01 Origin of bathhouse culture
Some time ago, the release of “King of Bath”, a large number of fans, but also “soft” implantation of a wave of bathhouse culture. After all, let a man with one foot left forever in the bathhouse, to star in a film that perfectly fits the persona, wonderful!
To the northern male bathhouse, for example, the dense fog, splashing water, look at the white flowers. Every one of them is enjoying the pleasure of bathing. It can be said that in the hearts of Chinese men, bathing centers will always have a place (flee).
So why is this culture all the rage, where did it come from and how did it develop?
The matter of bathing, mankind has learned from ancient times: the
China has a long history of bathing, as early as more than 3,000 years ago in the Yin Shang era, there are records of bathing in the oracle bones; Spring and Autumn period, our people have begun to use special equipment to take a bath; Western Zhou period, bathing etiquette gradually formed a custom.
For example, the Analects of Confucius – Xianwen says “Confucius bathed and went to court”, which is part of the etiquette, because every time you change your clothes, you have to bathe, before going to court and making sacrifices.
In the Qin and Han dynasties, the habit of washing the hair once every three days and bathing once every five days had been formed. So it was a custom at that time to take a holiday every five days for officials to bathe.
But although there were many bathing habits and rituals, there were no public bathhouses for various reasons, so people mostly bathed at home.
So how did public baths appear in our country? This is also from a monk to India to seek the law.
During the Ch’ing-Guan period of the Tang Dynasty, the monk Yi-jing went to India to seek Dharma, and he was surprised to find one thing, that is, Indian monks actually want to take a bath every day. In “The Legend of Nanhai Yixi Nei Fa”, he mentioned that there were more than ten big pools in Nalanda Temple at that time, and every morning, the sound of bells and drums would be sounded in the temple to make the monks take a bath.
The scene of Indian monks bathing collectively, as recorded in the “Nanhai Yai Gui Nei Fa Zhuan”, caused a great shock to the Chinese people at that time. I thought I had played enough with this bath, but I did not expect the next door to play more high.
Since then, Taoist temples and temples around the world have begun to popularize bathing settings, and also developed a large-scale bathing rituals held on specific holidays. For example, in early March on the day of the “wedge” or “purification”, initially a bathing ceremony, gradually evolved into a spring gathering.
Times avoid the fifth day of May, in that day to bathe in orchid soup, in order to avoid disasters and epidemics. Washing for newborn babies, changing new clothes on the wedding day, and bathing for the dead to cleanse and return to the original “washing the corpse” were all social rituals fixed in the Tang Dynasty.
The public bath, where ordinary people can also enjoy the pleasure of bathing, was a new thing in the Northern Song Dynasty. Bianliang, the capital, was the first to appear in the bath, at that time was not a franchise, often a teahouse or a hotel annex.
Hong Mai in the “Yi Jian Zhi supplement” recorded a story about the black bath, a foreign official into the capital almost died in the black bath of killing and eating meat, this bath is an annex to the tea room. Later, the demand for such baths, there are people specializing in this kind of business, open a “bath house” to.
But the bath operated by the temple, the Taoist temple did not therefore exit the stage of history, for example, in the novel “Water Margin” written in the Yuan and Ming dynasties, there is in the preparation of the Hong Lieutenant to invite the Master, there is the original “the Taoist priests up, prepare the incense soup, invite the Lieutenant to get up and bathe. The plot.
02 bathhouse culture is popular
Early northern bathhouse, mostly in residential areas, occupying a small area, the door to pay an entrance fee plus rubbing money. The first to enter the locker room, more show the brisk and cheerful northerners, without saying anything to take off a naked, clothes stuffed into the locker box locked up, marching majestically to the bathroom.
Into the first part of the men’s bathroom, that is bound to be soaking pool. There are generally two to three pools, a hot, a warm, some then have a cold, each pool is about 3 meters by 3 meters or so size, the pool is about standing up to about thighs.
However, although the variety of pools, but only those who dare to challenge the temperature in the hot pool of 42 degrees or more, is considered a true warrior. And those who soak in the hot pool until the whole body is red, like a hard-boiled egg, are considered true northern masters, gaining the admiring eyes of the crowd.
