Ancient people had no paper. What can they use to solve the toilet problem?

What did the ancients use to wipe filth after defecation? The Hong Kong drama "Searching for Qin" raised this question. There is such a plot in the play: Xiang Shaolong, a Hong Kong special police officer, was sent to Zhao State in the Warring States Period by time machine and spent the night in a resident's house. He was in a hurry to go to the toilet, and Xiang Shaolong asked the old man for "toilet paper". The old man was puzzled and asked, "How to wipe your ass"? The old man picked up a bamboo from the toilet and said, "This is it! Please feel free to use it. " Seeing this, I can't help but make people laugh. Yes, what did the ancients use to wipe their ass? This paper traces the history of the ancient custom of wiping the floor from near to far against the river flow of time. It should be noted that it is not excluded that some people in some areas still use a variety of other things, but the mainstream is that people generally use toilet paper. Therefore, our textual research on history can only represent the mainstream of civilization in an era.

Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties-Coarse Paper Age

People in the Qing dynasty used paper to wipe filth, and there are many documents that can be verified. This is just an example. In the forty-first episode of A Dream of Red Mansions, there was a passage about Granny Liu having loose bowels: Granny Liu felt a noise in her stomach, so she took a little girl and asked for two pieces of paper to undress. Everyone laughed and drank him. "Not here!" Busy life A woman brought it to the northeast. This description shows that when Cao Xueqin was alive, people in the Grand View Garden and the countryside used toilet paper to wipe dirty.

The organization in charge of logistics in the imperial palace of the Ming Dynasty was called "SiSi". According to "Fifty Officials of Ming History", "I am reluctant to manage the firewood used by our company; The bell and drum department is in charge of the bell and drum of the dynasty, as well as various zaju such as inner music, legend, brocade and rice beating; Baochao Zhang Si made thick and thin toilet paper; The matter of bathing in the mixed hall. " Among them, the Treasure Department is the competent department of toilet paper.

So, what paper did people use at that time? Therefore, we need to know the types of ancient paper in China.

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Song wrote in the "Heavenly Creations": "All the skins of Broussonetia papyrifera (a kind of catalpa bungeana), mulberries, hibiscus membranes and other things are made of paper. Bamboo paper is for people who use bamboo hemp. The essence is extremely white, used for writing, printing, Cambodia and opening. Thick is fire paper and wrapping paper. " It is also recorded that "this paper (fire paper) is burned 17, and daily 13". It can be seen that paper is divided into "leather paper" and "bamboo paper" because of different raw materials, but no matter which kind of paper is "thin" or "thick", the thin paper is used for writing, 70% of the thick paper is used for offering sacrifices to ghosts and gods, and 30% is used for daily necessities.

Distinguishing the types of paper, we also know that respecting and cherishing Chinese character paper has a long tradition in China. According to folklore, there is a reward for wiping dirt with printed paper. In the Qing Dynasty, a large number of precious characters were circulated in the society as sacred laws formulated by Emperor Wenchang. Today, we can also see Xi Zi Fa, Xi Zi Xin Bian, Xi Zi Ji Jian, Wen Chang Di Xi Zi Fa and Wen Chang Xi Zi Gong Fa. Officials even explicitly prohibit printing on paper that can be used to wipe dust. 1873 March 14 The newspaper Shen Bao reported that a woman wiped the dirt with writing paper, threw it into the toilet and was struck by lightning. On February 3, 65438 of the same year, Li Zongxi, the governor of Liangjiang, ordered all paper workshops to preach that it is not allowed to stamp the edges of papyrus and other articles, and it is not allowed to transform old books and accounts into paper to avoid blasphemy. ”[ 1].

The earliest record of using toilet paper was found in Yuan Dynasty. Before the Tang and Song Dynasties, people used a kind of wood or bamboo piece called "toilet piece", probably because the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty were backward in culture and didn't have the consciousness of "respecting and cherishing word paper" of the Han nationality. According to "Two Records of Three Empresses in Yuan History", Bolan, the empress of Huisheng in Yuzong, was also very filial to her mother-in-law when she was a crown princess. She wants to test the softness of toilet paper with her face before her mother-in-law wipes dirty things: "After filial piety, good deeds are in the palace, and the ancestors are called good wives." Stone listens to the words of the holy king, never leaving his feet, uses paper to go to the toilet, and rubs his face to make it soft. "

To sum up, people began to wipe the filth with toilet paper during the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties. Most of this paper is "rough" paper without words. As for whether the toilet paper used in the palace is coarse paper or fine paper, it is impossible to make a detailed textual research. I don't think the princess will rub her delicate face with thick paper. Tang and Song Dynasties-Toilet pieces and coarse paper were used together. Toilet chips are also called toilet notes. Simply put, they are wooden strips or bamboo strips used to wipe dirt after defecation. This kind of toilet was still used in parts of China and Japan in the last century.

Recently, many ancient toilets have been discovered in Japanese archaeology. During the excavation of Fujiwara-Kyo site in Gaodiancho, Nara Prefecture on 1992, the remains known as "the oldest toilet in Japan" were discovered. The toilet remains were found on the outside of Fujiwara-Jingqitiao building site at the end of the 7th century, and "more than 50 pieces of wood/kloc-0 were unearthed in the toilet pit". Similar toilet fragments were also found in the ruins of the split-house toilet excavated in Fukuoka City from about 720 to 730 AD. 11-12nd century, a large number of toilets were also unearthed at the site of Liuzhiyusuo in Pingquan Town, Iwate Prefecture, with the specification of "average length of 24, width of 0.5-0.8 and thickness of 0.5 cm" [2]. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, China had close contacts with China, and the Japanese lifestyle had a great influence on Japan. Therefore, these archaeological discoveries in Japan have important reference value for inferring the tools used by the Japanese in the Tang and Song Dynasties.