In the "Sayings", it is said: "Fire, the journey of the south also." Inflammatory, pictographic. "The fiery flame jumped upwards, bursting with the indomitable vitality of history, leaping for ten thousand years. The use and control of fire is an important technology for humans to become a dominant species in the process of evolution.
Campfire – the original use of fire
Since discovering the use value of fire, human beings have not only learned to use fire, but also learned to make fire, and will use primitive methods such as drilling wood to obtain artificial fire. Some ash accumulations have been found at some sites in the early Paleolithic period in China, but these ashes are not native accumulations and have been disturbed by transportation, so many archaeologists do not think that these ashes can be used as reliable evidence of human fire at that time. At the site of the Yuanmou people 1.7 million years ago, although many investigations and excavations have seen a large number of charcoal chips and some burnt bones from the same era as the fossils of the Yuanmou people, this site is not a gathering place for humans at that time, so it cannot be recognized as the ashes of the original fire, and it cannot be confirmed that it is the remains of artificial fire. In the Lantian people site dating back 750,000 to 800,000 years, there are also several small scattered powdered charcoal particles, which may have been transported from other places by flowing water, nor are they piled up by bonfires at the original fire sites.
About 700,000 years ago, the Peking Ape Man site found a thick layer of ash, mixed with some burned stones and charred animal bones, as well as burned seeds of the park tree, which are conclusive artificial fire sites. The stone tool production site of the Fulin people in the late Paleolithic period in Hanyuan, Sichuan, has left some charcoal, ashes, burnt bones and a large number of leaf marks. Researchers believe that it is the remnant of the reed fire lit by the Fulin people when making stone tools. Campfires at this time can be used to process stones, drive out wild animals, keep warm and shelter from the cold, and cook food. In the early days of cooking, there was no pottery, and most of them used directly to use campfire barbecue to obtain cooked food.
Fire pit – life and faith
After the unification of Qin, the practice of using pottery stoves as the main burial items in the qin state was popular, and other regions began to imitate this tradition. After death, the rich and noble are usually buried with a clay stove to ensure that they can still enjoy delicious food in the underworld. The Jianghan region of the homeland of the Chu State is an area that began to use pottery stoves earlier after the Qin people, such as the early tombs of the Western Han Dynasty excavated in Jiangling and Yunmeng, and you can see a very standard pottery stove. The style of the Qin people's stove, according to the discovery of Shaanxi Fengxiang, the whole is in the front and back round style, there is a fire door in the front, there is a chimney in the back, and there are 3 fire eyes on the stove surface, which is already a fairly standard stove.
In the early Western Han Dynasty pottery stove, the stove surface has a curved ruler shape, and there is often a baffle behind it, which may indicate that the stove is leaning against the wall, and Hubei Jiangling and Yichang have seen this style of pottery stove. This type of stove generally does not have a chimney, and most of them have only two fire eyes.
Since the middle of the Western Han Dynasty, the style of the pottery stove has changed more, mainly rectangular, and the more obvious changes are: the chimney is significantly lengthened and raised, and there are very few chimney-free ones; above the fire door, we begin to see a fire wall that is high above the stove surface, but it is relatively low; a small number of stoves see food stacking and carving, and the interest in life is relatively strong. In this period, stoves with double fire eyes are more common, and cooking utensils are one pot and one pot. There are also a certain number of single-fire eye stoves, and multi-fire eye stoves are rarely seen. A model of a 4-eye fire stove has been unearthed in the eastern suburbs of Nanchang, Jiangxi, each with a fire door and a chimney. A model of a pottery kitchen was found in Jingu Garden, Luoyang, Henan Province, with a two-eyed stove in the middle of the kitchen, which is a microcosm of the cooking place in the Western Han Dynasty.
History · Emperor Wu's Benji (本紀) says: "Shaojun said to Shangyue: 'The ancestral stove is to cause things, to give things and Dansha can be turned into gold, gold becomes a food eater and longevity, and the Penglai immortals in the sea can be seen, and if you see it, you will not die, and the Yellow Emperor is also.'" So the Son of Heaven began to worship the stove. This measure of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty is intrinsically causal and causal to the phenomenon of pottery stoves that have occurred in tombs since the middle of the Western Han Dynasty. The Son of Heaven sacrifices the stove for eternal life, and the common people seek wealth. After the middle of the Western Han Dynasty, the phenomenon of using pottery stoves for burial has become very common, and many pottery stoves have been excavated in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River and the two lakes and two Guangzhou areas, the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the Sichuan area. But the first vesta god seen in the literature was Emperor Yan. "Zuo Chuan Zhao Gong Seventeen Years" "The YanDi clan is named after the Fire Age, so it is the name of the Fire Master. The "Treatise on Huainan Fen" also says: "Emperor Yan made fire, and death became a stove."
