The Tang Dynasty was the most glorious feudal dynasty in ancient China, and the extremely prosperous Kaiyuan dynasty was interrupted by the Anshi Rebellion, which turned sharply into decline and never reappeared in this glory. There are many reasons for the decline of the Tang Dynasty, one of which should arouse the interest of foodies, that is, eating sheep and eating the Tang Dynasty.
The Tang Dynasty people very much like to eat sheep, not only because the mutton is delicious, but also a funny factor, the Tang Dynasty Jiangshan was taken from the Sui Dynasty, the Sui Dynasty Emperor's surname Yang, homophonous with sheep. As a result, Pleasant Goat became the favorite meat food of the Li Tang royal family, surpassing pork. The custom of eating sheep spread throughout Datang.
This is not far-fetched, the ancients really believed in this. The favorite pork of modern people did not become the meat on the Chinese table until the Qing Dynasty, why? The Ming Emperor's surname is Zhu! Therefore, the Manchu Qing dynasty vigorously advocated eating pigs and eating the old Zhu family's Jiangshan.
The Tang Dynasty raised far more sheep than pigs, and the benefits paid to officials included mutton. High-ranking officials with two or more products are rationed with 20 sheep and 60 catties of pork per month. Further down there is only lamb, no pork. At that time, the price of a sheep was about equal to two pigs, and the pigs in the Tang Dynasty were much smaller than in modern times, and the size of pigs and sheep was about the same size.
During the Kaiyuan period, the official Longyou Ranch of the Tang Dynasty raised 670,000 sheep, and every time a foreign war was won, the nomads would pay tribute to hundreds of thousands of sheep and cattle, of which sheep must account for the majority. As for the folk sheep, it is even more innumerable.
China has been eating sheep since the Xia Dynasty, and sheep are one of the six animals. In the ruins of the Han Dynasty, there were more pig bones than sheep bones, and the common people could not afford to eat sheep, only chickens. During the Tang Dynasty, the consumption of mutton exploded, and hot sheep, steamed sheep, and mutton noodles began to become the main food of the Tang people, and buns, dumplings, and pies were also mainly stuffed with mutton, and the rich and noble families were even more unhappy.
Loving sheep is not a bad habit, and what does it have to do with the decline of the Tang Dynasty? To be precise, it should be the large-scale breeding of goats, which has aggravated the ecological deterioration of the Guanzhong Plain and the northwest region, and greatly reduced the grain production capacity of the Guanzhong Plain.
The Guanzhong Plain is the place where the Qin Dynasty began, with thousands of miles of fertile fields and rich products. After the completion of large water conservancy facilities such as Zhengguoqu, the main cultivation of rice is here, which is completely different from modern Guanzhong. During the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Dong Zhongshu also said that farmers in the Guanzhong Plain did not like to grow wheat.
However, in the Tang Dynasty, due to the influence of climate and ecology, the water and soil erosion of the Guanzhong Plain was serious, and it was basically impossible to grow rice, and the local grain could not even feed the population of Chang'an. The Tang emperor had to run to Luoyang with the minister of culture and military affairs, relying on the rice brought from the south to eat enough. The decline of Chang'an and the Guanzhong Plain is naturally inevitable.
As for the ecological impact, sheep raising is a very important factor. Compared with other livestock, goats are particularly adaptable to the environment, eating grass not only eat leaves, but even the grass roots have to be cut out and eaten, and the grass is really cut and rooted.
If sheep herding is not restrained, any meadow that has been eaten by goats will become desert. As a result, sheep farming requires much more pasture than other animals. The northwest was originally a semi-desertified area, after a period of large-scale sheep raising, desertification and soil erosion became more serious, and the original country of Tianfu finally became full of loess.
Not only in China, but also in the Mediterranean Sea, Elba Island has also been eaten bare by the introduction of goats. Napoleon, who was exiled here, had to look at the island all day and sigh. In order to escape from this lifeless place, Napoleon fled back to France with all his might, setting off a bloody storm.
The destructive power of goats is sometimes more serious than we think, and the ruins of the Great Wall of the Han Dynasty are often only ruined and broken walls, and the culprit is these Happy Sheep. The Great Wall of Han was built of rammed earth, and if left unattended, weeds would soon grow. Sheep use their hooves to cut open the rammed earth and eat the grass roots.
Over hundreds of thousands of years, the rammed earth that the sheep could reach was destroyed, and the walls above collapsed because they lost their support. In this way, the ancient Great Wall was peeled off layer by layer, and in the end, only a few relics were left to posterity.
The lessons of the Tang Dynasty were not learned at all by the Song Dynasty, and the Song Emperor's love for the Pleasant Goat was even greater. During the reign of Emperor Zhenzong of Song, the court slaughtered 350 sheep a day, and the palace consumed hundreds of thousands of catties of mutton a year. When the monarch feasted and drank, more than a dozen mutton dishes were commonplace, and all kinds of modern lamb eating methods were basically available at that time.
What is even more tragic is that the Song Dynasty changed the herding of horses to sheep in order to meet the needs of the imperial court for mutton in the official horse farm, and earned a lot of money. At the time of the founding of the country, it could raise hundreds of thousands of horses, and later, it could only supply dozens of horses for the army a year. No wonder the Song Dynasty army always lost battles, how could it be won without cavalry.
Although the general trend of history is difficult to reverse, it is sometimes exacerbated or slowed down by some accidents. Uncontrolled sheep raising was one of the important factors that accelerated the decline of the Tang Dynasty. So, in order to protect the environment, in this cold winter day, let's grab the sheep.