Keep cool—the ancient way!

It is a comfortable enjoyment to work, study and rest in an air-conditioned room in the hot summer. Air-conditioning may be humanity’s proudest invention for cooling. But for our ancient friends, what method would they use for cooling in summer? Here are some ancient ways our ancestors chose to get relief from the summer heat.

Fans

At first, ancient Chinese people used leaves to cool themselves off—these are believed to be the original fans. Since leaves were easy to tear, fans weaved from bamboo strips subsequently came into being. Silk also can be used to make fans, but only rich people could afford them. The ancient Chinese literati enjoyed writing poems or putting paintings on the fans to express their elegant tastes. According to the records of the Han Dynasty (206BC-AD220), a wheeled device equipped with seven paddles was invented, which rolled rapidly to produce a cool breeze. However, this big machine was hard to afford for common people, so only the royal families were able to enjoy it.

Ancient Air Conditioning

During the Tang Dynasty (618-907), people built houses beside the streams, using special devices to draw water up to the roof, from where it would drop down along eaves, giving off a light spray that brought cool wind into the house.

Cold drinks

Fans and houses are the ways ancient people chose to make their bodies cool. But what about their mouths? Cold drinks were a good option.

About 3000 years ago, during the winter noble families would preserve ice in cellars, in preparation for the summer heat. Ice was very special in ancient times. In the Zhou Dynasty (About 1100-256BC), the royal court even had an official in charge of making cold drinks. In the late Spring and Autumn Period (770-476BC), the feudal princes loved to drink iced rice wine at banquets, for it tasted not only cool but also mellow.

Ice sellers emerged in the Tang Dynasty. They stored ice in winter and sold it in summer. In later Tang Dynasty, the ice sellers added sugar into the ice to attract customers.

Cold drinks gained popularity in the Song Dynasty (960-1279). It even had stores that exclusively sold different kinds of iced drinks.

Iced sweet-sour plum juice, iced plum blossom wine and iced bean soup were the most popular cold drinks in that time. Some celebrated painters of the Song Dynasty even painted scenes of cold drink selling onto their works.