Nowadays, people are more and more ways to maintain hygiene, including shampoo and body soap used for bathing, and there are also various utensils.
Among them, hand sanitizer, automatic toothbrushes, disposable face towels, etc., are all products brought about by the rapid development of the modern economy.
However, thousands of years ago, when even water was a scarce resource, how did the ancients clean it?
If there are no complicated ways to wash and care, what kind of products do they use to clean?
The rest time of the ancients
"Mu, Mao Fa also. Bath, sprinkle body also. I wash it and sprinkle my feet too. Take a bath and sprinkle your hands too. ”
In fact, the ancients knew much more about their personal hygiene than we imagined, and even now, many ways of life have been passed down from our ancestors thousands of years ago.
Whether it is for food or hygiene, the ancients did not study it less than us, "the first song of the chicken, salty washing" recorded the way the ancients washed.
Therefore, the wisdom and research of the ancients are not lagging behind the present, but because of the limitations of the resources of the times, they have not reached the current level.
From the classics and cultural relics left down from ancient times, it seems to give a glimpse of the way the ancients cleaned thousands of years ago.
Although the ancients had a certain understanding of hygiene and cleanliness, under the influence of external environmental factors, bathing was not as arbitrary as it is now.
It takes a lot of time and energy just to take a bath, not only for ordinary people, but also for large families.
"I wash my hair every three days and bathe every five days. ”
In the concept of the ancients, the frequency of taking a bath once every five days is normal, but even some officials will have a bathing holiday, which is used to clean their bodies.
Water resources can be said to be precious in ancient times, and if you want to take a bath, whether it is boiling water or changing the water, it is not a small project.
If it is in the cold winter, bathing has become a curtailed thing, and ordinary people do not have so much time and energy to take a bath at home, and even if they get cold because of bathing, just seeing a doctor is an additional expense.
Therefore, in a helpless environment, taking a bath is no longer a simple matter, and even a certain amount of preparation is required.
In fact, in addition to bathing, the ancients were very concerned about their appearance, among which neat clothing is the most important.
"In the morning, I will wash my mouth, I will drown my stool, and I will clean my hands. The crown must be right, the button must be knotted, and the socks and shoes are tightly cut. ”
The ancients paid special attention to their appearance, and unkempt appearance was also symbolized by impoliteness, especially when meeting outsiders, they should pay attention to the norms of behavior.
In addition to their own hygiene problems, the ancients also attached great importance to the hygiene problems in their lives, including the structure of the house and the disposal of garbage.
Therefore, the ancients did not pay attention to their personal hygiene, but because of the limitation of resources, they were not so diligent in bathing.
In the Wei and Jin dynasties, there were ancient records that "the clothes were slightly deteriorated, and the lice were covered with lice." ”
The hygiene of the ancients can be seen in just one sentence, but in the dynasty and society of the time, a custom peculiar to the literati had been formed.
Since ancient times, there have been many texts and poems that reflect the hygiene of different dynasties, and with the development of time, many dynasties have their own standards and norms, among which the choice of toiletries has gradually begun to diversify.
The rest and bath articles of the ancients
Nowadays, there are many kinds of toiletries in daily life, and there are even special toiletries according to different parts of the body.
But in ancient times, when resources were scarce, what did the ancients use to clean it?
In fact, for cleaning supplies, the ancients have long developed their own utensils, among which rice water is one of the best ways to wash and care for hair, and even made "soap".
Rice washing water was also called "pan juice" in ancient times, and it was one of the earliest cleaning methods discovered.
Today, thousands of years later, there are still many viewers and readers who are using rice water to care for their hair.
The soap horn and Zhu Ling are the most common "soaps" of the ancients, and in ordinary families, people will prepare some soap horns to wash their hair.
Among the wealthy families, the choice of toiletries is more diverse, among which whether it is Zhu Ling or pig pancreatic soap, it is one of the choices of the ancients.
The choice of toiletries for the ancients also developed with the changes of the times, and in the Western Jin Dynasty, bath beans gradually broke into people's lives.
Bath beans are what we often call pea powder, and its main effect is to clean and decontaminate, so the ancients also used it to clean, but because of the restrictions of the times, the bath beans in the Wei and Jin dynasties are still symbols of high society, and only princes and nobles will know this thing.
But by the time of the Tang Dynasty, bath beans had become a household name, and there were many changes in the function of cleaning, among which the existence of bath beans was recorded in detail in "Qianjinfang".
"Take your hands and face every day, and be as white as vegetarian for 100 days. ”
The toiletries used by the ancients are completely natural, relying on the characteristics of plants to achieve the effect of cleaning, especially after adding spices, and the current shampoo has the same effect!
The wisdom of the ancients should not be underestimated, whether it is bathing beans or washing rice water, it is a manifestation of thousands of years of cultural inheritance.
In addition to toiletries, the invention wisdom of the ancients is also reflected in daily life, among which toothbrushes have existed thousands of years ago.
Oral cleanliness has been formed in the minds of the ancients, whether it is mouthwash or brushing teeth, the ancients have long used it in their own lives.
In the earliest times, rubbing teeth with hands was the way of brushing teeth of the ancients, using hands instead of toothbrushes to clean the mouth, and even later there were willow branch teeth picking and cloth towel wiping teeth.
Although these brushing methods are far less convenient than they are now, they are not easy to choose in ancient times when resources were limited.
Over time, the toothbrush style gradually appeared on the world stage, and the ancients made it into a small handle with a ponytail or pig sideburns, so as to obtain a simple version of the toothbrush.
Not only did the ancients gradually change the style of toothbrushes, but the existence of mouthwash also surprised later generations.
In "Dream of Red Mansions", it is recorded that Lin Daiyu drank tea after dinner to rinse her mouth, and Lin Daiyu showed that after observing the reactions of a circle of people around the table, she slowly understood that the mouthwash was served later, and then the tea was drunk.
If you accidentally swallow mouthwash as tea, there is a good chance that it will make a lot of jokes.
brief summary
The ancients were far less concerned with their own cleanliness than we imagined, and to some extent, the wisdom and ideas of the ancients were comparable to the current way of life.
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