Steam room facilities are more simple and straightforward, a circle of wooden step-type seats, the middle of a steam generator, which a pile of burning hot stones. This time it is a real man’s competition to see who can not stand first. This time is a contest of patience and perseverance, until someone can not stand to fly out, the winner of the corner of the mouth, seems to have put out a winning smile, followed by a high head crooked face stride out – big step because it can not carry.
After steaming out, the next step is to rub the bath. Early bathhouse because of the small area, so the rubbing place is also small, generally not far from the pool in the open space to support the two small rubbing bed. At this point you just need to give the rubbing towel to the rubbing master, and then lie down on it, and start the process of rubbing for the chopping block I for the fish. Rubbing master generally have a strong hand, snorting a few times to rub clean.
After rubbing the basic bath is completed most of the remaining is in a neatly arranged shower head to find an empty space, rinse clean, a shower gel to finish the job. Back to the locker room, sit and light a cigarette, dry, tsk, comfortable, simply life has been sublimated. Slightly larger bathhouse, there will be a few cribs, you can cupping a fire, and even some can spend the night.
When some business trips and shy people, the bathhouse will be used as a substitute for the hotel, compared to the Internet cafe night, a comfortable bath and then sleep, can really be comfortable to.
Such a whole set of bathing process, but in the northern region can be seen everywhere. In contrast, the bathhouse in the south is not so much process, and the number is also relatively small. So a lot of people think that the bath is the patent of the northerners, but I do not know that since ancient times, we do not distinguish between the south, there is a very long bath culture.
03 bathhouse in a variety of entertainment
As the bathhouse continues to grow in popularity across the country, various entertainment activities related to the bathhouse are also rapidly increasing. Rest halls, hive rest areas, computers, game machines, VR, everything. Even more complete than some game hall projects. There are even some free self-service, fruit drinks.
Of course, the ancient people in this area of enjoyment is not worse than the modern.
For example, in the Song Dynasty, the public bathroom situation is very developed, all over Kaifeng city and outside, the bathroom implementation of men and women in the bath, in addition to providing bathing, but also to provide wipe back, trim nails, massage services, but also provide tea, wine and fruit, etc., the service is comparable to the current bathing center.
There are many bathhouses, the door also hangs the word “soup” curtain, or hang a large kettle with water, then known as the “perfume line”. Inside is also a full range of facilities, not only can wash “fragrant”, and there are rubbing, massage, really not worse than the current bathhouse, no, maybe the current bathhouse is not.
The great writer Su Dongpo washed in the comfort of the inside, but also could not help but make a word, the words: “the scale of the water why have loved each other, a closer look at the two are not there. I send a message to wipe the back of people, all day long, you waving elbow. Light hand, light hand, I was originally dirt-free.”
The public bath in the Yuan Dynasty was very well developed, Marco Polo recorded that people at that time “get up early every day, not eat after the Mu”, there was also a medicinal bath.
To the Ming and Qing dynasties, toilets and bathrooms more popular, basically a room should be built at the same time with a toilet, the price of a public bathroom in the Ming dynasty for each bath, with bath beans and other toiletries. Public toilets and public bathrooms in the Qing Dynasty and modern times have not been very different.
Conclusion
The bath is pleasant to the body and mind, but the water in the bath is usually horribly dirty, with such water can really wash clean? Or is it that since all people bathe with such water, all beings are equal and no one is necessarily dirtier or cleaner than anyone else, so they don’t feel anything wrong in their hearts?
But anyway, as an important social and recreational places, baths used to exist, now exist, and will probably continue to exist in the future, indicating that it does meet the physical and mental needs of many people, the existence of the reasonable well.
And at present, it seems that the culture related to public bathing is more like a means of socialization, taking root in the hearts of every Chinese. It seems that everyone in the same pool, open and honest situation, more accelerated heart to heart communication (eh?) The bathhouse, not to mention the current bathhouse, has increasingly developed towards a high-end industry. Many entertainment programs derived from this traditional culture has also added a lot of fun.
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