I want to know, in the past dynasties, was there any customization for the diet of officials for each meal? Or eat whatever you want and cook as much as you want?

There is also customization and service by grade.

China's food culture is linked to power, and historical data show that the food etiquette policy in the pre-Qin period was quite complete. There are strict rules on the classification of dishes, cooking tastes, eating methods and feasts. Ding, a popular bronze tableware in the Zhou Dynasty, is a symbol of measuring social status: Jiuding was used by the monarch, seven Ding was used by the Qing Dynasty, five Ding was used by doctors, and one Ding or three Ding was used by scholars. The same is true of The Book of Rites Beans. Li Yunhan has thirty sons of heaven, six princes, two princes, eight doctors and six doctors. There are strict restrictions on the consumption of food. Under the Chu language, the father language is reflected;

The son of heaven eats too fast, and there are cattle and sheep. The prince ate cows, the Qing dynasty ate sheep, doctors ate tapirs, scholars ate fried fish, and Shu Ren ate vegetables. This division comes from ancient records. Shangshu Hong Fan said: "Only the monarch is a blessing, only the monarch is a power, and only the monarch is a jade food." In other words, only the monarch can be king and eat jade. Book of rites Wang Zhi said: "Governors don't kill cows for no reason, doctors don't kill sheep for no reason, scholars don't kill dogs for no reason, and Shu Ren doesn't eat treasures for no reason."

It was not until the Qing Dynasty that this level of dietary regulations reached its peak. Take the royal banquet as an example, the emperor banquet table has 40 dishes; The queen's first-class banquet table was reduced to 32 tables; There are two people at the second-class banquet table for concubines and three people at the third-class banquet table, and the number of dishes at each table is reduced to 15. The dishes that emperors and queens can't finish are often for ministers.

Etiquette is constantly changing, but the general spirit remains the same: my official is bigger than you, my power is bigger than you, and I eat better than you.

The biggest official in the world is the emperor-in fact, immortals are just servants of the emperor. The biggest immortal also has essential grade difference with the emperor, and the most powerful is the emperor. Therefore, China's food culture is long and exquisite, which is also reflected in the emperor's mouth.

Dr. Sun Yat-sen said: China's modern civilization has evolved and everything has fallen behind, but the progress of diet still lags behind that of civilized countries. The food invented by China is abundant in Europe and America. Moreover, China's excellent cooking methods are not comparable to those in Europe and America. "This is extremely. At the same time, Mr. Sun pointed out that the maturity of this food culture shows the maturity of Chinese civilization. This is debatable. In fact, the reason why China's food culture has reached such a peak, just like China's "sex culture" reached its peak, is a totalitarian system.

Why do you see it? When Qi Huangong was tired of delicious food, he wanted to change his taste-let's just say he wanted to eat human flesh in Qi Huangong. He has a courtier named Yi Ya, who is an excellent cook. Qi Huangong told Yi Ya what he meant, and Yi Ya immediately went home to kill her son and made baby soup for Qi Huangong.

The king of China has so much power that he can eat whatever he wants. He eats game when he eats delicacies, and eats game when he eats people. This desire to eat food is infinitely magnified. Therefore, it is difficult for China's food to dominate the world!

In the history of food development, emperors and nobles played the greatest role in promoting it. And the best food always appears at the luxurious banquet of emperors and nobles first.

China's court meals are called heavenly chefs, which represent the peak of food culture in different periods.

Don't eat good rice or chopped meat-you are very picky about food.

Restaurants in China often claim that they have dishes cooked by the secret recipe of the court. Even street stalls often describe round balls as tribute pills and black rice wine as tribute wine to attract the public. Advertisements for food and health care products made on TV often try their best to get involved with the emperor, and often make the fake emperor give a thumbs up and praise again and again, so as to induce the public.

Even when it comes to eating, martial arts novels always focus on court dishes. For example, in The Legend of the Condor Heroes, it is written that Hong Qigong, a beggar with nine fingers, spent three months squatting on the beams of the palace, eating delicacies in the palace, and before he died, he did not forget the court dishes and stewed Yuanyang Wuzhen.

Since the Zhou dynasty, the royal family has spent a lot of manpower and material resources on food, and it is very able to follow the teachings of Confucius that "food is not tired of essence and food is not tired of detail".

In the court of the Zhou Dynasty, there was a huge and perfect catering management and service mechanism, including six institutions responsible for grain sources and slaughter and cooking. The six types of institutions also include 22 units with 2307 people.

