Nowadays, when it comes to the topic of luxurious banquets, many people's first reaction is the legendary "Manchu Han Full Table", in the legend, this is a kind of Qing Dynasty court of the highest level of banquet, the cuisine integrates the essence of the Manchu and Han families, there are salty and sweet, there are meat and vegetarian, mountain treasures and seafood, everything.
It is said that the most famous passage in xiangsheng, "The Name of the Newspaper Dish", originally said that the whole table of Manchu Han "has steamed lamb, steamed bear paw, steamed deer tail, roasted flower duck, roasted chicks, roasted goose, brine pig, brine duck, sauced chicken, bacon, pine blossom belly, dried meat sausage, assorted Su pan, smoked chicken white belly, steamed Eight Treasure Pig, Jiang rice stuffed duck, canned pheasant..."
So the question is, what kind of seat is the Full Man Han Seat?
Above_ Manchu Food Customs and Qing Palace Imperial Meals With picture
I. The social foundation formed by the Manchu and Han dynasties
At first, the feast of the manchus was actually very simple, in the open air, covered with animal skins, and eaten on the ground, which is a bit like the meaning of three or five young people going to a picnic now. It is recorded in the Manchu Archives: "When the Baylors set up a banquet, there were no tables, and they all sat on the floor. "Even if the emperor set up a banquet, it was only a dozen tables, and everyone used knives to dissolve the meat of cattle, sheep, pigs and other beasts to eat.
By the time the Manchu feast culture had developed, it was already after the Qing army entered the customs. At this time, on the basis of the original Manchu food culture, Qing cuisine absorbed the characteristics of Chinese cuisine and developed into a special Qing Palace cuisine.
In the seventh year of the Mandate of Heaven, Nurhaci issued an edict, "Manchus and Others live together, live together, eat and cultivate together." If the Manchus deceived the Han and violated this edict, the Han could turn it around and sue the law enforcement officials, and the Han people were not allowed to slander the Manchus at will because of this edict, because they were the same as the people of the same emperor. ”
These policies of his made the atmosphere of manchu-Han exchanges generally friendly, and provided a good foundation for the spread of food customs and production techniques between Manchus and Han, which provided a good start for the mutual exchange between Manchu and Han food cultures.
Above_ Nurhaci bust portrait
The prototype of the Manchu han full table, dating back to the Manchu Qing after entering the customs, when the Manchu Qing imitated the Han system, set up a special institution in charge of the catering banquet, so that the Qing palace cuisine gradually developed, at that time the Guanglu Temple held a variety of banquets, there was already a difference between the full table and the Han table.
Judging from the records of the "Guanglu Temple Rules", the full seat is divided into six grades, of which the first class full table is used for silver eight and two at each table, which is often used for the banquet after the death of the empress. The fourth-class seats are used for silver four hundred and twenty-four dollars per table, which is mainly used for banquets on large festivals such as New Year's Day. The sixth-class table is divided into two halves of silver per table, which is mainly used for feasting. The Han seats are divided into five categories: one, two, three, and upper and middle seats, which are mainly used for scenes such as the trial banquet of the Wenwu Association.
This is the prototype of the Full Han Dynasty.
Above_ The Guanglu Temple Rules and Regulations are written by Yucheng in the Qing Dynasty, with 90 volumes, 104 volumes
2. The Cause of the Manchu Han Seat
The specific formation of the Manchu han whole seat can be traced back to the Qianlong period, which has a lot to do with Qianlong himself's quite good appetite, and in some history books, you can find records that Qianlong once looked around for food.
For example, it is recorded in the "Continuation of the Xiaoting Pavilion and the Rich People of the Present Dynasty"
"Huairou Hao's clan, anointed with ten thousand acres, the pure temple (Qianlong) tasted to stay in his home, and entered the water and land treasures above more than a hundred products, and the princes' close attendants and public servants all provided food and food, and the meal of the day cost more than 100,000 yuan."
In addition, when Qianlong inspected various places, various local officials greeted each other, and the banquet prepared was very luxurious.
In Li Dou's "Yangzhou Painting Record", there is the earliest record of the Manchu han feast,
"Before and after the shangshang trading street, the temple is a large kitchen, in preparation for the food of the six hundred officials:
The first one, the number one five bowls of ten pieces - bird's nest chicken soup, sea cucumber pork tendon, fresh clams radish silk soup, kelp pork belly silk soup, abalone basket pearl vegetables, mussel shrimp soup, shark fin crab soup, mushroom simmered chicken, reel hammer, fish belly simmered ham, shark skin chicken juice soup, blood meal soup, first-grade soup rice bowl;
… …
Twenty pieces of the fifth foreign dish - twenty flavors of hot food and wine, twenty small dishes, ten tables of dried fruits, and ten tables of fresh fruits. The so-called "Man Han Seat" also. ”
This is the earliest clear record of the "Manchu han full seat".
