How did the ancients wipe their bottoms when they went to the toilet?

It is said that I came to work in the company with heavy steps this morning, not because I met anything sad, but because I ate too much last night and had a chemical reaction overnight. The food in my stomach finally burst into powerful energy on my way to work, and Bian Xiao had to resist the pressure until the company solved it.

After punching the card, I rushed to the bathroom on the ground. I didn't even have toilet paper when I read it, so I had to go downstairs to the bathroom to go to the toilet (what about the property level of 5A Grade A office building? )

Squatting on the toilet, my brain suddenly opened wide, and I suddenly thought of how the ancients went to the toilet. How did you wipe your ass before paper became popular?

Let's take a look (spectators who are eating can close this article directly)

1. How did people in ancient China wipe their bottoms?

1, primitive tool age

At the earliest time, people used the most convenient things, seashore residents used shells, and inland residents used branches, stones, broken bricks, tiles and even clods (I suddenly felt that chrysanthemums were tight).

There is such a plot in the Hong Kong drama "Searching for Qin": Hong Kong special police officers were sent to Zhao State in the Warring States Period by time and space shuttle and stayed at a resident's home for the night. Xiang Shaolong asked the old man for "toilet paper", but the old man didn't know what it was. Xiang said, "How to wipe his ass"? The old man picked up a piece of wood from the toilet and said, "This is it! Help yourself " It seems how happy it is to live in 2 1 century.

2. The era of toilet financing

From the Han Dynasty to the Yuan Dynasty, a piece of wood or bamboo called "toilet piece" was used, and sometimes a circle of cotton cloth was wrapped around one end. It is said that it came from India. The sixth volume of the Bodhi Mother Sutra records the story that Sakyamuni taught monks how to use toilets to raise money: in King Snake City, the Buddha had a monk who was a Brahmin caste. Clean and dirty, scrape the grass under the road when you go to the toilet. Scratching will hurt and the color will not look good. The monks asked, "Why do you look haggard and miserable?" ? That is to say, "I hate it when I go to the toilet." If I scratch it with a spoon, I will hurt myself, so I am not happy. "

Buddha said, "It's finished all the time. Scrape the net with a net. If you don't raise it, you can't clean the wall, and you can't use the toilet beam? What happened? Don't use stones, grass, cork blocks, soft leaves and strange trees; Application, wood, bamboo and reed as preparation. Measurement method, the longest is one finger and the shortest is four fingers. Used doesn't necessarily make it dirty, and used doesn't necessarily keep it in the net. This is a way to improve the toilet. "

Sakyamuni lived in the 6th and 7th centuries BC, and these commandments were written more than 100 years after his death. So according to the current literature, the history of using toilets in India is much earlier than that in China. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, Buddhism began to be introduced into China. At first, only some classics were introduced, but the "law" that explicitly required the daily life of believers began in the Three Kingdoms, and the earliest record of China people using toilets to manage their finances began in the Three Kingdoms. So it is well-founded that toilet financing was introduced from India.

The Buddha was great and taught three brothers how to wipe their bottoms in detail.

After the toilet was spread to Middle-earth, it became a fashion and a status symbol among literati. But just like poor Indian monks, China leaders often "scratch the bottom of the toilet" and get blood on their underwear, which is very painful. However, China people have been very proud since ancient times. The pain of asshole is not important, but the face of literati is more important! Scrape your ass with the toilet! After a long time, there will be a circle of wounds around the asshole, which will crack if you force it.

Civil servants don't matter, military commanders are in trouble. The two armies were in front, and the enemy split Huashan with one move. Will you answer it? If you don't pick it up, you panic and run. If you go back, you will be beaten or beheaded by an army stick. Pick it up and the chrysanthemum will crack! When the blood passes through the robe, it will be dyed red, especially the general riding a white horse. His soldiers knew at once that their Lord would be beaten to pieces by others, which was a great loss of face! If you don't fight, you will, and the performance of a military commander riding a white horse on the battlefield will inevitably be discounted. This is why many people think that "Lu" white horse is an ominous horse. Because Liu Bei can't enter the two armies, riding a white horse naturally doesn't matter. Why is Lu Bu so powerful? In addition to his own martial arts, he also got the light of riding a red rabbit. Because the red rabbit is a red horse, it can't be seen when fighting. Guan Shengren, who had no red hare, was forced to surrender by Prime Minister Cao. With the red hare, Yan Liang, the first famous soldier in Hebei, can be cut down with one knife. Its great change is also because there is no "worry"!

