What’s the best way to get rid of lice? Simple, eat them as a midday snack! No,
no, no, that’s not our recommendation. But it was par for the course in Ancient China,
along with using urine to wash your armpits. Today on Nutty History,
we’re covering the nitty gritty details of what hygiene was like in Ancient China,
a civilization that invented many of the same self-care tools we use today. Let’s get funky!
Smelling good was a very important part of hygiene in ancient China. Body odor was perceived as a
symbol of barbarism, which adds up considering Chinese sovereignty back then was threatened
by the Mongols, who loathed bathtime. The Chinese built a wall, a pretty great one,
to keep the Mongols away, but to keep their own stench at bay they were required to bathe.
However, this presented an issue - there was a misconception in Ancient China that bathing
every day invited sickness. The superstition was born in the northern parts of the country where
people would not touch cold water, let alone bathe in winter, to avoid catching a cold.
Eventually, thanks to Taoism, the precaution became a superstition. But for a time, whether or
not to bathe presented quite a conundrum. So they kinda reached a happy medium by creating a rule to
bathe at least once every five days. But it seems this level of grime, and stench, wasn’t acceptable
to the Chinese nobility, as they were willing to pay top dollar for additional hygiene measures. A
huge chunk of their paycheck would go to what they called a “subsidy for clothing and hair washing”.
In addition, women of rich families would tie aromatic bags around their waist to keep them
smelling fresh. They would also spice up their baths with ingredients such as roots,
chrysanthemums, peppers, and ginger. The poorer people of ancient China unfortunately didn’t
have the luxury of additional options to cleanse themselves or smell better.
They would have the option of rubbing urine in their armpits as a disinfectant,
a practice recommended once a year on New Year’s Day. Hey, it’s free!
In ancient China, hairs were called "threadlike things of troubles". Buddhist monks shave their
heads completely to keep said troubles away, while everyone else resorted to combing them as a way to
clear their troubled minds. These combs were made of bamboo, wood, and animal bones. The combs were
also decorated with beautiful colored patterns, and expensive ones had rulers, landscapes,
or animals drawn on them. Jiangsu province acclaimed the honor of creating the finest
Chinese combs in the 3rd and 4th century and was dubbed the “Home of Combs.” To cleanse their hair,
people of early Chinese civilization would bathe and shampoo their hair with rice water,
which contains starch, proteins, and vitamins. It helped them to remove oil stains and revitalize
the scalp and hair. There was also Chinese honey locust which was effectively used as shampoo
as well as a facial cleanser. If you think putting bug paste in your hair and on your face
is disgusting, just wait. Poor Ancient Chinese took it a step further and ate their own lice.
Lack of bathes had lice running rampant among peasants and as they were constantly plucking
lice from themselves, they would just... put ‘em down the hatch. Gotta get that protein!
Oral hygiene was a matter of prime importance in ancient China. You were not allowed to have a bad
breath in the presence of the emperor and thus it was mandatory to suck on a clove anytime you found
yourself in the court of the emperor. Chinese people also came up with the inventive idea of
weaving horsehair on a stick to make a toothbrush. But before they created that fanciness,
plain old sticks would do the trick. Chinese and Indians were first to use the willow branch for
dental hygiene. The method was to first take a small swathe of willow branches and rinse it
clean. Then one end was chewed until the branch fibers were exposed and the end became hairy.
And boom, a DIY toothbrush! Good to know next time you forget to pack your toiletries. Down the line,
someone came up with the idea of piercing two holes on one end of their brushing stick and
sticking horse hair through for bristles. These toothbrushes weren’t actually very different from
what we use today. Rich people tended to use horse bristles; softer and more comfortable for brushing
teeth. The more affordable option was pig hair, which had a harder texture but came pretty cheap.
To finish off their pearly whites, the Ancient Chinese would also sprinkle some
of their homemade tooth powder to enhance the cleaning. Tea, salt, vinegar, and Poria fungus
were the commonly used oral hygiene ingredients for toothpaste, tooth powder, and mouthwash.
The Ancient Chinese were as resourceful as they were innovative. A lot of farmers back
then built special kinds of outhouses over a pigpen to relieve themselves. The excrement
would fall directly in the pig’s trough and for a lucky pig, this was a tasty snack. Bleh.
Even a millennia later, when public toilets became a thing, farmers would still travel to the city
to collect the public’s...deposits...and repurpose it as cheap fertilizer. Feces weren’t just a treat
for cattle and crops. Ancient Chinese healers used human excrement for medicinal purposes as well.
A healthy person’s fermented stool was mixed in a concoction called
“yellow soup” and fed to a person ailing from diarrhea. And they were supposed to drink
every last drop of this liquid feces. That’s a tough pill to swallow. But before you balk,
this method worked surprisingly well. The healthy bacteria in the stool would get rid
of the bad bacteria in the patient’s body. The same concept is used today to treat C. diff,
a deadly disease, but in ancient China, this was just listed as a remedy for the runs.
Urine wasn’t left out of the equation either. It was used as an egg preservative, hormones, and of
course deodorant. But the major accomplishment of Chinese civilization was the moment they invented
papyrus. Because now they had a soft, slim sheet to wipe their tush with, the ‘toilet paper’. The
Ancient Chinese were so excited that they could now enjoy the go, they went TP-wild. The exact
time when toilet paper was invented is still speculative, as it wasn’t an oft talked about
topic, but according to an Arabic traveler’s journal of the time, it created a bit of a mess.
Without a disposal method, the used toilet paper was left out in the open in a heap that would go
so high, it could resemble a mountain. So, what do you think? With toothbrushes, toilet paper,
and scented baths, could you adjust your sanitary habits if you time-traveled back to Ancient China?
Let us know in the comments, along with what historical hygiene you’d like to hear about next.