Above_ Part of the "Purple Light Pavilion Banquet Map"
In the Qianlong period, due to the upward and downward effects, it was very common for banquets to be held in a big way, and at that time, out of consideration of etiquette, it was often full of officials to feast on Han officials, to handle Han banquets, and to host full banquets for Han officials. When people talk about it, they think that it is a "forgetful" move. Therefore, the officials at that time combined the full banquet and the Han banquet, indicating that the Manchu and Han did not distinguish between each other. This kind of feasting custom spread to the people, and it became a Full Han feast.
In general, the form of the Manchu han full seat was roughly formed in the Qianlong period, which was closely related to the atmosphere of official banquets.
Above_ The axis of the "Ten Thousand Trees Garden Gifts and Banquets", painted by Qing Lang Shining and others, depicts the Qianlong Emperor setting up a banquet to entertain the Mongols in the summer of the nineteenth year of Qianlong (1754) in the Wanshu Garden of the Chengde Summer Resort
3. The style of the full seat of The Manchu Dynasty
1. Mongolian pro-clan feast
The so-called Mongol pro-clan banquet refers to a kind of imperial banquet set up by the Qing Emperor in order to entertain the Mongolian nobles who are married to the Manchu Qing imperial family, which is generally opened in the Zhengda Guangming Hall, which is held on the fifteenth day of the first month of each year, and is accompanied by the first and second members of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and it is also the first banquet in the Manchu and Han dynasties.
Mongolian relatives who attend banquets often regard participating in such banquets as "great blessings", as a form of closeness, and even too close to the food at the banquet, "The Mongolian princes and others who enter Beijing in the early class will be rewarded with food, and they will take them with them and return home with them." If there is no vessel, then the outer coat pocket, the flat gold embroidered python, often the soup is needed, dripping, no regrets also", the twenty-four categories of dishes, for the feast first.
2. Court banquet
The so-called court banquet refers to a kind of banquet used by the emperor to commend and win over the outstanding and capable people among the ministers, the court banquet is held every year on the day after the first yuan, that is, the sixteenth day of the first month, the participants are the emperor's personal university scholars and the nine secretaries of state who have meritorious service, of course, the Mongolian princes are willing, can also participate together, a total of eighteen kinds of dishes, materials from heaven to earth, from water to land, all-encompassing, all-encompassing.
Above_ Kangxi 60 "Longevity Celebration Picture Scroll" (partial)
3. Longevity Feast
The so-called longevity, there are two theories, one is said to refer to the age of more than a hundred elderly people participating in the banquet, the sum of which is long live, so it is called "longevity banquet", the other is that the time of the longevity banquet is held on the birthday of the emperor and empress, and the birthday of the grandfather is a long life banquet. At that time, the queen concubines and princes, civil and military officials will come to participate, and it is said that the longevity feast of Cixi's sixty years old cost 21 million silver.
4. Feast of a Thousand Sorrows
The banquet of a thousand sorcerers should be a kind of royal banquet with high popularity, this kind of banquet, starting from Kangxi, flourishing in Qianlong, every year sixty and five, you can participate in the banquet of a thousand sorcerers, enjoy the feeling of the royal banquet, Kangxi first held a thousand feasts, its participants are as high as thousands of people, almost all are elderly people, and in the society at that time, it was very set off a trend of respecting the elderly and filial piety.
Above_ "A Thousand Feasts" painted by Qing Wang Chengpei
Above_ Schematic diagram of the seating position of the Qianlong Emperor's banquet held at the Imperial Pole Hall
5. Nine White Feasts
After Kangxi pacified the Mongolian Outer Saks and other four tribes, and then three years later, Tushetu Khan, Chechen Khan, and Zasaktu Khan presented the Nine White Gifts, that is, one white camel and eight white horses, and the grand banquet held in order to entertain the envoys who came to give gifts was the so-called Nine White Feast.
6. Seasonal feasts
The feast was the last feast of the Manchu han dynasty, which refers to the feast in the court according to the fixed annual seasons, including Yuan Day, Yuan Hui, Spring Ploughing, Dragon Boat Festival, Beggar Qiao, Mid-Autumn Festival, Chongyang, Winter Solstice, Chinese New Year's Eve and so on. The difference between the seasonal banquet and other banquets is that its feast is changing from time to time, for example, the Chinese New Year's Eve reunion feast eats the eight-way meal, the Yuan Day feast must have dumplings, and the Spring Feast has spring plates and five spice plates and other delicacies.
Above_ Qing court recipes
Manchu Han full table, representing the highest level of Qing Dynasty court cuisine, to some extent also represents the essence of Qing Dynasty food culture, carefully look at the Manchu Han full table in the recipe, you can see the history of Chinese food culture for a long time, the grand category, the breadth of angle.
Text: Undecided
Resources:
[1] The Great Dictionary of Chinese Court Culture He Benfang, Yue Qingping, Zhu Chengru
[2] "Study of the Manchu Han Dynasty" Wu Zhengge
The text was created by the History University Hall team, and the picture originated from the Internet and the copyright belongs to the original author