Why did Nurhaci move the capital?
It has been rumored among the people that Nurhaci believed deeply in the "science of Feng Shui". According to the instructions of Mr. Feng Shui, he built the Empress Temple in the southwest corner of the city at that time; he built the Amitabha Temple in the east gate; The Buddhist temple wants to use three temples to suppress the dragon to preserve the dragon's royal energy.
However, the three temples only suppressed the dragon's head, claws and tail, and the dragon's spine in the city was not suppressed. So the dragon arched its waist and flew away, flying north to the north bank of the Hun River.
Nurhaci thought that Long was the will of Fengtian and ordered him to build another city in the place where Long lurked. So a new city was built and the place was named "Fengtian". And because the Hun River was called Shenshui in ancient times, and the north bank of the river was Yang, the place was also called "Shenyang".
The thousand-year-old fire kang
The fire kang has a long history in the Kanto region and has long played an important role in the lives of local people. The use of hot pots began in the Kanto region at least 2,000 years ago. Judging from archaeological data, the fire kang should be a great invention of the Woju people, the ancestors of the Heilongjiang Basin.
In the Woju ruins excavated in Tuanjie Village, Dongning, Heilongjiang Province, what archaeologists call the low fire wall or large flue wall style is the early fire kang. At that time, the fire pit had a single hole and the passage was very narrow. It had not yet been improved to the level of the later fire pit.
At that time, the fire pits were all made of adobe. The people in the Kanto area combined grass and mud and pressed it into a fixed mold to make blocks of soil one foot long, which are called blanks.
The blank can be used to build a fire kang after it is dried in the sun. Among them, the blanks laid on the Kang noodles are called "Kang noodles blanks". The Kang noodle base must be specially processed to be strong to prevent it from being crushed by others.
When building a kang, first pad it with soil on the ground to half the height of the kang. After compacting it, use adobe to build curved flues at both ends. You can also build the flue first and then fill it with soil, which will make it stronger and make the kang surface less likely to sink.
There are also several pits in the flue called "ash chambers" for storing soot. After the flue is built, it is the Kang noodles. The kang board is made of a rectangular frame surrounded by 4 wooden strips on the flat ground in advance. A few wooden sticks are placed on it and filled with mud. After drying, the frame is removed and it becomes a kang board.
Use adobe to build the kang wall and flue, and then build the kang board. The last side is connected to the chimney and the other side is connected to the stove. In this way, a fire pit has been repaired.
There are many kinds of kangs. The "ring room" of the Jurchen tribe in the Liao and Jin Dynasties is one kind of kang.
According to ancient books:
The ring room is made of wood and used as a bed, with fire under it and food and living above.
"Ring room" means that there is not only a kang in one direction of the room, but also a kang surrounding the room. Later, when the ring room developed, a circular kang and a turning kang connected on the south, west and north sides of the Manchu residences were formed, commonly known as "Wanzi kang" or "wanzi kang".
The Wanzi Kang ring room is the Kang. In the room, there are open Kangs facing each other in the north and south, and a narrow Kang in the west. Some Western Kangs are as wide as the South and North Kangs, and are connected to the South and North Kangs, forming a "Wu" shape. The chimney leads to the outside through the wall, and the kang surface is relatively wide, more than two meters wide.
Wanzi Kang or Wanzi Kang are closely related to many folk customs in Northeast China.
In the old days in the Kanto area, where several generations of old and young lived in the same large family, the South Kang was the place where the elders lived because of the warmth of the sun. The hottest "Kang head" location was close to the Lian Kang pot. One side of the stove is for the senior owner or distinguished guests to sleep, while the northern kang is for the younger members of the family to live or to dry food.
The Western Kang is generally inhabited by no one, but it is a special place in Manchu families. Manchu family life is centered on the Kang, and their food and daily life are inseparable from the Kang, so they are also very particular about the Kang.
Traditionally, there is a custom of "the Western Kang is the largest". The Western Kang is the supreme position. Family members are not allowed to sit or lie down, nor are they allowed to eat on the Western Kang. Guests are not allowed to sit or lie down, nor are they allowed to place portraits of ordinary people, nor are they allowed to place random objects.
The west wall of Manchu people’s homes is the place where the “ancestral shrines” are enshrined in the home. Therefore, the Western Kang is also called the “Buddha Kang”. The Buddha box enshrined on the west wall is extremely sacred and cannot be looked at casually by ordinary people.
The box contains the ancestors of the nation, heroes of the nation, figures respected by the clan and nation, as well as genealogy, etc., recording the rise and fall of the family history and the achievements of the ancestors, so only sacrificial vessels and offerings are displayed on the kang. .
The indoor furnishings also correspond to the pattern of the Wanzi Kang. Kang cabinets should be placed at the ends of the north and south Kangs, that is, at the end against the gable wall of the house, on which bedding, pillows and other bedding items are stacked, commonly known as "quilts". On the Western Kang, a "tang box" equal to the length of the Kang is placed to contain food and clothing. On the lid of the box are placed incense burners, candlesticks and other offerings, as well as daily furnishings such as dust bottles, hat tubes and clocks.
In many families in the Kanto region, after their sons get married and have children, they still live in the same room with their parents. In order to avoid inconvenience, living rooms with two or three bays are often made of wooden boards and paper as "soft partitions", creating two spaces inside and outside from the kang surface to the roof beams. In some cases, movable fences are set up at corresponding locations, which can be removed during the day and placed at night.
In addition, a long pole, called a "curtain pole", is hung from the top of the grid directly above and parallel to the edge of the kang. It is used to hang the curtain. It can be lowered when sleeping at night to avoid the wind on the top of the head. If you catch a cold, it can also serve as a shield between the northern and southern Kangs.
The main function of the kang is to keep warm. Because the kang is heated through the cooking pot, the kang is hot as long as you eat and boil water. Due to the unique heating function of the fire kang, it was later introduced into the imperial palace by the Manchu people.
The big Kang in Northeast China is an extremely intelligent creation in the cold climate. It has warmed many rough, bold and honest Northeastern people.