China people have attached importance to the neatness and beauty of teeth since ancient times. For example, in the Book of Songs, the people of Shuo described the beauty's teeth as "teeth like rhinoceros", that is, teeth are neat and white as gourd seeds. At that time, people did not "brush" their teeth, but "rinse" their teeth. It is recorded in the Book of Rites: "When a chicken crows at first, it is washed with salt. In other words, at dawn, when the chicken crows, you should wash your face and rinse your mouth. Gargling has always been the most important way to clean teeth in ancient times and has been used until modern times.
The mouthwashes used by the ancients are also varied, and the most commonly used is salt water. Not only rinse your mouth with salt, but also wipe your teeth with salt. In A Dream of Red Mansions, Jia Baoyu has the habit of wiping his teeth with salt every morning. Salt does have the function of sterilization and anti-inflammation, and can also prevent periodontal disease and gingival bleeding to some extent. In addition, the ancients also gargled with tea, wine and alum water. It is said that alum water can effectively prevent aphtha. In modern society, alum water and olives are really used for gargling, which can remove bad breath.
During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, China began to brush its teeth. At that time, the way of brushing teeth was different from today's, using the "brushing method." This "tooth brushing method" originated in ancient India and was related to Buddhism.
According to legend, when Sakyamuni gave a lecture under a bodhi tree, the bad breath of his disciples around him was quite serious, so Sakyamuni began to persuade people to pay attention to cleaning their teeth and teach them how to make brushing tools with branches. Later, with the introduction of Buddhism into China, the "tooth brushing method" also spread to China. The Tang Dynasty medical book "The Secret of Outer Taiwan" specifically recorded this method of brushing teeth: "Every time I bite my head in Yang Liuzhi, I take medicine to wipe my teeth, which is fragrant and smooth. 」
It means to soften Yang Liuzhi's head with his teeth, and then brush his teeth with a little powder. This brushing method is also called "Yang Liuzhi brushing method", and the Yang Liuzhi used is also called "tooth wood". Yam wood is the earliest toothbrush in China, which can be described as the "toothbrush" of that era.
If you don't have Yang Liuzhi, you can use other branches instead. If not, just wipe your teeth with your fingers. There is a late Tang Dynasty mural in Cave 196 of Dunhuang Grottoes, in which you can see the picture of wiping your teeth with your fingers. There is also a word "Yang Zhi" in Japanese today, which means toothpick and toothbrush. It should be the name of the Tang Dynasty in China.
Although there was a method of brushing teeth in the Tang Dynasty, the popularity of this method of brushing teeth in the Tang Dynasty is still controversial in academic circles. Some people think that only monks wiped their teeth in the Tang Dynasty, which was not widely circulated in society.
In the Song Dynasty, a real toothbrush finally appeared in China, called "brushing your teeth". Zhou Shouzhong, a man in the Song Dynasty, recorded in the book "Health": "Brushing your teeth is all ponytails. The original toothbrush hair was mostly ponytail, more than an inch long, placed on the horn, and the shape was similar to that of modern toothbrushes. But in the Song Dynasty, horses and ponytails were in short supply, so it was too expensive to make toothbrushes. Therefore, the common toothbrushes on the market are not necessarily ponytail, but may also be pig hair.
Zhou Mi, a widow of the Southern Song Dynasty, recalled in Dream of Liang Lu: "There is a Lingjia brush shop at the entrance of Lion Lane and a family brush shop at the entrance of Golden Lane. It shows that in the Southern Song Dynasty, someone had opened a shop in Hangzhou to sell toothbrushes. It seems that brushing teeth was quite common in the Southern Song Dynasty.
When the ancients brushed their teeth, they did not use a toothbrush to dry them, but dipped detergent on the head of the toothbrush, just like modern people used toothpaste. There are two kinds of dentifrices: toothpaste and tooth powder. Its ingredients include Chinese herbal medicines such as Fructus Gleditsiae Abnormalis, Rhizoma Zingiberis Recens, Cimicifugae Rhizoma, Radix Rehmanniae and Ecliptae Herba, and some salt may be added. The toothpaste of the ancients was pure herbs. The combination of toothbrush and toothpaste was invented in Song Dynasty, which is called "Tooth Fragrant Tablets".
Make a solid cleaner with spices and herbs, fix it on a toothbrush, clean your teeth repeatedly with tooth fragrance, and then rinse your mouth. This kind of tooth fragrance can be reused for many times and is easy to carry. It is a necessary thing for ancient people to travel.
Later, China's toothbrush spread to Europe and was welcomed by the nobles, but it was too expensive for ordinary Europeans. Until the 1930s, a toothbrush made of nylon was born and entered the homes of ordinary people because of its low price.