Abstract: "Three volt days" came, and most of the country entered the "barbecue" mode; Contemporary people have air conditioning and cold drinks, how did people in ancient times survive the hot summer?
The "three volt days" are coming, and most parts of the country have entered the "barbecue" mode under the high temperature and heat. Modern people, accustomed to being accompanied by air conditioners, refrigerators, and ice drinks, may find it difficult to imagine how ancient people survived the hot summer. In fact, there are many cold drinks of the ancients, which are different in different periods.
Ancient tricks for cold drinks
In the Han Dynasty, there was a kind of honey water, which was made by adding honey to the cold well water.
During the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the medicinal scientist Ge Hong invented herbal tea, which could not only cool down and relieve the heat, but also defeat the fire, so it became a summer drink.
During the Sui and Tang dynasties, people referred to "drinks" as "drinks". "Drinks" are made from fruits or herbs, which can quench thirst and detoxify heat. However, at this time, although the people sold cold drink products, the price was expensive.
In the Song Dynasty, shops specializing in selling cold drinks appeared, and in the "Map of the Upper River of the Qingming Dynasty" created by the Northern Song Dynasty painter Zhang Zeduan, some stalls specializing in selling "drinks" were depicted. In a sense, the shops that sell "drinks" are the same as the milk tea shops on the market today.
According to the "Zhouqiao Night Market" section of the "Tokyo Dream Record", the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty at that time had "ice and snow cold yuanzi" and "licorice ice and snow cool water", and when you hear the name, you know that it is cool ice food. "It is the time of the month, the alleys and strange intersections, the bridges and the markets, all for sale... Ice and snow, cool water, lychee paste, all stacked with clear cloth umbrellas as street benches... Often the wind pavilion water pavilion, Junyu tall building, snow sill ice plate, floating melon sinking plum, flowing cup curved swamp, bud new lotus, far away sheng song, all night", enough to see how popular the ice food is.
The Southern Song Dynasty poet Yang Wanli once described the scene of selling ice in the middle of summer and June to cool off: "The imperial city stops at noon on June, and the people of the city are like cooking sweat like rain." Selling ice came through the water, and pedestrians did not eat their hearts and eyes. Jin Renyuan also recorded a kind of ice food called "bead ice" in the "Continued Yi Jianzhi", "Lintao City outside the water, winter moon knots Xiaoice like a solid ... The rich in Taocheng city collected and stored. In the middle of summer, it is mixed with honey pulp, like a pearl powder", like a pearl ice circle.
In the Ming and Qing dynasties, delicious cold drinks emerged in an endless stream. In the Qing Dynasty, in addition to common drinks such as sour plum soup and watermelon juice, a drink called "Dutch water" also appeared, similar to lemonade.
Ancient "net red" ice cream - crispy mountain
The so-called "crisp" is a dairy product from the northern nomads, similar to today's cream and butter.
In the Tang Dynasty to make "crispy mountains", the first thing to do was to heat the "crisp" (cream) to almost melt, and honey and wine could be added in the middle. It is then dripped on a plate or the like, and while drenching, it makes the shape of a mountain, and then puts it in an ice cellar to freeze, and finally inserts flowers, colored trees and other ornaments.
In addition to the white "crispy mountain", there were also "crispy mountains" dyed red or green by "guifei red" or "eyebrow daiqing" later. The Southern Song Dynasty poet Yang Wanli once described the refreshing feeling of eating crispy mountains in "Yong Crisp": "It seems to be greasy and cool, and it is condensed and desired." The bottom of the jade plate is broken, and the snow is pinned to the mouth. ”
Where did ancient ice come from?
The ancients made cold drinks, and many times they had to use ice. But there were no refrigerators in ancient times, where did the ice come from?
In fact, as early as the Shang Dynasty, the ancestors living in The land of Feng (present-day Xunyi and BinXian in Shaanxi) developed agricultural production under the leadership of Liu Liu, the ancestor of King Wen of Zhou. In the long labor practice, the method of hiding ice in winter has been mastered.
The "Book of Poetry" introduces the scene of ice storage labor in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, and the poem reads: "The second day is the ice rushing, and the third day is taken in Lingyin." "Because the use of ice was initially associated with sacrificial activities, the rulers of the time regarded ice mining and storage as a major event, and there were also specialized agencies and officials to manage the matter.
The official who held the ice in the Zhou Dynasty was called "Lingren", and the Zhou Li Tianguan Lingren described in detail that the staff began to chisel and hide ice at a specific time in winter, and when spring came, they had to open and get out of the ice, and explained the use of ice, such as refrigerating food and wine.
However, in ancient times, ice mining, ice making, ice transport, and ice storage were time-consuming and demanding, and only the imperial court and dignitaries could do it, so summer ice also became a precious thing, and the imperial court often awarded ice to officials in the summer.
In the folk, the Tang Dynasty appeared as a private ice collector," digging their own ice cellars and storing ice in wells, waiting until summer to sell them, but the price was expensive, far from what ordinary people could enjoy.
At the end of the Tang Dynasty, people mined a large amount of saltpeter during the production of gunpowder, and it was found that saltpeter would absorb a large amount of heat energy when dissolved in water, which cooled the water to ice. Later, the price of ice cubes gradually fell.