In many costume dramas, especially court dramas, hand warmers are definitely a frequent visitor to winter scenes, whether it is the harem drama "The Legend of Zhen Huan in the Harem", "The Legend of Ruyi", or "Do You Know If It Should Be Green Fat Red Skinny" and "LangyaBang" You see it in the city. From niangniang down to ordinary people (especially Brother Su, who is suffering from fire and cold poison), they all need to rely on it to keep warm.
Hand warmers are mostly made of copper that can transfer heat, and their small size is convenient to take out of the street, and can be placed in the sleeve, also known as "sleeve stove" and "fire cage". From the cultural relics excavated today, it can be seen that the shape of the hand warmer is long box-shaped or round, and it has not been customized, but the common point is that there are ventilation holes that can make it dredge the heat.
To talk about the history of the development of hand warmers, we have to mention something called "bedding incense burner". According to the first volume of Yin Yun's "Novel" of the Southern Liang dynasty, as early as the Han WuDi emperor, a skillful craftsman Ding Shou made a kind of sphere incense burner, which is actually a combination of incense balls and mini stoves, placed in a futon, which can warm the bed and incense.
Ding Shuo cleverly uses the principle of mechanics so that no matter how the container where the charcoal is moved, it can always be in a horizontal position, and the charcoal will not be poured out, which is very safe. It is conceivable that earlier than the Han Dynasty, people's requirements for heating were already very high, in addition to being easy to carry, they could be placed safely on the bed.
In the Ming Dynasty, the technology was more sophisticated, and there was a famous bronze hand stove of the Ming Dynasty, which was the copper hand stove made by Zhang Mingqi. Zhang Mingqi is a famous furnace maker in the late Ming Dynasty, and the hand stove made by jiaxing in Zhejiang is made of refined red copper, and the thickness of the furnace body is uniform, and it will not cause overheating problems.
Because his copper hand stove was not expensive, only the high-class officials and nobles could customize this brand of goods at that time! Xiaobian climbed the data, and felt that the shape of the copper hand stove it made did not change much, mainly based on the shape of the imitation bamboo basket, and also equipped with a wrist, which was also convenient to carry. Interestingly, whether in the Ming Dynasty or today, Zhang Mingqi's hand stove is still the stuff of the dignitaries and nobles, and has become the focus of auction activities many times in the past few years!
However, everyone who watches the harem drama also knows that the amount and variety of charcoal reflect the status of the mother-in-law, which can also be seen how precious the charcoal is, so the ordinary people cannot often put the charcoal in the hand warmer. Therefore, in the Song Dynasty, someone had already invented "Tang Pozi" for heating.
"Tang Pozi" is actually a premium version of the hot water bottle. "Tang Pozi" is a metal round pot, the user only needs to fill the round pot with hot water, seal the lid and wrap to prevent heat dissipation.
Dream of the Red Chamber. The Fifty-first Time also mentions: "Qingwen smiled and said, 'After all, it won't be warm, and I remembered that Tang Pozi hadn't brought it yet."' Another poet, Huang Tingjian of the Song Dynasty, said in his work "Drama Aria Warm Foot Bottle": "A thousand dollars to buy a foot woman, sleep night until the light." "It can be said that after the Song Dynasty, Tang Pozi was also a necessary artifact for the people's families to spend the winter!"
To be honest, although the hand stove is already small, it is made of copper after all, and it is also a bit heavy. The ladies still have to hold it around, and it is not easy to get some warmth!
The emperor and his wife had to spend the cold winter in the palace, how could it be enough to rely on the hand warmer alone? The following small editor will take our favorite Qing Palace as an example to introduce how the masters spent the cold winter in the deep palace.
(1) Red charcoal
If you watch "Ru Yi Zhuan", you may remember that a noble concubine framed Zhang Junning's role of Hai Chang for stealing the "red charcoal" she used for the winter. In fact, charcoal is a symbol of the struggle between many women, in addition to the post-Qing Palace drama, Xiaobian remembers that the first episode of "Do You Know If It Should Be Green Fat Red Skinny" has already said how Minglan's mother is short of charcoal in winter, and the sisters around them have to find the door for the main son to get a response.
It can be seen that in the ancient world, the use of carbon fire for heating was a luxury, because even in the palace nobles or large households, the supply of carbon fire was limited. In fact, the red luo charcoal is not a fabrication, but a qing palace archive record, which is made of solid wood carefully selected from various places, sent to the beijing division, and then filled with a small round thorn basket coated with red clay, and then sent to the palace, so it is called red charcoal.
According to the "History of the Palace of the State Dynasty" in the Qing Dynasty's compilation of the "Four Libraries", the original concubines or above could receive dividend charcoal and black charcoal regardless of winter, but nobles or below were not. Taking the Empress and Chang Zai as an example, the Queen can receive 20 catties of red charcoal and 60 catties of black charcoal every day in winter, and 10 catties of red charcoal and 30 catties of black charcoal in summer. However, a small constant can only get twenty catties of black charcoal per day in winter, and only ten catties of black charcoal in summer.
It can be said that only those with higher levels are eligible for red charcoal, and those with lower levels cannot use high-quality red charcoal, and black charcoal must also be used sparingly. This also explains why the piglet has to try to climb up as soon as he enters the palace, which is related to whether he can save his life!
(2) Fire road
If you've been to Japan, South Korea and the big cities of northern China, you may have experience, and many local homes or hotels have underfloor heating designs. It turned out that as early as 500 years ago, when the Forbidden City was built, clever craftsmen had built fire tunnels under certain important palaces. As long as the next person ignites the charcoal and pours it into the kang, the heat generated will flow along the fire channel and heat the floor of the palace, which is the earlier floor heating equipment.
However, this kind of senior treatment is actually only available to a very small number of people. For example, in the East Pavilion of Kunning Palace, there is a pit under the eaves of the outer hall, which is actually the furnace door. This Dongnuan Pavilion is the place where the kangxi, Tongzhi and Guangxu emperors were married in the past. Therefore, of course, the living room should warm the bed, otherwise how to cave the room.
Reference: Draft History of the Qing Dynasty