Ever since humanity discovered the mystery of nature by "drilling wood for fire", humanity has ended its dark history. In the thousands of years before the invention of electric lamps, human beings have relied on the preservation of nature's "wildfires", "drilling wood for fire" to the production of "oil lamps", and human beings have gradually got rid of darkness by relying on ingenuity in practice, so that the quality of life has been greatly improved. Among them, "oil lamp" has a long history of development in China, as a traditional living appliance, it has experienced thousands of years of evolution history, and has accumulated a rich oil lamp culture. In order to understand the history of the development of oil lamps in the mainland, we came to the "Changming Ancient Lamp Museum" in the Qingming Shanghe Garden in Kaifeng.
When it comes to ancient Chinese lighting tools, the first thing that people think of is "oil lamp". Changming Ancient Lamp Museum, is a thematic ancient lamp museum, the museum displays more than 700 pieces of ancient oil lamps of different ages, different materials and different uses, almost covering the lamps and lanterns used by the people from the ancient Warring States to the modern dynasties, from the original stone lamps to wood lamps, bronze lamps, porcelain lamps, pottery lamps, iron lamps, etc., of which the earliest oil lamps have a history of nearly 3,000 years. This has played a positive role in understanding the origin of ancient lamps, feeling that ancient lamps change with historical changes, and thus experiencing the pace of development of human civilization.
To a certain extent, the "oil lamp" reflects the level of economic development, the development of science and technology, and the fashion of aesthetic taste in various historical periods in the history of a country. Especially in China, because the oil lamp has the noble Chinese civilization character of "burning oneself and illuminating others", there is a special oil lamp culture on the chinese land.
As a traditional living tool of human beings, oil lamps have experienced thousands of years of evolutionary history. The wise ancients started from practicality, from the initial "drilling wood for fire" to the invention of oil lamps, human civilization also took a big step forward. The mainland Neolithic era appeared the original lamp "Tao Bean", from the day it was produced, the oil lamp showed the combination of practical and aesthetic life utensils; in the Spring and Autumn, the rapid development of bronze culture, oil lamps began to develop in the direction of refinement; the emergence of celadon oil lamps in the Southern and Northern Dynasties period made an important contribution to the diversification of oil lamp production materials; after that, oil lamps entered a prosperous period of development, the oil lamps of this period had reasonable functions, vivid shapes, and rich decorations; to the Tang Dynasty, there were oil-saving lamps. It is a new scientific and technological invention; during the Song Dynasty, fuel-saving lamps were widely popular, and in the Ming and Qing dynasties, oil-saving blue and white lamps and some porcelain lamps were widely used in the homes of ordinary people.
Here we have to mention the "fuel saving lamp" invented by the ancients. Although the oil lamp is an ordinary lighting tool, due to energy consumption, the animal and vegetable oils that were scarce in resources at that time were also doomed to be difficult to enter the homes of the people, so there was: Kuang Heng's "chiseling wall to steal light"; Che Yin caught fireflies to concentrate lighting; and Sun Kang borrowed the reflection of snow to read and other knowledge-hungry ancestors were eager for light. So the clever and talented ancestors invented the fuel saving lamp.
The key to this kind of fuel-saving artifact is in the design of the oil lamp, which designs the oil lamp as a sandwich, the upper layer holds oil, and the lower layer stores water. Before igniting the upper lamp oil, first inject cold water into the water injection hole, the purpose is to reduce the high temperature generated when the upper lamp oil is burned, the water continues to take away the heat generated by the combustion of the lamp oil when it is heated, to avoid the rapid evaporation and consumption of the lamp oil due to the high oil temperature, which can not only achieve the effect of fuel saving, but also reduce the smoke oil generated when the lamp oil is burned, making the room cleaner.
The lamp, which has always had a lofty status in our minds, has long become a symbol of justice and light, but evil is pervasive, and there is a lamp called "poison lamp", which is "opium lamp". Its role is not to illuminate, but to devour opium, so it is called the "lamp of sin". The common "opium lamp" is copper, small and exquisitely crafted, and there is a glass cover, also known as a "big smoke lamp". Opium lamps are a product of the middle of the nineteenth century, a specific product of a specific historical period after the West sold opium into China to deplete China's national strength, a special lamp for lighting opium, and also a criminal evidence of the Western invasion of China.
Lamps, lighting tools, began when humans could use fire sources, and the earliest "lamps" were born. The mainland's lamps and lanterns have undergone a long period of development and have become a carrier of Chinese culture, civilization and folklore. Ancient Chinese lanterns were once known as Lady Ximing, Qinghong, Ming Envoy, Moon And so on, and were also widely used in folk art. Unfortunately, after the invention of the electric lamp, the ancient lamp gradually disappeared from people's vision, and only in the costume movies and TV series can be glimpsed, and the "Chinese lamps" that can still be seen in modern life are only lanterns, palace lamps, and changming lamps in religious occasions that have been handed down as folk customs. If you want to understand the history of China's lighting development, come to the Kaifeng Changming Ancient Lamp Museum to see, there will be gains.