It is said that during the Qianlong period, sacrifices were popular, and after the Qianlong Emperor ended the sacrifice, he would give a special pork to the civil and military officials. This is not only to show the importance that the emperor attaches to his subordinates, but also a supreme honor, but also
Unexpectedly, many ministers threw them away when they left the palace door, why is this?
1. Ritual activities
In ancient times, sacrifices were important ceremonies for the royal family to pay homage to ancestors and pray to the gods to bless the country with smooth winds and rains and the people's well-being. Therefore, the emperors of feudal rule attached great importance to sacrifice activities, and the Qianlong Emperor was certainly no exception.
Successive emperors of the Qing Dynasty attached great importance to sacrifice activities, on the one hand, praying for the blessing of their ancestors, on the other hand, they could also establish a good and loyal image of the emperor for themselves.
The sacrificial activities began with human civilization, and the initial sacrifice activities were only to show the reverence for the gods and pray for the blessings of heaven. However, with the development of feudal dynasties, sacrifice activities gradually evolved into an activity that showed personal merit.
This kind of performance of good and great achievements was especially prominent in the Qing Dynasty, where the Manchus made a living by fishing and hunting for generations, and how many people worked hard to lay the foundation.
For such historical reasons, successive Qing emperors attached great importance to the ancestral system of honoring their ancestors. In fact, the main purpose is to warn future generations that they must be diligent and cherish the merits of their ancestors, so there are large-scale sacrifice activities.
But with the development of the times, the ritual activities gradually began to go to the other extreme, publicizing merits and individual performances.
The sacrifices of the Qing Dynasty were mainly performed by shamans, which were very mysterious and solemn, and the whole process was very complicated. Mainly 4 steps,
The first step is to worship the ancestors, the ancestors are to kill the black pig and bleed; the second step is to sacrifice the gods, when the gods are sacrificed, it is necessary to decompose the organs of the pigs and offer them on the ancestral platform; the third step is to sacrifice the sacred tree; the fourth step is to sacrifice the stars.
Second, the Qianlong Emperor who was very happy to make great achievements
If you count the emperors who like to hold large-scale sacrifices the most, it must be Qianlong.
Qianlong can be said to be the last ruler of the glorious period of the Qing Dynasty. He was indeed very talented, pushing the prosperity of the Qing Dynasty to an unprecedented moment of brilliance. In the early years, many of Qianlong's measures were indeed loved by the people and civil and military officials.
In the early days of Qianlong's reign, the most praiseworthy thing is to push the development of Sinology to a peak. Moreover, on the basis of the rule of Kangxi and Yongzheng, the unification of the frontiers of the motherland was further completed, and the economic construction of the entire feudal society was also a step forward.
What is more worth mentioning is that in the early years, Qianlong often opened warehouses to release grain, reduced the burden on farmers, and attached importance to water conservancy construction.
In his old age, Qianlong became self-contained, and he was very happy to do his work, and he liked to show off his merits very much, and sacrifice was of course the best channel.
The most prominent manifestation is that Qianlong attaches great importance to his own imperial image, in order to publicize this tall image, and vigorously publicize his great achievements.
The Qianlong Emperor wanted to become a figure of great concern through large-scale sacrifices.
In Qianlong's later years, these manifestations of good and great achievements caused the bureaucracy in many places to be extravagant and corrupt, and many people were overwhelmed, and peasant uprisings broke out throughout the country on many occasions. Not only did qianlong no longer make achievements in government and politics, but in his later years qianlong implemented the policy of "closing the country behind closed doors," which further distanced the feudal Qing Dynasty from the advanced society in the West and laid the groundwork for its subsequent demise.
Every time the festival is held, hundreds of officials of the civil and military forces need to come to visit the shrine together, which can be described as a labor force for the people. Of course, the sacrifice activities are not only as simple as holding celebrations, after the main activities of the sacrifices, there are various banquets, and the famous "Feast of a Thousand Sorrows" in history is held by Qianlong. this
An emperor who has no intention of ruling the country is bound to lead to the beginning of the decline of the Qing Dynasty.
3. Sacrifice to give meat
According to the Qing Dynasty's "Continuation of the Xiaoting Pavilion", Qianlong would gather a large group of imperial relatives and relatives and civil and military officials to perform ancestor worship ceremonies every festive season. There is a dish called "gizzard meat" in the ancestor worship ceremony, which is made of pork, which is no different from the current elbow. After each sacrifice, the Qianlong Emperor would reward the ministers with these pork to show their attention.
If we want to talk about this reward, it is that only a truly high-ranking and powerful person in Qianlong's mind can receive this reward, and ordinary petty officials will not receive such a "special honor." But what Qianlong didn't think was,
After these important ministers left the palace gate, they directly threw away these elbows, which was undoubtedly very disrespectful to the emperor, so why did these officials dare to throw them away directly?
Here we will talk about how this elbow is made. In fact, the offerings of sacrifice do not pay attention to taste, so when the chef prepares the elbows, he cooks these pork in a steamed or boiled way.
There were no condiments at all, and the fishy smell of the pork was not removed, it was fat and greasy to eat, and naturally no one wanted to eat it.
Of course, Qianlong did not know the real situation, and he also thought that the minister shared the same kind of elbow with him, after all, the things eaten by the emperor and the emperor's relatives were carefully cooked.
The ministers only got some scraps of cold food, naturally no one will really eat it, after all, throwing it away is not a big disrespectful sin, so everyone acquiesced to such behavior.
It is said that some people get raw meat and carry blood and water, in order to satisfy Qianlong's unique "habits".
Many ministers invented a type of "glutinous rice paper" that was used to wrap the elbow of the reward specifically.
Glutinous rice paper is made by processing and drying a variety of spices, and is specially used to wrap the fishy smell of elbows, except for the palace gate, the ministers directly threw it away.
Taking ten thousand steps back, Qianlong's move like this really did not understand his own civil and military officials. When Kangqian was prosperous, such high-ranking officials were not rich enough to flow oil, and they did not eat any mountain treasures and seafood. Such a smelly elbow is undoubtedly "one of the ten major tortures of the Manchu Qing Dynasty" for them. If it were not for satisfying the emperor's vanity, who would have truly accepted such a reward?
summary
Those familiar with the history of the Qing Dynasty know that in feudal society, only the upper-class rulers were carefree and indulgent.
Qianlong is just entertaining himself, and the real folk suffering is invisible to him, which is why the Qing Dynasty began to decline from Qianlong to decline, until it was later bullied by the great powers. Failure to sympathize with the people will eventually lead to extinction.