How did ancient people keep out the cold during the four cold waves in history?

There have been four cold periods in the history of our country, during which countless people froze to death.

The first cold period was from 1000 BC to 850 BC, that is, the first cold period in the early Western Zhou Dynasty. There are almost no relevant historical materials.

Only in the "Bamboo Book Annals", it is recorded that the Yangtze River and the Han River froze during the reign of King Xiao of Zhou Dynasty. It did not directly say that it snowed, but "rain and hail", "winter, heavy rain and hail, cattle and horses died" "Jiang and Han were both frozen." It can be seen from the records that the weather was extremely cold at that time. In the second cold period, more and more heavy snows were recorded.

The second cold period lasted from the first century AD to 600 AD, that is, the cold period of the Eastern Han and Southern and Northern Dynasties. This cold period reached its peak in the first half of the 4th century AD. "Zi Zhi Tong Jian" records that in the early years of Emperor Cheng of the Jin Dynasty, the Bohai Bay from Changli to Yingkou was completely frozen for three consecutive years. Cars, horses and thousands of troops could travel on the ice. The average annual temperature was 2-4°C lower than today.

It was a famine year, and with such a bad snowy weather, even the palace ran out of food. Li Ye had no choice but to order the palace people to set up a small mill in the palace to grind beans and wheat to satisfy his hunger. , "Since the harem and the sixteen houses of the kings, three or four people died of cold and starvation every day." In the dignified emperor's home, three or four people died of cold and starvation every day. One can imagine the seriousness of the disaster among the people.

The third cold period was from 1000 to 1200 AD, that is, the two Song Dynasties. During this period, in 1111 AD, Taihu Lake was completely frozen and traffic could be opened on the ice. In 1110 and 1178, all lychees in Fuzhou were completely frozen. die. The palace frame was crushed, and a week later there was another "heavy rain and snow" on the third day of February, which resulted in "the mud roads were completely icy, the people in the capital were cold and hungry, and many people died."

The fourth cold period was from 1300 to 1900 AD, which was the severe cold period of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Here, in 1329, Taihu Lake froze several feet thick and all the oranges froze to death. In 1493, there was heavy snowfall in the Huaihe River Basin, which lasted from September of that year to February of the following year. Dongting Lake turned into an "ice continent", allowing carriages and horses to pass through.

Local chronicles of many provinces and cities across the country have records of people dying of freezing: in Daye, Hubei and other places, "many people died of freezing and starvation"; in Kaifeng, Henan, "wells were icy and roads were frozen to death"; In places such as Nanchang, Jiangsu, "many pedestrians froze to death"; in Huaining, Anhui and other places, "many people died of freezing"; in Xuyi, Jiangsu and other places, "many people froze to death, and birds and animals came into the house to feed"; in Linyi, Shandong and other places, " "There are too many people to freeze to death." In Weihai, "Pedestrians are not counted among the dead, and there are also people who freeze to death in houses."

How did ancient people survive these cold periods?

Poor people wear short brown clothes when going out and use stove ashes for heating at home

The fire pit, also called the fire kang, is the oldest heating method in China. Residential houses in the north are generally equipped with a fire kang, which has a tunnel inside. In winter, heat is generated by burning and entering the passage inside the kang for heating. It is also equipped with heating facilities such as a fire pit. This heating method is still used in northern rural areas until now. The poor can only use stove ashes to heat their homes, while those with better conditions use clay pots to hold the "stove ashes" used for cooking.

Poor people mostly wore "brown" to keep out the cold in winter. Brown is a kind of clothing material and belongs to linen products. Due to the technological level at that time, clothes made of brown could not keep warm and were not beautiful. Tao Yuanming said in "The Biography of Mr. Wuliu" that "short brown is worn in knots, and the basket and ladle are often empty." "Short brown" is a short coat made of burlap, even though such clothes still have holes and patches.

High-ranking officials and aristocrats like to wear fox fur and mink fur during the cold winter

During the Tang and Song Dynasties, some officials or wealthy families already used copper hand stoves or foot stoves. Put hot coals or stove ashes that still have residual heat, and put a cover outside the stove. You can put them in your sleeves to warm your hands. The foot stove is larger than the hand stove and can be placed under your feet to warm your feet. In addition, there is a foot thermos, which can be filled with hot water and placed under the quilt at night. There was a poem by Huang Tingjian in the Song Dynasty that said: "A thousand dollars buys a footwoman, and she sleeps at dawn every night." This refers to this kind of heating appliance.

In the Ming and Qing dynasties, most people burned charcoal for heating in winter, and most people had charcoal basins. The basin is made of copper or iron, with a box-shaped breathable cover on the outside to prevent fire or other things from falling into it.

Qiu is the winter clothing of the rich. Fur is a fur coat with hair facing outward. There are many furs used to make fur, such as fox, dog, sheep, deer, mink, rabbit, etc. Among them, fox fur and mink Fur is the most precious, a luxury product, and is worn by high-ranking officials and nobles. Deer fur and sheep fur are of slightly inferior quality, but they are not accessible to ordinary people, and those who can afford them are at least the middle class at that time. The ancients believed that the fur under the fox's armpits was the lightest and warmest, and the fox white fur made from it was very precious.

The fire tunnel built in the palace wall is comparable to central air conditioning

The ancient palace architects adopted more scientific methods to heat the palace. The specific method is to build the walls of the palace into hollow "walls", commonly known as "fire walls". There is a fire tunnel dug under the wall, and the charcoal opening for lighting the fire is placed under the eaves of the corridor outside the hall. When the charcoal fire is burned in the charcoal mouth, the heat can spread along the wall to the entire hall.

In order to ensure smooth thermal circulation, there is an air hole at the end of the fire channel, and the smoke is discharged from the air outlet under the platform. Moreover, this fire path also goes directly under the emperor's royal bed and the kang beds where other people in the palace sleep, forming a "warm kang" and a "warm pavilion" that make the entire palace feel as warm as spring.