At least in the Tang Dynasty, there were already records of public baths, and it is estimated that in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, due to the gradual integration of ethnic minorities and Han people, and the taboos of ethnic minorities for the body were not as good as those of Han people, public baths should have appeared.

The public baths of the Song Dynasty were very developed, all over the city of Kaifeng, the bathrooms were divided into male and female baths, and the service was very thoughtful, in addition to providing bathing, it also provided services such as back rubbing, nail trimming, massage, etc., as well as tea, wine and fruits. In addition to the capital, large and small towns are also dotted with various public baths.

The public baths of the Yuan Dynasty were very developed, and Marco Polo recorded that people at that time "got up early every day and did not eat until bathing", and there were also medicinal baths. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, China's toilets and bathrooms were more popular, basically a house should be equipped with a toilet at the same time, the public bath in the Ming Dynasty was called a mixed hall, also called "bathhouse", the price of each bath was a penny, equipped with bath beans and other toiletries, at that time it was also called soap, the most famous soap was called "Tianli soap". Public toilets and public baths in the Qing Dynasty were not much different from those of modern times. ’

The ancient Chinese attached great importance to self-cleaning, and the Shangsi Festival, which called for bathing in spring to ward off illness, was a symbol.

During the Western Zhou Dynasty, bathing etiquette gradually became customized.

Because bathing has penetrated into all aspects of society, people have a deep understanding of bathing, not only as a simple cleansing and moisturizing body, but also as a grand etiquette.

In "Chu Ci", there is "the new Mu must play the crown, and the new bath must vibrate the clothes".

Since the pre-Qin period, before worshipping the gods and ancestors, they must bathe and purify their bodies, which is already a fixed law, indicating that the heart is clean and pious, which is called fasting.

During the Qin and Han dynasties, the bathing custom of the whole society has been formed, and the "Book of Rites and Dowry" contains "three days of bathing and five days of bathing".

In the Han Dynasty, the habit of "washing hair every three days and bathing every five days" was formed. So much so that the government gives one day off every five days, called "Xiu Mu", so that officials have time to wash well.

In the Tang Dynasty, "five days and one rest" was changed to a rest and bath for officials every ten days, and the first, middle and second half of each month were Shanghan, Zhonghan and Xiahan.

Han, that is, the variant of Huan, the original meaning is washing, because of the ten days of a Huan, Huan has a kind of timing meaning, a Huan for ten days. Therefore, the Tang Dynasty system rested every ten days, called "Xiuhuan".

The Ming Dynasty's celebrity Tu Benjian also juxtaposed "bathing body" with "appreciating antiques", "famous incense" and "reciting famous sayings", indicating that the bathing in the Ming Dynasty was more elegant than in the past.

It is worth mentioning that the ancient Chinese divided the washing very finely, and Xu Shen of the Eastern Han Dynasty "Shuo Wen Jie Zi" cloud:

Mu, wet hair also.

Bath, sprinkle body also.

I wash it and sprinkle my feet too.

Take a bath and sprinkle your hands too.

It can be seen that the ancient Chinese attached great importance to their own cleanliness.

At the same time, for a long time, the church in the West at that time was still preaching that bathing was a way to punish sinners...... In the fourth century, a Christian woman on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem boasted that she had not washed her face for 18 years and therefore felt that she was the most "pure."

Compared with washing hair, the items used in ancient bathing are more abundant:

1. Materials

1) Grass ash

In ancient times, it was used for "shampooing", which was a convenient and useful thing, and the effect was not described. In the Song Dynasty's "Chicken Rib Weaving", it is recorded that southern women soaked in water with plant ash to wash and decontaminate.

2) Rice washing water

As early as more than 3,000 years ago in the Zhou Dynasty, people used rice washing water to bathe and decontaminate, not only to remove pollution, but also to have excellent health care functions, which was cheap and common in ancient times as an early shampoo and shower gel.

3) Honey locust

At the latest in the Southern Dynasty Xiao Qi, there was already a special sale of honey locusts.

There are more than 10 varieties of honey locust, and the decontamination ability is strong and weak. It has the effect of lubricating and refreshing, eliminating dirt and greasy, and cleansing the skin, and is also commonly used in ancient Chinese beauty prescriptions.

Washing clothes with honey locusts, the clothes do not discolor, do not shrink, the fibers do not damage and tarnish. Bathing with honey locust can also remove rheumatism and cure skin stalks.

