So in ancient times, fireplaces and fire walls were excellent ways to keep warm. The ancients built the wall of the house into a hollow sandwich wall, left a fire path in the wall, and punched holes at the end of the fire path to exhaust smoke; The charcoal burner for the fire is under the eaves of the house. After burning charcoal, heat can be transferred to the whole house along the sandwich wall, which is called "fire wall".
fireplace
On the geographical map, the farther north, the colder and longer winter. In addition to making fire walls for heating, the ancients also had another similar heating method-fire kang. General kang will have a stove mouth and a smoke mouth, which are used for heating and smoke exhaust. In northern China, the mouth of the kang is mostly connected with the stove. When cooking, fireworks flow into the kang hole along the stove mouth, and the whole room will become warm as spring.
Fire wall and fire kang are both measures for ordinary people to keep warm, but for nobles, the heating facilities are more exquisite. For example, in the Western Han Dynasty, there was a greenhouse hall in the court, which was equipped with various warm-keeping facilities. "Miscellanies of Xijing" records: "The greenhouse hall is painted with pepper paste, with brocade flowers on the wall, mainly cinnamon, and a fire mica screen ..."
At that time, the palace where the queen lived was called "Pepper Room Temple", and the mixture of pepper and soil was used as the material for painting the walls, which not only allowed the temperature to be taken away, but also gave off a fragrance that seemed to be nonexistent.
For those poor families who can't even guarantee their lives, they can only use natural light to keep warm in winter. Under normal circumstances, when they build a house, they will choose the orientation of "sitting north facing south", let the warm sunshine shine into the house, and then lay a bamboo ceiling or other "floor" on the roof to keep warm.
heated kang
In winter, the human body has a high demand for calories, so the ancients would choose to eat some warm food as much as possible to keep their body temperature. Such as ginger, mutton, dog meat and so on. Ginger has the effect of sweating, and mutton can warm the spleen and stomach, tonify the middle energizer and tonify the kidney. Dog meat can enhance physical strength, enrich blood, enhance people's physique, improve digestion and promote blood circulation. So the ancients kept warm by keeping in good health in winter.
In addition, the ancients believed that drinking alcohol could warm the body, so drinking alcohol in winter was more popular among ancient cold-proof measures. In ancient times, using grain to make wine was cheap, and most people had the conditions to make wine. Bai Juyi mentioned in a suggestion to his friend Liu: "There is a ray of green in the old bottle and a little red in the static furnace. It feels like snow outside at dusk. How about a glass of wine inside? ? "In the cold winter, a scholar can sit around the fire, make a pot of hot tea or wine, and have a drink with friends at night, which can not only talk about life, but also dispel the cold. It is really comfortable.
Drinking is bound to eat something, so hot pot is a standard in winter diet. There is a saying that hot pot was called "antique soup" in ancient times, probably because of the "splash" sound when food was put into boiling water. This title sounds very vivid, the key is to eat hot pot while drinking, even if it is cold, it will not feel cold.
Charcoal heating
Before the Song Dynasty, there were not many hot pots, which were mostly loved by literati and nobles. It was not until the Song Dynasty that eating hot pot became common. In Lin Hong's cookbook Shan Jia Qing Gong in the Southern Song Dynasty, there is an introduction similar to eating hot pot.
In all kinds of warm-keeping measures, the most direct and straightforward thing is to wear clothes to keep out the cold.
Winter clothes, modern people have cotton-padded jackets and down jackets, but the ancients were not so well treated. According to historical records, in winter, poor families have no money to buy cotton-padded clothes, so they can only sew catkins and soft parts of reed plants into clothes or quilt covers to keep out the cold. After the Song Dynasty, cotton was planted in a large area, and this situation gradually improved.
For wealthy families with well-off families, they will choose to make coats and cloaks with animal fur, which can keep out the wind and not get wet. In various organs and tissues of the human body, hands, feet and ears are relatively easy to get frostbite, so the ancients made various styles of gloves and ear protection caps. Some short gloves exposed fingers, and some could cover all fingers, and they were embroidered with patterns, colorful and very fashionable.
Winter is very long.
The warm-keeping measures for the head are even more varied. In the Tang dynasty, there was a kind of "fragrant hat" introduced from the western regions, also known as "ear hat". Cotton ear protectors are sewn on both sides of the hat, which is just right for ear protection in winter. In the Yuan Dynasty, rich women used trowels to keep warm, and there were "lying rabbits" and "Zhao Jun sets" with different names, but their functions were basically similar.
No matter today or in ancient times, no matter how warm the room is, people always have to go out. In ancient times, riding a horse or riding a carriage was a relatively fast mode of transportation. When traveling in winter, people will wear hoods to keep out the wind and sand. It is said that Kublai Khan has many fur warm hats and silver rat warm hats, which are used to keep warm when going out, and the effect is very good.
In addition, there is something called "ear warming", which is made of fox skin, a bit like the earmuffs used by modern people.