Before the Song Dynasty, the ancients lived in simple conditions and did not have comfortable quilts like modern times, but they still found various ways to keep warm in the harsh winter, and the hard and intelligent lifestyle allowed them to successfully survive the cold winter.
01 Peppercorns paint the wall and fire wall for heating
In ancient times, heating was an important and complex task for people, especially for dignitaries and emperors, who put a lot of effort into finding ways to keep warm.
A unique method is to use pepper mud to paint the wall, which has become a major feature of ancient heating, pepper, because of its temperature and has the effect of keeping warm from the cold, was mashed into the soil by the ancients, smeared on the wall, forming a unique layer of insulation.
Although this method of heating is luxurious, its results are remarkable. It is said that the Jiaofang Hall in the Weiyang Palace of the Han Dynasty was built in this way, and the entire walls of the palace were covered with pepper mud.
Shi Chong, the richest man in the Western Jin Dynasty, also followed this practice and smeared peppercorn mud on the walls of the mansion, reflecting his extremely luxurious attitude to life.
In addition to the pepper mud wall, the ancient people also used another common means of heating - the fire wall, also known as the "hollow fire wall".
In this design, a hollow flue is set in the wall, and the heat generated by combustion is transported to the wall through the flue to form a heating effect for the room.
Although the original firewall technology was immature and had some shortcomings, it was improved and perfected over time.
02 Charcoal for heating
In ancient times, heating was a difficult task for ordinary people, and charcoal became their main way of heating.
However, due to the limited resources of wood, it takes a lot of effort to make charcoal, which makes charcoal a luxury in the eyes of the poor.
The poor, like charcoal sellers, toiled to make charcoal in the bitter cold, hoping to sell it in the cold, but their income was still far from enough to keep them warm.
In contrast to the hardships of the poor people, who had to endure the cold in shabby clothes, were in stark contrast to the wealthy and royal families, who used the higher form of charcoal for heating.
According to historical records, there is a kind of high-grade charcoal called "Rui Tan" that was once used by the Western Liang Kingdom as a tribute to the royal family. This charcoal is hard, blue-black in color, and burns for ten days, and the heat emitted makes it difficult to get close.
In addition, there are huge differences in heating facilities between different classes. Ordinary people could only rely on simple tools such as simple heating and cooling stools and earthen kangs, while the imperial palace had special heating palaces, and even used ondols in the hollow sandwich walls for heating.
In general, the ancient people successfully survived the cold winter by showing their wisdom and tenacity in different ways of heating in the cold winter environment.
These traditional ways of heating are not only life skills, but also a kind of cultural inheritance, so that future generations can deeply feel the wisdom of the ancients in life.