EVERYDAY LIFE · SHANG TO QING
Stories
Small questions open a window onto a different world.
Ox Marrow, Clove and Safflower: Face Cream in Sixth-Century China
A sixth-century farming manual ends its chapter on safflower with a cosmetic workshop: marrow and clove for face cream, safflower and sour pomegranate for rouge. One ingredient, lead white, was toxic.
Beating the Spring Ox: The First Day of Spring in Song China
The day before spring began, Kaifeng's prefecture sent an ox into the palace to be whipped; outside its own gate, the same morning, townspeople sold toy oxen and paper banners.
A Street of Specialists: Doctors and Drug Shops in Song China
North along Maxing Street in Song Kaifeng the shops were sorted by body part: teeth and throat, children, childbirth. Lin'an added a named drug market and a guild roster that conscripted physicians.
Nine Parts Millet: What Shang Diners Actually Ate
Bones from a Shang general's tomb show a diet that was nine-tenths millet, meat rationed by rank, bronze wine vessels in sets, and plum stones in a small jar.
Four Days Before the Fifth: Buying a Song Festival
From the first of the fifth month Kaifeng's stalls sold peach, willow, hollyhock and mugwort. Six goods made the festival list, the fancy dumplings were built into towers, and every door set out a basin, even the poor.
A Basin, a Hairpin and a One-Year-Old's Choice: Welcoming a Baby in Song China
In Song Lin'an a baby's first month ended at a silver basin of scented water, where guests threw in coins; at one year the child picked an object from a spread of seals, books, scales and needles.
Two Cards and a Flowered Sedan Chair: How a Song Wedding Ran
A Song wedding began with two cards listing property, not with a couple meeting. Then came the hairpin, the grain thrown at the gate, the tied hair and the shared cup: a script the two capitals ran differently.
Shadows on a Paper Screen: Puppet Theatre in Song China
Song shadow puppets began as cut paper and moved to coloured sheepskin; faces were carved to show loyalty or villainy, and four kinds of puppet shared the quarter with storytellers.
What Kaifeng Ate Before Daylight
In the Northern Song capital, breakfast started at the fifth watch with a monastery runner's wooden fish, a hundred bakery ovens, and a bowl of gourd soup for ten cash.