"In the painting 'Playing Chess in Front of a Folding Screen'... two long beds are surprisingly placed side by side in front of a three-panel screen. A pair of maids are arranging the bedding on the rear bed, while another maid approaches them carrying pillows and quilts. A dignified man, bare-headed with his hair tied up, sits leisurely on the front bed, leaning against the bed rail, looking relaxed and at ease... The bed the man occupies has a seat at each end with raised backrests, and a large round opening is set in the center of the bed surface, embedded with a large basin... The large basin in the center of the bed could only be a brazier... The bed embedded with a brazier is what the Tang and Song literature refers to as the 'fire-bed.'" (For images, please visit the author's Weibo.)
The once widespread use of the fire-bed is revealed in Lu You's Notes of an Old Scholar : "Xu Dunli said: In the past, if women from scholarly families sat on chairs or stools, everyone would mock them for lacking propriety. Washing beds and fire-beds were found in every household. Even now, high dressing tables remain, as they were placed level with the face when used on beds. Some say the imperial court still uses them, though they have fallen out of use elsewhere." From the Tang to the Song dynasties, despite the growing popularity of chairs and stools, "beds" remained important seating furniture. Thus, well-bred households would always have a "washing bed" for women and a "fire-bed" for winter use. Even during the transition between the Northern and Southern Song dynasties, the imperial palace retained such living customs.
...Perhaps we can consider that during the Tang and Song dynasties, the fixed arrangement of bedroom spaces was as follows: the sleeping bed was placed deep inside the room, while a large sitting bed was set up in front of it. In winter, the heating fire-bed would be placed before the sleeping bed, while in the other three seasons, washing beds or other seating furniture would be used instead. In fact, given the ingenuity of Song people, it's likely that the sitting bed was designed for multiple uses: the brazier in the center could be removed, and when not in use, the basin could be taken out and replaced with a bed board, allowing for a small table to be placed on top.
...According to the customs of the time, after rising in the morning, one would immediately move to the large sitting bed in front of the sleeping bed to begin daytime activities. Of course, this practice wasn’t limited to women but was a common rule among well-bred households.
Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government , Volume 192: The Emperor said to Pei Ji, "Recently, many memorials have been submitted to me. I have pasted them all on the walls of my chamber so I can review them when coming and going. Whenever I ponder governance, I often stay up late into the night." The New Book of Tang: Biography of Wei Zheng also mentions that after Wei Zheng submitted his famous Ten Shortcomings of Failing to Uphold Virtue , Li Shimin replied, "I have now arranged the memorial you submitted on my screen so that I may see it morning and evening." Essentials of Governance from the Zhenguan Era records: In the second year of Zhenguan, Emperor Taizong said to his attendants, "Every night, I think deeply about the affairs of the common people, sometimes staying awake until midnight. I fear whether the regional governors and prefects are capable of nurturing the people. Thus, I have recorded their names on my screen, looking at them constantly whether sitting or lying down. If any official performs good deeds, I also note them under their names."It seems he was quite fond of using walls and screens as noteboards, writing and drawing on them while sticking numerous memos... Li Shimin enjoyed calligraphy and often wrote characters on screens himself. Some of his cursive script on plain silk screens have been passed down to later generations, with rubbings still visible today. These are now called "Emperor Taizong of Tang's Screen Calligraphy." For images, please visit the author's Weibo. #####This book's annotations will include numerous historical artifact images. As the publishing platform doesn't support image functions, please view them on the author's Weibo. Search for the ID "Tang Dynasty Tour Guide Forest Deer" on Sina Weibo. Welcome for discussions. ????
OpenNovel