Brief introduction of diet in Han dynasty

With the complete birth of China's unification, the powerful Han royal family went further than the Qin Dynasty in diet. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty had the most complete food management system in China at that time. Among the officials in charge of the daily affairs of the emperor, there are taiguan, tangguan and daoguan related to food activities. They are "main diet", "main cake bait" and "main rice selection" This is a huge bureaucratic system. Under the official order, there are seven officials, including officials in charge of offering food everywhere, officials in charge of daily diet, and officials in charge. Taiguan and Tangguan each have 3,000 handmaiden, and the food expenses of the emperor and harem reach 200 million yuan every year. This expenditure is equivalent to the property of the middle class of the Han Dynasty. The daily expenditure is 548,000 yuan, equivalent to more than 2,700 stones of good rice or 9 1000 Jin of good meat. The etiquette system of the Han Dynasty stipulated that the son of heaven "must have the taste of eight treasures in his diet." They are "rich and delicious, and taste the world."

The change of seasons had a great influence on the living conditions of ordinary people in Han Dynasty. For example, Xu Gan, a man at the end of the Han Dynasty, said, "It's a hot summer", and even the nobles feel that "the body is picturesque, the water is like a spring, the fan is not working, and the banquet is fresh." The seasonal restriction of diet and life was reduced to the lowest level at that time by the emperor and empresses. In winter, the emperor can enjoy onions, leeks and other vegetables produced in spring, which are expensive. Officials "built houses, lit fires day and night, and waited for the temperature to increase." In the hot summer, the emperor and his concubines are all "hard ice often falls, and cold exchanges."

During this period, the spread of food culture in China intensified. According to Records of Historical Records and Hanshu, when Zhang Qian went to the Western Regions in the Western Han Dynasty, he had economic and cultural exchanges with Central Asian countries through the Silk Road. Zhang Qian and others not only introduced products such as gourd, walnut, coriander, flax, carrot and pomegranate from the Western Regions, but also introduced products such as peaches, plums, apricots, pears, ginger, tea and food culture from the Central Plains to the Western Regions. Today, among the cultural relics unearthed from the Han tombs in the former Western Regions are wooden chopsticks from the Central Plains. One of China's traditional barbecue techniques, iron plate barbecue, also spread to Central Asia and West Asia through the Silk Road very early, and finally formed kebabs that local people like to eat.

The Southwest Silk Road, which was earlier than the Northwest Silk Road, started in Chengdu, an important town in the southwest, and passed through Yunnan to Myanmar and India in Indochina Peninsula. This Silk Road also played a role in spreading food culture to the outside world in the Han Dynasty. For example, during the Jianwu period of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Liu Xiu, Emperor Guangwu of Han Dynasty, sent Fu Bo general Ma Yuan south to Jiaozhi (present-day Vietnam). At that time, a large number of officers and men of the Han Dynasty built cities and lived in Jiao Jiao and other places, and brought the food customs such as eating zongzi on the Dragon Boat Festival on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month in China to Jiao Jiao and other places. So Vietnam and Southeast Asian countries still keep the custom of eating zongzi.

At the same time, China's Wei Man was king in North Korea. At this time, China's food culture had the deepest influence on North Korea. North Korea is used to eating with chopsticks. The cooking materials used in North Korea and the collocation of food in North Korea obviously have the characteristics of China. Even in cooking theory, North Korea pays attention to China's "five flavors" and "five colors".

Chang 'an in Tang Dynasty was the center of world culture at that time, and China gradually formed a multi-ethnic country, which provided convenience for the exchange and integration of various ethnic food cultures. Special products from the western regions were first introduced to the mainland, which greatly enriched the food and cultural life of all ethnic groups in the mainland. The exquisite dishes and cooking skills of various ethnic groups in mainland China have gradually spread to the west and are loved by local people.

In the process of mutual communication, all ethnic groups constantly innovate the Chinese nation's food culture. During this period, ethnic minorities in the west and northwest were still living together with the Han nationality, gradually getting used to and accepting farming as a way of production and life, and began to live a settled agricultural life. At the same time, animal husbandry in the mainland has also developed rapidly, thanks to frequent exchanges between Hu ethnic groups. This change has also greatly changed the traditional diet structure of Hu Hanmin people. During the Han and Tang Dynasties, "eating meat and drinking cheese" began to become a common dietary feature of Hu Hanmin people in the whole northern and northwestern regions.

