What did the ancients use to wipe their asses?

What did the ancients use to wipe their asses Abstract: This article traces the process of change in Chinese toilet wiping methods from the Three Kingdoms to the Ming and Qing dynasties. Toilet chips were introduced to China with Buddhism from India during the Three Kingdoms period, and the official record of using handkerchiefs was created by the Mongols in the Yuan Dynasty, both of which are important turning points in the change of Chinese ancient toilet wiping customs, thus confirming the openness of Chinese civilization. Keywords: toilet chips; handkerchiefs What did the ancients use to wipe their filth after defecation? The Hong Kong drama "Searching for Qinji" raises this question. There is an episode in the drama: Xiang Shaolong, a Hong Kong special police officer, is sent to the state of Zhao in the Warring States period by a time machine and stays at a resident's home at night. When he needs to go to the toilet in an internal emergency, Xiang Shaolong asks an old man for toilet paper, and the old man, who is confused about what he is asking for, says, "How can I wipe my ass? Xiang said, "How do you wipe your ass?" The old man picked up a piece of bamboo from the side of the pit and said, "This is it! Please feel free to use it. When I saw this, I couldn't help but laugh. Yes, what did the ancients use to wipe their asses? This article against the river of time, from near to far to trace the history of the ancient custom of wiping dirty change. It should be noted that, now does not exclude some areas of certain people are still using a variety of other things, but the mainstream is people generally use toilet paper, so we test history, but also just test can represent an era of civilization of the mainstream. Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties - the era of coarse paper Qing dynasty people use paper to wipe dirty, there are many documents can be verified. To cite just one example, the forty-first Dream of the Red Chamber has a section of Liu maternal grandmother diarrhea text: Liu Lou Lou felt a chaotic ringing in the abdomen, busy pulling a small girl, to have two pieces of paper on the undressing. The people are laughing again, and busy drink him "here not to!" Busy order a granny took the northeast up. This description shows that in Cao Xueqin life period, both the Grand View Garden or countryside characters, have been using handkerchiefs to wipe dirty. Ming Dynasty Palace in charge of logistics institutions, called "four divisions", according to the "Ming History" Zhi fifty official three records: "the Secretary for the Secretary for the use of payroll; bell and drum Division in charge of out of the bells and drums, and the inner music, legend, over the brocade, hit the rice miscellaneous plays; the Secretary for the Secretary for the manufacture of fine and coarse straw paper; mixing the Department of the Secretary for the bathing thing "The Department of the Treasury is in charge of the handkerchiefs. Among them, the treasury department is the department of handkerchiefs. So what kind of paper did people use at that time? So also need to understand the types of paper in ancient China. Ming and Qing dynasties Song Yingxing written by the "Heavenly Creatures" kill Qing thirteenth recorded: "Where the paper quality with kozo (a Ceres) skin and mulberry Rang, hibiscus film and other things for the skin paper. With bamboo and hemp for bamboo paper. The fine ones are extremely white and are used for writing, sealing, invitations and activation. Coarse for the fire paper, parcel paper." Also recorded: "This paper (fire paper) seventeen for meditation, thirteen for daily use". It can be seen that the paper is divided into "leather paper" and "bamboo paper" because of its different raw materials, but no matter what kind of paper have "fine", "coarse "of which the fine used to write, the coarse 70 percent used to do burning sacrifices to ghosts and gods, 30 percent for daily necessities. Separate the types of paper, we also need to know, respect the word paper in China has a long tradition. Folklore has it that using the word printed on the paper to wipe the obscenity to be retaliated against. During the Qing Dynasty, there were a large number of "word-scrutinizing laws" circulating in the society, which were regarded as the sacred laws of heaven formulated by Emperor Wenchang, and today we can still see "word-scrutinizing laws", "new compilation of word-scrutinizing laws", "record of word-scrutinizing levies and experiments", "word-scrutinizing laws of Emperor Wenchang", "merit and demerit of word-scrutinizing laws of Emperor Wenchang", and so on. Officials even expressly prohibited printing characters on paper that might be used to swab filth. "On March 14, 1873, the Declaration published the news that a woman was struck by lightning and fell to her knees when she used the word paper to wipe her filth and threw it into the toilet. December 3 of the same year, Li Zongxi, Governor