In Zhou Li. According to Tianguan, the Emperor of Zhou "ate six grains, six sacrifices, six clear grains, eight kinds of food, eight kinds of food and twenty jars of sauce" when having meals. There is a saying of "eight treasures" in the cooking history of China, which began at that time. But the babao at that time did not have the luxury and "extreme evil" of later generations. According to the notes, these eight treasures are cooked: meat, soy sauce and rice; Haruki: Braised yellow rice with meat sauce; Canned dolphins: roasted, fried and stewed suckling pigs; Cannons: roast, fry and stew ewes; Pearl Krabs: Roast beef, lamb and deer tenderloin; Stains: distiller's grains, beef and mutton; Boil: similar to spiced beef jerky; Liver net oil: roast dog liver wrapped in net oil. )

The powerful Han royal family certainly went further than the Zhou Dynasty in terms of 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 changes of festivals have 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."

The prosperous Tang Dynasty is also a prosperous time for food, and barbecue is a representative in this respect. What is a "barbecue"? According to the old Tang book. "Su Propaganda": "The first time I worshipped an official, I made an example of offering food, which was called burning my 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. For example, it is made of raccoon meat, chopped and eaten cold after cooling, similar to aspic, and so on. Limited to space, we can only briefly introduce the dishes.

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.

The court diet in the Song Dynasty was also famous for its extravagance and lewdness. For example, the emperor "always eats a hundred products" and "delivers meals in the middle of the night, that is, thousands." As for the banquet, it is even more extravagant to an amazing extent. For example, in his later years, Zongshen indulged in feasting in the deep palace, and often "the cost of a banquet tour was more than 100,000 yuan." In history, Renzong once had an internal banquet, which was "ten points" and only tasted 28 clams. At that time, a clam was worth 1000 yuan, which made Injong "28,000 yuan at a time".

The court diet in the Ming Dynasty was also very luxurious. For example, on the fifteenth day of the first month, the Lantern Festival in the palace is very particular-glutinous rice is ground into fine flour, then filled with walnuts, sugar and roses, and then rolled into wine, the size of which is like walnuts. 16, the lantern viewing activities in the palace are more prosperous. "The History of the Forbidden City in Ming Dynasty" records that "the world is prosperous and salt is collected here". At this time, the vegetables in the palace include Jizong in southern Yunnan, smallpox lamb tripe in Wutai Mountain, and seaweed in the East China Sea, such as seaweed, asparagus, kelp, antlers and laver. Artemisia shoot rotten in the south of the Yangtze River, pine nuts in Liaodong, yellow flower lily in the north of thistle, yam potato in Zhongdu, moss in the south, yellow bamboo shoot in Wudang, Polygonatum sibiricum and black essence. There are all kinds of walnuts, dates, magnolias, Man Qing and bracken in Beishan, as well as other vegetables, dried and fresh fruits, local products and so on. It's really hard to give an example.

Although the court food in the above dynasties was extremely luxurious, it was only nine Niu Yi hairs compared with the food in the palace of the Qing Dynasty, and thousands of delicious food only reached its peak in the Qing Dynasty.

The imperial cuisine of the Qing dynasty, the experience of past dynasties and the essence of the whole country, is extremely beautiful.

According to records, the food in the Qing Palace was under the jurisdiction of the Imperial Palace, which was in charge of three eunuchs, ten eunuchs and one hundred eunuchs. "We specialize in catering, eating all kinds of palaces, seasonal banquets and sitting with attendants." (Note 18) At that time, there were countless dining halls in the Forbidden City. How many people are there in this chef who serves the emperor to eat and drink? There is no accurate statistics, only that there are hundreds of "hall of mental cultivation Imperial Chefs".

The raw materials of "Imperial Restaurant" dishes come from all over the world, including prawn in Bohai Sea, carp in Yellow River, shad in Zhenjiang, crab in Yangcheng Lake, shark's fin in South China Sea, bird's nest in Hainan, bear's paw in Northeast China and abalone in Shandong. ...

The working procedures of court meals are particularly demanding. For example, there is a dish called "clear soup and tiger gall", which is made of testicles of male tigers in Xiaoxing 'anling, and its shape is as big as the mouth of a small tea bowl. When making, you need to cook the chicken soup for three hours, then peel it, soak it in the juice with seasoning, and then make it into paper-like slices with special steel knives and silver knives, and put it in the shape of peony flowers.

The emperor not only ate well in the palace, but also ate badly when he went out. For example, during the southern tour, a landlord named Hao in Huairou County, Hebei Province received it, and the daily expenses for eating and drinking amounted to more than 100,000 yuan.

