The only summer with a high temperature of 44 °C in history just caught up with Qianlong, and even tin and lead and other things were melted, so you can imagine how hot it is.
In the eighth year of Qianlong, that is, in 1743 AD. This year, Emperor Qianlong has been on the throne for eight years, and he went to Shengjing, the land of Longxing in the Qing Dynasty, for the first time to pay respects, and held a grand military parade on the podium of Shengjing, and at the same time paid homage to the founding heroes.
At this time, the Qing Dynasty was at a time when the national strength was prosperous, and the four seas were basically leveled, and it stands to reason that Emperor Qianlong should not have any great troubles, but he was quite worried this year.
It's not because of other reasons, but mainly because it's too hot on this day.
According to the "Collection of China's 3,000-Year Meteorological Records", in the eighth year of Qianlong, an extremely hot weather swept through most of China at that time. Among them, including Beijing, Tianjian Hebei, Shaanxi, Shandong and other places, it is especially hot. Based on our current Celsius temperature, the temperature exceeded 40 degrees Celsius in some areas for a few days in late July of that year, and on July 25 of that year, it reached a staggering 44.4 degrees Celsius.
This record, since history, even until now, has not been surpassed, the hottest in history, talking about the eighth year of Qianlong.
In the eyes of our modern people, what are the hot spots? Of course, according to our current living conditions, there is really nothing, first, there is the blessing of air conditioning; second, in hot weather, the suspension of work and school is a necessary measure of the government to ensure the safety of people's lives and property; and third, we have never experienced that kind of extreme weather.
Although the summer we are experiencing is indeed hot under the trend of global warming, the maximum outdoor temperature is in the thirties and forty degrees Celsius, which is basically rare, so most of us will feel that it is not a big deal to be hot.
However, in extreme hot weather, it can really heat people to death, and the high temperature of 44 degrees Celsius, even if it is lead, can be melted away, let alone people?
"Gaoyi County Chronicle" recorded that on July 26, "the lead and tin in the middle of the day were eliminated, and many people died of thirst." ”
According to some county records, in late July of that year, many areas were forced to die because of the high temperature, such as in Shanxi, on the streets and on the roads outside the city, people who died of heat due to high temperatures can be seen everywhere, this situation is also the same in Tianjin, which is not far from Beijing, "the soil and stones are scorched, and the mast is gold", even the sun is scorched, and the paint on the beams on the roof has turned into water, not to mention the people on the street.
In addition to Shanxi, Tianjin and other places, the hottest is Beijing, inside and outside the capital, whether it is the streets and alleys, or trade markets, people who walk or talk uprightly may suddenly fall to the ground and die in the next second.
According to the statistics of the imperial court that year, only in the capital and the suburbs of the capital, in just 10 days, the number of people who died of heat reached 11,400.
In our modern times, if the weather is too hot, the first thing we think of is to hide in an air-conditioned room, no matter how bad it is, there is an electric fan or the like, and at the same time, all kinds of cold drinks and other items to cool off the heat are also dazzling, all in all, for the heat, we have a lot of ways to deal with it, which can let us survive the difficult summer.
But for the people of ancient times, especially the poor people of ancient times, this extreme heat was a disaster.
In ancient times, there was no air conditioner, no electric fan, no refrigerator, to cope with high temperatures, even if there were ice cubes stored in advance, it was also a luxury that only the dignitaries and nobles had the ability to enjoy.
There are also ancient people, will hide in the hot summer in the deep mountains and old forests to escape the heat, can also solve the problem caused by high temperature to a certain extent, at the same time, after the Tang Dynasty, the ancients mastered the use of saltpeter to make ice, can also be cooled.
But these methods were basically useless in extremely hot weather like the eighth year of Qianlong.
The heat of Qianlong's eight years is different from the past, as mentioned above, it is the hottest year ever, the temperature has reached an astonishing 44 degrees Celsius, and the surface temperature has reached a terrifying 65 degrees Celsius. If you go out at noon, it is estimated that the soles of your feet may be burned.
