Many people have a view that the previous summer was not so hot, in fact, this view is biased, the summer is hot, everyone is bitter and hot, ancient and modern are the same. The ancients used rich words such as poisonous sun, hot summer, annoying steaming, and hot fire to describe the summer weather, and there were more metaphors such as "fire umbrella when empty" and "fire fluttering light", which showed the power of summer heat, which was really a headache.
Qianlong Eight Years (1743
year
Beijing was the hottest summer ever recorded, and a French missionary used the most advanced Ram's thermometer at the time to continuously measure and record the temperature in the capital, and the measurement result was that the average temperature from July 20 to 25 was above 40 °C. On July 25, the temperature reached a historically rare 44.4 °C. In The capital and its suburbs alone, more than 11,000 people died that summer.
Heat prevention and cooling have become a problem that must be considered in ancient and modern times, and many of the wisdom of the ancients are actually unimaginable to today's people. Without a refrigerator, they can also keep the ice from winter to use in the summer.
According to the records of the "Zhou Li", in the Western Zhou Dynasty, ice mining operations began in the winter, and people would collect ice cubes when the river condensed in winter, and then transport them to the "Ling Room" for storage, and a large number of ice cubes were superimposed on top of each other, which was very spectacular. At that time, after the ice cubes were stacked neatly, the main entrance of the ice cellar needed to be sealed with dirt and extremely tight, so as to ensure the temperature in the ice chamber and allow these ice cubes to continue into the summer.
Because the ice produced is very rare and very expensive, it is only obtained by the princes and nobles, and if you can get this reward, it can be said to be a great honor.
The Zhou Li records that the Zhou Dynasty already had an ice government that specialized in managing ice cubes, and these people would also store ice cubes in the winter, and in the summer of the following year, the Tianzi of the Zhou Dynasty would take out some of the ice cubes and reward them to the Wen and Wu officials.
It can be seen that the original ice cellar at that time has appeared, and also specially set up ice cellar management personnel, but its ice making technology is still very primitive, Zhou Tianzi's subordinates are not many people, the reward of ice is not as much as in later generations, but it can meet the demand, but after the Spring and Autumn Warring States, ice cubes are in short supply.
Because the princes of the Spring and Autumn Warring States Period continued to expand their strength, there were many doormen and staff, and the princes of the Spring and Autumn Period to the princes and ministers also followed suit, Zhou Tianzi's way of rewarding the ice cellar, especially in the hot summer, took out the ice cubes and poured fine wine, sitting near the cold and fluttering ice, which can be said to be a very luxurious enjoyment.
As a result, the amount of ice used increased, and the gentlemen of the three thousand doormen also sighed at the ice, in order to solve the problem of short supply of ice, when people developed the summer ice making technology, in the absence of refrigerators and any refrigeration conditions,
The ancients more than 2,000 years ago, could make ice in summer?
This is a very magical "summer ice" technology, in the absence of refrigerator conditions, spring and autumn Warring States era people, how to make ice in summer?
In fact, I went through the ancient texts of the mainland
，
The technology of "summer ice making" has appeared very early. In "Zhuangzi", it is mentioned: "I have the way of the master."
I can
Winter is the limit
Summer Ice".
It is also mentioned in the "Guan Yinzi Seven Kettles Chapter"
：
“
The power of man can conquer the creator of heaven and earth
Like winter thunder
Summer Ice"
。
whereas
come
To the Han and Tang dynasties
Even in the Ming Dynasty, there are many documents that record the summer ice. According to modern expert research, "summer ice" is the earliest known primitive artificial ice making technology in the world.
And this summer ice making technology, but also very special, and we now use cold water into the refrigerator to make ice, it uses technology and methods is actually made of hot water ice.
How to make ice with hot water, but also in the summer?
How to make ice in hot water will probably confuse physics teachers a little. So did the ancients make a mistake in their records, or did they really realize the "summer ice" technology? Because no specific technology has been handed down, this has become an unsolved mystery of the history of science and technology.
