“God forbid we live in an era of change,” says an old Chinese proverb, meanwhile this era never ends, and perhaps there cannot be another. Of course, when you read the classics, it seems as if they have everything the same - the same problems, experiences, dreams and anxieties. However, is this so? Not really. Even over the past 100−150 years, many aspects everyday life changed beyond recognition, and what shocks us today left our ancestors indifferent, while the usual modern man things caused a lot of embarrassment, hostility and inconvenience in the old days.
Housing
Today it is normal for us to have own apartment or even a house, or renting a house. The rental object is usually either an entire apartment or a room. Looking at luxury apartments from ancient paintings and engravings, we forget how a huge percentage of city residents huddled in corners, attics and basements.
Previously, apartments used to rent out not only rooms, but also corners and beds
It wasn't even the rooms that were rented out - the corners. Individuals and entire families could cohabit in one room, separated by a screen or curtain. Moreover, the practice was to rent out the same bed to several people at once: while you are at work, several renters manage to sleep in your bed.
Personal hygiene
You don't know anything about shame unless you've had to hide your bathroom in a closet and hide your shower behind a fake door. Meanwhile, according to the etiquette of the 19th century, such objects were considered indecent. In the palace of Alexander II, the bathroom was hidden in a special recess in the floor, on top of which there was a sofa, and the shower was literally in the closet. Before filling the bathtub with water, it was necessary to lay a clean sheet in it - they tried to avoid direct contact of the body with the body of the bathtub. Shower-chandeliers were also popular - candles were inserted into them on one side, and water flowed out of holes on the other.
Gau Eduard Petrovich. Bathroom of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. 1877
Way of life
By staying late at work, you probably warn your family about this. But imagine what a late return promises you on the street at night. And not because a jealous spouse won’t let you in, but because your own janitor simply won’t open the door for you. Returning after midnight and not being allowed into your own apartment is a common occurrence for residents of apartment buildings. For reasons of order and safety, the windshield wipers were always locked every evening. entrance doors, and they took a “tip” from latecomers.
Domestic "pets"
“If there was a hut, there would be cockroaches”, “A cockroach is not a fly, it will not upset the belly” - there are many proverbs about cockroaches in Russian culture, and it is no coincidence - together with fleas, bedbugs, ants and other pests they formed an integral part of the inhabitants residential buildings. “What kind of sleep is it without a bug?” one of Goncharov’s characters reasoned in Oblomov. It’s not that they weren’t trying to get them out, but they weren’t considered a big problem either. The homes of both ordinary townspeople and those very beautiful aristocrats from ceremonial portraits were infested with various pests and insects. Instead of fighting them, people even the most high society often preferred to carry elegant bite scratchers and exquisite flea trap boxes.
It is difficult to imagine what is ordinary and familiar today will become wild for our descendants. What will they laugh at in a hundred years and what will the next generations be horrified at? It seems to us that we are absolutely normal even now.
Why hide the shower in the closet and how to cope with disgust for the bathroom? Who could not let you into your own apartment and with whom did aristocrats and poor people share their bed? We answer these questions in the new issue of History Elective.
“God forbid we live in an era of change,” says an old Chinese proverb, meanwhile this era never ends, and perhaps there cannot be another. Of course, when you read the classics, it seems as if they have everything the same - the same problems, experiences, dreams and anxieties. However, is this so? Not really. Even over the past 100-150 years, many aspects of everyday life have changed beyond recognition, and what shocks us today left our ancestors indifferent, while things common to modern people caused a lot of embarrassment, hostility and inconvenience in the old days.
Today it is normal for us to have our own apartment or even a house, or rent a house. The rental object is usually either an entire apartment or a room. Looking at luxury apartments from ancient paintings and engravings, we forget how a huge percentage of city residents huddled in corners, attics and basements. It wasn't even the rooms that were rented out - the corners. Individuals and entire families could cohabit in one room, separated by a screen or curtain. Moreover, the practice was to rent out the same bed to several people at once: while you are at work, several renters manage to sleep in your bed.
You don't know anything about shame unless you've had to hide your bathroom in a closet and hide your shower behind a fake door. Meanwhile, according to the etiquette of the 19th century, such objects were considered indecent. In the palace of Alexander II, the bathroom was hidden in a special recess in the floor, on top of which there was a sofa, and the shower was literally located in the closet. Before filling the bathtub with water, it was necessary to lay a clean sheet in it - they tried to avoid direct contact of the body with the body of the bathtub. Shower-chandeliers were also popular - candles were inserted into them on one side, and water flowed out of holes on the other.
By staying late at work, you probably warn your family about it. But imagine what a late return promises you on the street at night. And not because a jealous spouse won’t let you in, but because your own janitor simply won’t open the door for you. Returning after midnight and not being allowed into your own apartment is a common occurrence for residents of apartment buildings. For reasons of order and security, the janitors always locked the entrance doors every evening, and took a “tip” from latecomers.
