There are tens of thousands of rooms in the Forbidden City, and thousands of people live in the heyday, why is there not a toilet? Admire the wisdom of the ancients!
The Forbidden City has tens of thousands of rooms, large and small, and no one can count the exact numbers. During the heyday of the Ming and Qing dynasties, emperors, concubines, and thousands of palace women and eunuchs lived here. Although the Forbidden City is very majestic, the facilities inside are relatively perfect, but there is one thing that is very surprising, that is, the huge Forbidden City, tens of thousands of rooms actually do not have a toilet, what is going on?
The reason why the Forbidden City did not build toilets is because the Forbidden City was a royal palace in ancient times, if the construction of toilets will lead to stink, because in ancient times, sewers are not as good as modern planning, and Chinese like to dig pits to use toilets, because it is an agricultural country, and the manure in the pit can also be fertilized. Then there is the problem of silver, there are so many rooms in the Forbidden City, so each courtyard must have at least one toilet, so the consumption is too large.
In the concubine's various residences, although there is no toilet with a pit, but there is a special defecation room, this place is called "official room", the area is relatively small, every time the concubines are convenient, they come to this place, after going in, the palace maid in charge will arrange a toilet-like object for the concubine, this thing is particularly similar to today's flush toilet, the only difference is that it is under the grass ash and spices as a cushion, the following is the physical map, you can take a look. This thing also has a lid, and whenever it is convenient, the responsible palace maid will cover it and take the bucket out in time to clean it (of course, this dirty work is done by the eunuchs).
Why is there no toilet in the palace, but a Gong bucket is used? This is mainly because there is no suitable system in the palace to deal with excrement. You know, the palace population is large, and the palace is the emperor's residence, need to maintain clean and hygienic, in the palace, the use of gong bucket is indeed more convenient than the construction of toilets. In the palace, there is generally no kind of toilet common in the folk, and the main reason is that this kind of toilet will be very smelly and unsuitable for use in places like the palace.
The Forbidden City does not have toilets, but it does not mean that they will not go to the toilet, they have their own way, although this way is more luxurious, waste of manpower, but it can highlight the dignity of the royal family.