In the Tang and Song Dynasties, although paper was widely used, people still didn't need paper to go to the toilet. Because of the Han nationality's consciousness of "respecting and cherishing paper", the paper with words is regarded as a symbol of culture, and because the right to speak in society has always been in the hands of intellectuals, it is regarded as an insult to wipe dirty with paper, especially with written paper.

3. Toilet paper era

The earliest record of toilet paper use was found in the Yuan Dynasty, probably because the Yuan Dynasty was occupied by foreigners, and there was no Han people's consciousness of "respecting and cherishing word paper". According to "Two Records of Three Empresses in Yuan History", Bolan, the empress of Huisheng in Yuzong, was also very filial to her mother-in-law when she was a crown princess. She wants to test the softness of toilet paper with her face before her mother-in-law wipes dirty things: "After filial piety, good deeds are in the palace, and the ancestors are called good wives." Stone listens to the words of the holy king, never leaving his feet, uses paper to go to the toilet, and rubs his face to make it soft. "To sum up, people began to wipe the filth with toilet paper during the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties. Most of this paper is "rough" paper without words. As for whether the toilet paper used in the palace is coarse paper or fine paper, hehe, I don't know.

In the imperial palace of the Ming Dynasty, the organizations responsible for logistics, called "SiSi", all belonged to eunuch units. According to "Fifty Officials of Ming History", "I worry about the firewood used by our company; The bell and drum department is in charge of the bell and drum of the dynasty, as well as various zaju such as inner music, legend, brocade and rice beating; Baochao Zhang Si made thick and thin toilet paper; The matter of bathing in the mixed hall. " Among them, in addition to ordinary office paper, the super-protection department is also responsible for supplying ass-wiping paper. At the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, thirteen records in Song Dynasty's Heavenly Creations recorded: "Whoever uses paper, use paper trees (1? Tree bark, mulberry, hibiscus membrane and other things are leather paper. Bamboo paper is for people who use bamboo hemp. The essence is extremely white, used for writing, printing, Cambodia and opening. Thick is fire paper and wrapping paper. " It is also recorded that "this paper (fire paper) is burned 17, and daily 13". It can be seen that paper is divided into "leather paper" and "bamboo paper" because of different raw materials, but no matter which kind of paper, it is divided into "fine" and "coarse", of which the fine paper is used for writing, 70% of the coarse paper is used for burning incense and offering sacrifices to ghosts and gods, and 30% is used for daily necessities, that is, wiping the ass.

2. How did foreigners wipe their bottoms in ancient times?

Compared with China, the ancient crooked nuts wiped their bottoms in various ways.

15th century ago, the British royal family wiped their bottoms with fresh salmon fillets. It is said that it has the effect of deodorizing and eliminating hemorrhoids. Friends with hemorrhoids can go to the supermarket to buy some to try (don't blame me if I can't)

The Tale of Genji records that the Japanese royal family wiped their bottoms with cicadas. Because cicada wings are very hard, they must be soaked in warm water for three or four days before use.

The most interesting thing is that in France at the end of the Middle Ages, a thick hemp rope was used to wipe the bottom of the palace, which fell from the roof of the toilet and hung next to the squatting position. Pull the rope directly between your legs after pulling the shit, pull it forward and then pull it back, rubbing like a big saw. (Chrysanthemum is tight again) What's more, ropes are still common. Kings, queens, ministers and servants all rub chrysanthemums with the same rope, which does not change all year round. It is said that it embodies the concept of the unity of monarch and minister.

The ancient Romans were more advanced than medieval France hundreds of years later. Rome has had public toilets for a long time. After defecation, people wipe their bottoms with a stick tied to the sea. Sponges are very common, and they are put into containers for disinfection and cleaning after use (the Romans were very conscious).