Under the social environment at that time, it was impossible for ordinary people to stay at home because of the heat, because they still had to make a living, and in the absence of good summer protection measures, most people would be killed by heat in this hot environment.
Pu fan and cool water can't solve the problem, so is it okay to migrate to a place with low temperatures, such as forests? No, you may die of heat on the way forward before you get there, and in fact, many people have already paid the price with their lives.
Whether it is Beijing, Tianjin, Shanxi and other places, many people have to take their families to cooler places in order to escape the heat, but there are many people who died on the way to migrate, and the county chronicles of various places also recorded that on both sides of the road outside the city, you can see "heat deaths" everywhere.
Can't stay at home, and people will die of heat outside, so the abnormal high temperature in the eighth year of Qianlong has become a natural disaster for the people, and the scene of that year is more tragic than we imagined, and the people have nothing to do but face death.
Compared with the dire situation of the people, the members of the royal family still have various ways to cool off from the heat.
In the collection of the Forbidden City, there is a boxy cypress box, this box is not an ordinary storage box, but the Qing Dynasty royal family in the summer, relying on the "refrigerator" to survive.
Of course, this refrigerator will not be powered to make ice, its function is to put the ice cubes stored in advance, and at the same time place all kinds of fruits or tea, relying on the low temperature of the ice cubes to make all kinds of cool and delicious ice food.
As for where the ice comes from, this problem was solved as early as the Zhou Dynasty.
Thousands of years ago, the Zhou royal family set up a special "ice administration" such an institution responsible for the management of ice, the head of this department called "Lingren", every winter, these people will collect clean ice, corresponding storage, the place where the ice is stored, is a low-temperature place that has been processed in advance, most of them are cellars.
In addition to the large-scale collection of ice cubes for storage, there are also natural ice-making methods in the folk, this method can also be seen everywhere in our modern times, take a bucket of clean water, put it outdoors in winter, you can get ice cubes overnight, and then find a place to store it at home for use in the next summer, cost-saving, easy to learn.
At the end of the Tang Dynasty, when people were producing gunpowder, they accidentally discovered that saltpeter could be cooled in water and freeze the water, so this method was gradually promoted, and the saltpeter was dissolved in water in summer to cool it down into ice, and at the same time sugar or fruit was added, which was the early "ice cream".
Therefore, in the Qing Dynasty, which had a variety of ice-making and ice-storage technologies, even in hot weather, the royal family and nobles had ready-made ice cubes to cool down, whether it was placed indoors to cool the air, or to make things similar to "smoothies" and "ice drinks", etc., which could allow these dignitaries to continue their lives in the hot summer.
At the same time, as the most scarce ice cube in summer, it has also become a good thing for the emperor to reward the minister, in the eighth year of Qianlong, the envoy of the Sulu country risked his life to come to the capital, and brought the greetings and tributes of the king of the Sulu country to the Qianlong Emperor, and the Qianlong Emperor was greatly moved, and specially issued an order to the principal and deputy envoys of the Sulu country to "give ice every day".
For the unusually hot July, the Qianlong Emperor was also quite "worried about the country and the people", and there were constantly reports from various places in the court that a large number of people were "killed" due to high temperatures, for this reason, the Qianlong Emperor not only arranged for officials from all over the country to appease the people due to serious disasters, but also made a small poem entitled "Heat" to reflect his irritability about the hot weather.
Ice trays and snow trays, rippling cold light, tossing and turning, bitter and hot, heart beside Qianli. --Qianlong "Heat"
In the eighth year of Qianlong, northern China suffered from extremely hot weather that was rare in history. The death of more than 10,000 people in Shanxi and other places can be said to be one of the huge natural disasters caused by temperature in history, and the people are basically powerless to deal with such extreme weather, under the only cooling facilities, the high temperature is a disaster for the people, in contrast, the royal nobles in the court are comfortable in the face of this disaster, and the suffering of the people is unimaginable for these members.