What did the ancients do if they were nearsighted? Did they wear glasses?

In recent years, myopia has become younger - according to the latest data from the National Health Commission, the myopia rate among Chinese students was 52.7% in 2023, including 35.6% for primary school students, 71.1% for junior high school students, and 80.5% for high school students. On the other hand, myopia among children aged 6-10 in my country has shown a clear upward trend, and many children begin to develop myopia before school age or in their early years.

This data has attracted great attention from the public. Vision loss has become a major issue in eye health. Many people attribute this to television, mobile phones, computers... So if we go back to ancient times, when the ancients did not have these electronic products, would they not have suffered from myopia?

In fact, there were not many people with myopia in ancient times. First, it was because scholars were a minority; second, they usually used natural light sources, and few people could light lamp oil to stay up late to study at night; third, ancient people used brushes to write, and those who have written with brushes should know that when writing with brushes, the distance between eyes, brushes, and characters is actually difficult to be too close.

So in a sense, myopia can be considered a "noble disease" in ancient times.

In this issue, we will talk about the ancient people's myopia and glasses~

The history of glasses

Before the invention of glasses, people’s lifestyles and careers were severely restricted by vision. For example, hunters’ long-distance vision was more important than their near-distance vision, while craftsmen engaged in fine processing, experienced accountants, or copyists who read books all year round were usually forced to quit their professions due to myopia or presbyopia.

The ancients called myopia "not being able to see far", which means not being able to see things far away clearly. The ancients also realized that excessive use of the eyes was the main cause of myopia, such as "counting the sun and the moon, looking at stars at night, reading fine books at night, reading books under the moon, copying for many years, and carving fine works". However, the ancients had no scientific understanding of the pathogenesis of myopia.

Today, we know that the mechanism of myopia is that the distance between the retina and the lens inside the eyeball is elongated, and the light cannot focus on the retina, resulting in blurred images of objects. However, ancient medicine attributed the pathogenesis of myopia mainly to yang deficiency. For example, Lin Peiqin, a Qing Dynasty physician, wrote: "If you can see near but not far, it is because of insufficient yang. The cure is in the gallbladder and kidney. Jiawei Dingzhi Pills, or Bawei Pills."

In the East, historical records about glasses are not uncommon. According to archaeological discoveries and literature, before the introduction of Western glasses, my country already had protective eye masks, magnifying glasses and reading glasses introduced from the Western Regions.

As for protective eye masks, the most typical one is the bronze eye mask from the Tang Dynasty. This bronze eye mask was unearthed from the Astana Tomb, about 40 kilometers southeast of Turpan in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The thin copper sheet was forged into a conjoined double peach shape, with dense and neatly arranged small holes drilled on the edges and the center. Compared with today's sunglasses, the bronze eye mask is a bit clumsy and unattractive, but through the small hole in the center of the eye mask, the wearer can clearly see the scenery in front of him. There are also cloth and straps on the edge of the eye mask to make it easier for the user to wear it.

Tang copper eye mask

Image source: CCTV News Turpan Museum

In the summer, Turpan in Xinjiang has abundant sunshine and little precipitation, resulting in many deserts and strong winds. In the winter, there is a lot of snowfall and the snow lasts for a long time. The strong ultraviolet rays reflected by the snow can damage people's eyesight and even cause blindness in severe cases. Experts speculate that under such climatic conditions, ancient Xinjiang people would wear such eye masks when going out, which not only blocked the wind, sand and ultraviolet rays, but also prevented snow blindness.

Image source: CCTV News "National Treasure Archives" copper eye mask screenshot

In addition to protective eyewear, there are also magnifying glasses that need to be mentioned. The earliest known magnifying glass in my country was unearthed in 1981 from the Tomb of Liu Jing, King of Guangling of the Eastern Han Dynasty in Ganquan No. 2, Hanjiang, Jiangsu Province. It was made of crystal. The mirror (pictured below) has a diameter of 1.3 cm and is embedded in a gold ring with a linked bead pattern made of gold. It can magnify objects 4 to 5 times, which shows that my country was able to process and grind crystal convex lenses as early as the early Eastern Han Dynasty.

Eastern Han Dynasty gold ring inlaid crystal magnifying glass

Image source: National Humanities and History

According to the book Yu Yu Cong Kao written by Zhao Yi, a scholar in the Qing Dynasty, there was a prison official named Shi Hang in the Song Dynasty. When he was reading the files, he would take a dozen kinds of crystals and put them beside him. When reading, he would hold the crystals up to his eyes to enhance the clarity of the text. It can be seen that convex lenses used to help reading were already available in the Southern Song Dynasty in my country.

Glass glasses were introduced to China during the Xuande reign of the Ming Dynasty. People in the Ming Dynasty once described the glasses at that time as the size of two copper coins, "the color is very similar to mica, but the quality is very thin". The glasses are inlaid with gold wire as the outline, and the two lenses "become one when they are together and become two when they are apart" (the shape is similar to scissors). The size of the glasses can be placed in a medium-sized box. When the elderly have blurred vision and cannot see small words clearly, they can open this thing and put it in front of their eyes, or tie it behind their heads with a silk ribbon, and the words will immediately become larger.

