Qing Dynasty crystal myopia glasses
The history of the development of glasses in China can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty, when there were already glasses-like items. During the Song Dynasty, glasses became popular, but they were still a rare item. During the Ming Dynasty, glasses were used among the upper class of intellectuals, and during the Qing Dynasty, glasses began to be used as a gift to the intellectuals.
In the 13th century, the ancient people in the mainland already knew how to make crystals into glasses to relieve the problem of lack of vision. During the Xuande period of the Ming Dynasty, monocles began to exist. During the Chongzhen period of the Ming Dynasty, there was an outstanding glasses technician Sun Yunqiu in Suzhou, who invented the machine for grinding lenses - the drag car, and mastered the "grinding piece" technology, which can grind natural crystals into a variety of different convex lenses and concave lenses. During the Qing Dynasty, glasses gradually entered people's lives, and there was a trend of wearing glasses (flat glasses) as a fashion.
In the 16th century, a bicleus mounted on the bridge of the nose appeared. At the beginning of the 17th century, Hans Lipole, an optician from Middelburg, the Netherlands, built the world's first telescope. In 1801, Englishman Thomas Young invented spectacle frames in the modern sense.
In the 60s of the 20th century, with the rapid development of the mainland's economic construction, the glasses industry has also been vigorously developed, and major glasses producing areas such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Suzhou have a certain scale of glasses production base. In April 1985, the "China Optical Association" was established.
At present, the mainland's glasses industry has a certain scale and supporting production and sales capacity, and is an indispensable part of the entire national economy.
Glasses are a special optical instrument for correcting refractive errors of the eye, protecting eye health and improving visual function. With the development of society and economy, the function of glasses has been continuously expanded, and the number of people who use health care and fashion as the purpose of glasses is increasing. Glasses are becoming more and more closely related to people's lives, and it has gradually become a necessity in people's lives.
Myopia and presbyopia have brought great inconvenience and trouble to people. Bai Juyi, a great poet of the Tang Dynasty, gave him a lot of pain because of his high myopia. The poet once described in a poem the great troubles caused by this physiological pathology: "A thousand pieces of snow in the scattered air, a veil on the clouds, even if the scene is like looking at fog, not spring but also flowers." From this poem, we can clearly see that the poet is helpless because he can't enjoy the beautiful scenery on a bright and sunny day in the good spring. From this incident, we can also understand how important glasses are to human beings!
It is generally believed that glasses are imported from the West, but this is not necessarily the case, and they were first introduced from South Asia. The ancients on the mainland once thought that glasses had been worn since Wu Zetian in the Tang Dynasty, but there are no historical records to confirm. In the Song Dynasty, with the help of glasses and other things, it was a definite thing to improve eyesight. This can be proved from a book "Fang Yu Shenglan" written by Zhu Mu of the Song Dynasty. The secretary said: "Manga thorn (i.e., Bengal) out of the mirror." The old man does not distinguish the detailed book, and the concealment is clear". This "squirt" is the earliest glasses used in the mainland. The above records, in the "Xiaozhilu" written by Lu Fengzao, a descendant, and the "Dongtian Qinglu" written by Zhao Xihu in the Southern Song Dynasty, there is a record of "叆叇 (àidài, describing the thick clouds covering the sun), and the old man does not distinguish the details, so as to hide his eyes and make it clear". Why is there such a tricky and strange name as "叆叇"? There are probably two reasons: First, according to the explanation of the "Popular Text" and the traditional character book "Jade Chapter", the word "叆叇" originally meant "unknown" and "clouds and mist cover the sun", and this name mirror is used to correct myopia and old eyes. Second, to prove the preciousness and rarity of this kind of glasses at that time, to use the name of this rarity. The literary scholar Tian Yixuan of the Ming Dynasty wrote in the second volume of the "Liuqing Journal": "Every time I read an article, my eyes are dizzy, and I don't know the details. In the silk silk connection, tied to the back of the head, no one knows, to ask the rest. Yu said: This is also a. ”
The above-mentioned glasses were not popular in society until the Ming Dynasty. Zhao Yi, a famous scholar in the early Qing Dynasty, said in the book "The Examination of the Emperor Yu Cong": "This thing (referring to glasses) was extremely valuable in the former Ming Dynasty, or it was awarded from the inner government, or it was purchased from Jiahu, and it could not be obtained by those who were not powerful." It is said that in the Ming Dynasty, there were only two ways to give glasses to the emperor and buy them from foreign merchants, and generally people with no power could not get them, and they didn't even know what their names were. A literati of the Ming Dynasty named Tian Yixuan recorded such an interesting thing in his "Excerpts from the Liuqing Journal": at that time, there was a deputy envoy surnamed Lin (an adjutant in charge of education), whenever he was tired of reading, he would wear a "two things" as big as money, thin and transparent, like glass, "to cover his eyes" then "the spirit is not scattered and the strokes are doubled", many officials of the academy did not know what this was, and asked the author, and the erudite Tian Yixuan told them: "This is also a "three"! This anecdote informs that during the Ming Dynasty, these early glasses were only used among the upper echelons of intellectuals. At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, this situation did not change much. Qing Dynasty man Zha Weiren once based on a poem "Xie Tu Gong Sending Glasses" seen in the Ming Dynasty Wu Kuan's "Family Collection", and believed that glasses began to be used as an exchange gift for the intellectual class. Cao Xueqin's grandfather, Cao Yin, once had such a rare pair of glasses, and he also wrote a poem about glasses, boasting about the benefits of wearing glasses: "Liuli is confident in his eyes, and he is still boasting."