“If there was a hut, there would be cockroaches”, “A cockroach is not a fly, it will not upset the belly” - there are many proverbs about cockroaches in Russian culture, and it is no coincidence - together with fleas, bedbugs, ants and other pests they formed an integral part of the inhabitants of residential houses. “What kind of sleep is it without a bug?” one of Goncharov’s characters reasoned in Oblomov. It’s not that they weren’t trying to get them out, but they weren’t considered a big problem either. The homes of both ordinary townspeople and those very beautiful aristocrats from ceremonial portraits were infested with various pests and insects. Instead of fighting them, people of even the highest society often preferred to carry elegant bite scratchers and exquisite flea trap boxes.
Gau Eduard Petrovich. Bathroom of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. 1877
It is difficult to imagine what is ordinary and familiar today will become wild for our descendants. What will they laugh at in a hundred years and what will the next generations be horrified at? It seems to us that we are absolutely normal even now.
Sword of Damocles. According to Greek legend, the Syracuse tyrant Dionysius (late 5th century BC) offered to replace him on the throne for one day with his favorite Damocles, who considered Dionysius the happiest of mortals. In the midst of the fun at the feast, Damocles suddenly saw a naked sword hanging on a horsehair above his head, and realized the illusory nature of well-being.
Crisis is some very alarming word and condition hanging over our heads like the sword of Damocles. Everywhere there is nothing but talk: someone was fired, someone was sent on leave for an indefinite period of time, someone had an unpaid loan, someone is sick, and the medicine is becoming more expensive, and then... What will happen next?
There are troubles, such as wars, when you can survive only by uniting the whole people. There are troubles when everyone survives on their own, and even by relying on the help of a friend, or by uniting in some small cells.
Let's learn to survive. Where to start? First of all, don't panic! Any panic is an additional expenditure of energy, nerves, money, it is chaos. Try to clearly distinguish between your personal problems, those of your social group and those of the state. Unfortunately (or fortunately), the state is not always us; it has its own difficulties. If you are a civil servant or an employee, or you have your own business, these are also somewhat different planes. In the first case, if you were fired, there is no need to make a tragedy out of it. Calm down, wait it out and just start looking for another job, perhaps changing your occupation altogether. Try to find a use for yourself in some other area. Maybe it will turn out that everything is for the better and that before you worked in a completely different place, and the changes will open up new abilities and other perspectives in you.
Believe me, there is always work, the only question is what to do. Don't be afraid of change! Remember that in the 90s, many engineers and teachers changed jobs to jobs completely unrelated to their education: they went into business, repairs, and trade. Among my acquaintances in those years, a former officer took up Internet technologies, and the best teacher of the year in one of the republics took up construction. Some remained in this field, grew up and feel great, others returned to the profession and remember those years as some kind of adventure, not the worst in life. Which, meanwhile, gave me the opportunity to simply survive in that very difficult time, to help myself and my family. The current owners of their own business can even more proudly say: I survived in a more difficult situation, I persevered, nothing has broken me and nothing will break me now.
Important in stressful situations do not isolate yourself on yourself, on your own suffering, do not accumulate and cherish resentment at the injustice of our world order. Everything passes - the crisis will also pass. A jump down is not always evil. What we spent a lot of energy on suddenly goes away and we free up a lot of time and energy for something else. Nothing happens in life for nothing. Maybe someone specially stopped your endless running in a circle to nowhere and you need to look back and think? In fact, to be happy, a person needs close people, a loved one, and understanding. And in monetary terms, our relative well-being fits into the amounts that we can always earn. Of course, if you don't sit with your hands folded.
What's going on, a crisis? But nothing threatens you as an individual. Has your income decreased? A reason to calmly analyze your expenses. Believe me, you will definitely find that in some ways they require adjustment for a long time and they can be limited absolutely painlessly. Remember that free time can be spent not only in the hustle and bustle of shops, buying sometimes absolutely unnecessary things or filling carts to the brim in supermarkets. With great pleasure you can spend a day in the park or outside the city, on fresh air and at minimal cost.
Remember that you once had a “hobby”, you were interested in something, for example, music or growing tomatoes on the windowsill, or really loved assembling complex models of aircraft carriers. Or maybe you should try to discover your talent as a painter or remember that there are wonderful books in the world that you just couldn’t get around to reading. Or maybe you have long wanted to correct your figure or make your biceps more prominent? Get started now! An excellent stress reliever.
It sounds banal, but it has been proven by life: the rich also cry, the presence or absence of happiness does not depend on the number of rubles or dollars in your pocket. Money by itself does not make people happier. The most brilliant works came from the pen or brush of masters during periods of their greatest poverty and misfortune.
