The summer of Qianlong for eight years is called "the hottest summer in the history of China". How hot is it?

This poem was written by Emperor Qianlong in the summer of the eighth year of Qianlong, when extreme high temperature weather occurred in many places in China. Generally speaking, this poem by Qianlong at that time was somewhat "hot".

The meaning of this poem is: I stay in a comfortable and cold room, but I am depressed inside. After all, the people are still struggling in the heat. To put it bluntly, I am in an air-conditioned room, but my heart is depressed because you are suffering from extremely high temperatures outside.

As the common people of Li nationality, I really don't know how they feel when they hear that the emperor is "so worried" about himself.

Usually, emperors only worry about disasters such as floods, and there are few examples in history where the gods and kings are worried about high temperature. How extreme is the extreme heat in Qianlong for eight years, so that the emperor can express his concern by writing poems?

To solve this answer, we must turn to the history books of Qianlong eight years, that is, AD 1743.

There are 56 records about 1743 extreme high temperature in China history books. Excluding duplicate parts, there are 48 records about high temperature, covering Beijing, Tianjin, Hubei, Shandong, Zhengzhou, Wuhan and other places.

According to records, this summer, there was an extreme high temperature of 44.4 degrees in many parts of the country. Anyone with a little common sense of life knows that when the outdoor temperature reaches 40 degrees, people will be in danger when they are outdoors. Therefore, under normal circumstances, if there is such a high temperature, all major schools and units in China will suspend classes and stop work.

Once the temperature exceeds 40 degrees, the danger will multiply with each degree of temperature increase. Medically speaking, when the high fever in human body exceeds 4 1.7 degrees, meningitis may be induced.

Thus, 44.4 degrees is a great challenge for China people in the northern hemisphere.

In this extreme high temperature, people died of extreme high temperature all over the country. Next is the relevant record about the victims of extreme high temperature:

"Gaoyi County Records" records that on July 26, "lead and tin were sold in Japan and China, and many people died of thirst." "Fushan County Records" records that "floating people who trade in China also die of heat."

In addition, many county records, such as Tianjin county records, have records of hot people. From July 14 to 25, the number of people who died of high temperature in Beijing suburbs and urban areas alone reached 1 1400!

Judging from the death toll, this high temperature has already constituted a natural disaster in China at that time.

Then the question is, since the temperature was so high at that time, how did Emperor Qianlong escape the heat hundreds of years ago without air conditioning? Is the "ice tray snow basket" in his poem his summer artifact?

First of all, it is certain that although there was no air conditioning in ancient times, they had a rather modern summer object: refrigerator. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, refrigerators have become a necessary summer artifact for palaces, princes and nobles.

The popularity of refrigerators in Ming and Qing Dynasties benefited from the maturity of ice storage technology.

China's ice storage technology was mature as early as the Zhou Dynasty. According to reports, at that time, in order to ensure the use of ice in summer, the Zhou royal family set up corresponding institutions to manage the "ice policy", which was called "bullying" by the person in charge.

In order to store ice cubes, the workers in charge of the project usually take natural ice cubes for storage from 65438+February every winter. Usually, such a department has about 80 employees. It can be seen from the number of people that the ice storage at this time has begun to take shape.

In the Ming and Qing dynasties, officials even took the initiative to make ice while storing ice. The usual practice is to go to areas with good water quality in winter, get water for a period of time, and then take out the formed ice cubes for storage.

These ice cubes are usually stored underground, and there are usually corresponding technical treatments to keep their temperature below 0 degrees. These places where ice cubes are stored are what people call "ice rooms".

Nowadays, there are countless places where Beijing Ice House can be called famous. Among them, there are two Xuechi Hutong, and Gong Jianhu has one. These are official pits.

1922, the university consultant and his daughter Lin returned from Europe and chose to settle in Xuechi Hutong in Beijing. A very important reason is that they are used to eating cold food in Europe, and the ice room in Xuechi Hutong can just satisfy the father and daughter's preference for eating ice food.

With ice cubes, it is quite easy to make a refrigerator.

Lin and her husband are both at the home of Xuechilin.

As early as the Southern Song Dynasty, with the maturity of ice storage technology, there appeared vendors selling drinks such as "Snow Bubble Fighting Water" and "Snow Bubble Mei Huajiu" in the market in summer.

These drinks are cold and delicious. Drinking them in summer is not only refreshing, but also refreshing.

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, refrigerators began to lower the room temperature while storing drinks and other foods. Specifically, a box made of rosewood or rosewood will be filled with ice cubes and placed in the room, and then someone will fan it gently.

Ancient refrigerator

Usually, as long as you fan the refrigerator outside for dozens of times, the room temperature will drop by many degrees. This function is similar to air conditioning.

Speaking of this, what is the "ice tray snow basket" in Qianlong's mouth is also coming out: the ice tray is a kind of fruit tray stored in the refrigerator; The snow basket is a cold pad placed in the room after cooling to room temperature.

With such a magical object, even if there is an extreme high temperature of 44.4 degrees, Qianlong can naturally "stand and talk".

Think about it, people are really miserable when there is no private ice room. In a word, today is still a good time. After all, most people have air conditioning and wifi.

After writing this article, I couldn't help taking a popsicle and eating it in the air-conditioned room. ...