Illustrated by Huang Zhuo.
The winter sentiment written by ancient literati and writers is very beautiful, with plum blossoms, pine and bamboo, flying snow, stoves, tea and wine, poetry and ......But in the cold days, how did the ancients keep warm from the cold when they were chanting poems, writing, painting, or reading hard? Here, we select a few important "cold artifacts" in the traditional study and taste the historical and cultural connotations behind them.
Brazier
Yinzhen Xingle Atlas - Fireside Viewing Books (collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing).
The brazier is a kind of heating equipment that was often kept in the study of the ancients. It is said that braziers have been used since the Three Kingdoms period and have a history of more than 2,000 years. The brazier was first made of mud, which was slower to transfer heat, but had very good warmth, and later gradually came to the brazier made of iron and copper. The brazier is mainly round, with different shapes and sizes, most of them are fifty or sixty centimeters in diameter, and some of the basins are also engraved with decorative patterns.
In ancient times, the first was to distribute money, not only rice, but also charcoal money, which is now the so-called "heating fee". The Tang Dynasty poet Song Zhiwen wrote a poem "Winter Night Residence Zhilin Pavilion" when he was on duty in the secretary province of Miyagi: "Straight things are covered in three provinces, and seven gates are closed. The wide court is pity, and the deep house is warm. "Princes and nobles used to use braziers made of copper in winter to burn charcoal for heating. Bai Juyi's poem "The Charcoal Seller" describes the complex process and hard labor of cutting wages and charcoal, reflecting the hardships and bitter experiences of the old charcoal sellers.
The Palace Museum in Beijing has a painting "Yinzhen Xingle Atlas - Reading Books Around the Fireplace", which depicts the scene of Yinzhen, the prince of Yong, wearing Han literati costumes, sitting by the brazier and concentrating on reading. He held a book in his right hand, stilted Erlang's legs, and stepped on the edge of the brazier with his left foot. The charcoal fire in the brazier is flourishing, and there is also a copper chopstick used to pluck the charcoal, also called fire chopsticks. In addition, the Palace Museum in Beijing also has a collection of many cloisonné enamel braziers, which are very exquisitely shaped.
Hand stove
Qing Yongzheng black lacquer depiction of gold landscape pavilion hand stove (collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing).
Ancient literati felt cold in their hands when they wrote, so they would hold the hand stove in their hands or cage it into their sleeves, so the hand stove was also called "sleeve stove".
Hand stove has a long history in our country, according to legend, Emperor Yang of Sui patrolled south along the canal, came to Jiangdu (now Yangzhou City) in the cold winter season, Jiangdu County Order to please the emperor, and the folk coppersmith designed and made a small copper furnace with built-in charcoal overnight, presented to Emperor Yang of Sui for heating, Emperor Yang of Sui suddenly felt warm, so he named it "hand furnace". In the Middle and Tang dynasties, the hand stove has become a commonly used heating thing for official eunuchs; By the Northern Song Dynasty, the hand stove was widely used among the people.
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the hand-made furnace production process was colorful, and the materials also added lacquerware, enamel and other varieties, most of which were exquisite in workmanship and elegant in style. At that time, a large number of famous craftsmen emerged, and the hand-made furnaces made by famous artists were integrated into one of the crafts such as carving, carving, carving, inlaying, grinding, etc., and collecting poems, calligraphy, paintings, and printing in one vessel, which could be used as a heating utensil and a handicraft for playing. For example, the hand stove made by Zhang Mingqi, a famous craftsman in Jiaxing in the late Ming Dynasty, is called "Zhang furnace", which is well-known in the north and south of the river. There are also many descriptions of hand stoves in the literature of this period. For example, in the sixty-eighth episode of "Golden Vase Plum", Ai Yue'er "holds a copper wire fire cage in one hand, burns Shensu incense cakes inside, and wraps the cuffs around the body to heat her body", and the "copper wire fire cage" here is the hand stove. In the sixth chapter of "Dream of Red Mansions", it is written that Grandma Liu entered the Grand View Garden and saw Wang Xifeng after many twists and turns, but saw Wang Xifeng "pink and glossy, sitting there upright, holding a small copper fire in her hand to pick the ashes in the stove". The eighth chapter of "Dream of Red Mansions" also wrote: "It happened that Daiyu's little maid Snow Goose came to ...... with Daiyu to send a small hand stove."Daiyu took it and held it in her arms. ”
Chunxin invaded the plum outside the threshold, leaning on the candle and wandering together. The light cold does not enter the deep courtyard, and the female companion can bring the stove. The "furnace" mentioned in Emperor Qianlong's inscription poem is the hand stove. Qing Dynasty scholar Zhang Shao also wrote a poem called "Hand Stove": "The pine ash cage warms the sleeves of the prophet, and the silver leaf fragrance floats a trace." The top is accompanied by plum blossoms flat out of the net, and the bamboo nodes are lying on the branches. Don't worry about the frozen jade chess is difficult to twist, and the Xiyuan frost pen is easy to hold. Even though the poet is cold to the bone, the bottom of Yangchun's wrist has been born. ”
Warm inkstone
Qing Kangxi Songhua Stone Kui Dragon Pattern Warm Inkstone (Collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing).
