We often see such scenes in various commentaries or costume TV series, where guests who are rushing to the road in the wind and dust servants shout loudly as soon as they enter the hotel: "Little two, come a pound of beef." Over there, he said loudly: "Good guest officer", and after a while a plate of cut dishes came up, and the guests were drinking wine, which was a big meal, and it made people have an appetite to watch.
This kind of scene appears the most, it should be regarded as one of the four famous works of "Water Margin", Shi Nai'an in order to reflect the arrogance of the good men, eating large pieces of meat and drinking wine has become their standard, so unhappy, the book even described the horror of human flesh restaurant.
According to our knowledge, ancient times is the traditional feudal farming civilization, very backward, even if we put it to us, beef is not often put on the table, so ancient people eat meat is really so casual? I'm afraid it's not what you think.
First of all, we must state that the life of a good man in Liangshan is naturally a fairytale world, and if tens of thousands of people live in the mountains, drink wine and eat meat, and rob a few cities and pools alone, it is far from enough.
Leaving aside the scarcity of meat in ancient times, from the perspective of etiquette alone, Zhou Li has a clear stipulation: "The princes of Tianzi do not kill cattle and sheep for no reason, the scholars do not kill dogs and cats for no reason, and the common people do not eat precious dishes for no reason." Of course, after the Spring and Autumn Warring States, the etiquette collapsed, and whether or not to eat meat was a matter of productivity, so what did the ancient officials like to eat? At that time, the staple food of meat dishes was sheep, and after the Wei and Jin Dynasties, as the nomadic people went south, under the influence of their culture, sheep became an essential dish for rich and noble families.
Northern Wei Dynasty "Qi Ming Zhi Shu" and the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms "Four Hours" is China's most reference value of agricultural books, have spent a lot of ink to tell how to raise sheep, interestingly, pork before the Song, has not been welcomed by everyone, because the ancient pigsty is usually placed next to the toilet, pigs eat miscellaneous, everything is eaten, is regarded as an unclean product, "Materia Medica" author Li Shizhen also believes that "pork: sour, cold, non-toxic", neither conducive to health, eating nor taste, Everyone was naturally very disgusted, until the Song Dynasty gourmet Su Dongpo vigorously promoted, pork was widely included in the field of Chinese vision.
The above situation is said to be the family of scholars, and the ordinary people, it is good to be able to dip one or two times a year in oil and meat, this situation has been until the Song Dynasty, on the one hand, the Song court attaches importance to commercial development, the people are rich, and the second is that the Liao State has reached an alliance with Tanyuan, a large number of sheep have been sold to the Central Plains, and the mutton has gradually been served on the table of ordinary people.
However, from beginning to end, beef has always been a scarce commodity in ancient times, because of the ancient Chinese farming civilization, cultivating cattle is a valuable strategic material, with strict rationing, naturally can not be killed indiscriminately, and cattle generally only produce one child, the production period is long, the output is even more rare, each dynasty has formulated strict laws, the protection of cattle, the Han Dynasty stipulates, without government approval, private suicide cattle cultivators, serious crimes (such as malicious retaliation) can be sentenced to death, and the Song Dynasty where the Water Margin is located, the Song Penal Code stipulates:" Those who kill officials and private cattle for various reasons are in vain for one and a half years. ”
Even if the cattle that die or die unexpectedly, they must go to the local county to declare, after approval, they can be slaughtered, and these beef are usually only flowed into the big hotels or the official government, and it is impossible to appear in the small shop at the head of the village, so why in "Water Margin", the good men eat beef but do not finish it? In analysis, it may be because I want to express a spirit of rebellion!