However, on the other hand, when I see porcelain pillows, I will inevitably have doubts in my heart. The pillow made of ceramics looks hard and tall, and it is bound to hurt your head when you sleep. But why did the ancients like to use ceramics as pillows? Are they more real than modern us? Actually, it's not like this.
The earliest use of ceramic pillows
Why do we think that the ancients liked to use ceramics as pillows? This is because we found the location of ceramic pillows in museum exhibition halls or archaeological programs on TV. In other words, those ancient people who used ceramics as pillows are actually dead. The ceramic pillows they slept for thousands of years are not so much bedding as funerary objects.
According to archaeological findings, the firing technology of ceramic pillows in China first appeared in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, and most of the ceramic pillows fired during this period were used as funerary objects. For example, after Zhang Sheng died in Sui Dynasty, Zhang Sheng's family buried him with porcelain pillows. Dead people don't have five senses, so naturally they can't feel the feeling of licking their heads.
The living habits of the ancients needed ceramic pillows.
Except for the Qing Dynasty, people in most dynasties in China mainly wore their hair, and spent a long time wearing a crown or combing it into a bun every day. In addition, the etiquette norms of the ancients were very strict. In order to behave properly, they often sleep on their side.
The soft pillow is so comfortable that you look hunched when you walk. In order to control their sleeping posture and maintain a beautiful Shuai Shuai hairstyle, the ancients could only restrain themselves by sleeping on hard ceramic pillows or jade pillows.
The ancient climate forced the ancients to use ceramic pillows.
In ancient times without greenhouse effect, even Henan was a warm and humid place suitable for raising elephants. The ancients did not catch up with the electrical age. They don't have a refrigerator or air conditioner, so they have to use a fan to blow the air. However, the ancients had to slap themselves all the time without sleeping. In order to sleep comfortably, they have to find a cool and comfortable material to make pillows.
The specific heat capacity of ceramics is large, and the characteristics of heat conduction and temperature conduction make things made of ceramics feel very cold. Imagine sleeping with a ceramic pillow in ancient summer. It must be very cool and comfortable, no less than holding a small ice pack. Li Qingzhao, a poetess in the Song Dynasty, once said in her own works that a jade pillow gauze kitchen is cool at midnight. In addition to lamenting his loneliness, he also expressed the cool characteristics of the jade pillow. According to "Pillow Fu": "Summer is not sleepy, it is cool." We can find that ceramic pillows and jade pillows have similar functions in summer, both of which are used to make the sleeping ancients feel less warm.
Other functions of ceramic pillows
In the Tang Dynasty, my sister Wei Yi became the wife of General Feng Taihe. After getting married, Aunt Wei bought herself many ceramic pillows in the shape of animals, one of which was a bear pillow to bless her to have more sons. Seeing this, you may ask, aren't ceramic pillows just bedding? What does it have to do with having a baby? This is because pillows made of ceramics are not only bedding, but also works of art, commodities and even symbolic family ornaments.
The ancients used ceramics as pillows, which not only highlighted their high living standards, but also showed their higher cultural level than ordinary people. Ceramics is the best in the world, whether it is blue and white porcelain or pastel, it is a treasure that people can look far away. On pillows made of ceramics, literati prefer to carve flowers and birds or famous sayings, and some people will write poems on pillows when they are interested. Rich people like to buy all kinds of ceramic pillows, such as children's pillows and tiger pillows, to show their wealth. In the hands of these people, ceramic pillows are just a display of boasting wealth.
In addition, pillows made of ceramics also have the significance of warning readers. According to legend, Sima Guang often used logs as his own pillows to prevent himself from being too sleepy and delaying the revision date when compiling "Zi Tong Zhi Jian". In fact, pillows made of ceramics also have such a self-vigilance function. Wang Shouming, a native of Zhang Bin, once said in "Pillow Fu" that ceramic pillows have the power to think hard about logs. The so-called diligent thinking about logs is to imitate Sima Guang's story of restraining himself with logs, so that all scholars in the world can be eager to learn because of the hardness and height of pottery pillows.
Not that the ancients didn't like soft pillows.
It is worth mentioning that not all ancient people were rich. Most people still use soft and ordinary materials to make pillows, such as bamboo or plant seeds, for the comfort of their necks or the poverty of their lives. In "Pillow Fu", Wang Shouming once mentioned that some of his contemporaries like to put tapestries on ceramic pillows. Besides being beautiful, I definitely hope my ceramic pillow is more comfortable. However, these high-grade silk "pillowcases" or textiles such as cotton and linen have a limited life. After the changes of the times, it is difficult to preserve it well under the bite of snakes, insects, rats and ants and the destruction of soil moisture.
In addition, since the Qing Dynasty, the royal nobles found soft pillows and cushions more comfortable and more comfortable to sleep, so now there are bedding similar to pillows.
In short, the ancients were ordinary people, how could they not be afraid of ceramic pillows with their heads smashed? It's just that in their view, pillows made of ceramics are very versatile, which not only makes them sleep well, but also brings fun to their lives. This is also a kind of wisdom of the ancients.
Picture/from the network, deleted.