How did ancient people live?

In ancient times, people's division of labor was male ploughing and female weaving. Men were responsible for some heavy physical labor such as ploughing and working, while women generally weaved at home. There is a saying in the Han Dynasty that "a man is not hungry and a woman is not cold". It means that men who don't farm may starve at home, and women who don't weave may catch cold at home. Self-sufficiency was the main mode of operation of small-scale peasant economy at that time.

Fan Chengda's "Four Seasons Pastoral Miscellaneous Glory" records that "when plowing the fields by day and weaving hemp by night, the children in the village are in charge, and the children and grandchildren don't understand farming and weaving, and they also learn to plant melons in mulberry shade." This poem means that both men and women on the farm are responsible for their families when they go out to plow the fields during the day and come back to rub hemp ropes at night. Children don't know how to cultivate, but they also plant melons under mulberry trees like adults. This is a true portrayal of life at that time. This method lasted for thousands of years and gradually disappeared until modern times.

There is no doubt that the life of ancient peasants was extremely miserable. First of all, productivity is low and there are no advanced production tools. Farming depends entirely on human and animal power, and must rely on plows, hoes and other tools to farm. There were hoes at that time. Tao Yuanming once wrote, "In the morning, waste and filth will be treated, and Dai Yue's hoe will return."

Under such conditions, a mature man can plow several acres of land every day, but the grass grows fast, so he is self-sufficient. This is still a good year. If there is a drought or a big flood in a famine year, many people will starve to death, and there will be disasters such as locust plague.

Besides, you have to pay taxes and do military service. There are various ways to control farmers and force them to serve. Liu Zongyuan once said this in Snake Catcher, and Confucius once lamented that "tyranny is fiercer than tiger".

Extended data:

The diet of ancient prosperous people;

One: Han Dynasty

In the heyday of the Han Dynasty, ordinary farmers often ate dry cakes made of wheat and "soup cakes" pasta. Because there was no fermentation technology, these staple foods were difficult to taste. There is also dry rice made of rice or millet. People with some money can eat sweet jujube rice.

The daily vegetables are mainly winter sunflower and radish, and soybeans are also popular after being introduced from the western regions. The fresh leaves and dry branches of soybeans are the dishes of farmers in the Western Han Dynasty. The theory of salt and iron in the Western Han Dynasty and various murals prove that chickens, pig livers and other livestock can also be eaten by civilians in the Western Han Dynasty on holidays.

Second, the prosperous Tang Dynasty.

In the prosperous Tang Dynasty, agricultural production developed to the point of "rice flowing fertilizer, millet white". During the Tianbao period, the official grain storage in the Tang Dynasty was as high as 96 million stones. People in the Tang Dynasty naturally have more kinds of food: the staple foods are pancakes, Hu cakes, steamed cakes and rice, and steamed cakes are the favorite of all walks of life in the Tang Dynasty.

Celery and leek, which were still precious in the Han Dynasty, had spread all over the country in the Tang Dynasty. There are many kinds of melons and fruits, and cherries, pears and apricots can all be eaten. Compared with the people's congresses in the Han Dynasty who often eat chicken on the first day of the Lunar New Year, people in the Tang Dynasty can eat pork on holidays. In the historical materials such as the Record of the Northern Households, the bridge where people eat pork on holidays in the Tang Dynasty is very lively.

Three: Song Dynasty

The frying and frying skills familiar to modern people finally took shape in the Song Dynasty, and there were more kinds of home cooking for ordinary people. Meat consumption in first-tier cities has also surged. According to "Tokyo Dream Record", there are tens of thousands of pork dealers patrolling Nanxunmen in Bianjing every night.

There are many snack bars for ordinary citizens in Bianjing City, including buns, patties, goose, duck and cheese, totaling tens of thousands. Many snack bars have become century-old brands. The Great Song on the Tip of the Tongue is such a rich flavor.