However, in the Huainan WanbiShu, a very specific method of "making ice in summer" is recorded, and it is recorded like this:"
Take the boiling soup and put it in the urn, densely with new green, and the Shen (well) becomes ice in three days."
And this record has also become the basis for modern experts to study the summer ice, and the experts have made scientific inferences.
According to the "Huainan WanbiShu", in the summer, the boiling water module, the water into a low-temperature and low-pressure place, so that it can quickly evaporate heat, and because of the surrounding environment heat absorption and refrigeration, as long as the humidity and temperature are appropriate, the volume of the container is large enough, the sealing conditions are good enough, and indeed a small amount of ice can be created after experimentation.
But if you want to get bigger ice, you need a larger volume and a cooler environment, as well as a reduced humidity in the air. Experimental results, as long as the volume is larger, the larger the ice cubes are obtained.
According to the research of the data, this artificial ice making method
The ancients should have summed up from the practice of Taoist water alchemy, in the Western Han Dynasty's "Thirty-Six Water Method" formula, it was found that there are saltpeter, cold water stone or condensed stone and other dissolved heat absorption things, and these combined, it is bound to be able to appear ice phenomenon. It can be said that this fully explains the spirit and wisdom of the Chinese sages.
After some experimental results, it has been proved that the "summer ice" recorded in ancient books can indeed be realized, but because there is no overly specific way and time, space, etc., there is still no consensus on how the ancients achieved the summer ice making method.
Even now, this ice-making technology is difficult to mass-produce ice cubes on a large scale, so its labor consumption is relatively high, which limits it and can only be owned by the nobles at that time. Because the summer ice is too precious, in order to be able to survive the hot summer, the ancients in the Spring and Autumn Period, they developed a high-tech storage of ice cubes, that is, the ancient refrigerator "ice book".
Ice Jian This thing, the earliest cultural relics found in modern times, is the Spring and Autumn Warring States Period bronze ice book, was excavated in the tomb of Marquis Yi of The Drum Dun, which is also the earliest ancient freezer found in China, the bronze ice book can be called an artifact of the time, because it combines refrigerators and air conditioners into one.
Bronze ice book is a very scientific insulation setting, divided into two parts, the outer layer is a square book, the inside has a square, the set and design of the jian and the silk are very clever. The ice book and the bottle are combined to achieve a double-layered vessel. There is a large space left around Jian and Miao. The space is used to place ice cubes, so the advantage is that it can be cooled, and it can also make the wine and fragrant fruit quickly cool.
And the appearance is exquisite, the two sides are also designed with lifting rings, and the opening of the cover plate can be used as a handle and a place for air conditioning. It's also very simple, and in the summer, people will freeze the ice cubes. Cover the lid on it, simple and very environmentally friendly, and can indeed give modern times a reference.
In particular, the craftsmen have explored the design of their shape and function, making the ice collection more exquisite and scientific. There is also a hanging tin in the ice book, and a small hole is specially designed in the bottom of the box. A trapdoor was also designed on the lid.
Ice Book
Whenever it is used in the heat of the summer, you can remove the trap plate on one side and place fresh fruits or drinks in the ice cubes. The taste is cool and will really make the heat dissipate. The effect of tin will also prevent the ice water from eroding the box, and the small hole at the bottom can allow the meltwater of the ice cube to flow out.
Because it has the function of cooling down in summer, it can also preserve food and wine, and has become the favorite of many princes, and it is recorded in the "Wuyue Spring and Autumn": "Gouging out to travel, resting and sleeping in the ice kitchen." The "ice kitchen" mentioned here is the place where the princes like to eat in the ancient summer, and it can also be regarded as a "cold palace" in the true sense. While Gou Jian is located in the south, he lives in a hotter place than in other countries, and indeed needs more ice cubes to create a cool environment.
