As in every culture, China had different cleansing rituals. Just like other societies, the Chinese people, who could not always find the opportunity for personal cleaning, found the solution by developing different practices. In fact, one of them is very familiar to us: the flush toilet!
You might think how filthy a people who use a flush toilet after the cleaning cultures of the Middle Ages can be. We are right, we think that we have not come across cleaning rituals that will alienate people from life as much as other civilizations in China. However, we cannot say that they are great compared to today, here are the approaches of Ancient China to the subject of hygiene…
Sources date bathing in China as far back as 3,000 years, to the Shang Dynasty.
Unfortunately, it was not possible to take a bath in ancient societies, and in general this action was class. But sources lead to the knowledge that there was a cleaning culture in China before the Shang Dynasty. Archaeologists have discovered three royal baths from the Warring States Age, which corresponds to 476-221 BC.
The bath-like structures found were decorated with ceramics and had drainage holes and sewer pipes. China’s technology should not be taken for granted!
The earliest evidence of bathing cultures is the Oracle Bone Script, written by the Ancient Chinese 3,000 years ago.
Wooden and bronze baths were classic in China. In the Zhou Dynasty, bathing meant much more than personal hygiene. It is thought that the first public bath in China for the bath culture, which was accepted as a social ritual in ancient times, appeared during the Zhou Dynasty (1046-256 BC).
In the Zhou Dynasty, people were expected to boil water to bathe their parents every five days, and to help their parents wash their hair every three days.
What would you do if it was a tradition to take a bath in the house you visited? There is exactly such a custom in China.
It was a custom to use the bathroom provided to the guests by the host before going to have fun when they went to visit outside of their home life. Later, during the Han Dynasty (206-220 CE), bathing was included in the official holiday program of the Chinese government. Thus, the importance of bathing as a social ritual has increased even more.
The government has foreseen a “bath vacation” every week.
Looking at ancient Chinese studies, it is written that the Chinese government gave the public a bathing holiday every five days. When the government passed to Tang Dynasty, this period was determined as ten days.
More affluent and upper class people use scrubs in the bathroom; it was considered a luxury for ordinary people to have access to these items. Bath beans were also used to cleanse and moisturize the skin. Bath beans used by the Han Dynasty, a soap made from ground peas and flavored with various herbs and spices, was actually an ancient shower gel that served to cleanse the skin.
The Chinese people also cared about dental health.
The society, which preferred more traditional ways for tooth cleaning, was using one of the oldest pastes. Salt to strengthen and clean your teeth; They used wine, tea or vinegar to wipe their mouths with their fingertips.
In the future, they developed the techniques and succeeded in obtaining tooth powder. This powder; Mixed with ingredients such as pig tooth, saponin, ginger, black cohosh, lotus leaf, green salt. It is known that they made the first toothbrushes from willow branches and later from animal hair.
Rice water served as a detergent, while straw ash was used for washing clothes.
The highly productive Ancient Chinese society discovered many things through trial and error. In terms of cleaning, they have come a long way, and they have also turned to find out what else such substances are good for. When they realized that rice water is a good source of protein for the body, they started to consume it besides cleaning.
Thin strips of bamboo were used as toilet paper.
While the people, who provided toilet cleaning with branches and leaves, switched to bamboo strips with the Han Dynasty, this turned into straw paper over time. But public use of these products would be delayed until the Qing and Ming Dynasties; because only the noble and upper classes could use it.
China has come a long way since willow twigs and bean soaps. When you started reading the article, you thought that you would need to stuff your nose, but surprisingly, Ancient China was able to keep its people and environment clean compared to contemporary societies.
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