Cases of personal hygiene

蒲傳正為宋資政，有大洗面、小洗面、大濯足、小濯足、大澡浴、小澡浴。

Pu Chuanzheng, who served as Aid-in-Governance during the Song dynasty, had [rituals of] major face-washing, minor face-washing, major foot-rinsing, minor foot-rinsing, major bathing, and minor bathing.

小洗面，一易湯，用二人，頮面而已；大洗面，三易湯，用五人，肩頸及焉。

For minor face-washing, the hot water was to be changed once, and two servants were employed to wash his face only. For major face-washing, the hot water was to be changed three times, and five servants were employed to wash down to his shoulders and neck.

小濯足，一易湯，用二人，踵踝而已；大濯足，三易湯，用四人，膝股及焉。

For minor foot-rinsing, the hot water was to be changed once, and two servants were employed [to wash] up to his heels and ankles only. For major foot-rinsing, the hot water was to be changed three times, and four servants were employed [to wash] up to his knees and thighs.

小澡浴，湯用三斛，人用五六；大澡浴，湯用五斛，人用八九。

Minor bathing required three hu [1] of hot water and five or six servants. Major bathing required five hu of hot water and eight or nine servants.

每日兩洗面，兩濯足，間日一小浴，又間日一大浴。口脂面藥燻爐妙香，未嘗斯須去側也。

Every day, [he] washed his face twice and rinsed his feet twice. Every second day, [he] took a minor bath, and every third day a major bath. [He] was never for a moment without his lip balm, facial ointments, incense burners, and fine perfumes.

與王介甫同時共時，介甫垢面亂髮，衣服生蟣蝨，而蒲則如此。視《南史》所稱何佟之一日洗浴十馀遍，同其水淫。若劉寬經年不洗浣、陰子春經年不濯足者，相反極矣。

[He] was Wang Anshi’s (1021-1086) contemporary. [2] Wang Anshi had a grimy face, dishevelled hair, and lice breeding in his clothes, whereas Pu was like this, sharing the same excessive indulgence in water with He Tongzhi who bathed over ten times a day as recorded in the History of the Southern Dynasties.[3] As for Liu Kuan (120-185), who went years without bathing, and Yin Zichun (d. 548), who went years without rinsing his feet, what extreme opposites! [4]

* From Pan Yongyin 潘永因 (fl. 1662) ed., Song bai leichao 宋稗類鈔, Yingyin Wenyuange Siku quanshu 景印文淵閣四庫全書 (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1987) edition, vol. 1034, 18.4a-b.

[1] One hu was about 33.5 litres at the time.

[2] Wang Anshi, one of the most important politicians and writers during the eleventh century, was as much well-known for his devotion to a series of major economic reforms as for his unkempt appearance.

[3] See the account of He Tongzhi in the Nanshi (scroll 72).

[4] See the account of Liu Kuan in the Hou Hanshu (scroll 25) and the account of Yin Zichun in the Nanshi (scroll 64).

And a more modest way of bathing...

Album leaf by Wu Bin 吳彬 (1573-1620), from "Hua Lengyan nianwu yutong foxiang" 畫楞嚴廿五圓通佛像 (Images of Twenty-five Buddhist Figures of Perfect Wisdom from the Śūraṅgama Sūtra)

Image credit: National Palace Museum, Taipei

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