
The first route is from India to Hainan Island, Guangdong and Guangxi via Southeast Asia. During the Qin and Han Dynasties, it was introduced to Fujian, Sichuan and other regions.
The second route was introduced from India to Yunnan through Myanmar, about the Qin and Han Dynasties.
The third way is that African cotton was introduced into Xinjiang and Hexi Corridor through West Asia, about the Southern and Northern Dynasties.
North Road:
During the alternation of Song and Yuan Dynasties, cotton has spread to the vast areas of the Yangtze and Yellow River basins. By the13rd century, the cotton in Beilu had spread to the Weishui Valley in Shaanxi Province. Due to the poor quality and low yield of African cotton and Asian cotton, China introduced improved upland cotton from the United States in the late Qing Dynasty. In modern times, all upland cotton and its varieties are planted in China.
Folk application
According to historical records, people of all ethnic groups in China's border areas planted and used cotton much earlier than in the Central Plains. Until the Han Dynasty, cotton textiles in the Central Plains were still scarce and precious.
At present, the earliest cotton textile relic seen in the Central Plains is a cotton blanket found in an ancient tomb in the Southern Song Dynasty. It can also be inferred that cotton was transplanted to the Central Plains in the Tang and Song Dynasties. Since then, cotton cloth has gradually replaced silk and become the main clothing material for ordinary people.
In the early years of the Yuan Dynasty, * * * set up a special kapok lifting department to collect cotton cloth from the people on a large scale, with an annual output of 654.38 million. Later, cotton cloth was regarded as the top of the summer tax (cloth, silk, silk and cotton), which shows that cotton cloth has become the main textile material.
After the Yuan Dynasty, the Ming and Qing Dynasties not only collected a large number of cotton cloth, but also published professional books on cotton planting technology, which shows that the court attached importance to cotton planting.
Song Yingxing in Ming Dynasty recorded in Tiangong that "every inch of land has cotton cloth" and "every room has a loom".
Ancient heating method
In the cold winter, the rich and the poor in ancient times used some warm materials to keep out the cold for the winter.
Fire, stove
In the ancient stone age, people had learned to use fire. At that time, it was mainly by burning firewood to keep warm. In the residential sites at that time, experts also found burning surfaces and pits with fire. It can be inferred that people at that time mainly relied on burning fires to keep warm.
Later, in the Spring and Autumn Period, people designed a kind of "Liao furnace", in which rich people could add charcoal to keep warm, and a charcoal dustpan was usually attached to the Liao furnace to turn the fire into charcoal.
In order to keep out the cold, people will choose to eat some healthy food to supplement their calories in winter. Nobles use pottery or bronze ding to cook food, which is generally used by civilians. Although the materials are different, they all burn firewood or charcoal under the utensils to cook food, which is also the prototype of "hot pot". At the same time, the rich will drink to keep out the cold.
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there were already silk quilts in the court.
By the Qin Dynasty, there were already "fire walls" or "fireplaces" in the palace. Archaeologists found three fireplaces beside the bath pool at the site of Xianyang Palace, two of which were used in the bathroom. These fireplaces are mainly used for burning charcoal, and there will be smoke holes on the walls to avoid charcoal poisoning.
If the poor have some conditions, make a simple fire kang at home to keep out the cold.
At that time, because silk quilts were very expensive, everyone except princes and nobles covered themselves with something when they slept, although there was no quilt or silk quilt. There is a kind of "pajamas", which are covered on the body to keep out the cold when sleeping. This kind of "pajamas" is similar to a cloak and can be worn when walking. It also shows that ancient people had enough wisdom to cope with the cold.
In the pre-Qin period, this robe wore sleeves and a hat. When ancient people sat on the floor, they were warm in their pajamas. Of course, the poor can only make pajamas out of hemp.
Fire, wall
Qin Xingle Palace also designed a firewall. At that time, two tiles were buckled together to form a tile pipe, and then connected one by one to form a pipeline. Then connect this pipe with the stove and surround it on the inside of the wall, so that the hot air in the pipe can be dispersed indoors to keep warm. This should be the original principle and shape of heating.
Imperial concubine's residence
Pepper room temple is also one of the heating facilities in ancient palaces. It is called "Pepper Room Temple" because the surrounding walls are made of pepper flowers ground into powder and then coated with mud. The pepper pollen on the wall is not only good for human body, but also has the function of keeping warm.
According to Xijing Miscellanies:
The greenhouse hall is painted with pepper and mud, with gorgeous walls, mainly cinnamon, fire mica screen, feather curtains and blankets from the western regions on the ground.
Ruitan
In the early Tang and Song Dynasties, quilts were not popular, and people still used quilts handed down from the pre-Qin period when they slept to keep out the cold. Later, in Du Fu's poems, someone mentioned:
This cloth has been as cold as iron for many years, and Joule has been lying down and cracking.
The "cloth quilt" here refers to a larger nightgown. At that time, because cotton was not popular, people would put some silk clothes or reed flowers on it to keep warm.
