Life in addition to firewood, rice, oil and salt, toiletries are also our life necessities, especially for girls who love beauty now, rather go out and not eat, but also can not go out and not wash their hair.
Ancient technology is not developed, productivity is low, there is no modern so many dazzling toiletries, how did the ancients maintain personal hygiene?
Today we will come together to reveal the answer.
I. How are toothpaste and toothbrushes made?
About toothpaste
Many people are curious about how the ancients cleaned and cared for their teeth with limited technology. Was it really just like the TV show, just rinse your mouth with water when you wake up in the morning?
This is not the case, on the contrary, the ancients are not only well-equipped, the effect is no worse than the modern toothpaste, and listen to me in detail.
It is well known that salt has the effect of whitening teeth and dental care, the famous physician Sun Simiao in the "Preparing for the emergency thousand gold prescription" wrote: "Every day to a twist of salt in the mouth, with warm water, wipe teeth and buckle teeth a hundred times, for the unceasingly, but for five days, the mouth and teeth that is firm and dense".
But the ancients did not take the salt as toothpaste, they have an exclusive recipe - tooth powder, according to the "Pu Ji Fang" in the record, tooth powder is made of pig's teeth, soap horn, ginger, ascent of flax, ripe rhubarb, woodruff, Dry Lotus, locust horn, fine Xin, lotus leaf, green salt and other traditional Chinese medicines burnt and refined from the preparation of this traditional Chinese medicine made from the powder wipe teeth, not only has the effect of aroma and turbidity, but also has the effect of the teeth, the mouth is firm and dense, but five days. It not only has the effect of aroma and turbidity, but also removes dampness and dryness, and cleans and cares for the teeth.
This cleaning effect and medicinal value as one of the tooth powder, used people say good! Otherwise, how did the term "bright eyes and white teeth" come about? （
In addition to toothpaste, the ancients also used mouthwash, and the mouthwash they used was not simple, often available at home, in a variety of styles, such as salt water, tea water, wine, medicinal water, etc.
They also used mouthwash to clean their mouths, which was a good way to clean their teeth.
About toothbrushes
In the beginning, the ancients brushed their teeth with the most convenient and direct tool - the finger. Later, someone invented the willow branch to brush the teeth, which is what the ancients called "chewing the wood of the teeth in the morning".
The practice is to take a small cut willow branch rinse, and then chew one end with the teeth, so that the branch fibers exposed, bite into the hair, so that a simple toothbrush is done. This is similar to the ancient Babylonian invention of the "chewing stick", the difference is that the other end of the chewing stick has an additional tooth picking function, similar to the head of the toothpick that we use now.
After the toothbrush was made, it could be dipped in a little tooth powder and then brushed, and this toothbrush was simple and inexpensive to make.
Then the toothbrush upgrade, the wisdom of the ancients began to use animal bristles made and modern toothbrushes are very similar to the toothbrush, most of which use pig bristles, although the texture is a little hard, but in the price is cheaper, the rich people use horsehair bristles made of toothbrushes, which are softer bristles, brushing teeth more comfortable.
To the Southern Song Dynasty, there has been a special production and sales of toothbrushes store, also appeared to specialize in the sale of traditional Chinese medicine prepared tooth powder "tooth powder line", tooth powder and toothbrush has become a social commodity.
Two, hair to keep fresh and healthy secret
In the Qin and Han Dynasties, people formed a three-day hair wash, five days a bath habit, for this reason, the government every five days to take a day off, called the "rest of the Mu".
While this washing cycle is a bit long for us modern people, for the ancient people with long hair, three days a wash is considered diligent, and their diet is light, the air is not so bad, so the hair is not easy to dirty.
So what did they use to shampoo their hair? They use an all-natural DIY shampoo.
People first used rice water to wash their hair, which contains some starch, protein, vitamins and other ingredients that not only help remove grease, but also help care for the scalp and hair.
Later, people will be soap horn, Shouwu, tea seeds and other natural plants mashed to wash and care for the hair, "Compendium of Materia Medica" is recorded: soap horn can remove dandruff and itching, swellings and remove toxins; Shouwu can benefit the blood, hair, hair to maintain the luster of the hair; Dry Lotus can be sideburns, hair loss painted that is born ...... with this natural, healthy shampoo to care for the hair, hair black and thick, no chips and no itch.
Three, those full-featured washing products
Washing with the first player: rice water. In the Zhou Dynasty period, people use rice water to bathe, it is said that not only decontamination, but also improve the skin roughness cold hands and feet, lumbago and frostbite.
