The Forbidden City, also known as the Forbidden City in ancient times, was built during the Ming Dynasty in 1406 AD, and it took a total of 14 years to complete. The Forbidden City covers a huge area, with tens of thousands of rooms large and small, and the peak period of residents exceeded 10,000 people.
However, it is surprising that there is not a toilet in such a large Forbidden City, which cannot help but make people wonder: how did the people who lived in it in ancient times solve the "three emergencies"?
First, let's see why the Forbidden City does not build toilets. You know, the ancient people still knew nothing about the underground sewer system, did not know how to use it, and did not invent the flush toilet at that time. If a large number of toilets are built in the Forbidden City, a large number of underground ditches will need to be dug to discharge sewage. There are so many people living in the Forbidden City, and in a few days, they are afraid that the smell of excrement in the ditch will fill the entire Forbidden City. You must know that the Forbidden City is a royal powerhouse, especially in the summer, if the emperor smells a stink when he goes to the royal palace garden, they will definitely be angry, and they will only be afraid of not being able to eat and go.
Therefore, in order to avoid environmental pollution and maintain the majesty and image of the royal family, no toilets were built.
Of course, although the Forbidden City does not have toilets, there are special "shovelers" whose duty is to collect feces and transport them out of the city.
The people in the Forbidden City, under the premise of not having a toilet, use special toilet appliances. These appliances include toilets, bedpans, buckets, stools, and more. The ranks in the palace are different, and the utensils used are also different.
The emperor in the Forbidden City is Lao Tzu, the Heavenly King, who is the eldest brother who should not be tolerated. The emperor's toilet utensils were called "official rooms". "Official room" is equivalent to "mobile toilet", where the emperor goes, the eunuchs will carry the official house to wherever it goes.
The emperor used the name "Tiger Zi" to urinate, which came from the fact that Li Guang once shot a tiger, and after shooting the tiger, he made a urine pot like a tiger's head to use, so he later called it "Tiger Zi".
The "official rooms" and "tigers" used by the emperor were all kept by special eunuchs, and certainly could not be placed in the palace, but they had to be prepared in empty rooms everywhere. And the emperor must get it as soon as he has an emergency, otherwise it is the crime of deceiving the king.
According to historical records, during the process of the emperor urinating, the container was not placed directly on the ground, but was held in the hand of a servant.
The "official rooms" used by the concubines were rectangular and oval, usually made of wood or ceramic. At the same time, in order to highlight the nobility, the official rooms of the emperor and concubines were more luxurious, such as the official houses of Cixi, which can be called national treasure-level cultural relics. The barrel is made of the finest sandalwood, and the outside is also decorated with a gecko-shaped sculpture, the mouth is slightly open, and the eyes are decorated with rubies, and the whole shape is vivid.
It is reported that every time Cixi wants convenience, the palace women will be busy with the wind and fire, some go to the eunuchs in charge of the "official room" to move to the "official room", some palace women go to prepare hand paper, some palace women spread the oilcloth on the floor of the clean room, some palace women put the "official room" on the oilcloth, and then ask Cixi to come to facilitate, after Cixi is convenient, the palace maid will take the "official room" out and give it to the eunuch, the eunuch still wraps it in a cloth sleeve, lifts it to the top of the head, cleans it after cleaning up the dirt, and then cleans it, and then puts in new rosin wood chips for the next use.
And concubines also have similar "Gong bucket" bedpans, they are linked to the rank, the grade is different, the corresponding specifications are also different.
And the largest number of eunuchs and palace women in the Forbidden City, these service personnel, they generally do not have a Gong bucket, can only use a lower grade of potty, wooden toilet, they can only make up, convenient after cleaning up the filth, the bedpan cleaning and wiping clean, for later others or the next time to use.
Because the total population of the Forbidden City is so large that it is afraid that these excrement will accumulate too much, so every day someone will come to pull these excrement outside the city or sell these excrement to farmers who need fertilizer.
It is precisely because of the ancients' respective duties, strict hierarchy and good sense of service that the trouble of repairing toilets in the palace was avoided.
After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, when people cleaned up the palace, they cleaned up these utensils used in the palace for the convenience of people, leaving only empty houses, and it is precisely because of this that some tourists do not know that the people who died in the palace were originally so "convenient".