The Origin Of Chinese Toilet And The Decline Of Toilet Civilization

The decline of "toilet civilization"

Chinese culture has always attached great importance to "entrance" but ignored "export". It is shameful to talk about toilets and not to talk about toilets. Behind the world-famous "food culture", there is a "toilet culture" that is hard to be revealed.

The origin of Chinese toilets was first discovered 5000 years ago in the ruins of Banpo village clan tribe in Xi'an. Archaeology found that the toilet at that time was just an earthen pit. From the Western Zhou Dynasty to the spring and Autumn period, most toilets were side-by-side with the pigsty. Once "a certain pit" was "abandoned", it would be filled with a slave. So the idea that toilets are "dirty" has been handed down from generation to generation.

According to historical records, in the Yin and Shang Dynasties, before the Western Zhou Dynasty, the Han people had a "clean" trend. At that time, this trend penetrated into the social life. Anyone who did not pay attention to health would be ridiculed and satirized. Even in the spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period, the soldiers and civilians who lived in the isolated city surrounded by iron barrels did not forget the toilet sanitation. According to Mozi, a toilet should be built at the head of the city, surrounded by walls and walls. The wall is eight feet high. The soldiers and civilians of the city, regardless of gender, must go to the public toilets to urinate. At the bottom of the city, "the circle is thirty steps, the height is ten feet, and the wall is more than twelve feet high.".

There is also a complete set of sanitary management methods for toilets in China's old customs. According to records, as early as the Han Dynasty, there were public toilets in China. At that time, it was called "Du toilet". In the Tang Dynasty, it was more common. Marco Polo used to marvel at China's sanitation facilities.

In the Song Dynasty, professional excrement removal workers appeared in the luxurious city of Hangzhou. They went through the city along the street and collected excrement at their door. In terms of the official system, there were court officials in Tang Dynasty who specialized in toilet, such as "right school official, order and Cheng". All these show that China has had a brilliant "toilet civilization". However, in modern times, China's toilet sanitation gradually fell behind that of Europe.

In modern times, most of the "toilets" in rural China are relatively simple, dirty and dilapidated, basically "one pit with two bricks, three foot wall around the four sides". In the north, men's toilets are mostly squat pits, while women's toilets are "gray buckets", that is, a wooden bucket containing lime or plant ash. In the Qing Dynasty, in order to solve the cost of fecal management, the Qing government also tried to build some fee paying toilets, and allowed them to be operated privately. In Qingfeng period of the Qing Dynasty, the records of Yanjing miscellany recorded that "those who entered the four vassals of the capital must be paid one money", which is a clear proof. But at that time, the public toilets were not accepted by people. People would defecate everywhere, or be convenient for the toilet to dump on the street. The street was full of filthy smell.

In medieval Europe, people did not have the concept of toilet; the evolution of toilet is from the pit to the cottage, toilet, toilet, toilet, from scratch, from private to public, from a single function to a set of physiological metabolism, health adjustment, rest and even aesthetic, commercial, cultural and other functions, toilet innovation step by step from civilization to progress.

The 19th century can be called "toilet century". In the 1840s, there was a sewer system in Hamburg that flushed pipes with river water. The world's first toilet was built in London in 1852. However, in China in 1852, the Forbidden City didn't know what the toilet was. Every morning, there would be a manure truck going in and out of the "back door". There is no doubt that China's toilet civilization at that time was quite different from that of the so-called "empire of the sun never setting" in Britain.

Toilet is the product of social progress and civilization development. The condition of toilet reflects the civilization development of a place, a nation and even a country to a certain extent. Shanghai used to be a place that was criticized by "tourists" all over the country. You can't find a toilet when you go shopping. You can't find a toilet easily. You can't "squat" if you don't pay.

Toilet revolution

Since the 1990s, China has set off a toilet revolution.

In the aspect of urban construction, in 1992, the State Council order (No. 101) "Regulations on the administration of urban appearance and environmental sanitation" was promulgated, which laid a legal foundation for the improvement of urban environmental sanitation. Since then, various public toilets have been set up in various places in a planned way. For example, in 1988 and 1989, Beijing invested nearly 2 million yuan in the construction of toilets; during 1994-1996, a total of 32.17 million yuan was invested, with 46 and 73 new toilets respectively.

With the great achievements of urban construction, the popularity of public toilets is also rising rapidly. Since 1993, sanitary latrines have increased by 27.53 percentage points, which is about four times of the previous 40 years. A total of 10.43 million double urn funnel toilets were built. By the end of 2001, there were 107657 public toilets in China, and the number is still increasing.

In the outline of the children's development plan for the 1990s, the Chinese government officially promised the people and the international community that the popularization rate of rural sanitary toilets in China would reach 40% by the end of 2000. By the end of 2001, after the large-scale "toilet revolution" in the late 1990s, the rate of sanitary toilet popularization in rural areas had reached 39.83%, basically achieving the goal set out in the ninth five year plan.

The main purpose of improving water and toilet in rural areas is to prevent and control the spread of intestinal infectious diseases and parasitic diseases. Feces and drinking water polluted by faeces contain pathogens of intestinal infectious diseases and parasitic diseases, including pathogenic viruses and eggs, which seriously threaten the health of farmers.

Today, the revolution is far from over. Although in some "window cities", the popularization rate of public toilets has been similar to that of some developing countries, the revolution on toilets still has a long way to go in the old urban areas, old business districts and vast rural areas in the vast number of small and medium-sized cities.

At the "First World Toilet Summit" held in Singapore in 2001, representatives of the Chinese delegation said that in order to welcome the 2008 Olympic Games, Beijing will invest 240 million yuan to build and update 2003 public toilets. By 2008, the public toilets in Beijing will have a new look: clean, comfortable and luxurious.

In November 2004, the world public toilet summit will be held in Beijing. It is believed that this will greatly promote China's "public toilet revolution" and greatly improve China's environmental sanitation.