This year, due to the outbreak of the new coronavirus, all countries in the world have fallen into panic, and in order to avoid being infected by the virus and protect their lives, the people of all countries have spontaneously begun to stockpile the necessary daily necessities at home to cope with various problems that may arise later.
But when the people of Europe and the United States rushed to buy money in the supermarket, there was an interesting phenomenon - in addition to the necessary food, the most snapped up was toilet paper, and in many supermarkets, the toilet paper shelves were empty at the beginning of the rush. Why is this happening? You should know that the main use of toilet paper is to wipe the buttocks, even if there is no one, it will not affect the safety of human life at all. Isn't it true that in modern society, the only tool for wiping our butts is toilet paper?
If that's the case, then we're really going backwards in this regard. You know, because of the limitations of technology and economic development in ancient times, people came up with a lot of fantastic ideas about wiping their butts, and there was even a way, which was given to us by the ancestor religion, which we still use today.
Next, this article will introduce a somewhat flavorful history - how ancient people wiped their butts after going to the toilet.
There is a clip in "Searching for Qin" where Gu Tianle just crossed over to the Qin Dynasty to go to the toilet, in which Gu Tianle went to the toilet and asked the old couple for paper, but they handed Gu Tianle some bamboo pieces. This is not an old couple playing with Gu Tianle, but a plot that is very much in line with history.
In fact, many people also know that the ancient people wiped their buttocks with wooden bamboo chips after going to the toilet, of course, bamboo pieces are only the main universal tools, and some people choose to use leaves and cloth, etc. When it comes to wiping butts with leaves, in fact, many children living in rural areas should have had such an experience.
This is not a matter of course, because these are recorded in history. Although the daily affairs of ordinary people, especially the filthy things such as toilets, are not recorded in the main history, there are still some ancient writers who record these things, such as "The New Language of the World". Some people may think that this kind of book is not a correct history, so the history recorded cannot be fully believed, but no one will make up or praise the ancient people's.
Moreover, according to these historical records, the ancient people had bamboo pieces to wipe when they went to the toilet, which was not only the "privilege" of ordinary people, under the conditions at that time, even the high-ranking officials and nobles could only wipe their buttocks with bamboo pieces, but the process of wiping their butts had some other means to show their identity.
According to records, Shi Chong, a high-ranking official in the Western Jin Dynasty, built a high-end toilet in his home that was different from ordinary toilets. This high-end is not only the high-end of the object, there are maids serving in the toilet, and the maids have sachets in their hands to deodorize, which is so luxurious that even his friends are shocked. But even so, if Shi Chong wanted to go to the toilet, he could only wipe it with wood chips.
Moreover, this way of going to the toilet with wood chips to wipe filthy things still existed until the Tang Dynasty, and in the late Tang Dynasty, Han Di recorded his daily life one by one in the book, including toilet tools, including bamboo chips.
However, China invented paper as early as the Western Han Dynasty, and Cai Lun of the Eastern Han Dynasty improved the original papermaking process. It is reasonable to say that Chinese should have been able to wipe their butts with paper for a long time, but why did they still use bamboo pieces until the Tang Dynasty?
It starts with Chinese concept. Chinese invented papermaking is used for literary creation, China has attached great importance to literature since ancient times, and it is naturally precious for paper. Therefore, even if the invention and even improvement of papermaking increased the number of papers, people still did not use paper to wipe their butts, and paper was very expensive in ancient times and could not be wasted.
But having said all this, we all don't realize one thing, that is, it is impossible to wipe the ass with bamboo pieces, is it impossible to wipe it clean, is it that the ancient people just symbolically wiped it? This is not in line with the arrogant character of the ancients, especially the high-ranking officials and nobles. So what do they do?
In fact, we just know the tools they use to wipe their butts, but we don't realize how they keep them clean. In ancient times, if people wanted to really remove filth, they would wash their butts with water, and this method, even now, is the only way to really remove filth from their butts.
Have we forgotten? No, in fact, since the toilet paper we use now is so soft, it is wiped several times after wiping until it is clean. But at this time, it is not completely clean, if we do not wash it for a long time, our ass will accumulate a lot of filth, resulting in a bad smell.
So why isn't that? It is because we still have the memory of our ancestors in our subconscious, and we will specially rinse our butts with water when we take a bath, but because people in modern society bathe frequently, this method is regarded as a habit.