Nowadays, “Roman style” bathing centers are prevalent everywhere. In fact, there are also “bathing centers” with their own characteristics in Chinese history, such as the “Flower Bathing Hall”, which is particularly elegant.
A literati of the Qing Dynasty, Po’eshanren, recorded in his “Night Sailing Boat” written in the Gengshen Year of Jiaqing (1800), that at that time, Lanxi in Zhejiang Province was a flower town with a huge flower planting industry, and there were endless flowers in all seasons. An unnamed expert in the local area came up with the idea of the Flower Bath Hall, which is a top-notch luxury even today:
an artificial lake with a width of three or four acres, all of which are paved with clean white stones to create a garden. view. Along the surroundings of the small lake, dozens of halls are built, and each hall is an independent bathroom. These bathrooms are small and exquisite, and half of the space is placed with tea tables, clothes racks, etc. The whole process of bathing, bathing and getting out of the bath is not disturbed by strangers and has sufficient privacy. The other half of the space is the bathing pool. Except for one side for entering and exiting the bath, the other three sides are built with layers of white stone flower beds, filled with potted precious flowers. Fill in clean hot water and drain cold or dirty pool water.
Such a concept of floral health care is still novel even today.
At the entrance of each bathroom, a plaque is hung high, with elegant titles, such as Qiongdanpeng Mountain, Ruigong Xuanyuan, Xuexiang Fuhai, Hanhan Xilan and so on. It can be speculated that there are themed flowers in those single rooms, and various other flowers are used as supporting roles. Qiongdao Pengshan mainly focuses on camellias, Xuexiang Fuhai focuses on frangipani, and Hanhan Xilan is the world of orchids… Guests who come to consume can choose flower rooms with different themes according to their preferences, and undress and take a bath under the presence of layers of flowers.
These bathrooms are also specially equipped with a simple but practical facility: several bamboo tubes are embedded on one wall. On the thin plates at both ends of the bamboo tubes, there are corresponding words written in the same way, and the words displayed on each bamboo tube are different, namely “upper temperature”, “medium temperature”, “lower temperature”, “return”, “add” and so on. In fact, a set of notification system is established by using the principle of sound transmission through an empty tube. The bathers in the room can knock on one of the bamboo tubes with their hands at any time according to their needs, and the guys outside can operate according to the words marked on the bamboo tube that emits the sound. , For example, once the bamboo tube marked with the word “retire” is struck by “bang bang”, it means that the guests think the pool is too full, and the staff will open the water outlet to release the water. Conversely, if the guest rings the bamboo tube marked with the word “Add”, then the outdoor buddy must quickly add water.
In midsummer, the windows of the single bathrooms are naturally wide open. At this time, the owner of the bathhouse will thoughtfully set up a hand-operated fan——wind wheel, outside the window of each bathroom, and there will be a servant sitting next to each wind wheel. A small stool continuously pulls the rope connected to the shaft of the wind wheel, driving the wheel fan to turn, causing bursts of artificial wind. The servants sat on low stools outside the window, unable to see the interior, while the guests occupying the bathroom enjoyed the cool breeze. The fragrance of thousands of flowers from indoors and outdoors is stirred by the wind, and they all pour into the open window. Different fragrances blend together, and with the wind, sometimes the fragrance of one flower is bright, and sometimes the rhyme of another flower is dominant, and then maybe three kinds of flowers. The fragrance of the flowers becomes the main theme, but disappears in the next moment, and is replaced by the souls of other flowers…
There are tea sets and tea leaves in the bathroom. People can drink tea calmly before or after bathing, or soak in the hot pool water and drink tea slowly cup by cup. The wonderful thing is that even in the cold season, because there is a pool of hot water in the bathroom and a charcoal brazier for heating is placed beside the pool, each bathroom naturally becomes a greenhouse suitable for flowers and trees to spend the winter. Therefore, these high-end single rooms There are endless flowers throughout the year, and you can still come and enjoy them even in winter. When the white snow outside the window falls on the open-air lake, but the flowers are fragrant inside and the pool is as warm as spring. At this time, leaning on the wall of the white stone pool, sipping green tea and enjoying the snow on the front and rear windows, what an artistic conception it is!
According to the theory of traditional Chinese medicine, different smells in nature will affect different organs of the human body, among which the aroma is beneficial to the spleen. Therefore, Chinese people traditionally pay special attention to the fragrance of natural flowers and fruits. The flower bath hall introduces potted flowers into the bathroom, and uses the healthiest natural flower fragrance to treat the human body. The concept of flower fragrance health care is still novel even today.
