We now have cotton-padded jackets, sweaters and trousers to keep out the cold, so what do ancient people wear in winter?
If you pay attention to the clothes in TV dramas, you will notice that in the cold winter, both the nobles in the palace and ordinary people wear fur coats. From the word "autumn" in Oracle Bone Inscriptions of Yin Ruins, we can also know that the ancients first wore fur clothes to keep out the cold.
The ancient leather clothes were rough, and the leather clothes of the poor and the rich were very different. Noble ones are generally made of precious and beautiful animal fur such as lamb skin, fox skin and mink, which has excellent warmth retention effect. Because mink coats are very precious, ordinary people are not allowed to wear mink. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, there were still strict rules on official etiquette.
Most fur coats of ordinary people are made of deerskin, sheepskin and dog skin. If you can't afford these, you can only rely on flax to keep out the cold until cotton is popularized. The ancients filled robes with messy or old silk wool to keep warm, and the effect was very poor. Until the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, cotton gradually partially replaced silk and hemp.
The second is to use animal and plant flocs. Because although animal skin has a good effect of keeping out the cold and wind, it is still very expensive for many people. So in ancient times, most people chose to use animal hair or some plant hair. Among them, catkin is a good thing to keep out the cold. Catkin is similar to cotton now, but the quality of catkin is very small and it is often blown away by the wind.
However, catkin has the characteristics of good warmth. The ancients often made clothes out of catkin, which kept them warm, even worse than today's cotton-padded jacket. But catkins only exist in spring, so it is not so ideal to use catkins to keep out the cold.
In addition, animal hair is also used as a filler for winter clothes, because animal hair is useless in making leather, so the price is very low. In addition to the wild animals in the mountains, the hair of domestic animals has also become a very easy-to-get material. People can raise ducks, geese and other poultry to produce a kind of down, called duck down goose down, which is very light and has a good cold-proof effect!
The wisdom of our ancestors should not be underestimated. Isn't the down jacket we are wearing now filled with duck down? Everyone knows whether you are comfortable or not!
I hope my humble opinion can bring some fun and knowledge to your spare time. Thank you!
I'm Sasha I'll answer that.
It was not easy to spend the winter in ancient times.
In northern China, in winter, people have two necessities, one is food, and the other is fuel.
Food keeps food, and fuel keeps you warm.
If there is no fuel for heating, people in northern China will have a hard time in the cold winter, and they may freeze to death.
The ancients began to store a lot of firewood and thatch for heating before winter.
Thatched grass is easy to get, but its disadvantage is that it can't stand burning, and it is mainly used for cooking with fire.
Firewood is more resistant to burning, the disadvantage is that it is not easy to handle, but there must be wood in the fire area.
With these fuels. Ancient northerners could spend the winter without wearing long trousers.
The reason for this is the following：
First, the ancients seldom went out in winter.
Most people in ancient times were farmers.
Farmers sow in spring and harvest in autumn, and after harvest in autumn, one year's farming is over.
Farmers in the north don't have to do anything in winter, they just need to eat stored grain to spend the winter.
If you don't need to work, you don't need to be exposed to the wild for a long time, you don't need thick clothes, and it is enough to have heating fuel at home.
Second, the ancients also had warm clothes.
The ancients were not that stupid.
Although it was a long time ago in ancient times, cotton was popularized in the Ming Dynasty, and there were warm clothes before.
These kinds are very common. One is fur.
Fur has the best heating effect, especially sheepskin, which is also a good thing to keep warm today. The second is flax. Hemp clothes are very thick and have certain cold resistance, but the effect is not very good. After all, the price is cheap. For the poor, high-grade fur can't be bought, but flax is very good.
Ancient people used to keep warm mainly because of these two things. Naturally, there are all kinds of clothes such as silk, wool and wadding, but they are not mainstream.
These clothes can still keep out the cold. After all, no one will go out when it is really cold.
Third, the ancients had strong cold resistance.
In fact, human beings are very adaptable, not as weak as everyone thinks.
Inuit people live in polar circles, and the temperature is often MINUS 40 degrees. They can survive, too
Why?
People should adapt to the environment.
In the north of China, except the northeast, which was occupied by other nationalities for most of the time, most areas were not so cold in ancient times.
It was not until the Song Dynasty that scattered wild elephants were discovered in Henan.
Thank you for inviting me!
How did the ancients spend the winter without wearing long pants sweaters?
Great Sage, why are you so forgetful? You weren't born naked and ashamed to go out. You have heard that cotton is softer than leather. Warmer than a long-sleeved sweater. Killed a tiger and skinned it. Did you sew a skirt called tiger skin hastily? I haven't seen you change it once since I put it on So you become an indestructible body!
