The ancient heating artifact

In the long snowy and cold winter, modern people have heating equipment such as heaters, air conditioners, and thermos. How did the ancients keep out the cold and keep warm?

The main heating tools of the ancients It is a type of brazier or stove. Ever since the Suiren family drilled wood to make fire, the history of ancient people using fire for heating began. The ancients put fire into some kind of container, which became a brazier and stove. With the advancement of production technology, fire basins have evolved from mud basins to pottery basins, to copper basins, iron basins, and so on. Ordinary people's homes may only be able to use simple braziers, but wealthy homes are very particular about their heating methods.

Fireplace

According to archaeological discoveries, three fireplaces were found in the ruins of the Qin Palace in Xianyang No. 1, and the fireplaces heated the room directly. There was also a private bathroom for the concubine with a single fireplace for heating, which was definitely a high-end luxury at the time.

The main fuel for the fireplace is coal, and there are smoke holes outside to avoid carbon smoke poisoning. In addition, a pipe with two interlocking tiles was found on the inside of the central wall of the site, which was connected to the stove to form a fire wall, which already had the prototype of a fire kang.

Jiaofang Palace

During the Qin and Han Dynasties, rooms that could adjust the indoor temperature in winter appeared. In the "Ode to Xijing" written by Zhang Heng, a scientist of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the court hall extends to the east, and the warm tone extends to the north. The warm tone refers to this kind of warm-tempered room. The Wen Tiao Hall, also known as the Warm Hall and Greenhouse Hall, is where the emperor and ministers discussed matters and received guests. According to "Miscellaneous Notes of Xijing", the walls of the greenhouse hall were made of pepper as insulation material for the mud room. Brocade tapestries were hung on the walls, fire screens were set up, wild goose feathers were used as curtains, and Western Region blankets were spread on the floor. In such a room with both inside and outside, the body temperature in winter will naturally not be too low. Later, the Jiaofang Hall in Weiyang Palace was dedicated to the queen's residence, so Jiaofang almost became a synonym for the queen.

The method of using peppercorn mud as a house insulation layer has been imitated by many later generations, from Shi Chong, a rich man in the Western Jin Dynasty, who used peppercorns as mud to paint his house in "Shishuoxinyu" to the incense in "Gong Ci" by Wang Gui of the Song Dynasty. The red mud on the wall shows through Sichuan pepper, and the pepper house is favored by wealthy people.

Smoker

Smoker is a charcoal brazier with a cover. It is divided into upper and lower parts. The lower part is the basin, and the upper part is a hollow shield engraved with exquisite patterns. Smokers are generally owned by wealthy families. In the Han Dynasty, bronze Boshan furnaces specialized in incense and air purification appeared. In 1953, an exquisite incense burner with a phoenix button on the top was discovered in the tomb of Zhou Chu of the Jin Dynasty in Yixing, Jiangsu Province. In the Tang Dynasty, incense burners were installed in the palace hall during early morning dynasties in winter. According to the "Heritage of Kaiyuan Tianbao", the royal family of the Tang Dynasty used imported coal for heating: Xiliang State imported hundreds of charcoal sticks, each more than a foot long. The charcoal was blue and hard as iron, so it was called Rui charcoal. When burned in a furnace, there is no flame but light. Each stick can be burned for ten days. The heat is overwhelming and cannot be approached.

Collected by the Palace Museum, a three-legged incense burner with inlaid enamel

The cover outside the incense burner is called a fumigation cage. The fumigation cage is exquisitely made, including gilt bronze and cloisonné enamel. Some large smoking cages weigh hundreds of kilograms and are more than one meter high. Today, smoke cages are on display in the Palace Museum’s Hall of Supreme Harmony, Hall of Zhonghe, Hall of Baohe, Palace of Qianqing, and Kunning Palace. There is a description of the incense cage in "A Dream of Red Mansions": Qingwen only sat around and slept on the incense cage. You can sit and sleep on the fumigation cage, which shows how big it is. Later, She Yue went out, and Qingwen wanted to scare her, so she got out of the fumigation cage without any clothes. The cold wind hit her bones, and she fell ill from the cold to the heat. Only later did the touching details of Yong Qingwen's illness patch up the golden fur.

Western Jin Dynasty green glaze. Hollow three-legged incense burner (unearthed in Yixing, Jiangsu, now in the National Museum of China)

Li Yu in the Qing Dynasty was not only a writer, but also a skilled craftsman. In "Occasions of Leisure Love", he specifically talked about how to design a warm chair. There is a drawer under the chair and a charcoal stove in the drawer. Sitting in this way will make you feel warm and peaceful, and your whole body will not be cold.

