As summer comes, the first thing modern people think of is air conditioning and fans.
But there were no electrical appliances in ancient times, How did people at that time survive the hot weather?
The ancients' "house air conditioning technique"
Don't think they were having a relaxed life. In fact, the ancients were often too hot to bear the heat. For this reason, the ancients could only try their best to fight the high temperature, generally.
Their methods are divided into two categories: One is to transform the environment and cool the place where you live; the other is to regulate yourself and enhance the body's adaptability to heat.
First look at housing. People are concerned about adapting to nature. When building a house, they will pick a position that is close to mountains and rivers. Using the natural wind duct to form a through-the-room style, which is much more comfortable than shaking a fan.
The structure of the house is also given in particular, for example, the eaves are made particularly long, which can effectively cover the scorching sun at noon. Many courtyards or residential buildings have patios in the middle, which seem to be open space, but in fact, using air convection to pump the indoor heat upwards, the air circulation will be much cooler.
There are also people in some places who simply go underground to build houses, such as caves or semi-underground residences. The temperature underground is stable all year round. No matter how hot it is outside, the underground house can be kept at 17 or 8 degrees, just like a natural constant temperature room.
However, the better the family background is, the more refined the enjoyment will be. Wealthy families will build pavilions and waterside pavilions in their yards, and the houses will be built by the water. The breeze blows across the water surface, bringing cool air.
Families with good conditions will also use well water to cool it down and store the water in a stone tank. The indoor temperature is lower than outside. If they reach the emperor level, the treatment will be beyond the imagination of ordinary people.
The "Hanliang Hall" was built in the palaces of the Tang Dynasty, which can be regarded as a luxurious cooling equipment in ancient times. The craftsmen first used a water wheel to pump the well water to the roof, and then let the cold water flow down the eaves, forming layers of water curtains, which can not only block the sun but also lower the heat.
The hall is also equipped with huge wooden fans, which are pushed by manpower or mechanisms, and slowly rotate to blow the wind with water vapor throughout the hall. In this way, the temperature inside the hall is significantly lower than that outside, and the emperor can comfortably escape the heat inside. This is basically the ancient version of "central air conditioner".
In addition to relying on the pavilions, windows and ventilation designs in the house to cool down, they are also thinking about what they wear, use, and eat, and directly think about their bodies.
Find coolness from food, clothing, housing and transportation
To talk about what you want to wear first, Ordinary people most often wear kudzu and linen in summer. They are thin and breathable, sweat-absorbing and drying quickly, and they are cool and cheap to wear. Rich people pay more attention to it and pursue clothes that are so light that they almost do not exist.
The wealthy women in the Tang Dynasty were also very good at wearing them. They like to wear gauze, which was light and elegant, both breathable and beautiful. In fact, whether they were rich or common people, clothes were generally loose in ancient times, and wide robes and big sleeves were a natural ventilation port. When the air was in and out, the heat naturally dissipated.
Add to the things used, the most common ones are of course fans, which are almost everyone's hands, from the most common palm-leaf fans, paper fans, and round fans, which can not only fan the air and cool it up, but also serve as decorations. It is more elegant when held by literati.
But the most luxurious way to cool down requires ice. As early in the Zhou Dynasty, there were official positions who specialized in managing ice storage. In winter, cut large pieces of ice in the river, put them into deep-dig ice cellars, and then take them out in summer, which is equivalent to an early refrigerator.
By the Tang and Song dynasties, cold drink stalls were everywhere on the streets, and there were many varieties, such as "Ice and Snow Bing Yuanzi", "Misha Ice", "Lychee Paste", etc., which sound delicious.
Of course, ordinary people do not have ice cellars, so they can only use well water to make do with it. Throw fruits such as watermelon and pear into Jingli Town, and take it out and have a cool taste.
In addition to finding ways to cool down in the environment and body, they are also particularly good at adjusting their daily routines and lifestyles. In this, there are great differences in the practice of literati and ordinary people.
The rich and leisurely literati regard summer escape as a kind of life. They do not fight head-on with the scorching sun, often sleep during the day, and go out to move at night, and stagger the hottest time.
If you have the conditions, you will move to mountains, forests and temples. Look for a big tree to sit, play chess and drink tea, but behind this coolness, it is actually quite luxurious. You don’t have to work hard for your livelihood, so you can have the leisure to slowly cool down.
The people don't have so many choices. No matter how hot the summer is, they can't stop farm work. They still have to go to the ground under the scorching sun. All they can do is to use their fragmented time to enjoy the cool air. A group of people chatted with palm-leaf fans. Without electrical appliances, they follow nature and turn everything they can use around them into "cooling tools".
