The "Chinese Dictionary" explains "吐子" as "Pinyin jī zǐ ?, which means wooden shoes". "Mud clogs" are the shoes used by rural people in southwestern Shandong to walk on muddy roads when it rains or snows. The author has never worn mud clogs, but in the 1970s, I saw others wearing them from the countryside in southwestern Shandong where I lived. The mud sandals I saw were made of two wooden boards with two teeth on each bottom. When it rains, just tie your shoes to the sandals.
Mud clogs have existed in ancient my country. For example, the word "clog" is found in "Jijiupian" (a book for teaching children to read in the Han Dynasty) written by Huangmenling Shi You in the Han Dynasty; during the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Confucian scholars, Yan Shigu, an exegesis expert and historian, explained the word "clogs" in "Jijiupian" as "the clogs are made of wood and have two teeth to trample on the mud." Another example is the poem "Climbing Meigan to See the Monk Zhongfu of the Monk Zhongfu in the Monastery at Jinling Presented to the Nephew of the Family" written by the poet Li Bai of the Tang Dynasty. There is a poem with the word "clog" in it: "Wu Feng thanks the clogs, and the white feet proudly walk on the sandals"; in the Chinese textbooks of current students , the text of "Dream Wandering Tianmu Yin Liu Farewell" written by Li Bai also has "Wearing Xie Gong's clogs, climbing the Qingyun Ladder." There are poems containing "clogs"; "Book of Jin·Xie An's Biography" also has "Xuan and others have broken the strong, there are When the post arrived, An Fang gathered around the guests. After reading the book, he put it on the bed. He looked no happy and looked the same as before. When the guest asked about it, Xu replied: "The kid has already broken the thief." After that, he returned to the house and transferred the property. "I am so happy that I don't feel the teeth of my clogs are broken." "The Biography of Xie Lingyun of Southern History" also says, "When climbing up the mountain, the front teeth are removed, and when going down the mountain, the back teeth are removed." There are also records of "clogs" in the works of other ancient literati. It can be seen that "clogs" are "authentic domestic products" and are also old items.
Mud sandals are suitable for walking on muddy roads on rainy days in summer. The advantage is that they are hard and non-slip, and they are easy to clean when they are dirty. The disadvantage is that they are not warm. In order to keep the mud sandals warm, in the past in rural areas of southwestern Shandong, they drilled holes around the wooden boards of the mud sandals and used reed tassels and hemp ropes to turn them into warm grass urns, so that they could be worn in snowy weather in winter. It is both non-slip and warm. Nowadays, roads are connected to every village in southwestern Shandong, and the road conditions are much better than before. Coupled with the popularity of new footwear such as rain boots, rain boots, and non-slip shoes, mud clogs have long disappeared.