During the apocalypse of the Ming Dynasty, the minister Yang Lian was subjected to ** eunuch Wei Zhongxian. After being tortured repeatedly, Yang Lian has a complete understanding of his fate:
Yang) knows that there is no returnDrink plenty of cold water every morning to die quickly.
Since Yang Lian believes that drinking cold water is harmful to his health, it can be seen that before he was imprisoned, his first choice in daily life was to drink hot water.
Yuan Zuzhi was the grandson of the famous Qing poet Yuan Mei, who was active in the Xianfeng-Guangxu era of the late Qing Dynasty. He ran a newspaper and worked as a county magistrate. In 1883, he traveled to Western Europe for more than 10 months, and after returning he wrote in an article:
Middle-earth abstain from drinking cold water to prevent bad stomach, Tai Xiwu drank cold water, thinking that it would remove heat. ”②
Since Yuan Zuzhi believes that drinking cold water will hurt his stomach, it can be seen that his first choice in daily life is to drink hot water.
However, the first choice of Yang Lian and Yuan Zuzhi is not the first choice of ordinary people.
For more than a thousand years, ordinary Chinese could not afford to drink hot water.
During the reign of Emperor Wuzong of the Tang Dynasty, the Japanese monk Yuanren came to China. He saw that the ordinary people in Shandong "never cooked soup to eat, but only ate cold dishes for many years", and even if very valuable guests came, they were also "cold dishes with empty cakes" as entertainment. ③
There is a shortage of fuel, there is no hot food to eat, and naturally there is no hot water.
During the Song and Yuan dynasties, tea shops, teahouses, and tea houses for the upper class to enjoy appeared in large cities. Ordinary people can't afford the cost of boiling water, and if they want to drink a cup of tea, they still have to wait for tea sellers to carry teapots and go door-to-door to sell them. This business is called "tea bottle", which means to sell a cup of boiling water for people to make tea. ④
In order to save fuel, ordinary people in the Song and Yuan dynasties "did not light fires and prepare hot water except for cooking." ......Families generally drink raw water all year round, and only the elderly and sick people boil water to drink. ”⑤
In the Qing Dynasty, the people at the bottom continued to drink cold water.
During the Qianlong period, the Magalny delegation visited China. They noticed that the people on both sides of the Baihe River in Tianjin drank all the cold water from the river. However, because the water in the river was so dirty, when they fetched water, they would "put some Mingji in a perforated bamboo tube, and then put this bamboo tube in the water and stir it." A similar method of drinking cold water can also be found on both sides of the Huangpu River. During the Tongzhi period, the Japanese Feng Yuanzang visited Shanghai and found that the people at the bottom of Shanghai drank Lengjiang water. Because the river water was very turbid, they "used Mingji to settle mud and other dirt before they could gradually swallow it." ⑥
Alum can only precipitate suspended solids such as sediment and cannot kill germs in the water.
After entering **, the germ theory was introduced, and "drinking hot water" gained scientific support. The intellectuals called on the public to drink hot water, and they also realized that they had a responsibility in terms of public health, and began to promote drinking hot water without a ride.
For example, in 1918, the Jingshi Police Department used ** to publish an article to persuade the people of Beijing not to drink raw well water directly. Military documents published in 1929 also required soldiers not to drink raw water, and if they had to do so, they had to obtain "permission from a military doctor or officer."
Another example, in the 1930s, Chu Minyi served as the "chairman of the National Health Construction Committee", and publicly wrote an article to persuade all the people to drink boiled hot water, not raw water, because there were disease-causing bacteria in it. In the Xiangshan Salesian Hospital, founded by Xiong Xiling and others, it is also strictly forbidden to drink raw water and cold water. ⑨
The publicity is very lively. However, there was no effect. BecauseThe question is not whether you want to drink, but whether you can afford it
Shanghai and Wuhu are relatively economically developed. There is a kind of "cooked water shop" that can partially meet the needs of the people at the bottom to drink hot water. According to a survey report in Shanghai in the 1930s, in order to save fuel costs, workers in Shanghai did not boil water to drink. Instead of boiling water by yourself, you can even choose to go directly to the "cooked water shop" to buy boiling water, which can reduce the fuel consumption of cooking. ⑩
Cooked water shops" make money, relying on small profits and quick turnover. The more people who buy boiled water, the lower the average fuel cost for boiling it. So,Outside of cities like Shanghai and Wuhu, ordinary people can only continue to drink raw water.
