Window paper is paper pasted on the window. It is recorded in the ancient poem: "Drink a few cups of wife and a lamp, and share the rest with your children." Sitting still can't sleep, the wind rustles and hits the window paper. "
But the windows of ancient people were not all made of paper.
Cause source
Mingwa, which appeared in the Song Dynasty, is a translucent decorative material and was once a substitute for glass. In northern or inland China, natural mica (a flaky ore) is usually used instead. On the other hand, Wudi's Mingwa is a traditional handicraft-shellfish such as mussel shells or "oyster shells" are polished into square slices the size of dried tofu, with slightly rounded corners. It can be embedded in a wooden lattice window or skylight to cover the roof, which can play the role of heat preservation and wind protection and can penetrate some light. This kind of Luva is called "oyster shell window" or "oyster shell window" in old Suzhou. When I was a child, I saw some wooden lattice windows with broken oyster shell tiles in my grandmother's ancestral home in the inclined pond. Through the old wooden window, straw and some unused old furniture are piled up inside. The skylight is also embedded in the Mingwa, and the sun shines through the dusty Mingwa. In the dim light, countless dusts are flying. Ironically, when I was young, I thought that this Mingwa was a scale on a big fish, and I was taken in by Zhou Zuoren: he described it like this in Wu Pengchuan: "... a wooden lattice with small fish scales, about one inch in diameter, quite transparent, slightly like glass, tough and durable, named Mingwa."