Xu Meijie - tea soup of Guanglu Temple

Does the emperor have to eat well? That's not accurate. Guanglu Temple cost 360,000 yuan a year, but it fell on the emperor's head, that is, the treatment of a small squire and a bad old man, and the Jiajing Emperor could not help but complain: "Now regardless of the ancestors, the two palaces are divided into provinces, there are only more than ten concubines, and the palace has set up banquets for twenty years." The daily meals are all prepared, and there is no one who can be satisfied. (Yu Jideng: "Records of the Emperor's Ming Allusions", vol. 17) I really don't know what kind of old sesame seeds and rotten grain they gave the emperor to eat, and the harmful people said words like "cutting".

The Guanglu Temple of the Ming Dynasty was a bad deed, but it was not a temporary thing. Some officials complained to the emperor: "Shuowang saw that the wine and rice were very thin, and each dish of meat was only a few, and the bones were half; the rice was raw and cold, and the wine was mixed with water and was thin and tasteless,...... Wouldn't Annam and the state of Korea know the etiquette, laugh? (Ma Wensheng: "Title Zhen Su Feng Ji Yi Zhi Dao Affair", "Famous Ministers' Economic Records", vol. 5) Cold rice and light wine are not the way of hospitality, and what civilian officials are afraid of is being laughed at by their neighbors. However, the tea soup of Guanglu Temple could not be criticized, and the emperor only complained.

In the seventh year of Jiajing (1528), a folk song "Jingshi Ten Ridiculous" appeared in the capital, saying: "Guanglu Temple Tea Soup, Tai Hospital Prescription." God prays optimistically, and the Arsenal sword and gun. The stewards worked as a field, and the sanatorium clothing and food. The Priest of the Church, the Constitution of the Metropolitan Inspection Institute. GuoziJian Xuetang, Hanlin Academy article. (Chu Renyu: "Ten Episodes of the Jianbao Collection") These most upscale and professional institutions in the Empire do neither high-end nor professional, and have become "ten ridiculous" that do not live up to the name. The Guanglu Temple tea soup is at the top of the list, which can be known for its reputation. Some good deeds wrote this "ten ridiculous" into a big character newspaper and posted it on the court. Those petty officials who were treated roughly by the "Guanglu Temple Tea Soup" may have intended to be sarcastic, or they may also want to create some public opinion through ridicule, so that the meat in the dish will be more than two, and the cold rice will become hot rice. But things have inadvertently become complicated.

First of all, the Ming court most hated anonymous documents, "The Complete Biography of the Laws of the Emperor Ming Dynasty": "In the leap month of the first year of Yongle, anonymous documents are prohibited." "(Vol. 14) May be the beginning of Yongle, and everyone has dissent about regime change, so anonymous documents have become popular, and the prohibition of one thing indicates that this thing is popular or out of control. Since then, if anonymous documents are caught, they are generally punished as felonies of "demonism". As in book 19: "In February of the eleventh year of the orthodox reign, Wang Yong, a jinyi guard, anonymously counted the sins of the eunuch Wang Zhen and revealed them to the family of Wang Shan, the nephew of Tongqu and Zhen. Those who make trouble get it, and the punishment department cuts it off with a demon. In March of the eighth year of Tianshun, the imperial court also reaffirmed the law that anonymous documents were punished with death (Records of Emperor Mingxianzong, vol. 1).

Therefore, this "ten ridiculous" of Jiajing's seven years was first considered by the rulers to be aimed at their own ability to govern and manage, when Zhang Xiao and Gui Cao entered the cabinet because of the "great ceremonial discussion", they were in the whirlpool, and they were very sensitive to dissidents; in addition, there was a precedent, and the tone set was "demonization". So he sent more than a thousand Jinyi guards to arrest people everywhere, and later arrested Xi Yao and more than ten others, and they were about to be beheaded. Fortunately, Hu Shining, the Shangshu of the Punishment Department at that time, was honest and honest, saying that these young officials were only spreading jokes in the city under a mischievous mentality, not the initiators, and qualitatively returned from opposing the regime to being imprudent in words and deeds, and the situation was demoted, and ended with the punishment of the staff.

The tea soup of Guanglu Temple is cold and thin, but there is no way to waste luxury. This is also the two sides of the same body that do not live up to the name of "professional institutions", there is no serious cost, but the "improper" cost is endless. Ming Wuzong was the most foolish emperor, he loved to raise thrushes, and every day he wanted Guanglu Temple to kill dozens of geese and take goose brains to feed his thrushes. Yang Boyu of Guanglu Temple advised that the people were poor and poor, and they should not do so. Emperor Wuzong was furious and sent a lieutenant to reprimand him, and then punished him for kneeling outside the noon gate in his prison clothes, and the grand eunuch Liu Jin personally ran to scold him for being "poor and big" (Zhang Nai: "Bao Ri Tang Chu Ji", vol. 23), and finally was demoted to be a Tongzhi of Kuizhou. It can be seen that the tea soup of Guanglu Temple is really not easy to manage, the emperor wants to use it, the eunuch wants to take it, the kitchen servant wants to steal it, how can he get it?