■Reporter Peng Wei
The sun is scorching hot in midsummer. Since entering the dog days, Shanghai has entered a "steamer" mode. In summer, cicadas and birdsong seem to tell the scorching heat. "Summer scenery is full, and it's only June. The fire is light and the heat is fierce." The ancients' feelings about midsummer were all written into poems. In ancient times, there were no air conditioners and electric fans. How did the ancients enjoy the cold in the hot summer? Compared with modern times, what are their unique ways to escape the heat?
The ancients elegantly expressed "hot"
In meteorology, temperatures above 35°C can be called "high temperature weather", and if the highest temperature exceeds 35°C for several consecutive days, it can be called "high temperature heat wave" weather. So, how high is the temperature in the hottest summer in history?
According to the conversion of experts from the Palaeoclimate Research Laboratory of the National Climate Center of the China Meteorological Administration, the temperature values in the afternoon of July 20-25, 1743 were all higher than 40℃. Among them, the temperature on July 25 was the highest, reaching an astonishing 44.4°C. The eighth year of Qianlong in 1743 AD is also known as the hottest summer in history. In the summer of 1942 and 1999, there were two extreme high temperature records in North China, which were 42.6°C and 42.2°C respectively, but both were lower than 2°C, the hottest weather in the eighth year of Qianlong.
How hot was it in ancient times? There are many records in poetry about the feelings of summer heat and the way of enjoying the coolness of the literati and inkmen. Han Yu once wrote a song "Zheng Qun presents a steamer", in which he compared the summer heat to a charcoal kiln and a steamer in the sentence "Since I was soaked in the heat and dampness in May, like sitting in a deep retort and being steamed." In his "Bitter Hot Journey", Wang Ku of the Tang Dynasty compared the high-temperature environment to a large furnace: "Zhu Rong comes to the south to whip the fire dragon, and the flag of the fire burns the sky. The sun will not freeze at noon, and the nations are like in the furnace."
Facing the heat, wearing Fuguo in the Song Dynasty had a lot of emotion, and wrote "Five Hot Five Poems" in one breath. Among them, "Heaven and Earth are a big kiln, Yang Charcoal cooks in June", comparing the high temperature environment to a burning ceramic tile kiln . Fan Deng of the Tang Dynasty wrote in "June": "In the summer of June, the body is hot and sweat is like pulp"; Dai Fugu in the Song Dynasty felt that "the field water is boiling like soup, and the back sweat is like splashing." The ancients used "rain", "splash", "slurry" and "flow" to describe the state of people sweating in hot weather, vivid and vivid.
Bai Juyi's "Relieving Heat" wrote the experience of "the heart is calm and naturally cool". "Why cool off the heat and sit in a courtyard. There are no long objects in front of you, and there is a breeze under the window. The heat dissipation is from the heart and the coolness is the room. At this time, the body protects itself, and it is difficult to be with others." The whole poem writes. Enjoying the coolness, from your own courtyard pavilion to the nearby waterside pavilion have become a place to enjoy the coolness. The poet Wei Zhuang of the Tang Dynasty wrote in "Xia Ye" in "Xia Ye": "Move the couch near the water, open the front to enjoy the coolness of the night. The stars are sorrowful and the day is hot, the dew feels the fragrance of the lotus. Qiu Xingfu, Tongjing under the Western Wall." In the scorching summer night, undressing and enjoying the coolness, but feeling the stars flashing in the sky, the fragrance of lotus flowers and the sound of frogs. In the eyes of the ancients, this scene and this meaning naturally became cool.
Summer Fun Activities
"Water" is one of the choices of modern people to escape the heat, and the ancients are no exception. The ancients had many summer fun activities to relieve the heat.
The ancient southerners were the most hydrophilic, such as the Suzhou people in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, who liked to enjoy the cool water. In Qing Jialu of the Qing Dynasty, Gu Lu talked about “ride the wind and coolness”: “Receiving the coolness is called taking the breeze and coolness. Or Pozhixumen Wannian Bridge Cave, or Fuchaohufu Crossing the Ocean, or Dijilin Palace Sanskrit Water Window Ice The pavilion, hang around at will..." According to the Southern Song Dynasty Wu Zimu's "Menglianglu" Volume 4 "June", the people of Lin'an (now Hangzhou) have the custom of going to the West Lake on the sixth day of June to enjoy the coolness collectively: By the embankment, enjoy the coolness and escape the heat."
In the Tang Dynasty, Liu Yuxi liked to enjoy the coolness in the water. He wrote: "Thousands of bamboos and greens count the lotus red, the water pavilion is empty and cool. The amber lamp is suspected of leaking wine, and the crystal curtain is more airy." Song Dynasty Qin Guan said: "Why don't you hate Fangfeixie, Xia Muyin is very pleasant." It can be seen that for the ancients, where there is water, there is a gentle breeze, where there is a tree, there is a shade, which is a good place to enjoy the cool.
