Going to the toilet is a must-do thing in life, a common thing to do. The ancients said: "People have three emergencies, the toilet is the first", which shows the importance of the toilet in people's daily life. But since ancient times, the toilet seems to be a filthy place in the eyes of the Chinese people, and they are reluctant to mention it. However, through the names of ancient Chinese toilets and their meanings, we can glimpse the historical and cultural conditions reflected in this thing, which is of great significance to the study of ancient Chinese history and culture
The place where people defecate is the toilet. According to archaeological findings, toilets have existed since the Neolithic age. To be precise, it was first discovered in the ruins of the Banpo village clan tribe in Xi'an 5,000 years ago. The toilet found by archaeology is just a dirt pit, extremely simple, that is, a dirt pit in the picture
Henan Yongcheng MangzhongShan Han Liang Xiao Queen Mausoleum Palace exquisitely carved stone toilet
According to the Zuo Biography, at noon on June 6, 581 BC, The Duke of Jinjing was preparing to taste the new wheat, when he suddenly felt that his stomach was bloated, so he went to the toilet to, accidentally fell into the dung pit and died. Mr. Ji Was probably the first monarch in history to be martyred in the toilet, thus exposing the simplicity of the palace toilet in the pre-Qin period, which is likely to be two pedals on the large pit, and the volume of the pit is enough to drown the large living people who accidentally fall. In order to avoid this misfortune, the conditions of the palace toilets were gradually improved.
The unusualness of the royal toilet is revealed in "The New Language of the World". The Western Jin dynasty general Wang Dun was recruited by Emperor Wu of Jin as the donkey of Princess Wuyang, and on the eve of his wedding, he used the princess's toilet for the first time. When I first saw it, I felt that it was magnificent, much stronger than the folk houses, and when I went in, I found that it was also smelly, and my heart was slightly calmer.
Lacquer box
Not long after, I saw that there was a lacquer box containing dried dates in the toilet, and only when it was "dengkeng food", it was all eaten; After the matter, the maid brought a plate of water, and there was a glass bowl containing "bath beans", and Wang Dun poured these "bath beans" into the water, drank them all, and caused "the group of maids to cover their mouths and laugh", it turned out that the dried dates were used to stuff the nose to prevent odor when climbing the pit, and the "bath beans" were equivalent to the soap of the modern world.
The joke caused by the different aesthetic tastes of the ancients is that the urinal basin and the wine vessel are difficult to distinguish, and the special eunuch keeps it, and when necessary, it is passed on to the "official room". The "official rooms" used by emperors and concubines were very elaborate, divided into rectangular and oval forms, made of wood, tin or porcelain.
Official room
The wooden official room is rectangular, with a wooden frame on the outside, an oval opening on the frame, and then lined with soft cushions around it, a cover on the mouth, and the bedpan can be pulled like a drawer, and the general wooden potty is equipped with a tin lining to prevent leakage. The tin official room is oval in shape, with a wooden cover on the basin and a button in the middle; This kind of potty should be used in conjunction with the stool, which is relatively short, with an oval opening at the front end, and the potty is placed below to align the round mouth. The stool has a backrest, the bag has a soft lining, like a sofa without armrests now, sitting on it, not worse than the current toilet, but can not flush.