In the West, the invention of spectacles is generally considered to have been made in 1268-1289. In 1274, Marco Polo, an Italian, arrived in Beijing and was intrigued by the sight of spectacles in the Yuan court. Later, he brought the production and use of glasses to the West, so the first place to make glasses in the West was Marco Polo's hometown - Venice. The main spectacle wearers at the time were monks and scholars.
In the church of San Nicola in the north of Venice, there is a fresco of an elderly man reading small print with glasses depicted by Tommaso da Madena in 1352 (Fig. 1-1-3), which is the earliest known spectacle to appear in a work of art. This mural shows that at the end of the 13th century, spectacles were already being made in Europe.
Since glasses at that time were not as accurate as today's glasses, people had to manually adjust the distance by holding the glasses on the bridge of the nose. At that time, spectacle lenses were biconvex glass, which was used to correct presbyopia.
It was in the mid-15th century that spectacles really gained popularity. Around 1445, Johannes Gutenberg invented lead movable type printing, which led to the release of a large number of books. Subsequently, the demand for eyewear has skyrocketed. At the beginning of the 17th century, Hans Lipole, an optician from Middelburg, the Netherlands, built the world's first telescope. This is the first time that lenses have been used to allow the human eye to see objects that would otherwise be invisible under normal conditions.
Spectacle frames in the modern sense of the word (abbreviation: frames) appeared in Spain in 1623. Modern spectacle lenses (lenses for short) were invented in 1801 when Thomas Young, an Englishman, discovered that his eyes had astigmatism.
As early as the 13th century, the ancient people in the mainland had already known how to make crystals into glasses to alleviate the problem of lack of eyesight, but there were not many people who wore glasses at that time. During the Xuande period of the Ming Dynasty (1416-1435), monocles (similar to today's magnifying glasses) began to appear. Limited to the processing technology of the time, monocles only had presbyopia glasses, and they were limited to the imperial court, and the emperor often gave them as imperial gifts to elderly ministers to help them correct their eyesight. Since then, glasses have gradually entered people's lives. For ease of use, some people sew the lenses into their hats, while others put the lenses in an iron ring.
During the Chongzhen period of the Ming Dynasty, Suzhou produced an outstanding glasses technician named Sun Yunqiu (the word Wenyu, also known as Sibin, originally from Wujiang). He invented the machine for grinding lenses, the drag car. The cartridge is equipped with a foot pedal to rotate, using ore sand, white mud, brick ash, etc. as abrasives or polishing materials, and can grind natural crystals into lenses. Sun Yunqiu used the gyro after many tests, and finally mastered the "grinding sheet" technology, which can grind natural spar into a variety of different convex lenses and concave lenses. According to the different eyesight of people, he developed lenses for correcting different vision problems such as presbyopia, myopia, and farsightedness, and made luminosity differentiation. In addition, he has developed a set of "eye-to-eye" optometry methods for eye examination. This is the beginning of the mainland's subjective optometry and glasses. After Sun Yunqiu, Suzhou produced another technician who was good at making glasses in the Qing Dynasty, named Chu Sanshan. Chu Sanshan further developed the glasses making technology, which had a considerable impact on the development of the mainland glasses industry.
It was not until the 16th century that a bicleus mounted on the bridge of the nose appeared. When using a double lens, tie the wires at both ends of the frame and hang the threads on the ears. With the continuous improvement of the production process, the frame gradually changes from complex to simple, from rough to exquisite. In addition to tortoiseshell, there are also paper rings, patent leather, horns, copper rings, etc. This type of frame was gradually replaced by frames with temples during the Qing Dynasty. Frames with temples are both beautiful and convenient, and are favored by people, and there is even a trend to wear glasses (flat glasses) as a fashion.
Interestingly, in the Qing Dynasty, the scale of the lenses was divided according to the twelve earthly branches, which is recorded in the historical notebook "Interpretation of the Native Dialect" written by the Qing literati Li Guangting.
