“Prosperity of Gusu” (partial view) by Xu Yang, a court painter of the Qing Dynasty, was originally called “A Picture of Prosperity and Prosperity”. Officials bowed to each other outside the house where the wedding was held. (Image source: Public domain)
In late winter and early spring, the weather alternates between hot and cold, and the occasional cold wind seems to be more biting and biting than the cold wind in early winter. Just imagine, the closest to modernMing and Qing Dynastiesperiod, Ming people,Qing peopleStill notHeatingIt can be used. In addition to reciting winter-related poems to entertain oneself and others on cold days, is there any way to keep warm that will make people’s eyes brighter today? In fact, there were many objects used to keep out the cold during the Ming and Qing dynasties, includingpocket room,Wan Zi Kang,end shield,hand stove,Ashura,Tang PoziAnd so on, each has its own functions and characteristics. Today let’s learn about the top 8 heating objects of the Ming and Qing dynasties!
From the mid-Ming Dynasty to the late Qing Dynasty, it was the fourth cold period in Chinese meteorological history after the early Western Zhou Dynasty, the late Western Han Dynasty to the early Sui Dynasty, and the two Song Dynasties. This period is called the “Ming-Qing Little Ice Age” and is known internationally as During the “Modern Little Ice Age”, heavy snowfall made Dongting Lake “ice-sealed, making it possible for people to ride on it.” This was also true in the south, but it was naturally colder in the north. The Manchu people who live in the Northeast cannot do without pocket houses and ten thousand-character Kangs. As the saying goes, “Pocket houses, ten thousand-character Kangs, and chimneys sit on the ground.”
A pocket room, also known as a small room, means that the door to the south side of the eastmost room for three rooms is usually opened, and the second door for five rooms is opened from the east. The whole house is shaped like a pocket, so it is called “pocket house”. In order to keep out the cold, the walls are very thick. “Ning Gu Pagoda Chronicles” records, “The walls are several feet thick, but the cold air invades in winter and looks like frost. There are three Kangs around the south, west and north of the house, and reed mats are used on the Kangs. , a big red carpet is spread on the table.” The room with the open door of the pocket house is called the “outhouse” or “main room”, and the west-facing room is also called the “upper room”. There are large “Π”-shaped adobe kangs built on the south, west and north sides of the upper house, which are called “Wanzi kang”. It is also called “turning kang” and “turning circle kang” among the people. Indoors, “the west is the most respected and the south is the largest”. The Western Kang is used to worship ancestors and gods and place offerings. It is not allowed to step on, sit on or lie down at will or place unclean or unlucky items. The South Kang is warm and sunny. It is the place where the elders of the family sleep, sit and lie down. If guests come, they should also sit on the South Kang. If the guests stay overnight, they should also stay on this Kang. When sleeping on the kang, there are certain rules for the direction and position. Regardless of sleeping on the south or north kang, when sleeping officially, the head should be on one side of the kang edge, and the body should be perpendicular to the direction of the kang edge. It is not allowed to sleep parallel to the direction of the kang edge, because only when the dead are parked indoors, they should be placed along the direction of the kang edge. .
2. Shenyang Forbidden City Ten Thousand Character Kang
In the cold season, if you heat up the kang, the room will be warmer due to the heat emitted from the kang surface. The purpose of the kang is not just for sleeping. Most of the indoor activities of the Manchu people are carried out on the kang. “There are no chairs or stools, but there is a kang table, and everyone sits cross-legged.” Regardless of whether they are dignitaries or ordinary people, almost all use pocket rooms and Wanzi Kang. The fire wall was mostly used by the nobles in the palace. It was actually a kind of geothermal heating. It built the walls of the palace into a hollow “sandwich wall”, also known as “ground Kang”.
