It was not until the Song Dynasty that candles became ordinary commodities and began to enter ordinary families. When we look up the notes of the Song Dynasty, we will find that the records about the use of candles suddenly increase. Jane Yizhi mentioned "candles" many times, such as the article "The Monster of Luo Zhong": "In the seventh year of Xuanhe, there were black beasts in Xiluocheng, like dogs or donkeys, hiding at night. Folk rumors can make people's skin sore. Sitting under the eaves at night, a citizen saw a wild animal enter his house and beat it with a stick. The sound was absolutely silent. Take a look at the candle, but it is * * * lying on the ground and dead. " This story is very strange, but we don't care, only pay attention to the information revealed by the story: there are candles in Luoyang civilians' homes.
"Dream of Liang Lu" records that in the Southern Song Dynasty, young people in Hangzhou talked about marriage. After the bride's family received the dowry, they should prepare incense and wine in the house and talk about the alliance of the three realms. On the wedding day, the man sent someone to "go to the woman's house to welcome the newlyweds" with gifts such as "vases, candles, fragrant balls, sand washing, makeup, photo desk, skirt box, suitcase, knots, umbrellas and chairs". Candles are obviously essential for Song people to hold wedding ceremonies. When the Song people gave birth to their children after marriage, they held a ceremony of "catching the week" for their children, including "burning incense and lighting candles, eating fruits, eating and drinking father's toys, seven treasures of gold, silver, learning books, Taoist scriptures, scales, knives, barrels, colored satin flowers, official money and so on.
In the capital of Song Dynasty, there was a service organization called "Four Divisions and Six Bureaux", which was equivalent to the present wedding company. If people want to hold a banquet, they can hire "four divisions and six bureaus" to undertake all the processes. Among these "four divisions and six bureaus", there is a special "Oil Candle Bureau", which is responsible for "lighting, lighting, repairing candles, lighting, pressing lights, holding seats, setting tables, handlebars, bean stands, bamboo cages, lampstands, loading fires and collecting charcoal". It can be seen that ordinary people in the Song Dynasty often used candles in their lives.
There is "repairing incense and filling candles" in the "group tour" (industrial and commercial organization) recorded in Dream of Liang Lu, which shows that candle making has become an industry in the city in the Southern Song Dynasty. Among the "mats" (shops), there are two famous brands, namely "children's candle shop" and "Majia candle bag shop". Liang Lumeng also said that there were "teahouses, restaurants, noodle shops, fruits, colored silks, wool, incense, oil, rice, fish and wax" in Hangzhou, indicating that candle shops appeared in Hangzhou in the Southern Song Dynasty. Candles are common daily necessities in the market, and they are no longer exclusive luxuries for the nobility and the rich.
Images of the Song Dynasty also support our observation. The Silkworm Weaving Map Volume, a copy of the Academy of Painting in the Early Southern Song Dynasty, collected by Heilongjiang Museum, depicts the whole process of silkworm weavers in the south of the Yangtze River from "bathing silkworms in the twelfth lunar month" to "weaving silks and disembarking them". We found a candlestick in the silkworm weaver's furniture.
So what is the price of candles in the Song Dynasty? Professor Cheng Minsheng, a scholar of Song Dynasty history, collected a piece of candle price information: According to Song Wenxuan, during the Song Shenzong period, the sacrifices offered by the imperial court to officials included "holding 400 candles and 150 candles", which showed that the price of each candle in Song Dynasty was between 150 and 400, which was equivalent to the income of a lower class citizen for two or three days. However, the palace candles are luxurious and the materials are fine, which is undoubtedly expensive. The price of civil candles on the market should not be so high.
Zhang, a monk from Cheng Minsheng, provided another piece of information about the price of candles in the Song Dynasty: According to the record of "Continuing to Treat Mirrors", Dingzhou purchased "Song Ming 14 1662 Jin and a half, birch candles 1 14452 pieces, with a total material value of 22,997 pieces". If we ignore the price difference between Song and Ming candles and birch candles, we can calculate that each candle is about18p, and at most it is about 20p, which is equivalent to one tenth of the daily income of a city citizen. This price is obviously affordable for the general public.
However, the cost of lighting candles is still higher than that of lighting oil lamps. There was a scholar in the Southern Song Dynasty who "carried a bottle of four or five pence worth of oil every night, hid it in the sleeve of a green cloth and lit a lamp to read", which only consumed four or five pence. Burning candles all night, at least three to five candles, costs 50 to 90p, which is 10 to 20 times that of oil lamps.
Therefore, Kou Zhun, a famous official in the Northern Song Dynasty, was extravagant and lit candles at home, which was regarded by Ouyang Xiu as a bad life style of "taking this as a warning": "Dengzhou's flower candles are world-famous. Although the capital can't make them, it is said that it is also the candle method of Kreigong (Kou Zhun). It is well known that Dengzhou, a teenager becomes rich. He doesn't light oil lamps, especially for banquets and plays. Although the dormitory also lights candles. After every dismissal, the official went, and later generations went to the official residence and saw the tears on the ground in the toilet, which were often piles. Du Qigong (Du Yan) is a thrifty man. He has never lit an official candle in an official office, and the oil lamp is going out, just talking to the guests. Both of them are famous officials, but they are different in extravagance and frugality. However, Qigong's longevity experiment ended in good luck, and Lai Gong moved south that night, so he didn't come back. Although he is unfortunate, he can also play a warning role. "
Kou Zhun's heroism in lighting candles may be worse than that of Yang in the Tang Dynasty, and Shi Chong, a rich man in the Jin Dynasty, will be shocked when he meets him. But in fact, Kou Zhun's personal wealth is certainly not as good as Shi Chong's. Except for candles, which were still expensive luxuries in Shi Chong's era, they could also be used to show off their wealth in Yang's era, but they were not very expensive in Kou Zhun's era, so the scholar-bureaucrat families could "light candles".
Today, lamps and candles are common things that we don't pay much attention to, but behind them, there are also vivid information about the evolution of material civilization in Song Dynasty. (Original from Phoenix History)