In the early ancient times, people did not have cheapest eyeglasses, and the lighting conditions were poor, so it was very difficult to read at night by candlelight. Sun Simiao in the Tang Dynasty mentioned in "Qianjin Fang" that reading fine books at night will cause great damage to the eyes.
In ancient books such as health, the maintenance of the eyes is often regarded as an important content. In the concept of the ancients, the eyes are the notes of the viscera and the essence of the fu-organs, "the essence of the five viscera and the six fu-organs are on the essence of the eyes" (" Ling Shu · Great Confusion "), after people are old, the essence is gradually declining, and the eyes are dim. Chen Zhi of the Song Dynasty, the book of life pro-aged care, listed the "treatment of eye fainting night nourishing God pill", said this medicine "long take eyes Jiongran, God Yu Tai Ding, clear voice, on the lamp night, the more strong the eye, not faint, not sleep, nor tired." After taking it for two or three months, the more I feel, the more clear my eyes, the stronger my will, the lighter my step, and the more comfortable my body are the effects of medicine." That's a bit of a deification. Chinese medicine attaches great importance to ophthalmology, and there are many related medical books, such as "Mu Jing Dacheng", "Mu Department Shortcut", "Ophthalmic Qiming", "Ophthalmic Essentials", "Ophthalmic interpretation", "Ophthalmic integration", "Ophthalmic digest" and so on. Folk also have a vision of the goddess worship, which is mainly responsible for eliminating eye diseases.
Later, the Chinese people used crystal stone pieces to make glasses, mainly used to improve vision to assist reading, glasses in ancient times were called "叆叇", "僾 ciliary", sometimes also called "reading stone", "single photo", "eye ring" and so on. The Southern Song Dynasty "Dongtian Qinglu" cloud: "叆叇, the old man does not distinguish the book, so it is clear to cover the eyes." (Lu Fengzao, "Xiaozhi Record" volume 9)
Vision has a greater impact on human activities than other senses, and the decline and weakness of each individual's vision is inevitable. The invention of glasses may seem small, but it is of great importance to the whole human race. As the American scholar Postman said: "It has been pointed out that the invention of eyeglasses in the 12th century not only made it possible to correct vision, but also implied that human beings could not regard talents or defects as their ultimate destiny." The appearance of glasses tells us that we can avoid superstitious destiny, and the body and brain can be perfected. I think it would be fair to say that there is some correlation between the invention of glasses in the 12th century and the study of gene splitting in the 20th century." (Bozeman: Entertaining Ourselves to Death)
Although ancient crystal lenses are still in use today, the effect is not as good as the glass lenses commonly used today. Glasses with glass lenses were brought to China by missionaries coming to China in the late Ming Dynasty. In the Qing Dynasty, Zhao Yi said in "Yu Cong Kao" : "There was no glasses in ancient times, until there were Ming began to have them, this is from the Western regions." (Volume 33 "Glasses") Missionaries in the Ming and Qing Dynasties came to China, and the gifts they presented often included glasses. For example, in the seventh year of Yongzheng, the Western man Dai Jinxian gave Emperor Yongzheng a pair of glasses, but Yongzheng was still a little unhappy about the style of the glasses, and decreed: "Decorate the box according to the style I brought, and then sign the western characters inside the box, and read the Westerners, should write Chinese characters." (" The work file of the Office of the Internal Affairs Office of the Qing Dynasty ") Sometimes the Westerners paid hundreds of pairs of glasses at a time, including reading glasses, myopia glasses, flat lenses and so on. The decoration of accessories such as frames, mirror sets, and mirror boxes is also very exquisite, and craftsmen will be arranged in the court to make beautiful and valuable cases for glasses, and later set up special institutions to repair and make glasses to meet the increasing needs.
