How did the ancients escape the cold and get through the long winter?

The cycle of four seasons is the best gift from nature to human beings, and "spring planting, Xia Geng, autumn harvest and winter storage" are endless. Under this climatic condition, the ancient people lived the simplest pastoral life with the most primitive way of working. However, in the ancient society where there was no concept of "global warming", winter was not only unbearable but also very long.

Cen Can, a famous frontier poet in Tang Dynasty, once wrote a classic poem "a Song of White Snow in Farewell to Field-Clerk Wu Going Home".

Two of the poems are written straightforwardly. The climate phenomenon in ancient winter is "the north wind rolls the white grasses and breaks them, and the Eighth-month snow across the Tartar sky". From these two poems, we can know that ancient winter began in August of the lunar calendar.

Although it can be seen in August in ancient times, "is like a spring gale, come up in the night, blowing open the petals of ten thousand pear trees" was in full swing. However, the long winter in ancient times will bring unimaginable difficulties and disasters to people's production, life and travel.

If it starts to snow in August and spring planting begins in May of the following year, the time left for the ancient people to work in the fields is only four or five months.

For people living in the ancient south, the long winter had little influence on their production and life. But for the ancient people who settled in the north, they not only raced against time to plant crops, but also suffered from the severe cold in winter.

Northerners living in modern society can not only use geothermal and heating for heating, but also take various means of transportation when they go out. This not only greatly reduces the harm of cold weather to the body, but also does not have to be afraid of travel difficulties even if you need to go out often.

But for people living and living in ancient society, not only did they not have advanced heating equipment, but the houses they lived in were also hard to resist the severe cold, not to mention the issues of traveling in winter. Can ancient northerners only "cat winter" in winter? In fact, the ancients solved this question perfectly through their own wisdom.

The ancient people's coup to avoid the cold in winter

1. The ancient "floor heating" system

In the ancient feudal social hierarchy, it was almost reflected in all aspects and corners of society. Take "wintering" as an example, the method of imperial palace and dignitaries is worth popularizing. Both the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty once made Beijing their capital, and left a Bauhinia city with historical accumulation to future generations.

People in the Ming and Qing dynasties all had some wonderful tricks to keep warm in winter. In the Ming Dynasty, in order to resist the severe cold, besides setting up a "heater" in the palace, a "floor heating" system was also designed in the palace. In fact, the so-called "floor heating" in ancient times is a kind of "floor kang" that can dissipate heat.

Almost all the underground in the Forbidden City has been paved with "flue" which is connected from left to right and connected from north to south. Near the wall of the Forbidden City, there are not only many "charcoal ports", but also a very scientific smoke exhaust system.

Before winter comes, there will be a special person in the court to put charcoal in the intricate "underground hole" first. Start burning charcoal as soon as winter arrives.

after burning charcoal in the tunnel, it can not only conduct heat to the floor tiles. At the same time, it will also make the room with "floor heating" system in the palace warm as spring. During the Ming dynasty, some institutions were set up to manage charcoal and heating, and the officials in these institutions were mainly responsible for the winter heating of the palace.

Although these officials only bought charcoal or were in charge of heating facilities in the palace, they had a lot of rights during the Ming Dynasty. As the saying goes, "county officials are not as good as current officials", and they can directly control the prelude, so many Ming officials will take the initiative to curry favor with them.