Louis XIV was the king of France at the same time as the Kangxi Emperor of China, and the life course of the two people was very similar, both of them encountered powerful ministers to control the government after they ascended the throne at a young age, and only after the fall of the powerful ministers could the young king strive to be strong and effective.
It can be said that Louis XIV and Kangxi are like a mirror, and every move is like that, when China and France were two great powers in the East and the West.
It's just that Louis XIV has one thing that must have made Kangxi unimaginable, that is, Louis XIV only took a bath 7 times in 77 years, and the highest record of not bathing was 64 years.
Wang Anshi, who presided over the change of law in the Song Dynasty, was often sloppy in appearance and dirty in clothes because he did not pay attention to hygiene, and was called the head of the prisoner.
If Louis XIV had been born in China, he would have been considered a freak and a joke.
bathe
China is a people who love to bathe, and during the ancestor period, the ancestors bathed in order to cool down and cleanse the body. As early as the Shang Dynasty, people had special bathing utensils at that time.
In the poem, Zhou Gong is praised for saying that he spits out three meals and three squeezes his hair. It shows that bathing was already a habit of life at that time, and even the nobles who were busy at work would take a bath often.
During the Western Zhou Dynasty, with the formulation and improvement of moral etiquette, bathing was not only a cleansing habit of life, but also an indispensable part of the etiquette, and all major events were preceded by bathing and fasting, otherwise it was disrespectful to God or man.
For example, when Lin Xiangru returned to Zhao, he required the King of Qin to bathe and fast before he could turn in heshi Bi, and if the King of Qin was replaced by Louis XIV, he might be angry on the spot and ask for Lin Xiangru's life.
Japanese people also love to take a bath, especially a bath, for them, after a day of work, a beautiful hot bath is the best way to relax the body.
Not only in Asia, but also in Europe, as early as the ancient Roman period, Rome had a large public bath, where Romans relaxed and socialized.
It seems that the Romans really loved to bathe, and wherever the Roman soldiers conquered, public baths were built, and the result was called the Romans who soaked in the baths.
As King of France, Louis XIV would not have been unaware of this period of history, and he was a normal man who would not have been unaware of the benefits of bathing, but he had not bathed for many years, and it is said that there were two main reasons:
First, the Catholic Church in France has a great influence on French state politics, the cardinal has served as the Prime Minister of France many times, controlling the ecclesiastical government, and Catholic doctrine believes that bathing is an act of blasphemy against the soul, advocating that believers cannot bathe.
In order to gain the support of the Catholic Church, Louis XIV had to make himself a devout Catholic in the eyes of the world, so Louis XIV had no choice but to take a bath.
For religious reasons aside, Louis XIV's abhorrency for bathing was mostly due to his fear of the Black Death.
The Black Death is really terrible, Europeans have died countless times because of this disease, everyone smells discolored, but people have not known the cause of the Black Death, but see the dead patients are black and purple, so they are named black Death.
The Europeans of Louis XIV's era did not have a cure for the disease, so they had to do everything they could to prevent the disease, one of which was to take fewer baths and close the pores of the whole body so that germs could not enter.
Now science has been established that the Black Death is a kind of plague, and it has nothing to do with bathing, but how can people of that era know this truth, in order to save their lives, they have to be healthy, not hygienic.
Louis XIV believed in this perverse reasoning, and had to not bathe for many years, and as a result, his body was foul and smelly, and even his mistress complained, and Louis XIV himself must not have been able to bear it.
It is interesting that Louis XIV's nonsense actually made a wonderful thing popular, and that is perfume.
perfume
Louis XIV did not bathe, and his whole body was foul-smelling, and it was said that ten meters away was foul-smelling, so that the ministers who accompanied the king really did not know what action they would make, and they covered their noses lightly, and they could not spit it out.
During the Warring States period in China, King Huai of Chu had a fox odor, and one of his favorite concubines was deceived and deliberately covered his nose in front of him, and as a result, king Huai of Chu thought that the pet concubine laughed at his own stench, and immediately ordered the nose of the pet concubine to be cut.
If Louis XIV had done the same to his ministers, I am afraid that none of his ministers would have a nose.
Louis XIV also had a nose, must have known that the smell of his body did not dare to compliment, Louis XIV's ministers did not dare to be disrespectful, they had to think together, and they really found a good way, that is, to rub perfume on their bodies.
In fact, perfume was not invented in the era of Louis XIV, as early as the ancient Roman period, Cleopatra used to bathe with more than a dozen kinds of perfumes. Paris, France, also introduced perfume because of Catherine de Médissie in Italy, becoming the world-famous perfume capital.
Louis XIV and his ministers all rubbed perfume, and their whole body became fragrant, and the stench of Louis XIV was of course not a word, and there was no trouble between the monarchs and courtiers.
At that time, Paris had not yet been modernized, not even the necessary sewers, the French did not pay attention to hygiene, casually defecated, the result of the stench of Paris is comparable to That of Louis XIV, in order to make their sense of smell less tortured, the commoners also use perfume like nobles.
In this way, perfume is popular in Paris, and romantic French people are also very business-minded, they enjoy the warmth and convenience of perfume, but also timely research and production of a variety of perfumes.
Since then, perfume has gone to the world through this shareholder wind, and Paris has become a veritable perfume capital.
Even now, Paris, France, produces a variety of perfumes that are popular all over the world. Teenagers, young people, and the elderly in various countries are all poured into this, no matter which brand is like a family treasure, but they must not know how perfume is popular and why it is popular.
epilogue
Nowadays, whether it is TV, newspapers or the Internet, you can see all kinds of perfume advertisements everywhere.
The handsome men and women holding perfume bottles have created one romantic image after another for the world, and the audience cannot help but be intoxicated by it, willingly taking out a lot of money to create a romantic image for themselves.
The French earned considerable foreign exchange with perfumes and made Paris the capital of romance, thanks to their king, the unhygienic Charles XIV.
Chinese like to bathe, pay attention to bathing etiquette, the whole body is very clean, naturally do not need any perfume to cover the body odor, perfume of course there is no need to invent.
However, because the king did not pay attention to hygiene, France took advantage of this to find the benefits of perfume, making perfume popular all over the world, and even Chinese sought after it.
The contrast between the two cannot but make people laugh bitterly, thinking that heaven is so unfair.
Sometimes there is really no truth in the world.