Two or three anecdotes about ancient toilets

According to Zuo Zhuan, at noon in 58 1 BC, Duke Jinu of Jin Jing felt bloated after eating new wheat, so he went to the toilet to defecate and accidentally fell into the cesspit and died. Jinu is probably the first monarch in history who died in a toilet in written records.

Emperor gaozu was in a hurry to pee at the meeting. In order to save the meeting time and not fall into the toilet, he asked a civilian to hand him his hat. He turned around and turned it upside down. After a while, half a hat was steaming in front of everyone.

Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the great grandson of Liu Bang, is also wonderful enough. It is recorded in the biography of Han Ji An: "The young servant of the general (Wei) looks at it from the toilet." It means that Emperor Wu met General Wei Qing when he was defecating. Wei Qing was a first-class official in the eyes of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty. Perhaps it is for this reason that he got an interview when the emperor defecated.

According to Shi Shuo Xin Yu, Wang Dun, a general in the Western Jin Dynasty, was recruited as the princess's husband by Emperor Wu of Jin Dynasty, and used the princess's toilet for the first time on their wedding night. The first time I saw it, it felt magnificent, much better than the folk houses. When I went in, I found it smelled bad, and my heart was a little calmer. After a while, I saw a paint box containing dried dates in the toilet, and I thought it was "food in the pit" and ate it all; Afterwards, the maid-in-waiting brought a plate of water and a glass bowl filled with "bath beans", and Wang Dun poured these "bath beans" into the water and gulped them down, causing "the group of maids to laugh". It turns out that dried dates are used to plug the nose to prevent odor when climbing the pit, and "bath beans" are equivalent to modern soap.

"Miscellanies of Xijing" said that the court in the Han Dynasty used jade as "nothing" and it was held by the emperor's attendants to facilitate the emperor to take it at any time. This kind of "nothing" is a special sanitary ware called toilet and urinal by later generations-it is known that the emperor will not have to deal with the toilet at the latest. "Wu" was later renamed "toilet", which is said to be related to the emperor. According to legend, in the Western Han Dynasty, Li Guang, a flying general, shot and killed a crouching tiger, making people cast a copper drowning device in the shape of a tiger and put it in urine to show their contempt for the tiger. This is the origin of the name "tiger". However, when the emperors of the Tang Dynasty sat in Long Ting, because one of their ancestors was called Li Hu, they changed this disrespectful name to "son of an animal" or "Ma Zi", which was later commonly known as "toilet" and "urinal".

Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin pacified Sichuan and transported all the objects in Houshu Palace back to Bianjing. It was found that one of them was a basin inlaid with agate and jade, which was almost used to hold wine. Later, she was called Lady Huarui, the favorite princess of Shu Lord Meng Changjun. Mrs. Hua Rui saw that this thing was offered several times by the Emperor of Song Dynasty, and quickly said, This is the urinal of my late king! Surprised, Zhao Kuangyin made a strange call: "How can there be a reason not to die with this urinal?" Immediately smashed the basin.

Speaking of Beijing, in the eyes of the world, there are just a few emperors and kings. However, what I introduce to you today is a filthy and smelly Beijing. It is best not to read the following history after dinner. From Beijing 16 to 19, that is, in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the lack of public facilities and disorderly management were behind the commercial prosperity. In such a big city as Beijing, there are so few public toilets that the saying that "there is no toilet in the capital" has been passed down from generation to generation. In the Ming Dynasty, Wang Siren pointed out the shortcomings of essays and compared the capital to a huge toilet. Isn't this a bit sensational?

In fact, the situation is far more serious than this. Because a few public toilets are also charged, if it is not out of decency or other scruples, under normal circumstances, no one will walk in the street for a long time. "Old friends urinate in the middle of the road", not only ordinary people do this, but also some officials take the lead. Not only men are so casual, but even women pour toilets directly in the street. Naturally, feces mixed with urine, human feces mixed with cow urine, Beijing is not only a huge public toilet, but also a huge garbage station. When it is really "heavy filth, you can smell it everywhere" (according to Yanjing Miscellanies, anonymous in the Qing Dynasty).

It was not until the late Qing Dynasty that this situation changed. Toilets have been built in every street in Beijing, and it is not allowed to urinate anywhere. And there was a dung cart, with the bell as the number. The stinking Beijing city is slowly cleaning up …

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