When Cao Cao built Tongquetai, it is said that he also built three ice wells to store ice cubes. An ice well resembles a large cold storage. In the summer, the cool air comes out of the well, just like the air conditioner, and it also has the effect of regulating the indoor temperature. In the Tang Dynasty, it is said that the slightly fat Yang Guifei was also very afraid of heat and liked a lot of ice to fence the entire hall. However, the cost of such an approach was too high, and only Tang Xuanzong could afford to consume it, and ordinary ministers of culture and martial arts could not emulate it.
But in any case, the artificial technology of summer ice making is still not stable enough, and eventually the dynasties still use a relatively primitive method of cellaring ice, so in the Ming and Qing dynasties, the ice cellar also has a royal official cellar, a local government cellar and a self-built folk cellar. However, how to distinguish is good, the shape of the ice cellar is basically the same, usually buried in the ground 1.5 meters, the total length is about 11 meters, the width is about 6 meters, and the volume is basically more than 330 cubic meters.
Near the Forbidden City,
When Chengzu Zhu Di moved the capital to Beijing, he built an ice cellar.
When Zhu Di moved the capital to Beijing, according to the Nanjing Imperial Palace as a model, the Beijing Imperial Palace was built in a reduced proportion, which is now the Forbidden City, and the ice cellar was built in the court at that time, and before the Manchurian Customs, the Forbidden City was seriously damaged by Li Zicheng, and the ice cellar was not rebuilt until the Qianlong period.
icehouse
With the use of ice cubes more and more, the ice cellar is also built more and more, according to calculations, near the Cining Palace in the Forbidden City, there are five large ice cellars, other places have built more than a dozen large and small ice cellars, and in the suburbs of Beijing, there are two large ice cellars, supplying the needs of summer resorts and other places.
According to the "Great Qing Huidian", the ice cellars in the court of the Qing Dynasty contained 25,000 pieces of ice, the ice cellar outside the Jingshan West Gate contained 54,000 pieces of ice, and the ice cellar outside the Desheng Gate contained 26,700 pieces of ice, such as Zhengyang Gate and many other parts of the capital have built ice cellars to store ice cubes.
The qing dynasty's ice storage technology and methods, and the past has not progressed, are also similar, the forbidden city in the ice cellar, located in the area of the present-day Cining Palace, is the palace nursing home concentration.
In the Qing Dynasty, there were a total of eighteen ice cellars built in the capital, headed by the Capital Water Department of the Ministry of Works, all called "official cellars", specially used to supply the palace and the official government with ice, the ice cellar in the Forbidden City is located next to the Cining Palace, outside the Longzong Gate of the Forbidden City, which is a semi-underground form of a cave-like building, with a volume of more than three hundred cubic meters.
Every year in the court, ice was collected in the river in the winter, and began half a month after the winter solstice, and the time for supplying ice was only from the first day of May to the thirtieth of July every year.
The ice of the official cellar is mainly distributed to all kinds of officials, the ice cellar stores ice cubes, the cost is huge, even ordinary officials, may not necessarily have the strength to afford to do, to the officials to send ice, similar to the distribution of heat and cooling materials, each gate according to the head, with a ticket to receive distribution, this is also an important welfare of officials.
The Qing Dynasty Fu Cha Dun Chong's "Records of the Yanjing Years" once recorded: "At that time, the Ministry of Works will issue ice tickets and collect them by themselves, and the number is different, and each has its own difference."
?
But of course, the most special significance is the ice in the ice cellar of the Forbidden City, because although they are ordinary ice cubes, because they are supplied to the palace, they have an aura and have become the most valuable and most imaginable ice cubes in the Qing Dynasty.
During the Qing Dynasty, the royal family and the clan nobles, as well as the kings who had made great contributions to the country and were canonized, could use ice cubes. The ice cubes in the imperial palace are also a symbol of status and glory, and the Qing Dynasty reached its peak in strength in the Qianlong era, and the previous ice cellar was rebuilt in the court to store ice.
Since the Qianlong era, the ice cellar of the palace has been specially provided with ice cubes for the nobles in the palace to cool off, until the end of the Qing Dynasty, the ice cellar was abandoned, and now it has been converted into the Forbidden City restaurant