4) Fat beads

i.e. soapberry. According to the "Compendium of Materia Medica", it is recorded that the tree grows in the high mountains, very tall, the branches and leaves are like tsubaki, and the white flowers bloom in May and June, and the fruit is as big as a projectile. There is a nucleus in the real one, which is as black as the core of a honey locust, and it is round like a pearl. Harvested in October, boiled and pitted, pounded with wheat noodles or bean noodles for bath medicine. Because in fact, it is like fat and the child is round like a pearl, hence the name.

In the Song Dynasty Zhuang Jiyu's "Chicken Ribs", there are few honey locusts in Zhejiang, and "fat beads" are used in bath and cloth.

In late autumn, people pick the fruit pods, cook them and mash them, add spices, white flour, mix and knead them into pills, which are called "soap". Modern soapberry shampoo is highly regarded by environmentalists and natural beauty lovers, using this shampoo to reduce dandruff, make hair black and shiny, and clear after drying, but a little dry when washed.

5) Pancreas, bath beans

In the Tang Dynasty, Sun Simiao's "Qianjin Yao Fang" and "Qianjin Yifang" once recorded that the pig's pancreas, after washing the dirty blood, tearing off the fat and grinding it into a paste, then adding soybean flour, spices, etc., evenly mixed, after natural drying, it becomes a bath bean made for washing purposes.

No one knows who was the first to use pig pancreas to remove dirt, but he must have been an extremely intelligent person.

In the process of making bath beans, the pig pancreas is ground to enhance the exudation of digestive enzymes contained in the pancreas, and the mixed soybean powder contains saponins and lecithin, the latter has the effect of enhancing foaming power and emulsifying power, which not only strengthens the washing ability, but also moisturizes the skin, and is a relatively high-quality detergent.

Bath beans were initially popular only among the upper nobility, and ordinary people could not afford to use them.

Later, people improved the production process of bath beans, when grinding pig pancreas, add granulated sugar, and replace soybean flour with sodium carbonate (soda ash), and add molten pig fat, mix evenly, press into a ball, or block, this is "pancreas".

The pancreas, in chemical composition, was very similar to today's soaps. Moreover, the product types are even more diverse, osmanthus pancreas, rose pancreas...... It is quite similar to today's various soaps with different scents.

The pancreas of the Tang Dynasty also had the effect of chilblain cream. The high-end ones are called "face medicine" and "mouth grease", which are used to coat the face and mouth. The royal court, which was issued to officials in winter.

In Du Fu's "Wax Ri", there is "lipid and facial medicine with grace, and the green pipe and silver poppy are under the nine heavens." That's what happened.

High-quality bath beans are regarded as high-end products, and doctors are reluctant to announce the formula easily. Because of its nobility, it is often only used for hand and face washing.

There is a detailed description in Li Tao's "Secret Recipe for Outer Taiwan" in the Tang Dynasty: "On saying: Facial fat and hand balm are fragrant bath beans, and scholars are noble, all of which are wanted." However, today's medical sect is extremely secretive, and children are not allowed to leak a method, and as for the father and son, it is not revealed. However, it is strange that the saints legislate and want to make the family understand and everyone knows for themselves, so that they are foolish in the world, so that the way cannot be done, and the will of the saints is obscured. ”

6) Incense herbs

Mixed Chinese herbs or spices into water for bathing, there are many recipes. There are also designs that combine bath beans, etc.

The classification of the material used for the head alone is very detailed. In the "Secret Recipe of Outer Taiwan", there are various classifications of ointment and facial fat and treatment of facial diseases, facial cleansing prescription, complexion light and pleasant prescription, white complexion prescription, facial palette prescription, facial blister prescription, facial blister prescription, flour and flour fangtou feng white dandruff prescription, mutou head removal formula, hair growth cream prescription for hair black prescription, white bald prescription, red bald prescription bath bean prescription, hand ointment prescription, mouth fat prescription, etc., which illustrates the problems of modern facial skin, which have been mastered in detail in the Tang Dynasty.

And there are also a lot of incense herbs for the whole body bath.

In the Han Dynasty, there was a person with pain, the skin fell off, this person because of "get a water bath, the pain is stopped", 20 days, the skin is healed, the body is like clotted fat, the effect of the medicinal bath, can be seen.

In the Tang Dynasty, Sun Simiao's "Qianjin Yifang" volume 5 has a bath prescription: clove, agarwood, green wood, pearl, jade shavings, Shu water flower, peach blossom, stalactite, papaya flower, pear flower, red lotus, plum flower, cherry flower.

The preparation method is "flowers and incense are pounded separately, and then the pearls and jade chips are ground into powder, and the soybean powder is combined, and it is studied thousands of times and stored densely. Commonly use hand-washing face as makeup, insist on 100 days, its face is like jade, smooth and moisturized, and the smell and powder are removed". The same is true of the throat and arms washed with this medicine.