Some of these reading glasses that flowed into China during the Ming Dynasty came from the Western Regions, where they were exchanged for good horses, while others came from maritime trade. In the early 16th century, Portuguese colonists brought glasses to Southeast Asia and then to China. At that time, "glasses" were more precisely "reading glasses", which were usually given by the emperor as rare items to old officials. Only the upper class with extraordinary status, wealth and connections could get them.

Image source: Stills from the TV series "Dream of the Red Chamber"

By the Qing Dynasty, glasses had been produced locally, and the visual principles of lens grinding had been mastered by the Chinese. Xu Ke, a scholar in the Guangxu period, summarized the principles and uses of glasses: "Use concave mirrors to make up for the excessive convexity of the lens in the eye; use convex mirrors to make up for the excessive thinness of the lens and increase its convexity, so that the fine objects in front of the eyes can be clearly seen. This is a farsighted mirror, which is mostly used by the elderly and is also called a reading mirror; use a flat mirror to prevent dust and light, which is a flat mirror." "All the glasses made in our country are made of crystal. The colored ones are light-colored smoky quartz and dark-colored black quartz. Since the import of foreign toric lenses, the use of crystal has decreased."

As China's glass production has always been tepid, Guangdong craftsmen in the Ming and Qing dynasties imitated imported glasses and used crystal stones instead of glass. The cost was too high and the price was high. Chen Kangqi of the Qing Dynasty said: "Crystal glasses are popular in the early days of the country and are more expensive than pearls and jade."

Qing Dynasty Yellow Satin Embroidered Peacock and Peony Pattern Glasses Case

Image source: The Palace Museum

According to the archives of the Imperial Household Department of the Qing Dynasty, the glasses used in the imperial court of the Qing Dynasty mainly came from Westerners, as well as tributes from princes, ministers, and officials from Guangdong and Hainan. The Imperial Household Department would also purchase them from the antique market in Beijing. For glasses that the emperor had special requirements for, the Imperial Household Department would make them. Here we have to mention a glasses enthusiast: Yongzheng.

Yongzheng was an absolute glasses fan. The number of glasses purchased or made by the palace was very large. Most of the time, an order was for ten pairs. Each pair of glasses had different functions and applicable time. There were reading glasses and nearsighted glasses. In addition, there was one pair for each of the hours of Zi, Chou, Yin, Mao, Chen, Si, Shen, and Hai. Later, there was also one pair for each of the hours of Wu, Wei, You, and Xu. This was not enough, so some more were added for Mao and Zi, and finally there were 24 pairs of glasses related to the time of day. The emperor was also very strict about glasses. If the glasses made by the Imperial Household Department had unclear degrees or did not meet the specifications, they would be sent back for "repair".

During the reign of Emperor Yongzheng, hundreds of pairs of glasses were presented to the emperor from the West, all with glass lenses. Most of the glasses purchased by the Imperial Household Department at the antique market were made in China, with crystal lenses. The imitation Western glasses made in the palace were also made of glass, with auspicious decorations with Chinese characteristics. Because the emperor had a particularly high demand, the Imperial Household Department would usually make glasses for the next few years in advance and store them in the warehouse, and present them to the emperor immediately if he needed them.

Gold-rimmed glasses from the Qing Palace

Image source: The Palace Museum

Many of these glasses collected by the Qing Dynasty court have been lost, and only a hundred pairs remain. They are of different sizes, clever styles, and fine workmanship. There are plain glasses, myopia glasses, and reading glasses, among which reading glasses are the most common. The palace has homemade crystal glasses with frames made of brass, tortoise shell, and ivory handles. The above pair of glasses with gold wire frames and glass lenses are engraved with the 14k content mark and were specially customized for the last emperor Puyi.

The birth of small glasses

Proof of human wisdom

More importantly

The use of glasses has changed

Attitudes toward human limitations and imperfections

But no matter what

Finally, I would like to remind everyone

Try to develop good eye use and eye protection habits

Protect hyperopia reserve and avoid damage to vision

END

Source: National Humanities and History 202112 "Eliminating Reading Disorders for Humanity: Wear Glasses and See the World Clearly" by Zhou Ran, "Research on Palace Glasses in the Qing Dynasty", "The Universe in the Mirror", "Research on the History of Glasses", "Contact Lenses Have a Hundred-Year History", "Overview of Aspherical Lens Surface Shape Detection Technology", CCTV News, Palace Museum, Turpan Museum

Image sources: CCTV News, the Palace Museum, Turpan Museum, National Humanities and History Museum, stills from the TV series "Dream of Splendor", screenshots from the program "National Treasure Archives"

Source: Chongqing Jiulongpo District Cultural Relics Management Office

Audit expert: Li Xiaoying

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