Toilets in Ancient China

The scenery in many places of China is really attractive and beautiful, but no one dares to praise the toilets next to the beautiful scenery. The bad fame of China’s toilets dated back to the 16th century that is Ming Dynasty in Chinese History. As recorded in Civilization The secret of Chinese, the business in the capital was flourishing, but it was described as “A huge toilet”. This was because there was no much public toilets in the capital and many of them were the paid one. Therefore, people would not take the trouble to find the public toilets and chose to squat down and relieve themselves on the streets, no matter it is “big” or “small”. I guess you understand what I mean by “big” (excrement) and “small” (urine). It was not only common among the male citizens, but also the female and the officers.

The toilets in China are not only dirty and smell, but also primitive and dangerous. According to the record of Zuo Chuan, in 581 BC, the emperor of Qin went to the toilet after finished his meal, he carelessly fell into the toilet and died. We know that how unsecured the toilet is at that time.

No matter how rich you are in the ancient time, there is no way to solve the problem of strong and bad smell of toilet. There was a rich man who has a grand toilet in his house, but a dozen of maid is waiting outside the toilets with a new set of clothes and different kinds of herb. That why ancient people describe the act of going to toilet as“更衣”(changing of clothes).

In Shi Shuo Xin Yu, a general of Xi Jin married the princess. He went to the toilet of the princess happily and said, “It looks gorgeous and thousand times better that the peasant’s toilet!” However, he realized it still stank inside. Surprisingly, he found a bowl of Chinese date in the toilets, he ate them all while releasing himself. The maid gave him a bowl of water with beans after going to the toilet, he drank it too. The maid laughed at him. The date was used to put in the nostril to prevent the stink in the toilet while the beans were function as the soap nowadays.

From the above examples of the ancient time, we know that the toilets are dirty, primitive and smell.