Hand stove

The smaller smoker is a hand stove, also called a sleeve stove, similar to the current warm baby. However, most hand stoves have lifting beams (handles). The ancients wore wide robes with large sleeves. You could put the hand stove in the sleeves to warm your hands and carry it with you. It is warm and convenient. It is said that it was first created in the Tang Dynasty. By the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the production technology became more and more sophisticated. In "A Dream of Red Mansions", Jia Baoyu carries a hand stove with him when he goes to school; Daiyu also has a maid who considerately gives her a hand stove when she goes out.

A clear copper cloisonné enamel hand stove in the collection of the Guangdong Provincial Museum

A foot stove

The names of the foot stoves are the most interesting, including foot warmers, foot warmers, and foot warmers. Tang Lao, Tang Pozi, etc. are flat bottles made of copper or tin, which are filled with hot water and can be placed under the quilt to warm the feet, similar to modern hot water bottles. Su Dongpo, a writer in the Northern Song Dynasty, gave a foot stove to his friend Yang Junsu. He also gave a copper foot-warming pot. He filled it with hot soup every night, stuffed his mouth, and still wrapped it with a cloth quilt, so that he would not be cold until dawn. Huang Tingjian also wrote a poem: A rich woman buys a foot, and she sleeps at dawn every night. "Dream of Red Mansions" also mentions Mrs. Tang in many places: Qingwen smiled and said: "It won't be warm for a long time." I remembered again that Mrs. Tang hadn't brought it yet. There are also foot furnaces with built-in charcoal fire, covered with a cover, and transferred around. The furnace body is usually flat. It is a round device, safe and convenient, and is called a mattress incense furnace (furnace).

Mid-Qing Dynasty gilt copper cloisonné enamel three-legged incense burner with flowers and animal ears, collected by the Palace Museum

Fire kang and heating pavilion

The heating method in the north is commonly used People in the Northeast, especially people in the Northeast, rely on the hot kang heads to survive the severe winter of March 9th. A fire kang is a sleeping bed that is connected to the fire channel of the stove and is made of bricks and mud. Fire Kang is also called warm Kang or warm bed. In the imperial palaces of the Qing Dynasty, almost all bedrooms had a Fire Kang. There is also the Di Kang, which is a hollow sandwich wall built with the palace walls, also known as the fire wall. A fire channel was laid under the wall, and the fire opening was placed under the eaves of the corridor outside the hall. When charcoal is burned, the heat can be circulated along the fire channel and the wall to the entire hall, making the room as warm as spring. This kind of room with an entire underground fire tunnel is also called a Nuan Pavilion. The Dong Nuan Pavilion in the Kunning Palace in the Palace Museum has this kind of structure.

Ma Guoxian, an Italian missionary who came to China in the 50th year of Kangxi (1711), described: The stoves used in Beijing in winter are not like the stoves I saw in Germany, the Netherlands and the UK. European stoves stand in the room like small stoves. The stove here takes up no space in the room, and the heat is conducted into the room through the fire channels, which are completely laid under the floor. This equipment is similar to the current floor heating. He also said: According to the European heating method, when our feet are still cold, our heads are already very hot. In Beijing, your feet are always comfortable and warm. Moderate heat fills every corner of the room evenly.

East Nuan Pavilion, Yangxin Hall, Palace Museum

In the Qing Dynasty, the imperial palace had a specialized agency responsible for winter heating, and even the lighting of the Kang was managed by dedicated personnel. There are also eunuchs responsible for distributing charcoal. In the Ming Dynasty, there was also the Department of Cherishing Firewood, which was responsible for the supply of charcoal in the palace.

The above mentioned are all indoor heating artifacts, so what did the ancients do when they went out?

High-ranking officials and nobles could wear brocade clothes and mink fur, and the sedans they rode in also had considerate equipment such as heaters, or they could also Small weapons such as hand stoves and cold-proof weapons can be carried. If you play in a fixed outdoor place, there will also be fire pits and other equipment. In "The Picture of Emperor Qianlong Recreating in Snow Scenery", Emperor Qianlong and his children are watching the snow and playing, and Emperor Qianlong is sitting next to the brazier. And ordinary people have to rack their brains to keep out the cold. Before cotton became popular, the ancients stuffed their robes with hemp or reed flowers to keep warm. Of course, the thermal insulation effect was very poor. In the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there is an allusion to whipping reed flowers. It tells that Min Ziqian was abused by his stepmother. Both brothers wore cotton-filled cotton-padded clothes, while Min Ziqian's cotton-padded clothes were filled with reed catkins. The reed flowers did not keep warm. Min Ziqian was too cold to drive when he went out, and his father thought he was It was laziness, and I didn't realize I had wrongly blamed my son until the reeds came out of his clothes.

During the Tang and Song Dynasties, poor people also used paper to fill their clothes to keep out the cold, which was called Zhiqiu. Generally, thicker and stronger mulberry paper was used, which was crumpled and sewn in. It was more durable than single clothes to keep out the cold. However, This is really a helpless move for poor and humble couples.