Wash with the number two player: soap pods. In the Southern Dynasties Xiao Qi period, there are people specializing in the sale of soap pods, and the types to reach more than ten kinds, and many uses. Used to wash the face and bath, can effectively clean the skin, eliminate dirt, lubricated and fresh after washing; used for laundry, clothes do not lose color, not deformed and glossy; used for bathing, and rheumatism, treatment of dermatophytosis efficacy.
Washing with the third player: grass ash. This is a cleaning product found in the ancient people's long-term life practice, is to use the ashes left after the burning of straw, "Chicken Ribs" has recorded, the southern women will use grass ash to take a bath, can also be used to wash clothes.
Wash with the number four player: soap. This soap is not the other soap. It is a large and fat fruit of the plant "fat beads" made because the soapberry tree is rare in central Zhejiang, so people use fat beads instead of soapberry, "soap" thus named. People pick the fruit in the fall, boiled and mashed, add spices, white flour and mix it well, and then roll it into a ball with their hands, which is used for bathing, face washing and laundry.
......
There are a number of other toiletries that serve the same function that are not mentioned here, so if you are interested, you can find out for yourself.
Four, the human method of nature
After reading the introduction of the editorial, do you know how to maintain personal hygiene of the ancients? The toiletries they used all came from nature's natural ingredients.
In my opinion, the ancients revered nature because it gave them a variety of resources to survive. Humans came to the world naked, sheltered from the wind and rain of the house is carried on top of the earth, food to eat the food is grown on the land, daily toiletries are also from nature ...... not to mention, people are also part of nature.
The ancient reverence for nature is not only embodied in the festivals, sacrifices to the sky, sacrifices to the earth, sacrifices to the gods of the mountains such ceremonies, but also embodied in literature and art, the ancient literati love to play in the mountains and rivers, the creation of landscape paintings, poems of landscapes, and even live in a place where we also want to imitate the nature of China's ancient garden architecture is the pursuit of ancient Chinese characteristics is the pursuit of the beauty of the nature to reproduce the use of rocks, plants, buildings, according to the local conditions, reflecting a pleasant, leisurely a pleasant, leisurely natural beauty.
The Tao Te Ching of Lao Tzu has this sentence: "The law of man is the law of the earth, the law of the earth is the law of the sky, the law of the sky is the law of the road, and the law of the road is the law of nature. The word "law" can be interpreted as the meaning of following. These four short sentences reflect the ancient people's reverence for nature, recognizing that human beings must follow the laws of nature, that is, "human beings should follow nature", so that human beings can better survive.
It is for this reason that the ancients had long ago divided the twenty-four solar terms into twenty-four seasons. Each of the twenty-four seasons indicates the climate, the weather, and the time of the year, which closely links the concept of time with the concept of nature, for example, the spring rains, the frost, the White Dew, the Mansia, and the names of these seasons, which are natural phenomena in their own right. The twenty-four solar terms were of great significance in guiding the ancients in agricultural production and predicting climate change.
V. Sustainable Development
The ancients revered nature, and the moderns conquer it.
With the development of science and technology, modern people in the conquest of nature has made great achievements, at the same time, the ecological environment has been unprecedented destruction, global atmospheric pollution, sea level rise, species extinction ......, nature is facing a very serious situation. Therefore, we should regain the ancestors "to comply with the laws of nature, to maintain ecological balance," the fruits of thought.
Pre-Qin period, the ancients have a sense of environmental protection, and advocate the take the degree, use the section, opposed to the burning of yards and fields, fishing. From a philosophical point of view, people discussed the importance of respecting the laws of nature, which is the Chinese culture of "man and nature" visionary, but also the "sustainable development" of the ideological precursor.
China as a modern developing country, at the same time bear the realization of modernization and the maintenance of ecological balance of the dual mission, can not take the "first pollution, and then governance; first destruction, and then construction" of the old road, but should absorb the wisdom of our ancestors, learn from the ancients, "to the time to prohibit hair!
If you are not aware of this, you should not take the old path of "pollution first, then treatment; destruction first, then construction", but should absorb the wisdom of our ancestors, learn from the ancients "to prohibit the hair in time," the ecological consciousness, consciously social and economic activities into the natural system of the virtuous cycle, to reach the harmony between man and nature ****, to promote the construction and development of ecological civilization.
If you think this article is not bad, please pay attention to me! Daily update, give you a good look.
Photo from the network, infringement of informed deleted.