Since the Eastern Han Dynasty, the area of burial pottery stoves has been expanded, reflecting from one side that the scope of use of stoves has an increasing trend. Through the Wei and Jin dynasties, the Southern and Northern Dynasties to the Sui and Tang dynasties, the pottery stove (the new ones are also porcelain stoves and copper stoves, etc.) are still necessary burial items for some larger tombs. In the Song and Yuan dynasties, there are still examples of burial stoves, but they are far less common than in the past. In a large Liao Dynasty tomb excavated in the southern suburbs of Beijing, a brick stove was found in a side room, on which iron pots, stone pots, jade bowls and copper spoons were placed, which is a symbolic kitchen, and there are few examples of such kitchens in ancient tombs.
In the Eastern Han Dynasty, there were obvious regional differences in pottery stoves, and the two systems of the north and south began to take shape. From the perspective of development trends, the fire retaining walls of the fire stoves in the north and south are higher than in the Western Han Dynasty, especially the stepped fire retaining walls in the north, which are found in Pinggu in Beijing, Teng county in Shandong and Mian county in Shaanxi. From a flat point of view, the north is more front and rear circular, and the south is more likely to see the pointed tail arc back type. Regardless of the north and south, the surface of the pottery stove is more decorative than before, and the stove surface is engraved with fish turtle and vegetable figures, as well as knives, hooks, plates, cups and other kitchen utensils, and some also have the image of people, domestic animals and even fuel guzzles on the side of the fire door, which is very vivid. It is worth mentioning in particular that the pottery stove excavated from the Han tomb in Guangzhou is often accompanied by some pottery on both sides of the stove, and the two sides of the fire door are also sculptured with people and livestock, vivid and natural. The style of the Eastern Han Dynasty fire stove is not only very real from these pottery stoves, but also quite real on a large number of portrait stones and portrait bricks, and the model and painting can be combined to study, which is a very valuable information.
After the Han Dynasty, the difference between the northern and southern fire stoves became more obvious, and the two major systems were completely formed. In the southern Yangtze River Basin, the stoves are all pointed tail arc back, the stove surface is arc-shaped rather than flat, and the rear end is pointed and rounded and slightly upward, with smoke holes. The Eastern Wu tombs in Hubei Echeng, Wuchang, Anhui Ma'anshan, Nanling, Jiangsu Zhenjiang, Jintan and other places, the pottery stoves unearthed are all of this style. Most of these stoves are double fire eyes, one each with a kettle, and have a blue glaze on the surface. In the two Jin Dynasties, the southern stove also has this style, the excavated stove is basically celadon porcelain, small and exquisite, Jiangsu Nanjing, Suzhou, Jurong, Hunan Changsha Jin tombs have found this kind of celadon stove. The northern stove is still largely square, and there is a small stepped fire retaining wall at the upper end of the fire door.
During the Southern and Northern Dynasties era, there were some new changes in the difference between the north and the south of the stove shape, mainly in the fact that the south was affected by the north to a certain extent. The northern stove has changed significantly, the most notable thing is that there are high and wide fire retaining walls, and all of them are stepped, and the stove surface is small, mostly 1 fire eye. Pottery stoves of this style have been excavated in the Northern Wei tombs in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, the Eastern Wei tombs in Ci County, Hebei, the Northern Qi tombs in Ci County, Hebei, and the Northern Qi tombs in Shanxi. In the tombs of the Five Liang Period in Dunhuang, Gansu, this kind of pottery stove has also been seen. Although the southern stove is still the kind of lone-backed pointed tail style, it imitates the northern practice, adding a stepped fire barrier above the fire gate, but it is not so tall. In a Southern Dynasty tomb in Gao'an, Jiangxi, such a celadon stove was found.
The stoves of the Sui and Tang dynasties generally inherited the perfect practices of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and the differences between the north and the south did not develop, nor were they reconciled. Northern stoves are still characterized by small stove surfaces and large stepped fire retaining walls. The Sui tombs in Anyang, Xi'an, and Xianyang, and the pottery stoves seen in the Tang tombs of Changzhi, Anyang, and Yanshi are all of this style, and most of them have only 1 eye of fire. The rear end of the southern stove is slightly upturned, and there is a low stepped fire barrier on the fire door, such as the 1 piece of pottery stove excavated from a Sui tomb in Wuhan, or the appearance of the Southern Dynasty period, but the stove surface is flat instead of curved.
The fire pit and stove that have accompanied mankind through a long history are also a cultural heritage and an important content of the food culture. Fire pits and stoves not only played a decisive role in the development of cooking, but also had an important influence on the formation of dietary styles in different eras. Recalling the history of the development and evolution of cookers, we can more appreciate the long history of Chinese culinary culture and more truly experience the solidity and depth of the foundation of national traditions.
The above content comes from the public account public literature and art