Vegetarian culture has existed since ancient times. Successive emperors have enjoyed vegetarian food, carefully examined, including royal funerals, natural disasters and man-made disasters, observing the people's feelings, entertaining monks, sinning themselves, faith, health and other reasons. Vegetarian food is indispensable in the royal diet structure, after the development of dynasties, its vegetarian resources, dietary ideas gradually improved, by the end of the Qing Dynasty has been stereotyped as an influential food culture faction - the court vegetarian diet.
Looking through history, when the Xia Dynasty became king, a catering institution serving the court was set up. By the Qing Dynasty, the court diet developed to its peak. Successive emperors have abided by the etiquette system and abided by the ritual of "stopping meat and adding vegetarian food" to mourn relatives, so the vegetarian behavior adopted by the ritual system has been strictly implemented for thousands of years, so that the court vegetarian cuisine has reached the peak of development during the Qing Dynasty, and a "vegetarian bureau" for the emperor has been set up.
Cooking is tight
The names of court dishes can only be known from historical sources, and most of the cooking methods are not passed on. Because the royal kitchen recipes enjoyed by the royal family are strictly confidential and cannot be taken away. Therefore, the court vegetarian dishes derived from the court cuisine can only know its name, and it is difficult to know its direction. For example, the prestigious "Silk Nest Tiger's Eye Candy", which was not available to the Ming Dynasty folk, was very precious.
▲ "Purple Light Pavilion Banquet Picture Scroll_Qing_Yao Wenhan"
Two ways of inheritance
Court cuisine was able to be passed down in the folk, generally in two ways: either the royal family gave the party to the courtiers, or the imperial chef brought out of the court and passed it on from generation to generation.
According to the situation of the former, there is a circulation of "Eight Treasure Tofu" dishes. According to the "Qing History Manuscript Xu Qianxue Biography", Xu Qianxue's literary talent was appreciated by the Kangxi Emperor, who rewarded him with his favorite "Eight Treasures tofu" dish recipe, so that this party has been passed down in the folk to this day.
▲Documentary "National Treasure Archives"
The inheritors of the latter generally refer to the imperial cooks of the late Qing Dynasty. First, the recipes of the imperial chefs of the past generations have been strictly confidential. The collapse of the second feudal system, the chef of the Qing Palace Imperial Dining Room came out of the palace and lived all over the country, and the dictation of the imperial fang was passed down from generation to generation. Therefore, most of the court dishes circulating today refer to the court dishes of the Qing Dynasty. The vegetarian dishes of the court eaten are imitation imperial cuisine restaurants from the inheritors of the imperial diet.
The name is beautiful
The court vegetarian dishes for the royal family to enjoy pay attention to the appearance of the beautiful description, and the naming is elegant. In addition to the requirements of color and flavor, great attention is paid to the shape of the pattern of the dish. The dish is full and flat, loose and round, and when each dish is ripe, it is as beautiful as a bonsai to increase the enjoyment of food.
The names of the dishes of the court cuisine, in addition to retaining some traditional and interesting folk names, most of them are new ideas, taking more auspicious and rich names. For example, "Dragon and Phoenix Chengxiang" and "Eight Treasures tofu" are all court dishes with novel ideas and full of humor.
▲Red Flying Dragon Feast Box Qing
Multiple dishes
A vegetarian court dish, a dish that can be prepared in a variety of colors. According to the existing "Meal Bottom File", almost every meal of the Qing Dynasty court meal must have tofu. The vegetarian dishes made of tofu in the Qianlong Dynasty have "watercress stewed tofu, mushroom stewed ginseng tofu, king melon mixed tofu", and Jiaqing Dynasty tofu dishes have "cloud slice tofu, silk-encrusted tofu, spinach tofu". By the late Qing Dynasty, the tofu dishes in the Guangxu Dynasty menu still occupied a place in many court dishes, such as "almond tofu, tofu in the south, tempeh tofu, Su braised tofu, boiled tofu, fried red and white tofu with radish shreds". The complexity of its specific cooking techniques is difficult to verify in words, but it can also be deduced through the royal noble system.
Fresh and varied materials
In the way of drinking and eating, ingredients are the first element. The fruits and vegetables used in the court's vegetarian diet were widely varied and seasonally fresh, matching the royal ruling hierarchy.
The Kangxi Emperor said in the "Aphorisms of the Court Training": "All kinds of edible fruits, eaten at the right time of ripening, smell sweet and pleasant." He shall be eaten when he is ripe, and he shall be nourished." His healthy attitude towards the timing of ingredients is practiced in the cooking of vegetarian dishes in the court.
▲ Qing _Qing court painter painting _ Kangxi Emperor reading portrait axis
Historical notes "Yang Ji Zhai Series", local chronicles "Jilin Zhiluo", and essays "Barnyard Spoon Collection" are all recorded, and the fruits and vegetables that paid tribute to the imperial court in various places are various and seasonal. From the perspective of gastronomy, the ingredients give the court vegetarian cuisine a unique and delicious way.
Inheritance and development
Court cuisine of the past, folk dishes today. In order to excavate the culinary cultural heritage of the ancient royal family, the Ministry of Domestic Trade established the technical training stations for imitation Tang cuisine and Qing Palace royal dishes in Xi'an, Shenyang and other places as early as 1983, and successively trained talents to cook court dishes for all parts of the country, which not only carried forward the history and culture of cooking, but also created the mouth blessing of today's people to enjoy court vegetarian dishes.
China's food culture has a long history, many dishes, different flavors, rich and colorful. As a product of the social class system, the court vegetarian diet has been continuously improved and refined through various generations, and finally fixed in the late Qing Dynasty, becoming a precious food cultural heritage. Culture is the most basic, deepest and most enduring force in the development of a nation. The unique vegetarian culture of the court will continue to live under the development of the successors, bringing deep cultural heritage and cultural self-confidence to the Chinese nation, and helping the construction of a cultural power in the new era.