EVERYDAY LIFE · SHANG TO QING
Daily Life
Food, homes & daily routines
The Ingot in the Dumpling: New Year in Qing Beijing
In Qing Beijing the year began with boiled white-flour dumplings, some hiding a tiny gold ingot; spring arrived with a radish, five nights of lanterns followed, and shops reopened on the sixth day.
Two Questions on One Shell: An Ordinary Day in Shang China
On one turtle shell the diviner Wei asked, on the same day, whether the harvest would come and whether it would not. Oracle bones are royal records; ordinary people appear only as "the many".
Double Ninth in Song China: Named Chrysanthemums, Lion Cakes and Palace Lanterns
In Song China the ninth day of the ninth month brought five named chrysanthemums, flour lions on steamed cakes, hilltop feasts and, in the palace, chrysanthemum lanterns lit as at New Year.
One Crossbow, Fifty Paces of Wall: The Working Life of a Warring States Siege
A Qin crossbow trigger like those from the terracotta pits; a Mozi manual that assigns men, stones, water and torches to every fifty paces of wall — instructions for holding a city, not battle reports.
The Goose and the Gourd: Marriage Rules and Real Marriages in the Spring and Autumn
The ritual books set out six stages, a go-between, a gift and a ban on same-surname marriage; the Zuo Zhuan records political unions, accompanying women and one duke who took his son's bride.
How People Went to the Toilet in Warring States China
In 581 BCE a Duke of Jin fell into a privy and died. Two centuries later a Qin palace had an indoor toilet with a bent pipe and servants pouring water — the first flush toilet found in China.
The Song Summer: Ice-Cold Rice Balls and a List of Cold Drinks
Kaifeng's summer night market sold iced rice balls, liquorice ice water and lychee paste in red lacquered boxes; only two shops outside the old gate sold ice itself, in silver vessels.
Baskets, Small Fish and 'Cat Correction': The Cat Trade of Song Cities
Lin'an's register of small trades lists cat baskets, cat fish, cat selling and a mysterious 'cat-and-dog correction'; Kaifeng delivered cat food and small fish daily.
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.