In the seventh year of Yongzheng (1729), the Westerner Dai Jinxian presented a pair of Western glass glasses to the Yongzheng Emperor, and he felt very good after wearing them, so he asked the craftsman to imitate many pairs, in addition to his own use, he also gave it to the meritorious minister. Emperor Qianlong once said to his minister He Shen: "Glasses are also known as Spectacles, which has been known recently. For this reason, he once named the exam question "Zhuang", and the poetry of the university scholar Ruan Yuan won the first place with its vivid and vivid writing, and his poem "The mirror can see clearly, and the glass can be grinded." The good name is passed on, and the elegant system is made out of Euro. ......" concisely summarizes the role of glasses, raw materials, origins, etc., and also introduces the efficacy. Emperor Qianlong himself used glasses and wrote "Poems on Glasses on the Theme of Drama".
After the Qianlong period (1736-1796), spectacles gradually became fashionable items on the mainland. Written during the Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty, "Dumen Bamboo Branches" once described the popularity of glasses on the streets of Beijing at that time: "The chimney is bamboo, Xiangfei bamboo, and the glasses are inlaid with tortoiseshell edges". It can be seen that at that time, the tortoiseshell-edged glasses and the cigarette barrel made of Xiangfei bamboo were fashionable items popular in the society. At this time, there is a very interesting phenomenon that many people still wear glasses to pretend to be Sven. There are two limerick poems that describe this social anecdote at that time: one is the "Dumen Bamboo Branch Words" written by Yang Miren on the occasion of Qianlong and Jiaqing: "The car travels from the lively road, and the reclining sits and watches the book without making a sound." Wear glasses to pretend to be short-sighted, and learn from him Mr. Mingshi". Another poem is "Dumen Miscellaneous Songs" written by Yang Jingting in the Daoguang period, which is: "Square shoes are worn while the time is new, and the street posture is frequent." Wearing glasses to pretend to be short-sighted, teaching people to know that they are readers. Although it is a bit cowardly, it shows that the scholars were respected by the society at that time, and these people who pretended to be Sven also had merit.
In the last years of the Qing Dynasty, opticians in Shanghai often placed all kinds of glasses in a square flat wooden box, including myopia glasses, farsighted glasses, presbyopia glasses, astigmatism glasses, flat glasses and sunglasses. The lid is fitted with a buckle, and the box is opened, and the glasses in the box are arranged in order. Later, the square flat wooden box became a front for spectacle sellers. The vendor stands by and recommends all kinds of trendy glasses if there are customers. Once the customer has chosen the glasses, the vendor takes out a thread-bound book from his bosom and invites the customer to look through it, which is the optometry of the time.
At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the Englishman John Gaude opened the "Gaode Foreign Company" in Shanghai, specializing in machine-grinding glasses. After that, other foreigners who deal in eyeglasses followed. For example, the Englishman Tuojisi opened the "Ming Jing Foreign Company", and the British Jew Remmorton opened the "Remmorton Foreign Company", and so on. The introduction of Western glasses technology to the mainland has opened up a new path for the rise of the mainland glasses industry.
In 1911, Chinese employees who had worked at "AutoNavi & Co." raised funds to set up the "China Lean Glasses Company" (hereinafter referred to as "Lean Glasses Company") in Shanghai. The company's glasses were adapted to people's needs and sold at a lower price than those of foreign companies, and soon occupied the market and opened branches in many parts of the country. With the continuous innovation of Lean Glasses Company in optometry and glasses, the glasses industry in mainland China has made new developments.
In 1919, Mr. Sun Yat-sen went to the Guangzhou branch of Lean Glasses to optometry and glasses, and wrote an inscription "Keep improving".
In the 60s of the 20th century, with the rapid development of the mainland's economic construction, the glasses industry has also been vigorously developed, Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou and other major glasses production areas have a certain scale of glasses production base, such as the establishment of Beijing Glasses Factory, Beijing 608 Factory, Beijing 603 Factory, Shanghai Glasses Factory, Shanghai Glasses Factory, Shanghai Glasses Factory, Suzhou Glasses Factory and other enterprises. The scale of these enterprises is nearly 1,000 people, and their production quantity, quality and supporting capacity are in the forefront of the country, some products are rated as national or municipal high-quality products, and some products are exported for a long time, well-known at home and abroad.
In addition, some defense industry enterprises and instrumentation companies have turned to the production and processing of glasses; Some commercial service departments continue to expand or increase sales outlets and add optometry equipment and instruments; Some cities (such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Tianjin, Chongqing, etc.) have opened short courses in eyewear technology, which have trained a large number of professional and technical talents for the eyewear industry.
In April 1985, led by the Ministry of Light Industry of the People's Republic of China, the inaugural meeting of the "China Optical Association" of the national glasses industry was held in Zhenjiang City, Jiangsu Province.
At present, the mainland's glasses industry has a certain scale and supporting production and sales capacity, is an indispensable part of the entire national economy, and has made due contributions to the country and the people.