Today, we eat about 160 vegetables every day. However, about half of the common vegetables in 100 are native to China and about half are imported from abroad. During the Han and Tang Dynasties, the Central Plains introduced many kinds of vegetables and fruits, such as alfalfa, spinach, Brassica, gourd, beans, garlic and coriander, grapes, almonds, watermelons and pomegranates, as well as spices such as pepper and sugar, through exchanges with ethnic minorities in the northwest. At the same time, the cooking methods of the western regions were also introduced to the Central Plains, such as cheese, Hu cake, Qiang cooking and baking, Hu roasted meat, Hu soup, mutton sausage and so on.

During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, various Hu foods introduced from the Han Dynasty gradually spread in the Yellow River valley and were loved by the majority of Han people, among which the cooking method of "Qiang cooking and roasting" was the most typical. The so-called "Qiang cooking" means cooking or rinsing sheep and venison; Braised pork is similar to roasted whole sheep. In the fourth volume of Ming Shi, it says: "Braised in brown sauce, all roasted, each with a knife, out of nonsense." It is precisely because of the delicious taste of "Qiang Boiled Qiang Baked" that it is favored by the vast number of Han people and gradually becomes synonymous with cultural exchanges between Hu and Han. On the other hand, the Han nationality also continuously exported the food civilization of the Central Plains to the western regions and the surrounding ethnic minorities. Among them, there are vegetables, fruits and tea produced in the Central Plains, as well as food production methods.

The Han and Tang Dynasties were also a period of gradual changes in China's traditional diet. After the Eastern Han Dynasty, Hu Chuang, as a kind of seat, was introduced into the Central Plains from the Western Regions and gradually became widely used. Because sitting on the Hu bed requires two feet on the ground, which changes the traditional kneeling posture of the Han nationality. The new changes in furniture from Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties to Sui and Tang Dynasties also reached a climax. On the one hand, the height of the traditional bed plan is constantly improving; On the other hand, the types of new high-rise furniture have increased, such as chairs and tables. It's already in use. After the appearance of tables and chairs, people naturally sat around a table to eat, which had a fundamental impact on the traditional way of eating in the Central Plains.

Generally speaking, dietary customs are gradually formed in the long historical development process, so they are relatively stable. However, everything is constantly developing and changing, and so is the diet custom of any nation. With the changes of the times, there will always be slow and gradual changes. Here, new dietary materials and cooking methods become new variables, and the emergence of new variables is not only related to social and economic development, but also related to foreign cultural exchanges. The changes of food culture in Tang Dynasty fully illustrate this point. The most peculiar food in the Tang Dynasty is "Hu Cai", which comes from the Han people's views on food imported from the western regions. Hu cuisine reached its peak in the Tang Dynasty after it was introduced to China through the Silk Road in the Han and Wei Dynasties. "The Book of the New Tang Dynasty Imperial Records" said: "The nobles prepare food." There were many kinds of Hu foods in the Tang Dynasty, such as noodles, beer and Hu cakes. This cake is fried. Kelly said in "The Classics, Sounds and Meaning": "This cake was originally eaten by Hu, but it was effective in China, so it was named in modern times with a little change." Biro originated from Persian and is generally considered to refer to a kind of food steamed or baked with flour and stuffing. In the Tang Dynasty, there were many restaurants operating Robbie in Chang 'an, including crab roe Robbie, pig liver Robbie and sheep kidney Robbie. Hu cake is a sesame cake with meat in the middle. Shops selling Hu cakes are very common. According to Zi Jian Xuan Zong Ji, it was noon when Xuanzong fled to Jixian Palace in the Anshi Rebellion. "There was no food in Judah, so Yang took cakes from the city to offer Hu." Famous wines from the western regions and their production methods were also introduced to China in the Tang Dynasty. According to Records of the Historian (Volume 970), in the early Tang Dynasty, Gaochang mare's milk grape and its brewing method were introduced to Chang 'an, and Emperor Taizong personally supervised eight kinds of wines, which were "fragrant and refreshing, with a twisty taste". Since it was awarded as a minister, the capital began to know its taste, and thus many Tang poems singing wine were produced. The Tang Dynasty also introduced cane sugar and its sugar-making technology from the western regions, which added a little sweetness to China's ancient diet, and its significance was no less than that of introducing wine.

