The ancients didn’t have detergent, so how did they wash greasy dishes?

In today’s daily life, personal or family cleaning seems to be indispensable for detergents. To meet various cleaning needs, there are a wide variety of detergents: shower gel, shampoo, facial cleanser Milk, washing powder, dishwashing liquid, furniture stain removal oil... So, in ancient times, before bottles of chemicals were invented, what did people use to clean dirt?

As early as the Pre-Qin Dynasty to the Qin and Han Dynasties, people already knew how to "use local materials" and obtain "cleaning liquid" for face washing and hair washing without spending extra money. "Book of Rites? 6.1 Internal Rules" says: "mu is used to wash rice and horseshoe crab." Kong Yingda of Tang Dynasty said: "mu means to wash hair; horseshoe crab is also to wash face. It is used to wash the rice and rice." It turns out that the ancients simply used the "Pan juice" of grains to wash their face and hair. The so-called "Pan juice" is actually nothing special, but the rice water we commonly use today. According to the records in "Historical Records 6.1 Family of Foreign Relatives", when Emperor Wen of Han Dynasty's Queen Dou was young, her younger brother Dou Anguo was bought by a human trafficker because of her poor family. When they were separated, Dou once begged for rice pan (tao Mi Shui) washes his brother's hair. To this day, many people still believe that rice water is effective in cleaning the skin. Next time you cook rice, you may want to consider whether you should let the rice water drain away gently?

As for cleaning clothes, the ancients used another "cleaning agent" - gray water. That is, the aqueous solution of plant ash. "Kaogong Ji" once mentioned that silk fabrics must be "retting with water" before dyeing. Note: "Water is water from ashes." "Book of Rites? 6? 1 Internal Rules" says: "The crown is stained with dirt." , rinse with ashes; remove dirt from clothes, and rinse with ashes. "The ancients used a solution soaked in plant ashes to wash their clothes and crowns. Because plant ash contains potassium carbonate, it can remove stains. This easy-to-use detergent was very common in ancient times.

Until modern times, plant ash water was still used to wash clothes in some of the more remote rural areas of China. It was considered the longest-used detergent in ancient China.

In addition, there is a mixed detergent. According to "Kaogong Ji" records: "Lian silk, use the fence as ashes, and the silk is pure, and it is a mirage." The so-called mirage refers to shell ash, which contains calcium hydroxide, which is related to " "Lanmu Ash" can generate potassium hydroxide. When using its aqueous solution to wash silk fabrics, it will react with the oil attached to the surface of the silk to generate potassium soap, which can wash the silk crisply and brightly. It seems that as early as 2,300 years ago, the Chinese were already taking advantage of the effects of liquid soap.

In the fourth century AD, that is, during the Wei and Jin Dynasties, some new detergents appeared - soap locust and bath beans. Honey locust, also called honey locust, is the fruit of the leguminous plant, the honey locust tree. The "Shen Nong's Materia Medica" of the Han Dynasty has already listed this very common plant as medicinal. Saponin contains saponin, and its aqueous solution can generate foam and has decontamination properties. At that time, there were already shops selling honey locust in the society, which shows that it was widely adopted by people at that time. Among various types of soap locust, "pig tooth soap locust" is of the lowest quality, with weak decontamination ability and no moisture at all; "soap locust" has strong decontamination ability and has a strong smell. Later, people further pounded the honey locusts with the seeds removed and made them into balls, as big as oranges, for washing the face and body, commonly known as "soap balls." Its preparation method is also recorded in Li Shizhen's "Compendium of Materia Medica" in the Ming Dynasty: "Pick the pods in October, boil and mash them, mix them with white flour and various incense to make pills, bathe the body and face to remove dirt and make them greasy and moisturizing, which is better than honey locust." Compared with today's soaps, they are quite similar in shape.

In the Wei and Jin Dynasties, there was also a kind of detergent called "Bath Dou". Sun Simiao's "Qianjin Yaofang" and "Qianjin Yifang" of the Tang Dynasty recorded that it could wash away the dirty blood from pig pancreas and tear it into pieces. After removing the fat, grind it into a paste, then add soybean powder, spices, etc., mix it evenly, and then naturally dry it to become bath beans that can be used for washing. Who first thought of using pig pancreas to remove dirt? No one knows yet, but he must be a very smart man. During the production process of bath beans, pig pancreas is ground, which enhances the secretion of digestive enzymes contained in the pancreas. The mixed soybean powder contains saponins and lecithin, which can enhance the foaming and emulsifying power. It has great washing ability and can moisturize the skin, so it was considered a relatively high-quality detergent at that time. However, due to the difficulty of obtaining large amounts of raw material such as pig pancreas, bath beans were not widely popularized and were only used by a few upper-class nobles. Later, people improved the production process of bath beans. They added sugar when grinding pig pancreas, replaced the soybean powder with sodium carbonate (soda ash), and added molten pig fat. After mixing evenly, they pressed it into balls or blocks. Like, this is "pancreas". The chemical composition of soap is very similar to today's soap. Moreover, the product types are even more diverse, such as osmanthus soap, rose soap... they are quite similar to today's various soaps with different fragrances.

In addition, alkali and tea bran (commonly known as tea seed cake) that people still use today have been used in ancient China. Although the earliest age of use is unknown, it was widely used in the Ming and Qing dynasties at the latest . Alkali is sodium carbonate crystals, while tea bran is a by-product of rapeseed oil extraction. The juice extracted by mashing it into water contains saponin, which also has a good descaling effect.

In short, the ancient Chinese have long had many effective methods for cleaning and sanitation of individuals, clothing, etc., and many of them are cheap and environmentally friendly!