Taking a medicinal bath not only makes the skin fair, but also prevents the epidemic and strengthens the body, so it lasts for a long time.

Who said that the ancients were unhygienic in Tokyo in the Song Dynasty - the pharmacy of the developed bathing culture in ancient China sold special "facial cleansing medicine", and the Yuan miscellaneous drama "Xie Tianxiang" meticulously depicted the scene of women bathing with "boiled bran pulp and fragrant bath beans", which marked that the "medicinal bath prescription" has become very popular.

The Qing Dynasty's "Three Rural Chronicles" directly recommended the "wolfberry decoction" bath prescription as a necessary way for fitness.

Second, the container

The wooden barrel seems to be everyone's impression of bathing in ancient China, which is a narrow concept obtained from film and television dramas. In fact, ancient Chinese vessels are very rich and diverse.

From the existing utensils in our country, it can be seen that the ancestors of the Chinese began to bathe in a bathtub BC.

The shape of the Zhou Dynasty's "Yu Jizi self-plate" is very similar to a modern bathtub. The dish is 40 centimeters high, 87 centimeters wide and 137 centimeters long – a shape that can be called a "bathtub". The whole body is cast with a thick and delicate pan pattern, the image is extremely vivid, there are eight animal heads before and after, and each animal head is linked to a ring. There are also inscriptions of 111 characters on the plate.

During the Warring States period, there was a water vessel called "Jian", which was a well-documented bathtub. The existing "Warring States Double Dragon Jian" is a rare large-scale water vessel. Jian's two ears into the beast type, set with a large ring, the mouth of the double dragon climbing device is water-like, extremely vivid, and the body is decorated with a luxuriant dragon pattern.

In the ancient books, there is a record of "bathing with Jian", and the "Jian" it refers to this kind of large-scale water container.

The earliest bathtub in Yangzhou is a gray pottery bath basin with a diameter of 60 cm unearthed in the Warring States tomb in the northern suburbs of Yangzhou in 1993, and pottery was unearthed together. It is shaped like a gourd scoop and is mostly used for scooping water.

In the early Western Han Dynasty, when the nobles bathed, people stood in a kind of "bath plate" (see that it is a plate!) and was washed by the waiter, so the body shape of the bath plate was larger than the plate used to wash hair or wash hands.

Mawangdui unearthed a cloud dragon pattern lacquer bath plate, is the bathing utensils of the "Hou Hou's house", the diameter has reached 72 centimeters, quite large, an adult standing in the plate by the waiter to water the bath, it is no problem at all.

3. Land use

Bathroom, commonly known as "bathhouse", in ancient times also called "bathroom door", "mixed hall" and so on.

The "Zhou Li" records the bathing of the Shang Dynasty, but there was no special bath at that time.

The advent of the bathroom, there is a record in the "Book of Rites" that "the outside and the inside do not share the well, and the bath is not shared". "湢" is the ancient bathroom.

In the Museum of the Tomb of the Han Guangling King in Shugang, Yangzhou, the earliest private bathing room in the history of Chinese bathing is preserved.

In the "Yellow Intestine Inscription" high-standard wooden coffin tomb group, in the fifth entrance of the west chamber of the king's tomb, there is a washing room of about ten square meters, all paved with a whole piece of golden silk nanmu. It contains a binaural copper kettle, a copper bathtub, a pumice stone for rubbing the back, as well as a complete set of bathing utensils such as clogs, copper lamps, and bath stools. The shower room is next to the master living bedroom. To a certain extent, it reflects the ancient Chinese who paid attention to cleanliness, loved bathing, and pursued a private, quiet, thoughtful and comfortable bathing environment.

In the Tang Dynasty, who said that the ancients were unhygienic in Kyoto at that time - Chang'an, a developed bathing culture in ancient China, appeared in a large bathroom palace, known as the "bathroom door". Some of them have also set up hot spring bathing places.

In 723 AD, the hot spring palace in Lintong was the bathhouse where Tang Xuanzong gave Yang Guifei an edict. The poet Bai Juyi's poem in "Song of Long Hatred" remembers this incident.

By the Song Dynasty, bathrooms were common.

Hong Mai's "Yi Jianzhi" contains: Ordinary people build houses, and they have bathing rooms.

"Chicken Rib Edition" cloud: "Who said that the ancients in Tokyo were unhygienic - there were millions of developed bathing cultures in ancient China, none of them burned firewood, and used all coal. ”

It seems that the Song people have many opportunities to enjoy hot baths.

Fan Chengda's "Plum Spectrum" also said: In order to be the first, the flower sellers in Lin'an put the plum branches that have not yet opened in the bathroom and use the hot and humid steam fumigation treatment in the bathroom to make the flower buds in a dormant state open in advance, which is a kind of sublimation of the use of the bathroom.

