A few days ago, I just saw a netizen summarize the reason why he couldn't lose weight: everything looked like eating, and he saw the barrel of the rope tied in the boss's hand, which was like a hairy crab tied with five flowers. After laughing, you can also understand that the people take food as the sky, and the ancient royals who are honored and honored will have "foodies", and Song Xiaozong will also order "takeaway". But during the Qing Dynasty, the situation was somewhat different.
Located on the east side of the Forbidden City Road and the west side of the South Sanshou, the "Royal Dining Room" is the place that many foodies most yearn for when they see the palace drama. In everyone's imagination, there are all kinds of cuisines from all over the world, where there are "Full Han Seats", which are specially customized for the emperor, and the emperor is the world's first foodie, not because he is gluttonous, but because he eats the best, which is enviable.
But this also depends on the situation, depending on whether the emperor can decide the imperial meal. For example, in the early years of the Qing Dynasty, the Kangxi Emperor was very fond of eating the specialty "anchovy" on the Yangtze River, so he could order the local subordinates to quickly send this fish to the capital, give it to the imperial dining room to cook, and then enjoy the food. Kangxi belonged to the emperors with real power, and the Guangxu Emperor and the Xuantong Emperor in the late Qing Dynasty were not treated much the same.
As we all know, after Xianfeng's death, he established The son of Concubine Yi guifei as emperor, and was known as the Tongzhi Emperor in history. However, the Tongzhi Emperor died early in 1875, and Cixi (i.e., The Concubine Yi of that year) chose his own nephew Ai Xinjueluo Zaixiang to succeed him as the Guangxu Emperor. The Guangxu Emperor did not have any real power from beginning to end, and he was only 4 years old when he entered the palace, and he was still a child who did not understand anything.
The Qing Dynasty royal family raised children, diet will pay extra attention, do not let the child eat more than half a bit of food, afraid of illness. This concept was put forward by the Taiyi, the nursing mother eunuchs who were responsible for the maintenance of the crown prince and the empress, did not dare to let their bodies have half a damage, so this was their work standard, and Guangxu and Puyi were the last little emperors, and they could not make their own decisions, and they would even starve.
Kou Liancai's "Palace Diary" records that when the little emperor ate, he sat on a tall chair, and although there were a lot of food dishes in front of the table, his small arms and legs could only clip a limited number of dishes in front of him. Guangxu ate like this in his childhood, and eunuchs could not "persuade him to eat", so they would not help him pick vegetables or the like. After a long time, the imperial dining room knew the specific situation and made up its mind.
The dishes that Guangxu can eat will naturally be replaced the next time they are served, but the dishes that Guangxu can't eat, the imperial dining room has been withdrawn before, and the second time it has been put back unchanged, so there is also a kind of sour rot on the table. Guangxu could not give advice to the empress dowager because the royal family had always regarded frugality as a virtue, and the empress dowager would say that he was wasteful and extravagant, unsatisfied, and it was unlikely that he wanted to change dishes.
So Guangxu also stole a bun from a eunuch, which was called "steamed bun" at that time, when he only entered the palace for about 6 years, it can be seen how bad the food is, because the dishes he can eat are often dry and cold on the table. The Guangxu Emperor did not have the opportunity to write a memoir, but Puyi did, and he mentioned the meal as an emperor in "The First Half of My Life", which was very detailed.
Puyi said that the dishes sent by the imperial dining room are basically just "tricks", and what he really eats is the meal arranged by the empress dowager, from their "small kitchen", the quality is superior, and the eunuch reports to them every time he says that he eats well, but in fact he eats well, but in fact he eats well, these dishes are delicious but can not eat more, because Puyi had gastrointestinal diseases when he was young, and often pickled vegetables and porridge to live a life.
Even if you say that you have an empty stomach and want to eat something outside of dinner time, you can't. As a result, Puyi later inadvertently opened the tribute food box, and after biting a pig's elbow, he half-remembered the taste and called it "fragrant and fragrant". Of course, this rare delicacy did not all fall into Puyi's belly, because he had only just begun to eat, and his elbow was resolutely taken away by the people who were waiting around him.