As an ancient person, what do you want most in the summer? That, of course, is a cold drink. Although there is no air conditioning and no wifi, it is also good to have some cold drinks with three or two friends. In the previous series, I briefly told you about the ice book of the summer artifact of the Chu Kingdom, so today, I will continue to explain the past and present lives of this object.
In the period of legendary fantasy, the nobles not only dealt with animals such as deer and crocodiles, but also possessed summer artifacts in the summer. Although there was no dry ice, the people at that time already knew how to take precautions, and in the winter, they let the slaves chisel the ice blocks out of the river early in the winter and store them in the cellar, which is also the ice cellar we now know as it is, that is, the place where the virtual bamboo and the dream girl fell in love. Back to the point, although this way can also store a certain amount of ice, but although it is winter, but it is not without warmth, once the temperature becomes high, the amount of ice stored by the nobles will be somewhat lost. The answer, of course, is to make an ice book.
During the Western Zhou Dynasty, king Cheng of Zhou, in order to make up for the shortcomings of this method of storing ice, was determined to improve it, and ordered the craftsmen to create a meal shame book, which is a tong false character, which is synonymous with zhenfeng, which means delicacy. This kind of stored meal delicious tasting can also be used in the summer to hold fine wine, so chilled wine is not the patent of our modern people, it has been around since ancient times. In the Western Zhou court, Tianzi also set up the position of Lingren, responsible for cutting ice to take Ling in December, making cold drinks, and in charge of ice jian, although he did not know a few products, but he should be like the Ku people, belonging to low-level miscellaneous servants, and most of the people who wanted to serve were civilians.
In the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, people took more and more ways to make ice and drink, in addition to ice cellars, people also invented three ways to build ice rooms, make refrigerators and make ice in summer. From the Western Zhou Dynasty onwards, Zhou Tianzi and high-ranking nobles, in order to reward close Qing doctors and scholars, would often give them cold drinks in the summer to show their grace, known as ice or ice. However, these small sects also have their own Xiaoice library.
In the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the ceremonies collapsed, and the small sects could secretly enjoy ice if they had greater power. They often let subordinates take ice and put it indoors, make an ice room, and cool off in the summer, which can also be seen as the prototype of the current air conditioning room. The nephew of the Chu state Ling Yin Sun Shu'ao was a very cautious man, and because of this advantage, he eventually became the Ling Yin of the King of Chu Kang. At the beginning of his reign, King Chu Kang wanted to promote Sima Zi Feng to Ling Yin, but Zi Feng considered that King Kang had killed his courtiers, so he decided to protect himself and live in seclusion in the Ice Chamber. Later, it was not until Ling Yin Zinan was killed by his son Feng that he changed his view of King Kang, believing that King Chu Kang could distinguish between right and wrong and was worthy of assistance.
Wu Guo and Zeng Guo, which are closely related to the State of Chu, on the basis of the Ice Chamber Ice Book of the State of Chu, have created different shapes of bronze Jian Jian, which are composed of Jian, Bottle and Spoon, which are used to hold wine, and the gap between Jian and Bottle is used to hide ice, which can be said to be the prototype of Xiaoice box. In addition, according to the "Liezi" record, Lao Tzu once invented the method of summer ice making, but what this method is is not easy to verify, considering that Lao Tzu was born a Taoist, I suspect that this method is the saltpeter ice making method that appeared later.
With these methods, in the late Warring States period, the types of cold drinks in addition to ice wine, ice fruit plates, but also many new tricks. In Qu Yuan's "Summoning Souls", it was once recorded that the cold drink of "frustrated jelly drink" was probably frozen up to eat, which was probably equivalent to the current sake brewing bar. In addition to this food, it is said that the nobles at that time also learned a good way to mix rice and milk into ice cream, which is really amazing.
By now, eating cold drinks is not unusual for us, and ice tasting is not common. However, seeing this interesting cold knowledge, I still have a respect for those who were thousands of years ago, without their inventions, there would be no more convenient innovations we have now, eating cold drinks, thinking back to the creativity of these ancients, it is really overwhelming.