Friends who often watch ancient costume movies and TV shows will find that ancient buildings such as city walls, passes and the Great Wall have withstood the baptism of war and survived thousands of years of wind, frost, snow and rain, which is amazing and makes people feel the high level of architectural engineering technology of the ancients. Then, there was no cement in ancient China, let alone reinforced concrete. Why was it so strong?
When it comes to architecture, it is obvious that the ancient wooden castles, military camps and other buildings have long been lost in the long river of history. Cement, as the most common building material in modern times, was invented by the British in the 18th century. When it first entered China, it was called "Lime". It was not until 1889 that the first cement factory was founded in China, named "Qixin Lime Factory". Then, in ancient China before the birth of cement, what was the main building material?
1. Mud, grass and soil slurry
The most common "folk cement" in ancient times is faintly visible in modern rural areas, that is, yellow mud water is continuously stirred and licorice residue is continuously added until it becomes sticky, which is not only used to beat adobe and dry it into bricks to build walls, but also as an adhesive. They can still be seen in the ancient Qin and Han dynasties, including the ruins of ancient cities in the western regions.
2. Lime mortar
Lime mortar is made stronger by mixing sand and gravel, which was used by the famous Qin Changcheng. The ancient Romans added volcanic ash to lime mortar, forming what westerners call "the earliest cement". At the same time, China people added yellow clay to lime mortar to enhance the hardness of mortar.
As confirmed by archaeological excavations, as early as the Neolithic sites in China, there were traces of using "white plaster". In the architectural sites of Shang and Zhou Dynasties, common lime materials were unearthed. "Zuo Zhuan" records: using ash. This kind of "mud fly ash" is lime fired from clam shells, and the main component of shells is calcium carbonate. Mudfly ash calcined from oyster shells is also the original "cement", which has a very good effect on strengthening buildings. For example, every inch of the famous "Qin Zhi Dao" was built with "Hong Ash" and yellow clay. So far, this expressway is still barren. After its completion, it was used before the Qing Dynasty and gradually abandoned.
Third, the glutinous rice lime slurry
was produced in the Northern and Southern Dynasties in China in the 6th century. At that time, craftsmen boiled glutinous rice and mixed it with lime mortar, which, together with kiwi fruit juice and Homogeneous Rice, became a "glutinous rice mortar" with stronger reinforcement. Many buildings in China since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, including the Great Wall, the Forbidden City and the Border Guard Station, were built with glutinous rice lime slurry, and even the most powerful red cannon at that time was helpless. According to the test reports of many scholars at home and abroad in the 2th century, this ancient building material, which was born nearly 1,5 years ago, not only leads the world at that time, but is even comparable to modern cement, and it is difficult to destroy it even with modern heavy construction machinery.
The 16th century Spanish scholar Mendoza's History of the Great China records that every tower in Fuzhou in the Ming Dynasty "surpassed any building built by the Romans" and thinks that the architectural level of China people "can produce the best buildings in the world." In the 17th century, the mighty Peter the Great ordered that people should be sent to learn China's architectural technology at all costs. French scholars who visited China during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty were even more amazed: "I deeply admire the architectural intelligence of China people, but we Europeans seem to be plain and unremarkable!"
It is the accumulation of ancient craftsmen's wisdom that has forged the backbone of our nation, made our ancestors' buildings stand the test of thousands of years of wind and rain and wars, and presented the splendid features of Chinese architectural civilization to our eyes steadily. Of course, it also made many people feel ashamed today!