For ordinary people, no money is unbearable. In winter, they basically spend their time burning charcoal in a brazier. China was the first country to use coal, and it was the most common way to use coal to make a fire for heating in ancient times. There are often pictures of a family chatting around the brazier in TV dramas. According to records, from the Spring and Autumn Period, the ancients burned charcoal to keep warm.
The brazier is a pottery basin filled with "furnace ashes" for heating, and the other grounding gas is a fire resistance. As the name implies, it is to dig a hole and put charcoal to keep warm. These are common heating methods, which are also commonly used by ordinary people. Rich and powerful nobles have more means.
You can see the idea of heating in the palace, such as the "fire wall" and "fire path" that you often hear, that is, when building a house, build the wall into a hollow sandwich wall in advance. "Fire way" is to build a passage under the kang bed in each room. The "fire path" in the palace usually extends in all directions, forming a powerful heating system. When winter comes, this system will be fully open and used.
A little further, probably in the Western Han Dynasty, there was a heating room, the so-called Jiaofang Temple. The method is to put mashed pepper on the wall of the house as insulation layer, spread a tribute blanket from the western regions on the ground, and then enclose it with a curtain made of goose hair, which is very warm. According to Xijing Miscellanies, even if it snows heavily outside, the room is warm as spring.
In addition to these large-scale heating methods, the ancients also invented some small heating objects, such as various ancient versions of "hand warmers", such as "hand stoves". Bai Juyi has a poem "There is a ray of green in an old bottle and a pinch of red in a static furnace", which is about a hand stove that can be held in your hand.
It is said that in the mid-Tang Dynasty, the hand stove was a common heating appliance for official families. It was mostly made of bronze, which could be hollowed out and put into a sleeve, and it was particularly popular in the aristocratic circle.
Of course, in addition to these heaters, there are also close-fitting clothes, and warm clothes are also divided into three or six categories. Ordinary people use silk and hemp to make winter clothes, while nobles are popular with all kinds of animal fur. Fox skin and mink are the most common aristocratic patents. In fact, the ancient climate may be colder than we are now, and the ancients were not stupid. Naturally, they try their best to keep warm. Although some methods seem backward, they are also practical.