Chinese culture has a long history of five thousand years, among which food culture exists as an important constituent factor, and its development process is worth exploring. The development of food culture has gone through a relatively long process. People generally believe that the pre-Qin era was the real formation period of food culture.
After nearly two thousand years of historical development from the Xia Dynasty to the end of the Warring States period, Chinese culinary culture has entered a new stage of steady development. As a country in the late period of feudal society, the Ming Dynasty prominently demonstrated the characteristics of the decline of production relations.
In the late Ming Dynasty, with the large inflow of silver and the relative relaxation of the rulers' policies, the social trend of thought underwent earth-shaking changes. Economically, agriculture, handicrafts, commerce, etc. have developed further.
For the society to accumulate more material basics than the previous generation, the culture advocates freedom, humanistic thought is strong, "to remove human desires, save heavenly reason" Cheng Zhu Lixue is no longer the only standard that people abide by, people's thinking has been greatly liberated.
After Zhu Yuanzhang seized power and established the Ming Dynasty, he followed the political and economic system of the previous dynasty, and because of Zhu Yuanzhang's special way of seizing power, strengthening centralized rule became an urgent issue. Therefore, Ming Taizu took a series of measures to tighten people's minds and promote the legitimacy of his own regime.
However, under the highly centralized regime, it rapidly declined in the middle and late Ming Dynasties, which also led to changes in political, economic, cultural and other aspects of society at that time, among which food culture also underwent great changes.
First, the background of the court food culture
1. Political background
Most of the founding emperors of each dynasty were talented and strategic, and after the Ming Taizu unified the regime, because of the war, the country's life was ruined, the people were miserable, and they implemented a policy of recuperation and recuperation, so they paid great attention to frugality.
At the same time, in order to strengthen the frugality of society and maintain feudal rule, Ming Taizu made a detailed decree on the diet system. In view of the situation of the country's economy at that time, Ming Taizu formulated a strict hierarchy of monarchs and courtiers, and at the same time promulgated a series of punitive measures and strict management.
In such a high-pressure political environment, the entire society at that time advocated frugality. However, with the different monarchs' rule in the late Ming Dynasty, policies changed greatly, the political environment became relatively relaxed, and food culture changed.
2. Economic background
With the gradual stabilization of social order, the social economy that has been destroyed by war and chaos has been restored and developed. By the middle of the Ming Dynasty, industry and agriculture continued to develop, which provided a sufficient material basis for improving the level of diet. At the same time, agriculture and handicrafts developed rapidly.
This promoted the development of commerce to a certain extent, especially in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, with the loosening of the policy of suppressing agriculture and suppressing commerce, and the tightening of the policy of sea prohibition, a large amount of silver flowed in, stimulating the social economy at that time, while the status of merchants gradually improved, trade prospered, and a number of industrial and commercial towns appeared.
In addition, the state continues to carry out the construction of transportation, whether it is by water or land, a complete and convenient transportation network has been formed throughout the country, which has also played a certain role in promoting commercial development, and laid a good foundation for the rise of industrial and commercial towns and foreign trade in the later period.
3. Ideological and cultural background
At the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, in order to strengthen the absolute monarchy, the rulers vigorously promoted Cheng Zhu Lixue, opposed people to pursue material interests, and opposed righteousness and profit. This theory has always occupied people's minds in feudal society, and commerce has become a despised industry.
However, in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, with the rise of psychology and the relatively relaxed ruling environment, people's thinking changed, and business was no longer considered to be the last business. Although the traditional policy of heavy agriculture and suppression of the last period of the country has not been changed, people have begun to devote themselves to business and pursue material wealth.
Second, the Ming Dynasty court food culture thought
1. Health care thinking
In the Ming Dynasty, whether it was monarchs or ministers, most of them paid attention to the way of eating, and they believed that only by not killing and caring for life from the aspect of diet could they prolong their life and achieve the purpose of longevity.
They fully recognize the importance of diet to human life. Under such attention, the diet of the court was mostly exquisite and delicious, and all paid attention to health.
At the same time, the catering institutions in the court also began to develop gradually, forming scenes of each performing their duties and beginning to take shape. The dietary institution is based on the preferences of the emperor and the queen concubine, exquisite and perfect in food production, and mainly based on seasonal vegetables, and strives to achieve the purpose of the monarch's health.
2. Hedonistic thoughts
Most of the Ming monarchs paid attention to diet, believing that diet was not just a necessity for survival, but a kind of enjoyment, a pleasure to integrate with nature. Food became an indispensable form of socializing and entertainment at that time. The development of this form will inevitably lead to the continuous enrichment of food types, and the frugality advocated in the early Ming Dynasty will no longer exist.
In general, the general situation of food in the vast territory ruled by the Ming Dynasty is still the same as that of the previous generation. In terms of the diet of the late Ming court, compared with the frugal style of the early Ming Dynasty, it formed a sharp contrast, and the extravagance prevailed.
However, in the late Ming Dynasty, a large amount of silver flowed in, and the development of the commodity economy, the ruling policy was constantly relaxed, making the food culture different from the previous dynasty and even the early Ming Dynasty. However, the form of diet all reflects the hierarchy of imperial power, and every meal and drink represents the arrogance of the king and the style of a big country.
Reference: "Myo history"