"Appreciating lotus in the great summer heat" is also the habit of the ancients in the dog days. In Song Dynasty poet Su Dongpo's "Fan West Lake at Night" described: "The wild cattails are boundless and the water is boundless, and the lotus blossoms at night. The wind dew fragrance." In the Ming Dynasty, the wind of enjoying the lotus in the summer was flourished in Suzhou and overwhelmed Hangzhou. Suzhou people regard the 24th day of the lunar calendar as the birthday of lotus flowers. It is the most spectacular day to enjoy the lotus by boat.
The ancients loved nature, and they were especially happy to play in the natural mountains and waters in summer. Li Shizhen in the Ming Dynasty said that fishing can relieve the "hot heart and spleen." The ancients said: "One stop on the lakeside will eliminate diseases, nourish the mind and nourish the nature better than the medicine", the self-cultivation effect of fishing cannot be underestimated. In addition to fishing, there are many summer fun activities that people love, such as goldfish breeding, turtle fishing, frog hunting, and summer hunting.
Another elegant interest of the ancients is to read books to dissipate the summer. "Thousands of books, hundreds of writers. Sitting on green moss, spending a long summer." "South window dreams of Somo, and the scrolls on the bedside are empty and vertical." From these verses, people used to read books for meditation and tranquilization. Relieve summer heat.
What is the ancient "fridge"
As a matter of fact, as early as the pre-Qin period, large containers for holding ice and cooling down the temperature appeared in China, as well as ice cellars for storing ice. These appliances have the same cooling effect as modern refrigerators.
There was no ice-making method in ancient times, and the ice used was taken from nature. The ancients collected large amounts of ice in winter and stored them in ice cellars. The ice cellar is built in a shady place, deep underground. The ancients often used fresh rice straw and reed mats as a bedding. After putting ice on it, it was covered with heat-insulating materials such as rice bran and leaves, and then the cellar was sealed and enjoyed in the coming year for cooling use. Because of this storage, about two-thirds of the stored ice melts every year, so the ancients often increased the amount of ice stored to three times the amount of ice needed. Ice wells from the Warring States Period were discovered in Xinzheng, Henan, Yixian, Hebei, and Xianyang, Shaanxi.
"The Book of Songs" uses vivid and simple brushstrokes to depict the labor scene of the ancients who shoveled ice cubes and hide them in the ice cellar: "On the second day, the ice will be rushed and the ice will be rushed, and the third day will be in the lingyin". Some scholars believe that the "lingyin" here is the ice cellar. Because the cost of ice collection and storage was too high, most people who could enjoy this treatment in ancient times were high-ranking officials.
An "ice cellar" is also built in the Forbidden City in Beijing. Nowadays, the Forbidden City has opened up many dining and rest areas, but the "Ice Cellar" is the only one. The "Ice Cellar" used as a storehouse is also a rare semi-underground building in the Forbidden City. It is warm in winter and cool in summer, and people stay in it very comfortable. Due to the pleasant natural environment of the ice cellar, there are many green trees in this area, attracting birds to build nests, and it has also become a place where cats in the Forbidden City frequent.
In the Tang Dynasty, there also appeared a kind of "cold house" for people to cool off. It is built near the water and uses water circulation to push the fan wheel to sway to slowly send the cold air into the house, or use simple machinery to send water to the roof, and then down the eaves to make an "artificial water curtain" , Let cool air into the house. Such a "cold house" is green and environmentally friendly, but it is also difficult for ordinary people to enjoy. However, people in ancient times usually hung curtains in front of the eaves, set up pergola in the yard, put bamboo beds and stools in the house, and placed stone beds or porcelain pillows on the headboards to enjoy the coolness.
Ice cream in ancient times
In the hot summer, ice cream is a popular cold food for cooling off the heat. There were also iced products in ancient times. What was the ice cream like at that time?
Judging from the literature, "Zhou Li" and "The Book of Songs" record the traditions of the ancients of our country to pick ice in winter and use ice in summer. In the Tang and Song Dynasties, iced products began to appear in large numbers in the field of folk catering. The basic ingredients of ice cream are ice cubes, milk, sugar, etc. The Southern Song Dynasty people's notes once recorded a heat-relieving drink named "Lactose Real Snow". Although its formula is no longer available, but literally, it may be a cold drink of a mixture of ice and water. The Song Dynasty "Tokyo Dream Hualu" even described the scene of the blooming of cold drink shops in the Kaifeng market at that time: "They all used blue cloth umbrellas, lined up bed benches in the street, piled up ice and snow, sold ice and snow lychee cream..."
Italian businessman Marco Polo once wrote in his travel notes that when he was traveling in China, he saw a heat-relieving food called "ice cream" in the palace of Emperor Kublai Khan of the Yuan Dynasty. This is a cold drink made with ice cubes, juice and milk, similar to ice cream. In some novels and medical books published in the late Qing Dynasty, ice cream has also appeared as a common cold food. Today, ice cream and popsicles have become one of the representative foods of summer.
Since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, people have been most popular in Futian to eat lotus seed soup to nourish the mind and spleen. In the palaces of the Qing Dynasty, the most famous cold food is the ice bowl, which is made of melon, lotus root, almond tofu, raisins, fresh walnuts, yam, jujube mud cake, etc. It is called "Guoyu Lotus Flower Mansion" in poetry. Fragrant, Shen Li Floating Melon is cold and icy."