The inkstone was one of the important "Four Treasures of Scholars" in ancient times, but at that time, due to the lack of heating facilities, the ink in the stone inkstone was easy to freeze in the cold winter, which made the literati and ink writers who were full of literary thoughts annoyed. When Cen Shen, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, drafted a battle inscription in the military tent of Mobei, the ink in the inkstone froze: "The horsehair is steamed with snow and sweat, the five flowers and money are swirled into ice, and the grass and inkstone in the curtain are condensed." Li Bai also encountered this kind of embarrassment, and sighed helplessly: "The new poems of the frozen pen are lazy to write, and the cold furnace is warm when the wine is warm." In fact, there was already a warm inkstone in the Tang Dynasty, and it may be because the two poets did not have the conditions to use this "artifact" at that time, so they expressed such feelings.
The ancients invented the warm inkstone in order to use the inkstone to warm the ink and prevent the pen and ink from freezing, so that the ink could be waved smoothly. The early records of warm inkstone include a "warm inkstone inscription" in the "Zhang Yan Gongji" by the Tang dynasty Zhang Shuo: "The pen is frozen, the ink pool is knotted at night, the incense charcoal is latently burning, pushing the cold and causing heat." Bai Juyi also has a poem in "Twenty Rhymes of the Green Felt Tent": "The inkstone melts the frozen ink, and the bottle warms into a spring spring." Emperor Tang Ming has a very delicate warm inkstone, according to the "Kaiyuan Tianbao Relics" record: "There is a seven-treasure inkstone furnace in the inner library, and the song is as ingenious. Every winter cold inkstone, put it on the stove, the inkstone ice self-eliminates, and the fire is not labored. It is commonly used by the Emperor of the Winter Moon. Since then, the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties have inherited, and the warm inkstone has gradually evolved into a kind of practical and decorative scholar's elegant furniture. There is a poem in the Song Dynasty Wang's "Two Songs with Zhang Wenji Yongxue": "Three cups of strong and fertile intestinal wine, one twist to chat about warm inkstone salt." Tu Long, a Ming man, recorded the scene of the use of warm inkstones in the Ming Dynasty in the "Paper, Ink, Pen, Inkstone, Winter Moon Inkstone": "Jiayan (inkstone) can not be used in the severe cold in winter, and the Qingzhou wrought iron inkstone can be frozen, and the inkstone needs to be earned with four feet, and the fire inkstone is on the fire, and it is slightly forced or the inkstone furnace can also be used." "The earliest existing warm inkstone is in 1982 in Lingtai County, Gansu Province, Baili Town, the cellar of the late Northern Song Dynasty soil of the pottery warm inkstone, the inkstone is hollow, placed charcoal fire, double-sided inkstone can be heated at the same time.
The warm inkstone shape includes square, rectangular, hexagonal, octagonal, round, drum-shaped, etc., which is divided into two types from the function: one is the "plumbing type", that is, a cavity is chiseled under the ink hall, and the temperature of the inkstone surface is increased by injecting hot water; The second is the "fire heating type", that is, a cavity is made under the inkstone, and charcoal barbecue or oil lamp heating is introduced. The warm inkstone has to withstand the long-term baking of the charcoal fire, and the smooth and moist inkstone such as the end stone, red silk stone, and Tao stone is easy to be scorched and cracked, so the inkstone with higher hardness and dense texture can only be used to make the inkstone or Songhua River greenstone. Due to the complex manufacturing process and high cost of warm inkstone, it is a luxury item in the study, and it is difficult for ordinary cold people to use it. By the middle and late Qing Dynasty, the appearance of purple sand warm inkstones provided an opportunity for low-income literati to use warm inkstones. Purple sand mud has the characteristics of strong plasticity, good air permeability, high temperature resistance, etc., and can produce all kinds of purple sand warm inkstones, which are very popular with literati and ink writers. It is worth mentioning that the imperial warm inkstone made by the inner court of the Qing Dynasty is generally made of copper, iron, tin and silver as the inkstone, and gilt or hollow chisel carving ornamentation, exquisite craftsmanship.
Wine warmer
Qing Yongzheng "Yanghetang system" blue and white glaze red eight immortals warm wine pot (collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing).
In ancient times, literati often did not separate poetry and wine, so wine warmers also became a must-have for the study. According to records, wine warmers first appeared in the Shang and Zhou dynasties, and in the Han Dynasty, there were wine warmers, and in the Song Dynasty, when the porcelain industry developed unprecedentedly prosperous, there were ceramic wine warmers with ingenious shapes, sophisticated craftsmanship and mature functions, including infusions, warm bowls and lids.
The Palace Museum in Beijing has a collection of Qing Yongzheng's "Yanghetang system" blue and white glaze red eight immortals warm wine jug, the overall shape is gourd-shaped, composed of two parts, the upper part holds wine, and the lower part is poured with hot water and warm wine, which is used for long drinking. The two sections are combined, just as a whole, the design is novel and ingenious, and the style is unique. The wine pot is glazed with white glaze, and the exterior is decorated with blue and white glaze and red inside, with the red river water in the glaze as the backing, and the blue and white eight immortals are painted on it.
With the wine warmer, the ancients could make an appointment with poets and writers to warm the wine on a snowy day. After the "blessing" of the wine warmer, the taste of the wine is more mellow, and it has the effect of warming the stomach, which also makes the drinking full of mood. The Tang Dynasty poet Xu Hun has the verse "Warm wine and snow are falling, and the reading mountain wants to be bright"; The Ming Dynasty poet Pan Xi Zeng also left a chant of "warm wine when the fire is held, knock the ice and make tea by yourself".
January 30, 2024 China Culture Daily
A special report was published in the 8th edition.
The "cold artifact" in the study of the ancients
Editor-in-charge: Chen Chen.