As for other mortals, sweaters without long trousers would have frozen to death. So there are no ancients on the earth now?
Hides, caves, fire.
Before the Song Dynasty, cotton had actually been introduced into China, but it was not widely spread. At that time, cotton was imported from outside. Before there was cotton, it was difficult for people in ancient China to keep warm. Because there is no cotton, they are very sad in winter, but the wisdom of the ancients should not be underestimated. They have their own ways to keep out the cold.
In ancient times, when cotton was not popular, people generally relied on houses to keep warm. At that time, the house had no heating and geothermal energy, but it could shelter from the wind and rain, which was still very effective compared with nothing. The buildings in those days were different from those in today's houses. At that time, the houses were all semi-underground This is done to keep warm, reduce the area blown by cold air, and at the same time borrow the ground to keep warm. It's still cold in the room. What should I do? Light a brazier to keep warm. There is no carbon to burn, so you have to hold your family and cover them with several layers of cotton-padded clothes. This is not good for heating, but it is not fatal.
Although they don't have a quilt when they sleep, they have duvets. Because of the agricultural society at that time, animals such as chickens, ducks and geese were kept at home, and we could take them off and accumulate enough to make duvets or down jackets. The only inconvenience is that this duvet is furry. After all, there were not many people who could wear silk at that time, mainly to take care of those who had a hard life. What if the poor can't afford a down jacket? It's simple. As long as you store some dry straw to make the bed and put some broken straw into the quilt, you can keep warm effectively.
When the ancients went out, they would make a small stove shaped like a thermos bottle, and then hold it in their hands to keep warm by external heat. If ancient people want to go shopping, go ahead, because they have fur coats besides down jackets.
Although there was no advanced technology in ancient times, animal fur did exist. Some hunters hunt every day and sell their furs. Many people buy fur coats directly, which are comfortable and warm, but they are not as good as today. After all, the technology gap is too big. Through semi-crypt houses, straw mats, fur coats, duvets and other items to keep warm, the ancient people could not guarantee warmth, thus affecting the development of the population at that time.
How cold it was in ancient winter, of course, modern people can't experience it personally. But we can still learn something from the words left by the ancients.
Li Bai described the snow in his eyes in "Popular in the North": "Yanshan snowflakes are as big as seats, blowing down Xuanyuantai." Bai Juyi also recorded the scene of heavy snow pressing bamboo branches in the middle of the night: "I know it snows heavily at night, and I hear the sound of bamboo folding."
Then, how did people keep out the cold in ancient times without down jackets, heating, air conditioning and even cotton?
(Kang that still exists today)
First, make a fire to keep warm.
Although ancient people lacked warm-keeping materials, they had enough intelligence. People often use facilities such as fire pits, firewalls, fireplaces and stoves to keep warm.
In archaeological excavations, we can often find stoves and pits used by the ancients to keep warm in the ruins. This kind of stove pit is generally located near the door, which can not only fully absorb the oxygen outside the door, but also skillfully combine heating and cooking. After multiplication, the stove pit became a fire pit that people still use now.
As early as the Qin dynasty, nobles began to use "fireplaces" and "fire walls" to keep warm. On the site of Xianyang Palace, experts found three fireplaces, two of which were used for bathing, and the other was next to a larger room, which was estimated to be dedicated to heating the emperor. The burning material in the fireplace is charcoal, which not only burns for a long time and produces less smoke, but also cleverly sets up an external flue to avoid poisoning.
At the same time, experts also found a fire wall in the ruins of Qin Xingle Palace, but the production was relatively rough. Just use two tubular tile rings on the inner side of the forearm to make pipes and connect the fireplace or fireplace, so that the heating can enter the room smoothly and play a role in keeping warm.
The fire wall developed into a hollow sandwich wall in Qing dynasty, and a fire channel and a charcoal burner were set under the outer wall. After burning charcoal outside the wall, hot air will enter the fire wall along the flue, warming the whole room. The flue can also directly pass under the imperial bed of the emperor and the kang bed where other concubines in the palace sleep, forming a "warm kang" and a "warm pavilion", which makes the whole palace feel warm as spring.
(The imperial concubine holds the stove)
Second, exquisite and practical hand stove foot stove.
In the Tang Dynasty, wealthy families still used hand stoves to keep warm. The hand stove is an oval made of copper, with charcoal or charcoal ash inside and a mask outside. Holding it in your hand can keep your hand warm for a long time, or you can keep it warm in a sleeve cage.
