The Narrative And Annotations Of Relative Issues About Ice In The Yuan And Ming Dynasties

What this paper reviews is some issues about ice storing, ice using, which can date back to the Pre-Qin Dynasty. Not only does the usage of ice occur in the daily life of upper-class, but also it appears in the cult and funeral rites, which we find proof in some ancient classical books, such as Chronicle of Zuo, Rituals of Chou and Book of Rites. This paper summarizes firstly the pertinent issues about ice before the Yuan Dynasty,and then gives several comments on problems about the date and place of storing ice in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties. Besides, this thesis expounds and elucidates respectively some issues about the usage of ice in this two dynasties. Finally, what the paper aims at is to annotate what have been vague and unclear in extant documents in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties. There are many common and distinct aspects, in terms of ice issues, between the Yuan Dynasty and Ming Dynasty. Especially after Song Dynasty, it is not feasible for the intrinsical rituals about exercising ice to be implemented severely. Meanwhile, the trend that ice was made use of in secular life was becoming increasingly conspicuous and overt.