Cixi, the de facto last emperor of China, lived a luxurious life, loved ostentation and extravagance, and had a developed appetite. Food was her greatest hobby. Her private kitchen "Western Restaurant" is bigger than Emperor Guangxu's "Imperial Dining Room", which can cook more than 4,000 kinds of dishes and more than 400 kinds of snacks. Cixi sets three tables for each meal, and there are often more than 100 dishes. Although her old man had a good appetite, she was really embarrassed when faced with these hundreds of dishes, so most of them just disappeared from her eyes intact after a glance.

Cixi still likes to eat watermelons in summer, just eating a little in the middle of the ladle, and she can use 350 watermelons a day.

More worthy of a book, her old man's house made a mess of state affairs, and Eight-Nation Alliance rushed to Xi 'an. After going to Xi 'an, I still don't know how to be frugal, but I try my best to assemble bird's nest and shark's fin all over the world, and I have to eat hundreds of kinds of delicacies, 200 taels of silver a day. On the way back to Beijing after sailing, 1900, 1 1 arrived in Houma Town, Quwo County (now houma city). Quwo County ordered Wang Tingying to do a good job in two towns in Gaoxian County, set up three palaces in Gaoxian County, and changed Houma into a palace, with 45 other places.

As mentioned above, emperors in the Qing Dynasty usually used 100 dishes for a meal. When they meet festivals or entertain princes and ministers, what is the grand occasion of their banquet?

This can focus on the Manchu-Chinese banquet mentioned above.

The Manchu-Chinese banquet is a grand banquet with Manchu-Chinese flavor. It is a banquet hosted by the royal family and the government in the Qing Dynasty, which is rare among the general public. With a large scale and complicated procedures, it is full of delicious food from China, with both North and South flavors and more than 300 kinds of dishes. It is the most prestigious ancient banquet in China. The Royal Hotel in Beijing once divided the Manchu-Han banquet into six types: Mongolian pro-pan banquet, courtier banquet, birthday banquet, thousand banquet, nine-white banquet and seasonal banquet. For example, the Mongolian pro-Pan Banquet was a royal banquet hosted by the Qing emperor to entertain Mongolian relatives who married into the royal family. Generally, a banquet is held in the main hall, accompanied by the first and second ministers of the Qing Dynasty. For example, the courtiers' banquet was held on January 16th, the second day of the Yuan Dynasty. At that time, the emperor personally ordered university students and people with meritorious service in Nine big noble to attend. The banquet was held in the hall without a head, and the banquet was followed by the ceremony of the imperial clan banquet. They all use high chairs, write poems and drink alcohol every year. Mongolian princes and others also participated. The emperor used this to help his courtiers, and it was also a symbolic form of courtiers' contribution.

Man-Han banquet gathers the essence of the world, and the materials are not divided into east, west, north and south, birds and animals, delicacies and delicacies are all in the mouth. The Manchu-Han banquet in Qing Dynasty included the so-called "four treasures" of mountains, seas, birds and grasses. The eight treasures of the mountain refer to hump, bear's paw, scarlet lip, monkey brain, scarlet lip, elephant trunk, leopard fetus, rhinoceros tail and deer tendon; Sea eight treasures refer to bird's nest, shark's fin, Sichuan aconite, fish belly, fish bones, abalone, seal and pike (giant salamander); Eight precious birds refer to red swallows, dragons, quails, swans, partridges, colorful finches, turtledoves and red-headed eagles; Caobazhen refers to Hericium erinaceus, Tremella fuciformis, Dictyophora, Donkey's Nest Mushroom, Morchella, Flower Mushroom, Day Lily and Yunxiangxin.

During the reign of Qianlong Shen Jia (A.D. 1746), there was a man named Li Dou in Yizheng County, Jiangsu Province, who wrote "Painting a Boat in Yangzhou", which contained a Manchu-Chinese banquet menu.

Man-Han banquet is the result of thousands of years' practice of totalitarian food culture in China, and it can be said that it has reached the peak that human beings can enjoy in food, and no one can surpass it so far. -Last June, 5438+10, a merchant spent 366,000 yuan on a Manchu-Chinese banquet cooked by a hotel in Xi 'an. In fact, the so-called Manchu banquet is certainly not a real Manchu banquet, because some things, such as bear's paw and red lips, are unlikely to be obtained. Then, it can also be seen that the real Manchu-Chinese banquet should be worth RMB.

At that time, Crowne Plaza Hong Kong Golden Eagle introduced French court dishes, with nine courses at 698 yuan each. Everyone knows that French food is the most insatiable food in Europe and America, but compared with the Manchu banquet in China, French food is far from luxury!

From the wine pool and meat forest in Shang Dynasty to the Manchu-Han banquet in Qing Dynasty, the people of China can be said to have put on an amazing feast for the rulers.