The foot stove is slightly bigger than the hand stove. It is filled with hot water and put under the bed to warm your feet when you sleep. Commonly known as "soup girl" or "foot girl". Su Dongpo once gave a friend a beautifully made footstool. "Every night when the hot soup is filled with stuffing, it is still wrapped in cloth to ensure that it is not cold."
Three, the palace heating luxury facilities-greenhouse pepper room.
There is a record about the greenhouse in Hanshu: "Wang entered the dynasty, returned to the queen mother, and returned to the greenhouse by chariot." Liu He, the king of Changyi, greeted the Queen Mother and went straight into the greenhouse. Of course, the greenhouse is definitely not for ordinary people to enjoy, but for princes or emperors to shelter from the cold in winter.
This kind of greenhouse will chop peppers into mud and paint them on the walls. This kind of material can play a good role in heat preservation, and it is also very fragrant, so it is also called pepper room. The Pepper Room is luxuriously decorated, with beautifully made tapestries hanging on the walls, mica screens in the room, and a "feather curtain", that is, a curtain made of goose feathers. The ground is also covered with bright blankets from the western regions.
Such a pepper room is warm and luxurious. In Han Gong Yi, the greenhouse is evaluated as follows: "Pepper room is painted with pepper, and the main heating is to eliminate evil spirits."
(burning charcoal to keep warm)
Fourth, specialized heating institutions.
In the Qing dynasty, there were three institutions in the palace responsible for heating in the palace. One is Ruohuo Department, which is full-time responsible for loading stoves and transporting firewood. Nearly 20 little eunuchs led by two eunuchs are in charge. The second is the firewood division, which is responsible for the purchase, storage and distribution of firewood. There are about 10 eunuchs. The third place is the burning kang, which is responsible for lighting the charcoal pit outside the palace and ensuring that it will not go out all winter.
Of course, these heating measures can only be enjoyed by dignitaries or royal family members. If it is an ordinary person, before cotton is used for heating, ordinary people can only rely on coarse cloth to barely resist the cold winter. Hemp, a material, can be used not only to weave clothes, but also to fill robes.
After the appearance of paper, a paper coat specially thickened to strengthen the cold protection effect appeared, which was called "paper fur". The raw material of paper clothes is generally thick paper. This kind of paper clothes is quite strong, which can not only keep out the wind and rain, but also keep warm.
Of course, with the popularization of cotton planting technology, paper clothes, a special garment, have withdrawn from the historical stage.
(Reference:
Hanshu, Draft of Qing History, etc. )
Without sweaters and long trousers, the ancients could use fire walls and hand stoves in winter, like earthworms in the Forbidden City, which were specially used to warm the emperor, and they were warmed by the heat emitted by burning coal and baking the slate above.
Grassland sheepskin, mountain tiger skin, central plains dog skin. Jiangnan is of course a silk quilt!
In the ancient human stage, fire has been the main tool to drive away the cold since people knew how to make a fire. In the era when there was no house, people fought against the cold wind in deep caves and made a fire to drive away the cold. Very thick ash layers have been found in sites like Peking man site, which shows that a large number of fires were built for a long time to keep warm.
Later, the appearance of houses was actually to better resist wild animals and cold. With a house, a stove and so on, it is easier to survive the cold winter.
I have seen the remains of my ancestors in the northeast, ranging from 6000 to 8000 years old, and also from Liao and Jin dynasties. Some of them have been protected for archaeological purposes, while others are barren and have no protection value.
They built earth walls and houses with rammed earth. There are many large animal bones nearby, which have weathered. They should make clothes out of animal skins to keep out the cold. There are many flowers and trees nearby, so it shouldn't be a problem to burn a fire to keep warm. Moreover, there are earthenware, the most primitive kind, which has been fragmented and the skills are primitive, but it should not be a problem to store things.
In the past, there were abundant products, and food was not a big problem. If it is cold, the Inuit can live in the Arctic Circle, so there is no big problem in the north. Rammed houses are thick and windproof, and people use Ursula grass to make shoes, which is better than cotton.
The rich have more choices, and the poor are not so lucky. Like animal fur, the clothes they make are called "fur", which is also the most common fur coat in ancient winter, equivalent to our present coat. Fur used to make fur is varied, including fox, tiger, leopard, bear, dog, sheep, deer, mink, and later wolf skin and rabbit skin. Among them, fox skin and leopard skin are the most precious. Like these, they are all ancient "famous brands", equivalent to Kuchi, LV and so on. Generally, only dignitaries can afford it. People like us who have entered a well-off society in modern times would be less likely to have such strength if they changed to ancient times. Leather clothes such as deerskin and sheepskin are popular because they are relatively easy to get, but the poor are not so lucky. Wear linen clothes at most, and some simple cotton-padded clothes will be fine.