Summer has passed, and summer has begun. For us today, ice is the best companion for summer. Whether it is ice cream, ice cream, popsicles, or smoothies, cold drinks, a variety of flavors, varieties, can be described as dazzling. But for the ancients who did not have refrigerators and cold storage, if they wanted to use ice cubes in the summer, they could only rely on ice cellars.
Ice cellars are caves that people used to store ice to escape the heat in ancient times. Although the technology of "summer ice making" is recorded in some classics, and China has thus become the first country in human civilization to master the original ice-making technology, the ice cellar that can store ice cubes is still the exclusive representative of the ancients to show their strength and status.
As the imperial city of the Ming and Qing dynasties, Beijing is naturally indispensable to the ice cellar. According to records, in the Forbidden City alone, there are as many as five large ice cellars near the Cining Palace, and there are more than a dozen other large and small ice cellars. Until now, there are still four ice cellars in the Forbidden City, about 100 meters southwest of Longzong Gate in the western district of the Forbidden City.
The following is an excerpt from "Beijing Central Axis Cultural Tour Classic Architecture - Hongtu Forever Staying". It has been authorized by the publishing house to publish.
"Beijing Central Axis Cultural Tourism Classic Architecture - Hongtu Forever Staying", by Gao Shen, Beijing Publishing House, October 2021.
The Forbidden City Ice Cellar
The Ice Cellar, which is part of the Forbidden City, is a summer shelter building whose main function is to store ice cubes so that the king can drink ice in the middle of summer.
Stills from the TV series "The Biography of Zhen Huan" (2011).
Four ice cellars in the Forbidden City remain today, about 100 meters southwest of longzong gate in the western district of the Forbidden City. The building of each ice cellar is exactly the same, all built in a north-south direction, the appearance is no different from the ordinary hard mountain building, and the interior is semi-basement, and the height difference between indoor and outdoor ground is about 2 meters. Each ice cellar building is about 11 meters long and about 6.4 meters wide. The floor of the cellar is covered with large strips of stone, and there is a ditch in one corner, from which the melted ice water can flow into the ditch, and there is a dry well near the ditch to facilitate drainage of the ditch. The surrounding walls are first stone walls of about 1.5 meters high from the bottom to the top, and then a brick wall of about 2.6 meters high is built upwards, and then the arch is begun to form an arch roof. The height difference between the ceiling and the highest point of the roof is about 2 meters, and it is filled with ash soil in between. The walls of each building are about 2 meters thick, and there are no windows, only doors on the north and south sides.
Few archives of the construction of the Forbidden City's ice cellars are available today, and the timing of their construction is unclear. But this is after all the most important ice cellar on the central axis, its characteristics mainly include: the use of underground building forms, in order to use the underground constant temperature to maintain the constant indoor temperature; thick walls and roofs, in order to facilitate the isolation of the influence of outdoor high temperature; stone ground with adsorption and purification of ice water function, which is conducive to maintaining the hygiene of ice cubes; ground trenches, which is conducive to keeping the cellar dry.
Functionally, the ice cellar is mainly used to store ice, and occasionally used for emperors to eat "popsicles" in the summer. Regarding the number of ice stored in the ice cellars of the Forbidden City, the "Great Qing Huidian , Ministry of Works Dushui Qing Si Zang Ice" records that "the cellars in the Forbidden City are five, and the ice is hidden in 25,000 pieces", it can be seen that the number of ice stored in each ice cellar is 5,000 pieces, and the size of each ice is about 0.5 meters square, and the ice cubes of this size are not easy to melt.
These ice cubes are prepared for the winter solstice of the previous year, or taken from the Forbidden City's Tube River, Beihai and Zhongnanhai, Yuhe River, etc., or dig a pool next to the above rivers and lakes, store the purified water in advance to freeze (for consumption), and then chisel it into the ice cellar by the designated messenger. In ancient times, there was no ice making equipment, and the ice was collected from nature, which was called "ice fighting" in the history books. The ice miner beats the ice into squares on the surface of the ice and then pulls the square ice cubes to glide on the ice and transports the ice to the cellar. According to the old rules, ice mining was always carried out at night. This is because the ice that freezes at night is not exposed to the sun, is not easy to melt, and is easy to preserve.