In the 1930s, Chen Hansheng cooperated with the Beiping Social Investigation Institute to conduct a social survey of 11 villages in Qingyuan County, Baoding, Hebei Province. The results show:
The fuel for most farmers is tree roots, wheat straw and hay. However, they only burn the fire while cooking, and it only takes a few handfuls of millet to cook before the fire is extinguished. Due to the lack of fuel, the villagers cannot afford to drink boiled water, so they usually drink raw water, directly from wells or rivers, even in the coldest winters. In 1930, there were only 2 hot water bottles in 2,119 households in 11 villages; In 1936 there were four in total; In 1946 there were 18 (by this time the number had risen to 2,595), and hot water bottles were a rare luxury. Qingyuan farmers have a common habit, that is, the guests at home do not boil water, but let the children take a small teapot to the water shop to buy boiling water, the shopkeeper fills it with boiling water, and often pinched a small pinch of tea. At that time, there were always a few shops in the village that sold boiled water, and for villagers who only occasionally consumed boiled water, it was of course the most economical way to spend a penny or two at a time to buy it. Concentrated water boilers also have some small profits. A little attention will show that behind such a small thing is not only the shrewd calculation of the peasants, but also the actual level of their consumption. ”⑪
Those counties that are more remote than Baoding Qingyuan County are naturally in a worse situation. For example, the "Pingba County Chronicle" compiled during the ** period said that only "people above the middle class" could boil water to drink tea, and "the rest drank cold water". ⑫
After 1949, the government continued to promote "drinking hot water" and "drinking boiled water" with great force. ⑬
In the city, the situation has changed somewhat. The reason is that most of the hot boiled water ** of urban residents is the responsibility of the factories and mines where they are located, and they are purchased with tickets. Most factories continued to boil water until the 80s, and some even into the 90s. ⑭
In the countryside during the period of "collective canteens" (1958-1960), there was also a brief period of centralized boiling water. For example, according to the official statement, the people of the Hezhang Magu People's Commune in Guizhou Province used to drink raw water, but after the establishment of the collective canteen, "everyone has developed a good habit of drinking boiled water." Later, the collective canteens failed, the large-scale steel smelting led to an increasing shortage of fuel, and the countryside generally returned to drinking cold water and raw water. In 1970, Yang Jiang, a writer who was accustomed to drinking hot water, was sent to Henan's "Wuqi Cadre School" to engage in agricultural labor, and had to drink raw water, because in the local area, even "grass is also a rare item, and hay is shoveled down and filled with fuel." ⑯
Last century.
In the seventies and eighties, it was still very common to drink cold water and raw water due to fuel shortages. In the 70s, the government advocated "artificial biogas", and one of the core contents of the propaganda materials was that biogas could solve the problem of fuel shortage and change "the situation of some people who used to drink raw water". In the 80s, the provincial firewood stove was promoted nationwide, and one of the core contents of the propaganda materials was that it could save firewood, grass and coal, and could solve the problem of "the difficulty of drinking boiled water for some people in rural areas". ⑰
A more effective tool to observe when the Chinese achieved "freedom to drink hot water" is the national annual production of thermos flasks - 1957: 0300 million. 1975: 06.9 billion. 1983: 13.8 billion. 1984: 14.9 billion. 1988: 20.7 billion. 1994: 23.8 billion. 1997: 26.6 billion. Among them, 1997 was the peak of China's annual output of thermos flasks. ⑱
Unit: year, 10,000 units.
Demand leads to production. The annual output of thermos flasks has acceleratedIt began with the reform and opening up in the 80s of the last century。By 1997, when the annual output peaked, the market could be largely regarded as saturated.
In other words, you can drink hot water as much as you want, but in just 30 years.