The exchange of food culture between Tang Dynasty and foreign countries once caused an uproar. In Chang 'an, Luoyang and other cities, people's material life has an atmosphere of advocating the western regions. Western countries' food-flavored clothes are all beautiful, and worshipping foreign things and obsessing foreign things has become a major trend. At that time, in Chang 'an, there were many hotels run by conference semifinals, accompanied by beautifully dressed Hu Ji. Literati such as Li Bai frequented these hotels, and many poems in Tang poetry mentioned these hotels and Hu Ji. Restaurant Hu and Hu Ji have become an important feature of food culture in Tang Dynasty. Food cultures from all over the world brought by foreign cultural messengers, such as a clear stream, merged into a sea of food in the Tang Dynasty. Because of this, the food culture in the Tang Dynasty can show more gorgeous colors than in any previous historical period. The opening of diet life, in turn, promotes the opening of society.

In the East, Jian Zhen Du Dong also brought China's food culture to Japan, and Japanese people's use of chopsticks was also influenced by China. In the Tang Dynasty, Japanese students studying in China almost brought back a full set of old people's eating customs in China, such as drinking Tu Su wine on New Year's Day, eating seven kinds of dishes on the seventh day of the first month, having a Qushui banquet in March, drinking calamus wine on the fifth day of May and drinking chrysanthemum wine on the ninth day of September. Among them, after the Dragon Boat Festival Zongzi was introduced to Japan, the Japanese made some improvements according to their eating habits, and exhibited several varieties, such as Daoxi Zongzi, Yi Zongzi, Ge Zongzi and Asahina Zongzi. In the Tang Dynasty, the Japanese also introduced the methods of making noodles, steamed bread, jiaozi, wonton and sauce from China. Soy sauce, vinegar, lobster sauce, red yeast and tofu, sour glutinous rice balls, dried plums, sake, etc. The spices that Japanese people often use for seasoning are all from China. Interestingly, the Japanese call bean paste soup sauce, broad bean, pepper, radish soup, peanut Nanjing bean, bean curd skin soup skin and so on.

The prosperous Tang dynasty is also a prosperous time in diet, and barbecue is the highest representative. What is a "barbecue"? According to "Biography of Su Xun in Old Tang Dynasty": "When a minister or minister worships an official for the first time, it is called burning the tail." That is to say, when the minister just took office, in order to be grateful, he presented a feast to the emperor, which was called "burning tail".

How extravagant is barbecue?

Qing recorded an incomplete food list left by Wei Juyuan when he held a barbecue. In the menu, there are 58 kinds of dishes and more than 20 kinds of cakes. There are 32 kinds of dishes, including bears, deer and donkeys in the north, raccoons, shrimps, crabs, frogs and turtles in the south, as well as fish, chickens, ducks, quails, pigs, cows, sheep and rabbits.

For example, at a banquet, there is a kind of dishes, that is, craft dishes, which are mainly used for decoration and appreciation. Among them, there is a kind of vegetable watching called "vegetarian steaming sound department", which is a group of Penglai fairy dancers made of vegetarian dishes and steamed noodles, with 70 pieces. You see, how much time and energy it takes to cook a craft dish. For example, a cake called "Cut Honeysuckle Flat" is to pick out crab roe and crab meat, put them in a steam roll, and then cut them into small pieces of equal size. Another example is a dish called "Tong Niu Chang", which is made of sheep bone marrow and other accessories into sausages and other foods. The soup in the barbecue is also very delicate, such as "cold toad soup", which is clam soup, but it should be eaten cold, such as cold minced meat, which is made of raccoon meat. After it is cold, it is chopped and eaten cold, similar to aspic.

These 58 kinds of dishes are not the whole menu of "barbecue banquet", but just strangers. Due to the long history and short records, the exact overall scale and luxury of the barbecue banquet are beyond our real knowledge today.