The ice storage of the Ice Cellar of the Forbidden City is generally used at the beginning of the fifth month of the following year's lunar calendar, and ends on the 30th day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar. During the storage of ice cubes, about 2/3 will melt, but this is something that the ancients have long considered. Therefore, the ice cellar should store three times the required ice cubes to "prepare for release".
The ice cellar construction and ice storage method of the Forbidden City not only meet the requirements of the emperor to avoid the heat and cool down in the hot summer, but also the architectural skills are the embodiment of the diligence and wisdom of ancient craftsmen, which can provide effective reference and reference for the heat insulation of modern buildings.
Snow pool ice cellar
Located in the Xuechi Hutong outside the Shenshan Gate, not far from the north side of the Great High Xuandian Hall, the Xuechi Ice Cellar and the Gongjian Ice Cellar on the north side of the ice cellar are the two royal imperial ice cellars closest to the central axis outside the Forbidden City Ice Cellar.
The officials and merchants in the capital, Jia Bingjiao, are mostly in the area outside the Desheng Gate. The ice water used is also the water of the North Moat. The snow pond ice cellar located in the imperial city, in addition to using some moat river ice, most of the users are the winter moon tai liquid pool, Shichahai, and Guanzi River river ice. These cut ice cubes were sent from The Gate of Zhishan to the Snow Pond Ice Cellar for the altar sacrifice and the court to refrigerate meat, fruits, vegetables and summer heat to cool down.
Stills from the TV series "The Biography of Zhen Huan" (2011).
The Xuechi Ice Cellar appeared at the latest during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty. There are 6 cellar buildings, arranged in an east-west arrangement along the east wall of the North Sea: 4 on the west side and 2 on the east side. The four ice cellars on the west side are smaller, while the two on the east side are slightly larger. The ice cellar gate is at the turn of the east side of the garden wall north of the Zhishan Gate, and the gate faces north. Each ice cellar is about 4 meters underground, with granite floors and walls. There is only one door in each cellar, and a brick well is set outside the door, which is one meter lower than the bottom of the cellar to remove melted ice water.
In the fifth year of the Republic of China (1916), the Snow Pond Ice Cellar was managed by the Department of Affairs of the Presidential Office and contracted by private individuals. The ice storage of the Snow Pond Ice Cellar mainly supplied the needs of the Beiyang government and the Sunqing royal family, and the rest was sold to shops or houses.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, there are still 5 ice cellars in Xuechi Hutong, but most of them have leaked rain. In order to prevent the roof of the cellar from collapsing, the relevant departments have made the inner arch brick seams with cement inlays. As a result, the Snow Pond Ice Cellar stored ice in winter, stored meat, vegetables and fruits in spring and autumn, and sold ice in summer, which was used until 1972. The Snow Pond Ice Cellar was originally built with 6 cellars, but two still exist. The remaining four were converted to other uses due to the collapse.
Frugal Ice Cellar
Similar to the Snow Pond Ice Cellar, it is the Gongjian Ice Cellar. According to the Records of the Great Qing Dynasty, this place is one of the four large ice cellars set up by the Qing court in Beijing.
Interior view of Gongjian Ice Cellar (Illustration of "Beijing Central Axis Cultural Tour Classic Architecture - Hongtu Forever Staying")
Like the Xuechi Ice Cellar, the Gongjian Ice Cellar was under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Works of the Qing Dynasty for the use of ice by the court and surrounding governments. Gongjian Ice Cellar is located at No. 5, Lane 5, Gongjian Hutong. Gongjian Hutong is the NeiguanJian Hutong in the Ming and Qing dynasties, and this name comes from the Neiguan Supervision Office set up here in the Ming Dynasty.
After the Republic of China, the name of the hutong was removed from the "inside", "official supervisor" because of the mistake of "palace supervisor", so the harmonic pronunciation is "palace supervisor", its original meaning is to take the "wen, liang, gong, thrifty, let" in the "Wen, Liang, Gong, Frugal, Jean" in the "Gong Jian" two words, thus getting the name Gong Jian Hutong. Gongjian Ice Cellar sits facing west and east, the roof is a double hook and tile roof, semi-underground building, built by city brick masonry, the wall thickness is about 1 meter, and the interior is a brick arch structure.
Text/Gao Shen
Excerpts/He Ye
Editor/Qing Wang
Introduction Proofreader/Liu Jun
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