In the late Tang Dynasty, although there were quilts or silk quilts, the heating equipment was greatly improved.
"Kaiyuan Tianbao Legacy" records that "this charcoal is burned in the furnace, with light and no flame. Each one can burn for ten days, and its hot air is compelling and inaccessible. "
The charcoal mentioned here refers to the cyan charcoal paid by Xiliang country, which is also called "Ruitan" by the royal family.
At that time, people also invented a hollow hand stove made of copper: the oval stove was filled with charcoal or ashes with residual temperature, and a cloth cover could be added outside the stove.
Song paid more attention to tribute charcoal. Song Gaozong not only asked the tribute people to make charcoal into the shape of a beast, but also pointed out that as long as it was "walnut quail pigeon color" charcoal. Although Song Gaozong lived in luxury, there were frequent wars at that time, and he was very sympathetic to the soldiers guarding the border. In addition to the basic salary, the court will also reward clothes and charcoal fire according to the rank of soldiers. So there was a great demand for wages and charcoal at that time.
In "Song Shi Huo Zhi", there is such a record:
Jingxi, Shaanxi and Hedong transport charcoal to Beijing at the rate of Jin17130,000 and by scale10,000,000.
In the Song Dynasty, a kind of warm-keeping appliance called "Tangpozi" was invented. Because of its low cost, it soon became popular among the people. "Mrs. Tang Pozi", also known as "Mrs.", "Mrs. Tang" and "Mrs. Jiao", is also the embryonic form of modern hot water bottles. Generally, it is an ellipsoid or pumpkin bottle made of tin or copper, and there is a hat at the top opening. You can hold it in your hand or put it on the bed, and pour hot water through this opening to keep warm. Many of these cheap and durable heating appliances even spread to the Qing Dynasty.
handwarmer
In the Ming Dynasty, people summed up the advantages and disadvantages of the previous hand stoves and gradually designed many more practical small hand stoves. Small enough to fit in the sleeve, some aromatherapy materials will be added to the hand stove. Later, these exquisite sales stoves became works of art played by nobles.
double-layered wall
In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, in order to keep out the cold, when designing the palace, the architect came up with a method to keep out the cold. They built the walls of the palace into hollow sandwich walls, with preset fire paths and places to add charcoal under the walls. After the charcoal burner is ignited, the hot air will instantly raise the indoor temperature along the whole sandwich wall.
A small heating room with separate stoves in a big house.
The Nuan Pavilion of the Forbidden City in Qing Dynasty is an underground fire path reformed according to the fire-resistant principle, and it is also the embryonic form of modern floor heating.
In the book "Talking about Maids", the maids around Empress Dowager Cixi recalled:
Palace buildings are suspended, just like buildings with basements now. In winter, the burnt charcoal is pushed into the basement by an iron hoist to keep warm, and the people in the room are like being on a warm kang.
A shelf for drying things on a brazier or smelling clothes on an incense burner.
There will also be smoking cages in the palace. There is a note about the smoke cage in Shuowen of the Eastern Han Dynasty. In the poem Gongci of the Tang Dynasty, self-styled Yi wrote: "A beauty will die before she is old, and she will sit in the smoke cage until dawn."
The smoking cage is divided into two parts: basin and cage, which are very beautifully made. Large smoking cages weigh hundreds of pounds and are more than one meter high. Some of them are even gold-plated and enameled in bronze. There are cigarette cases in the Hall of Supreme Harmony, Zhonghe Hall, Baohe Hall, Gan Qing Palace and Kunning Palace. Smoking cages are large and small, and they look very gorgeous.
In folk, there are also simple smoking cages. The basin inside is actually a small black casserole, and the "cage" outside is fixed with bamboo strips. This kind of "smoke cage" has been passed down to the last century and is still in use in many places. You can sit on it or hold it in your hand.
The custom of quilt
Since the popularity of quilts in the Tang and Song Dynasties, a new industry was born: cotton beating.
"Playing cotton", also known as "playing cotton", "playing cotton wool" and "playing flowers", is one of the traditional handicrafts with a long history in China. Since the Yuan Dynasty, this industry has officially entered the historical materials.
In the Yuan Dynasty, Wang Zhen's "Agricultural Books, Agricultural Instruments and Fishing" contained: At that time, cotton was hit with kapok slingshots, with bamboo as the material, about four feet long; Tighten the strings at both ends and play lint with the county bow.
In the old society, many poor farmers and craftsmen in rural areas were forced by life and spent all the year playing cotton wool in other places, which was called "playing cotton lang". Today, although the equipment has been greatly improved, there are still people who stick to this handicraft industry.
There is also an ancient custom circulating in our country. When a daughter gets married, she usually has to buy some new quilts, which symbolizes the warmth and prosperity of the future. According to folklore, the yarns used by ordinary people are generally white. But as a dowry, cotton wool must be mainly red and green, which is festive and auspicious.