If you could transmigrate to ancient times, what kind of life would you lead?
Would it be a pastoral routine of rising with the sun and resting at dusk, or the elegant, carefree life of an aristocrat, surrounded by fine clothes and lavish food?
In reality, life in ancient times was nowhere near as romantic as you might imagine.
You may think people in the past ate natural, healthy food, but ordinary people had a monotonous diet, and what passed for a “delicacy” was often just the bare minimum needed to survive.
You may think visiting friends was carefree, but food carried on the road spoiled easily, finding a place to stay was a matter of luck, and a bout of chills could prove fatal.
You may imagine nobles living in luxury, but even they had to endure the stench of toilets connected to pigsties, sometimes plugging their noses with jujubes...
In "How People Lived in Ancient Times", scholar Shi Jiepeng draws on solid historical sources and accessible storytelling to recreate the everyday lives of people in ancient China, from food, clothing, and housing to travel, health, marriage, and government service.
Traditions we assume have “always been around” may not be as ancient as we think, and idealized accounts of life in the past often hide how little control ordinary people had over their own lives.
Open this book and discover that history belongs not only to emperors and generals, but also to ordinary people doing their best to get by!
