Kang bed-stove

The ''kang'' (; Manchu: ''nahan'', kk, кән) is a traditional heated platform, 2 metres or more long, used for general living, working, entertaining and sleeping in the northern part of China, where the winter climate is cold. It is made of bricks or other forms of fired clay and more recently of concrete in some locations. The word ''kang'' means "to dry".

Its interior cavity, leading to an often-convoluted flue system, channels the hot exhaust from a firewood/coal fireplace, usually the cooking fire from an adjacent room that serves as a kitchen, sometimes from a stove set below floor level. This allows a longer contact time between the exhaust (which still contains much heat from the combustion source) and (indirectly) the inside of the room, hence more heat transfer/recycling back into the room, effectively making it a ducted heating system similar to the Roman hypocaust. A separate stove may be used to control the amount of smoke circulating through the ''kang'', maintaining comfort in warmer weather. Typically, a ''kang'' occupies one-third to one half of the floor space, and is used for sleeping at night and for other activities during the day. A ''kang'' which covers the entire floor is called a ''dikang'' ().

Like the European cocklestove, a massive block of masonry is used to retain heat. While it might take several hours of heating to reach the desired surface temperature, a properly designed bed raised to sufficient temperature should remain warm throughout the night without the need to maintain a fire.

History

The ''kang'' is said to be derived from the heated bed floor called a ''huoqiang'' found in Neolithic China, according to archeological excavations of building remains in Banpo Xi'an. Sites in Shenyang, Liaoning, show humans using the heated bed floor as early as 7,200 years ago. The bed at this excavation is made of 10 cm pounded clay on the floor. The bed was heated by ''zhidi'', placing an open fire on the bed floor and clearing the ashes before sleeping. In the excavated example the repeated burning is believed to have turned the bed surface hard and moisture resistant.

The first known heated platform appeared in what is now Northeastern China and used a single flue system like the Roman hypocaust and the Korean ''ondol''. An example was unearthed among 1st-century building remains in Heilongjiang Province. Its flue is 'L' shaped, built from adobe and cobblestones and covered with stone slabs.

Heated walls with a double flue system were found in a 4th-century palace building in Jilin Province. It had an 'L' shaped adobe bench with a double flue system. The structure is more complex than a single flue system and has functionality similar to a ''kang''.

Literary evidence from Li Daoyuan's ''Commentary on the Water Classic'' also gives evidence of heated floors during the Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534 AD), though this was not explicitly named a ''dikang'':

The ''kang'' may have evolved to its bed design due to ongoing cultural changes during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, as high furniture and chairs came to be prevalent over the earlier style of floor-sitting and low-lying furniture in Chinese culture. The earliest ''kang'' remains have been discovered at Ninghai, Heilongjiang Province, in the Longquanfu Palace (699-926) of Balhae origin.

Culture

''Traditional Chinese Dwellings'' (''Zhongguo chuantong minju'') (a bilingual text) has a few line drawings of ''kangs''. It says that the ''kang'' is used to cook meals and heat the room, making full use of the heat-retaining capacity of the loess adobe.html" ;"title="oil used to make adobe">oil used to make adobe The ''kang'' produces radiant heat to indirectly warm the interior space as well as the bed mass itself. It has been speculated that one of the oldest forms of Chinese housing, heated cave dwellings known as yaodong, widespread throughout northern China would have been uninhabitable without the ''kang''.

The ''kang'' was also an important feature of traditional dwellings in often-frigid Manchuria, where it was known as ''nahan'' in Manchu. It plays an important role in Manchurian mourning customs. The deceased is placed beside the ''kang'' instead of in the central hall, as is Han Chinese practice. The height of the board on which the body is placed indicates the family status or age of the deceased.

See also

*Masonry heater
*Ondol - similar system in Korea
*Kotatsu
*Russian stove
*Hypocaust
*Underfloor heating

Notes

References

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* Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on the History of Science in East Asia, held August 23–27, 1999 in Singapore.

External links

Mud bed influences Chinese ancient culture

{{Bedding

Architecture in China
Chinese inventions
Fireplaces
Traditional Chinese architecture