We must admit that even in these days when science and technology are highly developed, when it comes to health preservation, we cannot do without the wisdom of the ancients. Especially those summaries with traditional Chinese medicine origins are still used today. It has stood the test of time, and we have no doubts about the health-preserving wisdom of the ancients. Recently, a friend mentioned a question in the background related to ancient people’s health care: Why are ancient people’s pillows made of ceramic or wood? Isn’t it annoying? Or is it true that hard pillows are good for the body?
Why were ancient pillows mostly made of ceramic or wood?
Before unraveling this mystery, we also start with an equally ancient phrase: "No one is a sage." Yes, in fact, ancient people were also made of flesh and blood, and ceramic pillows would be just as uncomfortable as ours. We have summarized a few reasons for your reference:
First of all, hard pillows are indeed helpful for the cervical spine. Hard pillows can fit the physiological curvature of the body very well, especially for people with cervical spine problems. But even so, we do not recommend that you really choose a pillow that is too hard, because if a pillow is too hard, it will increase the pressure on the cervical spine due to the smaller contact surface, causing neck muscle fatigue.
Secondly, hard pillows are good for your hair. We all know that in ancient times, both men and women had the habit of growing long hair. This faced two problems. The first was the problem of heat dissipation from the head while sleeping, and the second was the problem of hairstyle. Let’s talk about the first one first. Because of their hardness and height, hard pillows can help the head dissipate heat very well. Here, Li Qingzhao has a poem to prove it, "The festival is the Double Ninth Festival, and the jade screen window is cool in the middle of the night." ?
Let’s talk about hair style. Of course, in ancient times, it was not as convenient as it is now. There are various shampoos, conditioners, hair dryers, etc. Washing hair was a very troublesome thing for ancient people. For example, use sawdust and fine sand to wrap the sludge in the hair, and then use a grate to comb it repeatedly. Or use natural plants that can remove oil stains (such as the fruits and leaves of the saponaria tree and scrub with water), which is very troublesome anyway. To save time on combing and washing your hair in the morning, sleep on a hard pillow and toss your hair to one side to keep it styled for as long as possible.
Finally, there are other uses for hard pillows. For example, poor students taking scientific examinations use log pillows, also called "warning pillows", to prevent themselves from sleeping in. Some people also hollow out pillows to hide some more valuable books, also called "books in pillows". There is a record in "Yue Jueshu Waizhuan Zhenzhong" that the elixir was written on silk and placed in the pillow, which was regarded as a national treasure.
Of course, people in ancient times did not always sleep on hard pillows. After the Ming Dynasty, pillows made of ceramics and wood slowly declined, and some silk and cotton pillows began to become popular. As for why most of the pillows we see in museums are made of hard materials such as ceramics or wood, it is probably because pillows made of other materials are not easy to preserve.