1, wash clothes with a wooden stick.
This should be the oldest way to wash clothes. We often see a group of women gathering by the river on TV, beating clothes with wooden sticks. Li Baiyou wrote a poem "A bright moon hangs high in the capital, and ten thousand hammers beat the ground", describing the scene of women beating clothes by the river. Think about it, women at that time were really hard. It is estimated that washing a pile of clothes will take up most of their time.
2. The earliest decontamination powder-plant ash.
It is obviously time-consuming and laborious to beat clothes with a wooden stick, so the ancients had to find a simpler method. So later, the ancients discovered the decontamination function of plant ash. plant ash contains potassium carbonate, which can effectively remove stains on clothes, so plant ash became the earliest washing powder.
There is also a record in "Flower King Gong Ji": practicing silks, using columns as ashes, making silks mellow, making various utensils and shaking them. The red here refers to shell ash. When it is mixed with plant ash, potassium hydroxide can be generated, and silk fabrics can be washed clean and bright. Unexpectedly, the ancients at that time would wash clothes with chemical knowledge.
3. Gleditsia sinensis.
During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the ancients began to wash clothes with Gleditsia sinensis. Gleditsia sinensis is the fruit of Gleditsia sinensis. Soaking in water will produce foam and have strong decontamination ability.
4, bath beans.
In addition, the ancients also used "bath beans" to decontaminate, that is, grinding pig pancreas into powder, adding soybean powder and spices, stirring evenly, ventilating and drying into bath beans, and washing clothes.