There is no cola and milk tea, but the cold drinks of the ancients are richer than you think

Summer is coming with heat waves

Various iced drinks have become everyone's must-have for cooling off

So, if we travel back to ancient times

No more happy water and various milk teas

How to spend the summer?

Don't underestimate our ancestors.

In ancient Chinese medical books

There are more than 100 prescriptions of medicinal tea for summer heat relief.

There are also a variety of drinks...

Without further ado

Come and take a look at the various ancient cold drinks~

There are many ways to make and store ice

In the pre-Qin period, people had already consumed cold drinks in summer, and the key to making cold drinks was the cold source. In ancient times, there was no electricity, no refrigerators, and no other refrigeration equipment, so making and storing ice was not an easy task.

Therefore, the ancients mainly used well water and natural ice with constant temperature throughout the four seasons. In order to store ice, they also invented devices and facilities such as ice jars, Lingyin (later called ice wells and Lingshi), and ice cellars for storing ice and food.

However, using ice was a luxury in ancient times. Generally, only nobles had the conditions to store ice and use it in the summer for eating, cooling off, or even banquets and sacrifices.

For example, in "Chu Ci: Zhao Hun", it says "crush the sugar and drink it frost, it will be cooler", which means putting rice wine on ice to chill it.

It is written in the "Zhou Li·Tianguan·Lingren" that "Lingren is in charge of ice. In the twelfth month of the first year, he is ordered to cut ice three times." Zheng Xuan believed that Lingren's job was to "be in charge of ice administration and ice storage." It is said that Lingren also had laborers responsible for digging ice. Therefore, people began to store ice in the Zhou Dynasty, and digging and using ice had formed a systematic management.

In the Song Dynasty, ice harvesting business received more and more attention from the state. In order to store ice, Emperor Taizu of Song even set up a special office - Ice Police.

"The ice in Chang'an is as valuable as gold and jade in summer." Because ice was very precious in summer, the imperial court began to give ice to its officials as a welfare system, which lasted from the Zhou Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty.

Six refreshing summer drinks in the pre-Qin period

The Zhou Li records the social politics, economy, culture, customs, etiquette and laws of the pre-Qin period, and the content involved is extremely rich. According to the "Jiang Ren" in the Zhou Li Tianguan, "Jiang Ren is in charge of the six drinks of the king" and "all drinks are shared", which means that Jiang Ren is responsible for making and supplying the six drinks used by the emperor, six juices in winter and six clear drinks in summer.

Zheng Xuan, a master of Confucian classics in the Eastern Han Dynasty, believed that the "six clears" of water, pulp, wine, coolness, medicine and wine can be said to be suitable low-temperature drinks for summer.

The "water" here refers to mint water. Jiang refers to a drink made from millet soaked in cheese or water, a bit like the current double-skin milk. Li is the current sweet rice wine, also known as Laozao. Until today, it is still a must-order drink for many people at night snack stalls.

"Liang" is an iced drink made with dried fruits such as dried plums and peaches and fried rice or rice, also known as "cold porridge".

Yi means plum juice. Liu means wine made from grain. Later, there were more and more types of juice, including osmanthus juice, honey juice, tofu juice, peanut juice, etc. "We welcome the king's army with food and wine" means that the common people love their soldiers and are willing to give them delicious food and drink. Peddlers and hawkers have been selling juice since ancient times.

Drinks flourished in the Sui, Tang and Song dynasties

During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, beverages were called "Yinzi", which were generally health drinks made from fruits or herbs.

"Miscellaneous Notes of Daye" recorded a kind of "Five-Color Drink", which was made of "Fufang leaves as green drink, Yangxi roots as red drink, yogurt as white drink, black plum juice as black drink, and Jianggui as yellow drink." It was given to the royal family as a health care product.

At that time, there were drink shops all over Chang'an City, and the drinks they sold were all freshly prepared. Some drink shops were particularly popular, with long queues outside their doors all year round, and there were even scalpers who sold the drinks for "a hundred coins per serving".

In the Song Dynasty, the meaning of Yinzi as medicine gradually weakened, and it became more like the street beverage shops of today. Yinzi shops can be seen in the prosperous scene of "Along the River During the Qingming Festival", and there are at least 17 or 18 kinds of cold water appearing on the streets of Hangzhou in the Southern Song Dynasty in "Wulin Jiushi".

Sugar ice and snow cold yuanzi, raw water-soaked papaya, medicinal papaya, sugar, mung bean, licorice ice and snow cold water, ice and snow lychee paste, ice bead honey water, snow soaked bean water... these were all popular drinks in the Song Dynasty.

The Song people were very particular about the production of drinks, and liked to use various spices, fragrant flowers, and fragrant fruits as ingredients. The flowers and fruits were first salted, dried, baked, ground into fine powder, and then put into containers and sealed for storage; when entertaining guests, some were taken out and brewed into drinks, which is a bit similar to today's flower and fruit tea.

TV series "Dream of Hualu" animated picture

Stills from the TV series "Dream of Hualu", with the top showing the osmanthus drink and the bottom showing the drink label

Crispy Mountain Ice Cream Dessert

The "Sushan" in the Tang Dynasty tomb murals is from Shaanxi News Network

In addition, in the "Ladies' Picture" in the tomb of Prince Zhanghuai of the Tang Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty mural "Wild Banquet Picture", "Susu Mountain" held by ladies on a plate has appeared.

Sushan is a luxury that only nobles can afford.

Mix ice, cream, ghee with sugarcane juice or honey, pour it on a plate to shape mountains, and freeze it in an ice cellar. In this way, the ghee mountains will become more crystal clear and majestic.

When you eat it, it melts in your mouth, sweet, sticky and smooth. Later, there appeared red or green "sushan" dyed with "Guifei Red" and "Meidai Blue". Adding fruit pulp and milk to ice makes it another high-end cold food - ice cheese.

Drinking fruits and vegetables to relieve thirst in the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties

There was a refreshing drink popular in the Yuan Dynasty called "Shelibie". Its preparation method was recorded in "Ju Fang Fahui": "Take the juice of seasonal fruits, boil it like dough and drink it. If it is very thick, mix it with boiling soup. People in the south call it Jian." It is said that when the Mongols marched westward to Central Asia, they brought back a fruit called "Limu" ​​- lemon. After making lemon juice, Kublai Khan drank it and praised it highly.

Since the Ming Dynasty, people have liked to squeeze fruit juice to drink. They called fruit and vegetable drinks "Ke Shui". In Ming Dynasty works such as "Compendium of Materia Medica" and "Complete Book of Agricultural Administration", "Ke Shui" is the name of the drink, which is equivalent to today's orange juice and coconut milk.

There were many kinds of fruit and vegetable beverages in the Ming Dynasty, including ringo (sand apple) thirsty water, papaya thirsty water, schisandra thirsty water, bayberry thirsty water, etc.

The Ming Dynasty's "Biographies of Ying" records: "In Nanjing, plague was rampant, and people recovered after taking Wumei Decoction."

"Black plum soup" is a summer drink that people still like to drink today. It was popular in urban and rural areas during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and was drunk by the rich and the poor. It is made by boiling black plums and rock sugar water, and then covered with ice. It will cool down naturally over time and will not hurt people, and it can also dispel heat.

Source: Chongqing Jiulongpo District Cultural Relics Management Office

Author: Chongqing Ba People Museum

Source: China National Radio, First Cultural Relics Restoration Research Institute

Audit expert: Zhao Yong

Statement: Except for original content and special notes, some pictures are from the Internet. They are not for commercial purposes and are only used as popular science materials. The copyright belongs to the original authors. If there is any infringement, please contact us to delete them.