In ancient times, there were no heating facilities like now. How does the royal family keep warm in the Forbidden City?

In winter, the Forbidden City will also make braziers, but this is quite dangerous. Everyone didn't know it before, but I saw from TV dramas that clothes are basically made of quilts, charcoal pots, stoves, cotton-padded jackets and animal fur.

Actually, don't worry. The wisdom of the ancients is beyond our imagination. Anyone who has been to the Forbidden City knows that there is a tunnel under the Forbidden City, which is similar to the heating pipeline in the north now. The craftsmen built a sealed tunnel leading to all parts of the Forbidden City. When the carbon fire is ignited from the source, the hot gas will flow to all parts of the tunnel. This continuous heating makes the Forbidden City warm as spring and doesn't feel cold at all.

This is also because the ancient buildings in China are mainly wood structures. In order to ensure safety, it is absolutely not allowed to see open flames in the palace. Tunnels are built to avoid open flames and heating. As for halls like the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the authentic heating can no longer meet the needs of keeping out the cold, so these places are mainly charcoal pots. Because of the open space of these magnificent temples, the risk of carbon fire is greatly reduced. In addition, the royal nobles like to wear mink coats, which also protects them from the cold to some extent.

Another reason why there is no smoke is that the heating materials in the Forbidden City are mainly coal and charcoal. Most of the coal comes from Taixi coal in Ningxia, which is black, shiny, colorless, smokeless and tasteless, and has high calorific value. So the coal in Ningxia is called "Yumei". Charcoal, known as "red snail charcoal", is made of hard solid wood in Tongzhou, Daxing and other suburbs. It is sawn according to its size, placed in small thorns covered with red soil, transported to the gate of Xi 'an (now Red snail field) for storage, and then put into the uterus for use. Now, Hongluochang Street outside Xi 'anmen is a place to store charcoal. In this way, there will be no open fire and no smoke in the room. Not for environmental protection, because the palaces in the Forbidden City are all made of wood to prevent soot from blackening the palaces.

Throughout history, the cold winter is still inseparable from charcoal fire, and no amount of mink can resist the cold winter in the north. Today's heating and air conditioning makes the cold no longer fear.