From the emperor's 1200 imperial daughters to the 3,000 harems in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the people of China really devoted themselves to the rulers, and even their beloved daughters were dedicated to the king's pleasure.

Lu Xun said: "The so-called civilized people in China are actually just a feast of human flesh arranged for the rich. The so-called China is actually just a kitchen to arrange this feast of human flesh. This statement is also true! It's more appropriate to put the rich man in power and the emperor in power!

I read The Whole History of China's Diet, various related notes and unofficial history, and I saw a lot of records about the extravagant treasures of powerful officials, but I seldom saw the luxurious scenes of the rich in ancient times in terms of diet. In other words, the luxury of the rich is still far less than that of the powerful. The following are some examples of extravagance and waste in diet by the rich and powerful:

For example, in Shi Shuo Xin Yu, it is recorded that Wang Ji, the son-in-law of Sima Yan, Emperor Wu of Jin Dynasty, fed pigs with human milk, so his steamed pig's trotters were very delicious, which surprised the emperor.

For example, Zhang, the prime minister of the Ming Dynasty, the first minister at that time, ordered the burial, and government officials "all knelt down to meet" the places he passed. "The food on the tooth plate" was 100 kinds of products, and he thought there was no place to squat. Gaiwuxi people can be Wu Kun, honest and sweet, saying, "I didn't eat until I got here." So the people of Wu can recruit. It can be seen that Mr. Zhang's requirements for taste are not much worse than those of the emperor.

In the Qing Dynasty, Yao's Miscellaneous Notes on Bamboo Leaf Pavilion recorded a big bureaucrat in Shaanxi who liked to eat donkey meat. Raise some fat donkeys. When he wanted to eat shredded donkey meat, he asked the chef to take a piece of meat from a live donkey until it bled, and then branded it with a red-hot iron plate to stop the bleeding. At this point, the donkey was alive and kicking, and it was too painful to ignore it.

Xue Fucheng's Notes on Zhai Yong in Qing Dynasty recorded the extravagant and cruel eating habits of Governor Nanhe during Daoguang period. The book says: the pork tenderloin fried by the governor's house is much more delicious than that of other people. But nobody knows why. After the banquet, when a guest went to the backyard to relieve himself, he saw dozens of dead pigs exposed in the yard. Upon inquiry, I learned that the Governor's tenderloin is so delicious because of its different production methods. The production method is as follows: after selecting the pig, keep it indoors, the servant hits the pig on the back with a bamboo pole, and the pig runs around until its blood gathers on its back, then kill the pig and take its loin, and the rest is not used. A meal will kill dozens of pigs. The governor's chef said: in just a few months, thousands of pigs have been killed.

According to Li Yuerui's "Wild Riding in the Ice Room in Spring", in order to eat the so-called delicious goose's feet in Daoguang period, the governor of Nanhe first put the goose in a small iron cage, piled a charcoal fire under it, and put soy sauce and vinegar next to it. The goose jumped out of the high temperature and drank soy sauce and vinegar. When he died, his palm was several inches thick, and all the grease was in it. So he ate his palm. Also the governor, there is another cruel way to eat the hump: pour boiling water on your back, burn the camel to death, and concentrate all your energy on your back. Then cut off the hump and make it delicious.

This is the cruel way of eating by powerful people.

Why do the rich and powerful people in China have higher dietary requirements than the rich, and their ideas are rather strange? This is because China has always been a power society. How dare rich people in such a society be so arrogant? It is also because it is not easy for the rich to get money, so they will naturally cherish it. In addition, I am also convinced that the officials, princes, governors and warlords who occupied one side in ancient times were the real rich, and the wealth of the rich without power was never comparable to that of the powerful.

Therefore, the so-called civilized people in China mentioned by Lu Xun are actually just a feast of human flesh arranged for the rich. The so-called China is actually just a kitchen to arrange this feast of human flesh. "Changed to" China's so-called civilized people is actually just a feast of human flesh arranged for their powerful people to enjoy. The so-called China is actually just a kitchen for the feast of human flesh. After all, China has always been a power society, not a commercial society!

The rulers of China monopolized violent means, so-called famous cities, killing heroes; It is also necessary to gather the soldiers of the world, gather in Xianyang, sell the former dysprosium, and cast it into twelve gold people to weaken the people of the world. And adopt a foolish policy, the so-called waste Wang Zhidao first, burn a hundred words, and take ignorance as well. -These two policies were initiated by Qin Shihuang, but they have been used by rulers of past dynasties. Shi Mao also wrote a poem: Qin politics has been practiced throughout the ages. It is also said that Zulong (referring to Qin Shihuang) is still alive. Where is it? That's it.