Wen | Flying Fish says history
Chinese is very magical, sometimes the same Chinese characters, placed in different contexts will produce completely different meanings.
For example, the sentence "How much clothes can be worn and how much can be worn".
In the cold winter, that is to say, clothes should be worn as much as possible, so as to keep warm, but if placed in the hot summer, it means that clothes should be worn as little as possible, so that they can be cool.
However, compared with winter, summer is more difficult, because in the heat, it is not simply possible to wear less clothes.
We are fine now, no matter how hot, as long as the remote control of the air conditioner is turned on, even in the 40-degree high temperature weather, the air conditioner as long as it turns, the cool will come immediately, if the temperature is low, at night you have to cover the quilt, in order to sleep peacefully.
But in ancient times, there was no air conditioning, so how did the ancients spend the heat, this point does not need us to worry too much, because the ancients had their own tricks to cool down, and they also have many ways to cool down, and even the coolness enjoyed by the high-ranking officials and nobles is more than the current people.
As the emperor of a country, there are many cool ways, such as the Yongzheng Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, his cool mat is as cool as ice, lying on it does not feel the hardship of the heat, but he personally ordered that the people are not allowed to create this kind of cool mat, why is this?
Before saying this, let's first take a look at how the ancients spent the heat.
The ancients had a great way to spend the heat
What can be cooled, of course, is ice cubes, in the hot heat, eat a piece of ice cream, that feeling can only be described in one word - cool.
And the ancients have long ago, has begun to use ice cubes to cool down, of course, they are not used to eat, but to make a pavilion, in a room, planted around the trees, or built in the ground, and then put ice cubes, the use of ice cubes to melt the principle of heat absorption, naturally can make the house very cool.
Speaking of this, some people have said, there is no refrigerator in ancient times, where the ice comes from, there is indeed no ice in the ancient summer, but in the winter, the ancients will choose to dig deep holes to store the ice cubes that naturally form in winter, and then let these ice cubes not melt, this is the ancient ice cellar, wait until the summer to take out these ice for use.
Of course, the construction of a summer resort-style pavilion is a major project, only the royal palace or rich people can use it, the way for civilians to cool down is generally to wear less clothes, more fans, when they can't stand it, they will jump directly into the river to take a bath, and the premise is to be able to swim.
In addition, in the folk, people will also choose to weave bamboo mats, bamboo is naturally cool, sleeping on it can also play a natural cooling, and now there are many people at home have cool mats, but the craft is much more advanced than in ancient times.
Of course, this is only a civilian mat, and Yongzheng's mat can not be copied now, because his mat is ivory mat.
Yongzheng's cool mat is of extraordinary value
As the ruler of the feudal imperial system, as the most exalted emperor, Yongzheng was naturally the owner of all the good things in the world, and he used a sharp weapon in the heat, which was the ivory mat, and Yongzheng's ivory mat was still treasured in the Palace Museum in Beijing.
Ivory mat, as the name suggests, its manufacturing material is ivory, Yongzheng's ivory mat is flat and smooth, the touch is very cool, and what is more incredible is that the mat is soft and comfortable, stretching freely, lying on it in the heat, it is like hugging a large ice cube, it is difficult to think of cooling.
As everyone knows
Ivory is very strong, using it to make a soft mat, naturally is not a simple thing, before making ivory mats, you need to grind the ivory into a powder, and then use a specific potion to soften it into silk, and finally use special craftsmanship and exquisite technology to weave it into a mat.
As recorded in the "Gezhi Jingyuan": His ancestors first entered the tribute to the ivory mound, and the ivory mounds, all the elephants in the teeth are held in the inside one by one, the method is boiled soft, and the tooth strips are drawn out one by one as soft as a line, and the weaving is a mat.
Unfortunately, we can now know the manufacturing method of ivory mats, but its manufacturing process has been lost, and even if we know the manufacturing methods, we can no longer make ivory mats.
At present, there are only three ivory mats on the mainland, and only five are recorded in history, two of which have been missing, perhaps completely damaged under the wheel of history, and the ivory mat left by the Yongzheng Emperor is the best stored of these three remaining pieces.
Regardless of the production process of ivory mats, just from the number of heirs, it is clear that ivory mats are now priceless.
Yongzheng personally decreed that no more systems should be made
Since Yongzheng's cool mat is so good, or an artifact to relieve the heat, why not make more, why did the Yongzheng Emperor personally order that the people should not be allowed to make it again?
Not really.
Yong was a rather frugal emperor, although he was very fond of the ivory mat, but he already had one, plus the manufacture of the ivory mat was too much trouble and too expensive, and it was unimaginable to make such an ivory mat.
In order to save the people's strength, in order to make the people no longer complain about making such a cool mat, the Yongzheng Emperor personally ordered that the people should not be allowed to make ivory mats again, but it was precisely because of This order of Yongzheng that the manufacturing process of the ivory mat was gradually lost.
After all, such a precious ivory mat can only be used by powerful people, even now, those who can afford to use ivory mats are a very small part, after all, a single ivory is worth a lot.
Since the Yongzheng Emperor issued the order, there is no room for the people to make ivory mats, because the emperor has personally ordered that no one should be allowed to make them, and naturally no one will take the risk, because the resistance is to kill the head, and this is indeed for the good of the people at the bottom, they naturally will not resist the will.
The wisdom of the ancients is admirable, and they can always use their wisdom in harsh environments to increase their ability to adapt to or overcome nature.
Judging from the ivory mat alone, we all have to pay high tribute to the ancients, because it is now a precious cultural relic that cannot be copied.
Judging from the cultural relics left by the ancients, the wisdom of the ancients is indeed breathtaking, in addition to the ivory mat, there are many treasures that cannot be copied with today's technology, and how the ancients made these things is still a mystery.
Perhaps in the near future, science and technology will be further improved, and some objects will be copied, but the replicas no longer have the thick history of the cultural relics themselves, and naturally their value will be greatly reduced, and may even have no value.
What do you think about that?
References: "Gezhi Mirror Plain" and so on.
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