Kang (oven bed)

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A kang ( Chinese : kàng炕; Manchurian : nahan ; Tibetan : cachi ཚ་ ཁྲི་) is a traditional brick oven bed for several people, as it is in the countryside, especially in northeastern China , e.g. But partly also to the west until Tibet is still in use today.

The lady of the house is accompanied by a servant while the children around her play on a kang, painting by Gao Yinzhang (1835–1906)

Construction

The exhaust air from the fireplace is fed through a system of pipes ( kàngdòng炕洞) and the Kang is heated from below. Between the fireplace and the kang and between the kang and the chimney there is a catchment point for ashes so that the pipes are not clogged. The surface temperature is usually kept at 40 ° C.

Today kangs are often made of concrete .

use

Especially in winter, not only do you sleep on the kang, but you can also stay on it during the day. A small table ( kàngjī炕 几 or kàngzhuōzi炕桌 子) is then placed on the kang for eating and other activities .

Traditionally there was a hierarchical sleeping order on the kang. At the top of the hierarchy was the place which was closest to the fireplace (kàngtóu 炕头). The eldest man in the household slept there, his wife next to him, followed by the other family members by generation , age and gender .

The kang is also used for drying laundry (kàngbù 炕 布) and crops, as well as for hatching eggs .

literature

Web links

See also

Footnotes

  1. Guo Qinghua: A Traditional Architectural Heating System in China: The Manchurian kang and huodi . In: Alan KL Chan, Gregory K. Clancey, Hui-Chieh Loy (eds.): Historical perspectives on East Asian Science, Technology and Medicine . World Scientific / Singapore University Press, 2001, ISBN 9971-69-259-7 , p. 507.
  2. Christopher L. Salter: [[Dazhai (Xiyang) |]] Village, Shanxi. A model landscape. In: Ronald G. Knapp (ed.): Chinese Landscapes. The Village as Place . University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu 1992, ISBN 0-8248-1413-4 , p. 202.
  3. ^ Werner Rüdenberg, Hans OH Stange: Chinese-German dictionary . Cram, DeGruyter & Co., Hamburg 1963, ISBN 3-11-003548-0 , p. 130.
  4. Yunxiang Yan: Private Life Under Socialism: Love, Intimacy, and Family Change in a Chinese Village, 1949-1999 . Stanford University Press 2003, ISBN 0-8047-3309-0 , p. 123.
  5. Rüdenberg / Stange 1963, loc. cit.
  6. Brigitte Steger: (No) time to sleep? Cultural historical and social anthropological exploration of Japanese sleeping habits . LIT, Berlin / Munich / Hamburg 2004, ISBN 3-8258-6993-8 , p. 28; Eduard Erkes: Chinese . Dürr & Weber, Leipzig 1920, p. 51