Playing nobunaga's wild hope, how did the Japanese guard against lightning in those days?

Lightning protection facilities in ancient China

Ma Zhibin

In midsummer, fast lightning often breaks trees. Destroy houses and even hurt people and animals; It brought serious disasters to ancient ancestors.

At first, our ancestors couldn't figure out how lightning was produced. They believe in the myth that "Lei Ze has a Raytheon, the dragon looks up and his cheeks thunder and drums beat in his stomach" (historical records of the Five Emperors, justice is quoted in brackets), and mistakenly think that lightning destroying houses and hitting people is God's anger and punishing people. In the Han Dynasty, people began to explain the lightning phenomenon with the theory of yin and yang, and put forward the view that "Yin and yang are thin, feeling as thunder, and being excited as whether or not" (Huai Nan Zi Tian Zi Xun), that is to say, when yin and yang touch, thunder will form when they shake, and thunderbolt will form when they shake violently. This is an intuitive and simple guess about the cause of lightning. Although this conjecture is not completely in line with the viewpoint of modern science, it is materialistic after all. It broke people's superstition about God Raytheon and liberated people's minds. Once people's minds are liberated from the oppression of God Raytheon, various facilities for conquering thunder and lightning emerge one after another.

The lightning protection room is the earliest lightning protection facility. Sheng Hongzhi, a native of Liu and Song Dynasties in the Southern Dynasties, is the author of Jingzhou Ji. The book records: "Huyang County, a country in the Spring and Autumn Period, is also a city in Fan Chong. Mother was afraid of thunder, and it was her mysterious stone room, so she was told to avoid it. It is known that aragonite is used as a step and still exists today. " Sheng Hongzhi was the assistant of Liu Yiqing, king of Linchuan in Liu and Song Dynasties. Liu Yiqing was the secretariat of Jingzhou from the 9th year of Yuanjia (AD 432) to the 16th year of Yuanjia (AD 439). After Liu Yiqing took office in Jingzhou, Sheng Hongzhi personally inspected the mountains and rivers, places of interest, historical sites and customs of Jingzhou. His record is reliable. Fan Zhong is the grandfather of Liu Xiu, Emperor Guangwu of the Eastern Han Dynasty. According to Sheng Hongzhi's records, the materials used by Fan Zhongyan to build the lightning protection room for his mother are aragonite, probably marble. Marble has an insulating effect. Houses built of marble can certainly be protected against lightning.

Brick and tile architecture is the main material of ancient architecture in China. After the Song Dynasty, in order to avoid the living room being struck by lightning, architects carefully conceived and skillfully eliminated the danger of "step voltage" in electricity, leaving behind many amazing buildings, such as Zhenwuge in Guangxi, Confucius Temple in Deqing County, and four pillars that are impenetrable to the sky.

Installing lightning rods on buildings is the most effective lightning protection facility. 1688, French traveler Cabriole Damaganlan wrote a book called "New Things in China" after visiting China. The book says: "... at that time, there was a cock at both ends of the roof of China's house. The dragon's mouth spit out a tortuous metal tongue and stretched out into the sky. The roots of the tongue are connected with a thin wire and reach the ground. Such a wonderful device will show its magical power when there is lightning. If lightning strikes the house, the current will enter the ground from agave without causing any damage. " It can be seen that the ancient architects in China invented the lightning rod at the latest in the late17th century.

In the west, lightning rods were installed on buildings in the late18th century. 1760, Franklin, an American, installed a long, sharp hard iron bar on the top of a building in Philadelphia, with a wire attached to the lower end, which went underground along the building, avoiding the danger of lightning strike for the first time. Facts have proved that China invented the lightning rod much earlier than European and American countries. However, until today, when it comes to the inventor of the lightning rod, people say that it is Franklin, an American. This is really unfair!