3. Fire wall
In the imperial palace of the Qing Dynasty, the walls of the three main halls where the emperor worked (generally referred to as the Taihe, Zhonghe, and Baohe halls), the Yangxin Hall and some of the dormitories were hollow. There were vertical and horizontal fire tunnels built under the floor tiles in the hall, leading directly to the palace. Burn the best coal or charcoal in the stove under the eaves of the corridor outside the palace (most of the “imperial coal” used in the imperial palace in the Qing Dynasty came from Ningxia The Taixi coal is “black and shiny, unstainable to the touch, smokeless and odorless when burned”, and has extremely high calorific value. The charcoal comes from Zhuozhou, Tongzhou, Wanping, Daxing and other suburban areas, and is burned with hard wood. The resulting “Hongluo charcoal” was cut into sections according to standard specifications. During the Qianlong period, the supply standard of firewood was set: 120 kilograms for the empress dowager, and 120 kilograms for the empress dowager. The amount for the queen is 110 kilograms, the imperial concubine is 90 kilograms, the imperial concubine is 75 kilograms… The date for supplying fuel charcoal is also stipulated according to the level: that is, it will be distributed on the first day of the 11th month of the lunar calendar every year, and in the spring of the following year. Stop dispensing. The heat circulates along the fire path and the wall to the entire hall, even in the cold winter. There is a strong warmth. The entrances to the underground fire tunnels of these palaces are usually located on the north side of the house. The air intakes are usually covered with thick wooden boards, and there are also smoke exhaust vents, which can not only exhaust smoke, but also It can provide ventilation and oxygen. Rooms with underground fire tunnels are also called “warm pavilions”. The East Warm Pavilion of the Kunning Palace in the Palace Museum is a typical representative of this structure.
4. End cover
The end cap is a fur coat with a round neck, double lapels, flat sleeves, knee length, and left and right hanging straps. It can only be worn by clan members and senior officials. According to the system of the Qing Dynasty Huidian, end caps include black fox, sable, green fox, mink, lynx, red leopard skin, yellow fox skin, etc.; according to the quality of texture, skin color and lining , the color of the belt and other contents are divided into eight levels to distinguish their identity and status. If you want to make a high-quality end cap, you must carefully select the coat color and size.
5. Manchu door curtain
In the Qing Dynasty, Huang Yue painted a poem about the emperor’s happiness in the snow. (Image source: Public domain National Palace Museum)
Manchu nobles kept warm, and the most well-known thing was probably the brazier. The brazier is easy to move. Judging from the charcoal brazier relics that still exist in the Forbidden City, there were many styles of charcoal braziers at that time. The two charcoal braziers in the Hall of Supreme Harmony were both made of expensive cloisonné. In the “Picture of Emperor Qianlong Recreating in the Snow”, Emperor Qianlong and his children are watching the snow and playing, and Emperor Qianlong is “sitting next to the brazier”. It’s fine outdoors, as there is no danger of carbon monoxide poisoning or fire. Placing a fire pit indoors requires dedicated personnel to monitor it and not be careless. In the second year of Jiaqing (1797), when the eunuch was guarding the brazier, he did not cover the charcoal fire in the brazier tightly, causing sparks to rekindle and cause a fire.
6. Smoker
The brazier with a cover is the smoker, and the cover outside the smoker is called the smoker. The smoker is exquisitely made, some are made of gilded bronze, and some are made of filigree 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 on the incense cage” and also slept on the incense cage. You can sit and sleep on the fumigation cage, which shows that some fumigation cages are very large.
7. Hand stove and foot stove
Easy-to-carry items to keep out the cold include hand stoves and foot stoves. Hand stoves are also called “holding stoves” and “sleeve stoves”. Some hand stoves have lifting beams, and some do not. They can be placed directly in the sleeves. The foot stove is also called a foot warmer, a foot warmer, a soup woman, a soup woman, etc. It is a flat bottle made of copper or tin, which is filled with hot water and can be placed under the quilt to warm the feet. It is similar to a modern hot water bottle. In addition, there are larger foot stoves with built-in charcoal fire and a cover. However, Emperor Qianlong did not use Tang Pozi in his later years, but used a special method: historical records indicate that Emperor Qianlong “warmed his feet on a winter night, using a large goose stone to explode the heat in the fire, wrap it with old wadding, put it in the quilt, and finally The night is unusually warm, so the soup used in the world is inevitably vaporous.”
8. Tang Pozi
As time goes by, although winter has passed and spring has come, it is inevitable that “the lingering cold is still severe” and “the east wind blows coldly on the face.” There are Manchu nobles who are just as sad as Nalan, lamenting the broken lamps and cherishing the fire, and singing softly “the broken lamps are extinguished by the wind” The smoke from the furnace is cold, and there is only a solitary shadow accompanying me… I always have to worry about being drunk and fall asleep, but I am afraid that when I wake up, I will still be in front of the bottle.” Even though there is the desolation and sorrow of “I am a melancholy guest in the world”, there is also the warmth and sadness of “I know what happened to you and I will burst into tears”.
Editor in charge: Chu Xin
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