The Bamboo Wife in the Summer Bed
The bamboo wife was a hollow woven bolster placed on a summer bed. Its literary names are unusually elaborate, but the object itself was built for arms, knees, moving air, and a room arranged around humid weather.
A cool-bed object in Song writing
Huang Tingjian's title states: "A bamboo object for the cool bed, used to rest the arm and knee." He renamed it qingnu, or green servant. The description identifies both the material and the bodily position without turning the object into a general room cooler.
The woven cylinder remained hollow. Bamboo strips formed an open cage sturdy enough to hold a limb away from the bedding. Air passed through the center, while the rounded surface reduced the area touching skin.
Names attached to the bed
Later records also use bamboo knee-rest, bamboo lady, and green servant. Zhang Lei's Bamboo Wife Biography turns the household object into a courtly character, extending a joke already present in the name. The writing depends on readers recognizing an ordinary summer furnishing.
Daily handling was less literary. The weave was checked for a lifted edge, wiped, and placed beside a cassia-seed pillow. On a clear morning the bolster was aired while cotton bedding crossed the rail. A mint cloth near the doorway belonged to the same room's smaller adjustments.
The object after cooled rooms
Electric fans, synthetic bolsters, and cooled rooms reduced the need for an open bamboo cylinder on the bed. Surviving examples are now more likely to appear in collections, craft markets, or households that still change bedding with the season.
The useful evidence remains in the construction: open center, smooth strips, rounded ends, and a length made to lie beside the sleeper.