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In the Tang Dynasty poet Du Fu's "Song of the Thatched House Broken by the Autumn Wind", we can get a glimpse of how the ancient low-level people lived a hard life in the cold season. In ancient society, especially before the Song Dynasty, it was difficult for the people at the bottom to afford quilts, and it was not until the Northern Song Dynasty that the popularity of cotton in the Central Plains began. This made the cold winters challenging for the ancient people.
Ancient people adopted various methods to keep out the cold, among which the Chu people paid attention to the orientation and location of the house in order to better absorb the sunlight. Interestingly, smearing peppercorn puree on the walls is a common means of heating, which not only helps to keep you warm but also repells pests. However, peppercorns were regarded as a luxury in ancient times, and only those dignitaries were able to taste this unique way of heating.
In contrast, poor people live in thatched huts, which makes it difficult for them to make fires for warmth. Poor families could not afford to burn charcoal, which in ancient times was expensive due to the scarcity of wood. At the same time, wealthy families such as Jia Baoyu and Sister Lin can wear luxurious fur clothes, such as fur under the armpit of the white fox, crane, etc., which is undoubtedly a vivid display of the gap between the rich and the poor in society.
In the days of poverty, the poor people could only wear linen cloth, kudzu cloth, or cotton clothes made of catkins, and had to lie on straw at night and live hard. The article mentions Jia Baoyu's "The Charcoal Seller", which describes an old man who has to sell charcoal for his livelihood, and his hard work is ultimately only exchanged for a paltry amount of red yarn and silk cloth. This makes people feel more deeply the helplessness and bitterness of the poor life in ancient times.
In addition to this, I also touched on some ancient heating tools, such as "hand stoves" and "soup pots", showing the ingenuity and wisdom of the ancients without the support of high technology. Although these small props are simple, they are enough to reflect the efforts of ancient people to protect themselves from the cold. In general, by revealing the poverty and helplessness of the ancient people in the cold season, this paper vividly shows the disparity between the rich and the poor in society.
Looking back on these hardships in ancient times, we may be able to cherish the convenience and warmth of modern times. When we lie on a warm bed in a thick down jacket, we may think about how the ancient poor struggled to survive in the snow and ice. It is through this depiction that the Tang Dynasty's "Song of the Thatched House Broken by the Autumn Wind" gives us a deeper understanding of the lives of ancient people.
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