Yesterday, I arrived in Nouakchott, the capital of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, a country in northwestern Africa. A friend from China who came here to beg for a living asked me for a summer item. What do I say? "A puff fan." The friend replied. I was stunned.
Nouakchott vista ▲
Among all the fans, the author has the impression that the pu fan is the most people-friendly and the most pyrotechnic existence.
The five Ming fans of the emperor showing his majesty, the feather fans of Zhuge Liang's strategizing, the folding fans of the literati and scholars singing poems, and the light Luo small fans of the ladies fluttering fireflies are all attached to different expression factors. In the old days, Japanese warriors also used swords and fans as indispensable status symbols. Pu fan is the original and original tenets.
In addition, other fans need to be extra processed, which also requires more materials and labor. Pu fan is a pure green route, using natural palmetto leaves to dry, flatten, and slightly cut. If you are particular about it, you can sew it with rag strips to wrap the edge. On the online shopping platform, it is only five yuan. A friend asked me for a fan, which also means that I miss my hometown!
The pu fan is the most pro-civil tool▲
The ancients had a poem about the fan: "Occasionally swing the fan and sit, but I don't feel like Tao Qian." ”
Although ordinary people such as us dare not climb Tao Yuanming's elegance, the pastoral wind that comes out of the pu fan is equal and as cool. Moreover, the surging cool breeze of the wide pu fan is by no means comparable to all kinds of paper fans and yarn fans. And the use cases don't stop there.
I often think of the summer night when I was a child, enjoying the cool in the small courtyard of my grandmother's house. The old ladies of the surrounding neighbors sat in a circle, each holding a pu fan, gossiping about firewood, rice, oil and salt, weddings and funerals. Crickets, gnats, and weavers serenade under the corner tree. My grandmother fanned me with a fan. If there is a mosquito buzzing, it will slap it with a fan. At this time, the solidity of the pu fan is reflected. When cooking, if the fire in the stove is not strong, the pu fan fans hard a few times, and the flames will rise. How dare paper fans and yarn fans take this risk? Pu fan is not afraid of water, if splashed with sauce and vinegar, rinse and scrub, there is no paper fan, yarn fan delicate. In northern dialect, the characteristic of the fan is "leather".
Later, when I was middle-aged, I wrote a small poem entitled "Textile Niang": "The ancient ballad shaken out by the moonlight/pomegranate flowers/And the pu fan/Spinned into my grandmother's arms/A sweet dream." ”
Now, decades have passed. Gently shaking the fan, I felt the ripples in my heart rippling again.
Childhood summer night cool picture ▲
At this point, a picture that I saw in the northern summer when I was a child came to mind: the season when the acacia flowers are fragrant, the village surrounded by green trees is verdant, the frogs are singing loudly, the cicadas are not willing to be lonely, and a group of people sitting around the lotus pond to enjoy the shade. Men with bare breasts, holding puff fans, sit on horses, watching children fishing; The woman rolled up her sleeves and pounded her garments with a mallet on a stone; The old people turned on the radio and listened to Mr. Shan Tianfang's "The Complete Biography of Yue".
In the scorching summer, the northern men like to be shirtless and open-hearted, whether it is next to the village head stream in the countryside, or the back streets and alleys in the city, even if it is a commercial street full of modern atmosphere, the "old and young masters" there like to cool off in this way, walking on the street, shirtless, frank-hearted, and even enter the list of "Chinese intangible cultural heritage", becoming a "beautiful landscape" in urban and rural areas.
The ancients showed their chests and abdomen in summer▲
Today we have air conditioning fans, and our frank stomach seems to be a bit "spicy eyes", but hundreds of years ago, the ancients dealt with heat in summer, which must be the same as I said.
There is an idiom "East bed open belly", when talking about the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Xi Jian asked his protégé to go to Wang Dao's house to pick a son-in-law, and Wang Dao led him to the East Chamber to see the children of the Wang family. The protégé went back and told Xi Jian that the children of the Wang family were very reserved. There was only one person who ate openly in the east bed, and he was alone. Xi Jian thought that this open-bellied descendant, Wang Xizhi, was the ideal candidate for a son-in-law, so he married his daughter to him.
In the rainy season in the south, it is easy to grow mold and insects, and people like to take advantage of the hottest dog days of the year to take out the damp objects to expose to the sun after the "plum ambush", and remove moisture. It is recorded in "The New Language of the World" that there was a man named Hao Long, who saw that the rich family was drying their splendid clothes, and he also went to lie down on his back in the sun. When asked why he did this, he said, "I have a book in my belly." We praise people often say "full of economy", Hao Long wants to dry the book in his belly, and when he lies on his back, he is also open-minded.
The ancients enjoyed the cool picture▲
In the history of literature, there is also an "upgraded" frank belly story.
Su Shi took a walk after dinner one day, patted his belly and asked the maids on the left and right, "What is in this?" A maidservant girl responded: "It's all articles." Su Shi disagreed. The other maidservant replied, "Full of wisdom." Su Shi also thought it was not appropriate. The confidant's concubine Chaoyun replied: "The bachelor's belly is out of place. Su Shi laughed. Su Shi was a native of the Northern Song Dynasty and served as a "Beijing official", and this story of taking a walk after dinner did not happen in Bianjing, the capital at that time - a city called "Kaifeng" today?
"The Tanbelly River Pavilion is warm, and the long chant is long." Having said that, in the end, you can't have an empty stomach, otherwise, if you are in the warm Jiangting, or lying on today's sunny beach, the lump under your belly is just meat; In the end, there must be something in the abdomen, otherwise, "eat in the east bed, if you don't smell it", "dry the book ears in the belly" and "out of place", it will become a joke.
The ancients enjoyed the cool picture▲
Finally, let's talk about an interesting thing, did ancient women have to be wrapped tightly? Negative!
In our impression, ancient women were more conservative in their clothes, and they would definitely wear several layers. But in fact, this is not the case, they are at home, sleeveless shirts, tulle see-through coats will be arranged! The exposed belly button bandeau inside can be seen, and it is really more open than contemporary modern women think! It is said that the mole on the body is still visible when you wear five layers of tulle, and it must be very cool to wear.
Ancient women enjoying the cool ▲
In the Tang Dynasty's "Hairpin Lady", the fashionable "V" and "U" shaped clothes have been worn by the palace ladies! It's not a problem to expose the skin on your chest! Energetic, very much in line with the Tang Dynasty's aesthetic standard of "fat is beautiful"! Compared with contemporary people, looking at the clothes on their bodies, it seems that they are "conservative" ancient people......
"Hairpin Lady" ▲
Crotch pants are too large? Inexistent!
At a time when modern people are still entangled in why boys can't wear skirts, the ancients have all worn open crotch pants! The so-called open crotch pants, the scientific name is "shin clothes" (ancient underwear), only the trouser tube wraps the thigh, and the bottom is vacuum. The trousers of aristocratic women were mostly worn with an open crotch and worn under formal skirts. Not only is it cool, but it's also very convenient to go to the toilet! When there are still people who are "humiliated" because of the scale of dressing, it turns out that the ancients hundreds of years ago already had the freedom to dress.
Ancient underwear▲
After reading these, the author was also shocked, I didn't expect that the ancients would be so wild in their clothes! In terms of the openness of dressing, many people are afraid that they are not as good as the ancients......
"June 18th Night Heat" Song Dynasty ▪ Sima Guang
The old willows are noisy, and the barren courtyard is shining.
People are in the bitter heat, how can things be shocked.
The cold water under the moon combs the white hair before the wind.
How to be a guest in the middle of the night, and bring a belt to the prince.