of the two rivers, ordered the paper store: not allowed to add font size stamps on the side of grass paper and other items of paper, and more not allowed to transform the old accounts of the waste book to return to the soul of the paper, so as to avoid obscenity" [1]. The earliest record of the use of handkerchiefs in the Yuan Dynasty, before the Tang and Song dynasties, people use a kind of wood or bamboo chips called "toilet chips", probably because the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty, cultural backwardness, not the Han Chinese people "respect the word paper" consciousness. According to the "history of the Yuan" biography of the third concubine two records, "Yu Zong Hui Ren Yu Sheng Empress" Buran also timid Chi when the Crown Princess of the mother-in-law "Zhaorui Shunsheng Empress" is very filial piety, she wants to use her own face to try the softness of the handkerchiefs before her mother-in-law wiped filth: "After the nature of filial piety, good service to the Palace, Shizu called every virtuous daughter-in-law. Service Zhaorui Shunsheng Empress, not away from the left and right, to the privy toilet with paper, but also with the face to wipe, so soft to enter." In summary, it can be seen, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties people began to use handkerchiefs to wipe dirty, most of this paper is not the word "coarse" paper. As for the Imperial Palace in the use of handkerchiefs for coarse paper or fine paper, can not be examined in detail, I think the Prince Consort must not be so rough to rub the delicate face of the paper it. Tang and Song Dynasty - toilet chips and coarse paper and use the era of toilet chips, also known as toilet Jane, simply put, is used to swab after the bowel movement of wooden or bamboo strips. This type of toilet paper was still in use in China and some parts of Japan in the last century. Recently, many ancient toilets have been discovered by Japanese archaeologists, and in 1992, during the excavation of the Fujiwara-kyo ruins in Takaden-cho, Nara Prefecture, the remains of what is known as "Japan's oldest toilet" were discovered, and the remains of the toilet were found on the outside of the Fujiwara-kyo Ukyo Shichijo Ichibang building ruins at the end of the 7th century, with more than 150 pieces of wood unearthed from the pit. More than 150 pieces of wood were excavated from the toilet pit. Similar toilet sticks were also found in the Korokan toilet site excavated in Fukuoka City between 720 and 730 AD. In the 11th and 12th centuries, a large number of toilet chips were excavated from the Yanagi no Gosho site in Hiraizumi-machi, Iwate Prefecture, and the size of the chips was "on average, 24 in length, 0.5-0.8 in width, and 0.5 centimeters in thickness" [2]. During the Tang and Song dynasties, China and Japan had close contacts, and the Chinese way of life had a deep influence on Japan, so these archaeological discoveries in Japan are very informative for inferring the swabbing tools of the Chinese during the Tang and Song dynasties. In addition to archaeological evidence, the use of toilet chips during the Tang and Song dynasties are also found in historical records, Song Ma Ling "South Tang Dynasty Book. Fudu biography ":" after the Lord and the week after the top of the Sangha cap, robes, class recitation of Buddhist scriptures, kneeling and worship, to the tumor superfluous. Pro cut monks toilet Jane, try to cheek, less mangrove, then add repair." According to the 47th Annals of the Tang Dynasty, when Han Hwang was the Minister of Zhenhai Province, he transported a lot of supplies to Guanzhong, including toilet chips: "The supplies were already in the boat, and Hwang made a list of toilet chips by hand, and was prepared for everything." In the 14th Law of the Upper Toilet, which is described by the Tang Dynasty monk Daw Hsuan, the daily norms of the monks are recorded, in which the Law of the Upper Toilet requires that the monks "always have a toilet chip, so that they don't lose it," and explicitly states that "no paper is allowed to be used for writing". This record proves that the Tang Dynasty era of monks with toilet chips to wipe dirty, at the same time very interesting is prohibited to use "text paper" to wipe dirty, since it is prohibited, then the real life must be someone to do so, otherwise why prohibit it? Between the Tang and Song dynasties, paper has been used not only for writing, but also used for daily use and burning sacrifices to ghosts and gods. Song "Love Day Zhai series of notes" recorded "the South Qi emperor of the abolition of good ghosts and gods, often cut paper for money, to replace the bundle of silk, and paper money"; "Tang Book" Wang Yu biography: "Han since the burial of all the Dizhi money, praying to the gods with paper money, since Wang Yu began"; after the Tang burning of paper money began to be documented in the The burning of paper money after the Tang Dynasty began to appear frequently in historical materials. And "Tiangongkaiwu" records: "Sheng Tang when the ghosts and gods are busy, to paper money instead of burning silk, the north with cut strips of the name of the board paper. Therefore, the maker of this is called fire paper ...... This paper seventeen for the netherworld burn, thirteen for daily use, the thickest and thicker name is parcel paper, the bamboo and hemp and Cebu field late rice manuscripts are also". Since the emergence of paper for daily use, it is logical that people use it to wipe the filth. Wei Jin and North and South Dynasties - toilet chip era Tang before, there have been records of the use of toilet chips, but did not see the evidence of the use of paper to wipe dirty. The Ziji Tongjian (资治通鉴), Volume 166, Liang Ji 22, records that Emperor Gao Yang of the Northern Qi Dynasty, "even though Yang Chuan was the prime minister, he used a horsewhip to whip his back with a toilet chip, which drenched his robes with blood." According to Lu Xun's "Ancient Novels", an anonymous book by Pei Qi of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, "When Liu Shi went to Shi Chong's toilet, he saw a large bed under a dark reddish-veiled tent, and two maidservants were holding a brocade capsule, and he went back to the bed and said to Chong that he had mistakenly gone into the room of the minister. In the "Dharma Garden Pearl Forest," Volume 13 of the "Induction Record" written by the monk Daoshi in the Tang Dynasty, it is recorded that: "When Wu was in the flat ground of the back garden in Jianye, he obtained a golden statue. I was given a golden statue. He asked about the origin of the statue. It was said that it was made by King Yu in the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty. It was also in the town of Jiangfu. How do you know? Since the Qin, Han and Wei dynasties, there has not been any Buddhism in the South. How could there be a statue buried in the ground. Sun Hao got it. Sun Hao had no faith in it. He did not respect it very much. He put it in the toilet and made him hold a screen chip." If this is true, it is a clear evidence of the use of toilet chips in the Three Kingdoms period. The use of toilet chips is suspected to have been introduced to China with Buddhism. In the early Buddhist laws, it is recorded that Shakyamuni instructed the bhikkhus in the use of toilet chips, such as the sixth volume of the Vishnu Sutra: "When the World Honored One was in the city of Wangshe, there was a bhikkhu of the Brahmin caste who was clean and polluted, and when he went to the toilet, he would hold a screen chip. Pure more dirt, to scrape the lower tract with a chip grass when you go to the toilet, scraping is not already broken, broken has been the color is not happy. The bhikkhus asked: "Why do you color emaciated why suffering"? That answer: "I go to the toilet when the evil of this impurity, with a chip heavy scraping that is self-injury body, is not happy". In response to this situation, Shakyamuni Buddha said: "start and stop has been completed, with a chip clean scrape to clean. If there is no chip may not wipe the wall clean, may not wipe the clean on the toilet board beam, may not use a stone, may not use grass, earth blocks, cork skin, soft leaves and odd wood may not be used; the application, wood, bamboo and reed as a chip. The measurements are as follows: one limb for the longest and four fingers for the shortest. Those who have been used shall not be vibrated to make it dirty and clean, and shall not be put in the clean chips. This is the name of the law of using toilet chips in the toilet." Shakyamuni Buddha lived in the sixth and seventh centuries B.C., and these precepts were written more than one hundred years after his death, so from the current literature, the history of using toilet chips in India is much earlier than that of China. Buddhism began to be introduced to China in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and what was initially introduced was only some "sutras", while the "laws" which made clear requirements for the daily living of the believers began in the Three Kingdoms, and the earliest record of Chinese people using toilet chips also began in the Three Kingdoms, so the theory that toilet chips were introduced from India is still tenable. So the idea that toilet chips were introduced from India is still tenable. But we can't rule out the possibility that the Chinese were using toilet chips before that, just that there is no evidence for it. The final answer may have to be given by future archaeological discoveries. The use of toilet chips was introduced from India with Buddhism, and the change from toilet chips to paper was started by the Mongol Yuan dynasty royal family. From China's ancient custom of swabbing the flow of change can be seen in the openness of the Chinese culture, from the small to the big, from the small to the big, from this can also be a glimpse of the Chinese people to absorb all the fruits of human civilization of the fine tradition.

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