Anecdotes

Ice storage

The Chinese ancients stored ice in winter for use in summer. History says the government of Western Zhou (C.1100-771 B.C.) set up a system to administer ice storage. The Book of Songs carries a song that describes how ice was obtained and put into storage in December. In ancient China, an ice storage place was usually called the ice cellar or vault. In 1976, archaeologists unearthed an ice cellar of the Qin Kingdom of the Spring and Autumn period (770-476 B.C.). The cellar was large enough to hold 190 cubic meters of ice.In the Sui (581-618) and the Tang (618-907) dynasties, ice was kept in deep wells. In the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), private businesses emerged to supply ice in summer. The government sometimes bought ice from private ice storage businesses.

For a long while ice storage was popular in the north. It was not until the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) that the people in the south learned how to keep ice. They later even invented a method to make ice cubes.

In ancient China, ice was used for sacrifice ceremonials, body preservation, food preservation and temperature reduction. A book of the Zhou Dynasty specifies the usages of ice. And summer ice was extremely rare in ancient times that it was often distributed as royal gifts to court officials. A poet of the Yuan Dynasty writes in a poem that the emperor gave his ministers iced water after a banquet. Historical records say that the Qing court printed coupons to distribute ice among its offices.

Who should be his son-in-law?

Ding Yi was a famed scholar during the Three Kingdoms (220-280). His father was a close friend of Cao Cao. Although he had never met Ding Yi in person, Cao Cao had heard about the young scholar and wanted to marry his daughter to Ding Yi. Cao talked this out with his son Cao Pi. Cao Pi suggested that Ding Yi did not look good with a blind eye and that his sister should marry Fu Mao, the son of Fu Bo. So Cao Cao married his daughter to Fu Mao.

It happened that Cao met Ding Yi shortly after appointing him to an important position. Cao found the young scholar extremely talented and knowledgeable through a long and delightful conservation which touched upon a wide range of topics. Cao regretted not marrying his daughter to Ding Yi, saying that Ding was a good scholar and that he would not have minded marrying his daughter to him even if Ding had been blind in the two eyes.

Wu refused to see

His father in public

Learning his son Hu Zongnan, commander of the First Army Corps, was stationed in Xuzhou in 1936, his father came north all the way from Anji County, Zhejiang Province to visit his son. The guard reported to the commander that his father was at the door. Hu replied that he did not know the old man and asked the guard to tell the old man to go home. The astonished father explained to the guard, "You must have delivered a wrong message. He is my son and I am his father. How come he does not know me? You go back in and tell him to come out and see me!" The guard reported again. Hu Zongnan flared up. "Where did the bastard old man come from? Drive him away!" Meanwhile the general dispatched a bosom lieutenant to follow his father. The lieutenant came back with the address of a hotel where Hu's father was staying. Hu Zongnan disguised himself and went to see his father in his hotel room. He said, "You should never come to the headquarters to see me in the future. Here is 300 dollars. You go home!" His father was so exasperated that he gave his son a sharp tongue-lash. The father did not take the cash. He borrowed some money from a friend and went home.