At the latest, in the Tang and Song dynasties, there were public bathhouses and bathhouses in China. The earliest public bathhouse is the "mixed hall" in Suzhou.

At this time, the public bath had the business of wiping the back. In Su Dongpo's "Dream Order", there is a sentence of "sending a message to wipe people's backs, and working hard day and night to wave elbows".

The pseudo-Song script "Jidian Quotations" once wrote: Before dawn, the city is still asleep, and the bath has opened to welcome guests to take a bath. This custom has continued until modern times, and the bathhouse is mostly placed on the powder wall at the head of the door with the couplet of "the golden rooster is hot before singing, and the red sun rises in the east and the hall is full", which is a reflection of this custom.

By the Yuan Dynasty, public bathhouses had developed quite maturely. "Marco Polo's Travels" tells us that in the Yuan Dynasty, there were "cold baths" on some streets of Hangzhou, "served by male and female waiters, and the male and female customers of these bathhouses, since childhood, were accustomed to cold baths all year round, believing that this was very beneficial to health".

Marco Polo also noted the good habit of "all people in Hangzhou who are accustomed to bathing once a day, especially before eating".

"Pu Tongshi Proverbs" meticulously shows a "citizen bathing map" of Yuan Dadu - at that time, in addition to bathing, the public bath can also scratch the back, comb the hair, shave the head, and pedicure, but the price is different, five dollars for bathing, two dollars for scratching the back, five dollars for combing the hair, two dollars for shaving the head, five dollars for pedicure, a full set, a total of nineteen dollars, not expensive, and the ordinary people still have this ability to bear. There are also closets for clothes, hats, and boots. The procedure of bathing is: go to the inner soup pool to wash for a while, then sleep in the second room, and then go to wash again, but go out of the guest seat to rest for a while, comb, shave, trim the feet, cool down, put on clothes, eat a few closed wind wine, and have a different spirit. SPA that is hardly inferior to modern people!

Fourth, the device

Shower devices appeared in the Song Dynasty.

"Who said that the ancients were unhygienic in Tokyo - Menghualu of developed bathing culture in ancient China" recorded: Who said that the ancients were unhygienic in Tokyo - the developed bathing culture in ancient China On the night of the Lantern Festival, there were manjushri and Fuxian who crossed lions and white elephants on the lamp mountain tied on the royal street, and they "pointed out the five ways of water in their hands, and their hands swayed, and the top of the lamp mountain was raised on the water with a wheel, and they were stored in wooden cabinets and put down from time to time, like a waterfall."

Based on this, it is assumed that it is entirely possible to install similar equipment for holding water, storing water, and discharging water in the bath, which is completely possible at the level of machinery at that time.

In the Southern Song Dynasty, Li Song's "Water Palace" depicts an artificial waterfall device controlled by a sluice, which can be transformed into a shower device according to this principle.

The copper leakage timing of the Yuan Dynasty shows the appearance of the shower more clearly.

Tao Zongyi's "Yuan's Court Records" records the bathing in the imperial palace:

Imperial palace bath, the pattern stone is the quality, the gold and stone are carved into, the strange flowers and leaves, miscellaneous, the purple cloud and the nine dragon canopy, the Shu brocade curtain on all sides, three weeks across the pool. On the bridge, the brocade is the pavilion, the middle plaque is Luan, the left plaque is condensing, the right plaque is the sky, and the three plaques are facing each other. A horizontal bridge was also set up to connect to the three pavilions to lead to the future. When the concubine takes a bath, she rides on animal toys such as the Wen Yu Li, the White Crystal Deer, and the Red Stone Horse placed in the pool, and plays the game of "Welcoming Joy on the Water".

Wang Renyu's "The Remains of Kaiyuan Tianbao" shows a different scene:

Fengyu soup to Wen Yao dense stone, the tip of the jade lotus, the soup spring to become a pool, and sewing splendid for the wild goose in the water, the emperor and the concubine Shi carved a boat, play in the meantime.

The mosque built in Yangzhou in the Yuan Dynasty and the south side of Puhardin's tomb have a "water room", that is, today's shower room. This is a place built for the *** cultists who were introduced to Middle-earth in ancient times to perform purification services.

The "water room" has a complete function, there is a pot stove for boiling hot water, a one-way shower room, a hanging tank for storing hot water, and there is a room under the tank, where the water flows down and showers down, and the whole body can be bathed in the order of first right and then left, and from bottom to bottom. This seems to be the earliest witness of Yangzhou's "shower", which has made a certain contribution to the development of the bathing industry.