Summer heat is coming! Dig up the ancients' secret recipes for keeping cool

In the hot summer, air conditioners, watermelons, and televisions have become three must-have items for many people. The convenience of modern life gives people shade in the hot summer, but how did the ancients survive the hot weather when air conditioners were not yet invented? In fact, their tips for cooling off were not "backward" at all, and they were particular about food, clothing, housing, and transportation.

1. Wear thin clothes in summer

The first method for ancient people to prevent heatstroke and cool down was to dress in a different way . Complex and heavy clothing was obviously not suitable for summer, so ancient people would regularly change clothes with different fabrics as the seasons changed . This is why Li Qingzhao wrote the poem "I tried on a jacket with golden threads for the first time".

Since the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Dragon Boat Festival has become a day for the whole society to change into summer clothes. The fabrics used for summer clothes in ancient times were very particular, and they had to be breathable and permeable, so silk yarn and gauze became the best choice.

In the Tang and Song dynasties , summer clothing made of gauze and silk had a special name - " raw clothes ", while clothing worn in the other three seasons was called " cooked clothes ".

The processing procedures of raw clothes and cooked clothes are different. Cooked clothes use thick fabrics such as silk and brocade, which need to be brushed with starch and then repeatedly pounded with a stone pestle. After this treatment, the warp and weft of the fabric will become tighter, thicker and airtight, with a firm texture and less likely to shed silk. The made clothes will be warmer and more wear-resistant. On the contrary, raw clothes do not need to be pounded, and the warp and weft are sparse, forming breathable holes, so the heat dissipation performance is good.

Bai Juyi said, "The light-colored gauze shirt is as light as mist, and the spun gauze trousers are thinner than clouds." It can be seen that the ancients wore very cool clothes in summer, and both the long shirt and trousers were made of light silk gauze.

2. Summer ice fruit sweetness

Many people have a scene like this in their childhood memories of summer vacation: parents pick up the cool watermelon soaked in the well, take a bite, and the heat seems to dissipate instantly.

In fact, this ingenious way of cooling off by sinking plums and floating melons has existed since ancient times. Cao Pi has a poem that says, "Float sweet melons in clear springs and sink red plums in cold water." This means that when the weather is hot, soak melons and fruits in cold water before eating.

At the same time, ice drinks were also one of the summer foods in ancient times. Cold drinks were sold in the Song Dynasty . A poem says: "The sun stops at noon in June in the imperial city, and the people in the market are sweating like rain. The sound of selling ice comes across the water, but passers-by are happy without eating." There are many types of cold drinks in the Song Dynasty, including rock sugar , ice snow , ice yuanzi , snow- soaked bean water , snow-soaked plum wine , sour plum soup, etc.

After the Yuan Dynasty , the variety of cold drinks increased dramatically , such as the rose dew, osmanthus dew, rose stew soup, etc. that appeared in "Dream of Red Mansions". Melon and fruit herbal tea and summer tea tasting are all the works of the ancients on "summer food".

3. Seek cool places in summer

In terms of housing, the ancients had even more tips for avoiding the summer heat.

Finding a quiet and cool place to stay during the dog days of summer is a great pleasure. The ancients loved to cool off by the water. Meng Haoran used a poem to describe his story of enjoying the cool at night: "The mountain light suddenly sets in the west, and the moon in the pond gradually rises in the east. I let my hair down to enjoy the coolness of the evening, and lie down leisurely in the open window. The lotus breeze brings fragrance, and the bamboo dew drops make clear sounds. I want to play the harp, but I regret that there is no one who can appreciate it. I miss my old friends and dream in the middle of the night."

In ancient times, people would often combine enjoying the cool breeze by the water with appreciating the lotus. "Appreciating the lotus during the Great Heat" was a custom of the ancients during the dog days of summer, which allowed them to escape the heat and enjoy elegance at the same time.

"Dipping into the water" is also a custom of cooling off: during the dog days of summer, people would go to rivers and streams to take a cold bath to dispel the heat and toxins of summer heat, so as to reduce the incidence of boils and fever. Being close to water to dispel the heat of summer heat is the wisdom of the ancients.

However, the coolest place to live is still the cool house . This type of house, which appeared in the Tang Dynasty , is usually built near water . It uses a waterwheel-like method to drive the fan wheel to rotate , sending cool air into the house , or uses machinery to transfer water to the roof and then down along the eaves . In this way, the house will soon become cool.

In the Ming Dynasty , the cool houses became more perfect and sophisticated , as evidenced by the document: In Huodu Villa, there were seven wells in one hall, all of which were carved and covered with coils. When sitting on the wells in summer, one would feel the coolness from the seven wells and not feel the heat.

4. Summer with ice

Speaking of the summer necessities of the ancients, it was actually ice. Especially in the palace, government offices, emperors, generals, and wealthy and noble families, the best way to cool down was to use ice cubes .

Moreover, more than 3,000 years ago, the ancients knew how to use ice in winter and in summer. In winter, they stored ice cubes by digging deep wells, putting ice in them, and then covering them with thick soil. In summer, they took them out to cool down. The "Book of Zhou" also mentioned "ice jars", which were ancient refrigerators. Ice jars were similar to hollow boxes, and ice was placed inside them, and food was placed in the middle of the ice to keep it fresh.

At the end of the Tang Dynasty , people mined saltpeter while producing gunpowder. They found that when it dissolved in water, it would absorb a lot of heat , causing it to freeze , and so they began to make ice artificially .

Of course, the most down-to-earth and popular secret method to prevent heatstroke in ancient times must be the fan. In ancient times, the fan was called "Yaofeng" and was mostly made of bamboo strips. It also has an extremely cute name - "Liangyou".

A fan can bring a cool breeze, which is a magical tool for cooling off that can be owned by both the royal family and the common people. In the aristocratic families of the Han Dynasty, a kind of "artificial fan" was popular. "It was also made into a seven-wheel fan, with a diameter of one foot, connected one after another. One person operated it, and the whole house shivered."

That’s all for today. Do you know the ancient people’s secrets to cooling off?