Preface
How often did women take a bath in ancient times? You may not believe it, but it's true! Many people may notice scenes like this when watching costume dramas: women slowly bathing in large buckets full of water. This looks very comfortable. So, the question arises: how often did the ancients take a bath?
Ancient folk women usually took a bath every 2-3 months. When they bathe in the open air in the river, they are terrified by the mixed bathing of men and women. In fact, it is not that the ancients did not like to take a bath, but there are two reasons that are difficult to speak. Zhao Feiyan bathed in various ways, but the emperor's words made her depressed for a long time.
The earliest record of "bathing".
The earliest record of bathing in antiquity is found in oracle bone inscriptions, which contain words such as "wash" and "mu". Subsequently, the "Book of Rites" made detailed provisions on the frequency, function and precautions of bathing, such as washing hair every three days and bathing every five days.
"The Book of Rites: Internal Rules": "Three days of bathing, five days of bathing." ”
"The Book of Rites: Tan Gong": "If you have sores on your head, you will bathe, and if you have sores on your body, you will bathe." ”
In addition, the Book of Rites emphasizes that bath towels used for the upper and lower bodies should be separated, and requires men and women to bathe in separate rooms. It is mentioned in the "Book of Rites: Internal Rules": "The outside and the inside do not share wells, and they do not share baths." This shows that there was a historical custom of bathing together between men and women. These documents show that the ancients did not have strict rules about bathing at first, and gradually developed certain etiquette norms over time.
In ancient times, bathing was not only a manifestation of personal hygiene habits, but also an expression of etiquette and social morality. When visiting superiors or entering holy places, people need to bathe and change their clothes as a sign of respect. As a result, by the time of the Han Dynasty, officials enjoyed a special bathing holiday – five days per month – so that they could focus on bathing.
"Five days of false bathing, also known as rest. (From "Han Gong Yi")
This is the origin of "Humu". "Shuowen Jie Zi" expounds on "washing", "bathing" and "bathing". Among them, "Mu" means to wash hair, "bath" means to wash the body, "wash" means to wash feet, and "bath" refers to washing hands. "Shuowen Jie Zi" explains as: "Bathing, washing hair, bathing, washing body, washing, washing feet, bathing, washing hands." ”
It follows from this that bathing was an important activity in ancient times, otherwise officials would not have been given a five-day holiday for bathing, and such detailed regulations would not have been formulated. Of course, the majority of Han officials were men, so records of bathing mainly concern men.
So how often did women bathe in ancient times?
In ancient times, women's bathing habits were undoubtedly more limited than men's, and their bathing frequency was largely restricted by multiple factors such as social status, personal living habits, and the regional environment.
First of all, for aristocratic women in high positions, especially harem concubines, bathing conditions are relatively superior, and the frequency of bathing is roughly maintained once every 2 to 3 days. Not only do these women have the resources to ensure personal hygiene, but they also see bathing as a way to show off their appearance and enhance their attractiveness.
In addition to cleansing their bodies, they also skillfully sublimated the bathing process into an art, adding spices, flower petals, and even designing unique bathing rituals to attract the attention of the emperor with various tricks, making bathing a very attractive and competitive part of court life.
Zhao Feiyan
"The Biography of Feiyan" records that whenever Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty visited the Zhao Feiyan sisters, the two of them almost without exception swam leisurely in the Taiye Pool, interpreting vivid pictures of waterside beauties. The pool water is more integrated with exotic spices, fragrant and fragrant, permeating the surroundings, attracting the admiration of Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty, and his heart is fascinated.
"After bathing the five aggregates and seven spice soups, sitting in the incense and sinking water, burning the gods and incense. Jieyu bathed in cardamom soup, Fu Luhua Baiying powder. The emperor whispered to Fan Yan: 'Although there is a different fragrance in the future, it is not as fragrant as Jieyu's body. ’”
Zhao Feiyan tried her best to incorporate precious spices into the bath water, hoping to use this method of immersion to make her own lingering fragrance. However, the results she had hoped for were instantly vanished by the emperor's comments, which made her deeply frustrated.
The harsh sentence is like this: "Applying a different fragrance externally will eventually be difficult to reach the natural body fragrance of Hede." The emperor bluntly said that no matter how carefully Zhao Feiyan applied incense, its effect could not be compared with the natural body fragrance of his sister Zhao Hede. As soon as this remark came out, it was undoubtedly a complete negation of Zhao Feiyan's painstaking pursuit of aroma.
慈禧太后
The court maid who served the Empress Dowager Cixi recalled that during the hot summer season, Cixi would perform a daily bathing ceremony: "This custom is closely related to the change of seasons. In summer, bathing is naturally more frequent, almost every evening bathing and purifying, and in winter, it is carried out every two or three days, all at night, and there is no bathing ritual in the Guy Palace during the day.
However, bathing was far more complicated in ancient times than it is now. Those who have visited the Forbidden City will notice that there are no bathrooms there. Legend has it that when Princess Deling first returned to China and lived in the palace, she looked for a bathroom and asked the palace maids, but they were confused. It wasn't until she understood that it was a bathing place that the maid introduced her to the bathtub.
Indeed, the ancients used a bathtub to bathe in a bath, and since there was no tap, they had to go to the patio to fetch water, which was then heated and carried by the little eunuch to the dormitory and poured into the tub.
At this time, the palace maids will be busy arranging towels, moving stools, and taking care of wiping their bodies. Although most of the time it was just a wipe, the ancients were hygienic and changed the towel every time to ensure that the water in the tub was always clean. Therefore, Cixi needed to prepare 100 clean towels for one bath.
It can be seen that in terms of enjoyment, we are still not as good as the ancients.
Ordinary folk women
In ancient times, bathing became almost the exclusive preserve of the aristocracy. Wealthy women were allowed to bathe as they pleased, but ordinary people found it difficult to enjoy. There are two reasons for this: one is that bathing is expensive and ordinary families cannot afford it, and the other is that it is easy to die!
Before the Song Dynasty, public baths were not popular, and ordinary women mostly used bathtubs to bathe. However, bathtubs were a luxury at the time and could hardly be afforded by ordinary families. In addition, access to hot water is also a major challenge. Due to the lack of modern water and heating equipment, people have to travel back and forth to the river many times to fetch water and chop wood for heating, which is especially difficult in water-scarce areas in the north.
After the Song Dynasty, with the advent of public baths, bathing conditions improved, but they were still limited by economic and social factors.
In the Ming Dynasty's "Yongle Canon", it was recorded: "The Yangtze River is used as a bathtub." However, because of the prevalence of chastity, most women chose not to bathe because of the prevalence of chastity and the fact that they could not see anyone if they were found to bathe in the river.
Secondly, bathing is susceptible to wind and cold, and medical conditions in ancient times were poor and expensive, and many people died as a result. For safety reasons, women in ancient times did not bathe frequently and simply wiped to hide body odor.
epilogue
To sum up, the bathing frequency of ancient women is not fixed and unified, but deeply imprinted with the imprint of social class, regional environment and personal habits, from the aristocratic court bathing feast once a few days to the hard cleaning of commoners, constituting a diverse and complex picture of ancient women's bathing customs.