It's getting colder and colder. Do you know how ancient people kept warm?

In fact, the ancients were much smarter than we thought. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, people began to burn charcoal with utensils to keep warm. The name of these instruments is Liao furnace. Burning stoves are generally accompanied by charcoal dustpans, which are used to transfer kindling and add charcoal.

The nobles in Qin dynasty used "fireplaces" and "fire walls" to keep warm. The fireplace mainly uses charcoal to keep out the cold, and the smoke holes are placed outdoors to avoid charcoal smoke poisoning.

During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, a greenhouse hall was built, which, like the queen's palace, mainly relied on pepper and mud to keep warm. Attention, it's Chili paste! Most people can't afford it, so they buy some simple kang at home. Heated kang has a long history and is common in northern families. According to Song Wenjian, the northern jurchen "made the house into a mud bed, burned it below, ate and lived on it, and called it a kang to keep warm". Gu, a scholar in the Qing Dynasty, has a special description of Kang in his Record of the Sun, saying that "northerners use soil as a bed, but air in the air is called Kang." In Daoguang period of Qing dynasty, there was a poem "heatable adobe sleeping platform", which said, "Don't use your gums to shine, just say it and you will be settled." Thus, heatable adobe sleeping platform is a low-key and simple heating method.

The heating equipment in the Tang Dynasty was greatly improved. "Kaiyuan Tianbao Legacy" records that "Xiliang country entered a hundred pieces of charcoal, each of which was more than a foot long. Its charcoal is blue and hard as iron, so it is called Ruitan. Burning in the furnace, there is light but no flame. Each one can burn for ten days, and its hot air is compelling and inaccessible. " It can be seen that the quality of charcoal at that time was very proud!

The charcoal used by officials and emperors in the Song Dynasty was more exquisite. According to Records of Grain Goods in the History of Song Dynasty, "Jingxi, Shaanxi and Hedong transported charcoal to the capital, with a salary of17130,000 Jin, according to the scale of charcoal10 million yuan". Not only that, tribute charcoal should be made into the shape of a beast. In the Southern Song Dynasty, I was obsessed with money. Song Gaozong even asked that the charcoal for tribute must be "walnut, quail and pigeon color". In addition to burning, charcoal fire has actually become a plaything, which shows the Song Dynasty's fascination with utensils.

Charcoal fire can be put in a stove or a brazier, for example, on the other hand, brazier should be the most common way for modern people to bake charcoal fire. In addition to charcoal fire, the ground stove is also an effective facility for Song people to keep warm in winter. The structure of the floor furnace is also very simple. Dig a small hole in the house, put a brick around it and make a fire to keep warm. When Ouyang Xiu was a county magistrate in Yiling, Hubei Province, he wrote a poem, "The New Welcome Xiaozhai Ground Furnace Carved with Five Words and Thirty-seven Rhymes" to celebrate: "After all, the first frost has rested, and everyone who lives in it has entered the house. _ households are afraid of early cold, and the furnace is not warm. The scale is incomplete, wide and narrow. "

During the Southern Song Dynasty and Liao and Jin Dynasties, coal was used to burn kang. Zhao Bingwen, a scholar of the Jin Dynasty who lived in the north for a long time, wrote a poem called Sleeping on a Kang at Night, which said, "It is not difficult to find platinum near the mountain." . The furnace is exquisite, and the fire hole penetrates the snow three feet before the pylorus, snoring _ _ ". Black refers to coal. Due to proper design, coal can't smoke people. Even if it snows three feet outside, the room is warm and comfortable, and you can sleep comfortably on the warm kang.

In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the styles of hand stoves began to become diverse and smaller, which could be put in sleeves. By the Ming dynasty, people knew more and more about enjoyment and health preservation. In addition to charcoal ash for heating, some aromatherapy and medicinal materials are also put in the hand stove. Hand stoves have gradually become works of art played by nobles, and the materials and workmanship have gradually become refined.

In addition to using tools to keep warm, due to the prosperity of ancient poetry, most poets would chat around the stove at night to dispel the chill by chatting and chanting poems. Of course, if there is a teahouse at this time, the warm pottery stove on the teahouse is burning with charcoal fire, which is naturally appropriate.