So, what do we need from today:
1. Accept as an axiom that there is no stability in our time and there never will be. Even if you are working now, have a backup plan. It might come in handy.
2. Try to have several sources of income. Let it be several thin streams. If one suddenly runs out, the rest will help you stay afloat.
3. Don't be afraid to think and act outside the box. Don't be afraid to be "not like everyone else." Exactly non-standard solutions sometimes they give the most unexpected and positive results. Don't be afraid to make mistakes!
4. At the slightest opportunity, study. Don't be afraid to look ridiculous in someone's eyes. There is an opportunity - at least study it Chinese. Who knows, maybe this will be the decisive factor and help you draw your lucky lottery ticket.
5. Be optimistic! Friday the 13th? Are you at all worried? Let's get to work! On Thursday the 12th, dye your black cat red - it will definitely bring you good luck.
The world is changing before our eyes, rapidly. Changes beyond recognition. You have to live with this.
There is only one life. Appreciate every moment, even during a crisis.
Tell yourself: I am a man! I am a person! I can do anything! Life is wonderful!
Any test is another step up. Don't be afraid to go up the stairs.
I don’t know what the Chinese meant when they puffed out the hieroglyphs of yet another Chinese wisdom, “God forbid you live in an era of change,” but I believe that this saying, to put it mildly, is not entirely authentic.
(With) Wise Lin at work.
Indeed, taking into account the main postulate of the I Ching: “everything flows, everything changes,” the previous expression looks strange.
The meaning that the philosopher put into his parting words, in all likelihood, should have been understood as follows: “God forbid you live in an era of changes that are pseudo changes.”
Well, let's put it this way:
“Once upon a time there lived in the kingdom of Tang a ruler who loved, puffing out his cheeks and shaking his head like a Chinese dummy, to issue decrees for the Celestial Empire. His name was simple: stupid Van. He believed that the people did not live correctly enough, and as a result they were mired in inertia and dense laziness. Therefore, stupid Wang wrote ardent appeals every day with recommendations on how his subjects could organize the kingdom of Tang. And of course, everyone remembered his historical call “Forward, Celestial Empire!”, from which the Tang kingdom really turned out to be forward.
After which one meticulous courtier named Lin wrote down in the “Book of Changes” in calligraphic handwriting the thought that came to his mind: “make a fool pray to God, he will break his forehead.”
But the worthless and stupid Wang had State Councilor Xiang, a real lieutenant colonel. Usually, any Wang, for greater competition, had three main advisers on his staff - the “three gunas”: “great mentor”, “great teacher” and “great patron” (Xiang was appointed from among them). In addition, three managers played a significant role in the state: one was in charge of the praise service, the other preserved and increased the treasury, and the third (“the great chief of the stools”) managed the military department.
So, stupid Wang, instead of three senior advisers, ended up with one. This guy's name was Xiana, Pup. And since Pup was cunning and power-hungry, he decided to overthrow the stupid Van, all of whose anal attempts at change ended in simply spoiled air.
Moreover, the subjects did not want to breathe the air of lack of freedom and injustice and “tangerine” moods were ripening in the Tang kingdom. And this was dangerous for the integrity of the Celestial Empire.
And having overthrown the stupid Van, the insidious Pup announced to the people of the empire that Van had lost his mind (and this was a complete lie, because Van never had any reason, and instead of brains he had donkey droppings) and now he would be the Emperor of the Tang kingdom. So that the people would not grumble, the power-hungry Pup ordered all his officials: gong, hou, bo, ji, inan and others, to promise stability and prosperity to the people. And the manager of the service of Praise was given the order to glorify Emperor Pupus in all the open spaces and crossroads of the Celestial Empire.
The insidious Pup canceled all the stupid legislative initiatives of the stupid Van. And he himself began to depict vigorous activity, because the people were waiting for changes. He changed one robe for another, changed Ji for Bo, and Hou for Gong, wore a kippah instead of a skullcap, and a diving helmet instead of a hat with earflaps. He soared into the skies and descended under the water, rode a yellow donkey around the kingdom, praising local donkeys as the most resilient and hardworking. He became an eyesore for everyone: from potters to Shaolin monks, from peasants to merchants, from Tanguts to Uyghurs.
But nothing changed, because the insidious Pup did not understand one simple thing: d Even on a very small Lie it is impossible to build the kingdom of Truth.
Once again, the people of the Celestial Empire lived in deep melancholy and the hopeless darkness of stability, which some subjects called “stagnation”, and more advanced citizens called “sucks”. After which this wisdom came to the mind of the meticulous Lin, which he immediately wrote down in calligraphic handwriting in the “Book of Changes”: “God forbid you live in an era of pseudo changes.”
And as we now know, this phrase was trimmed by later chroniclers to the notorious “wisdom”: God forbid you live in an era of change.”
It turns out that everything is so simple.
PS. About some unknown facts biographies of Lin can be read