The Emperor of the Qing Dynasty was particularly interesting, especially Qianlong, who always liked to give some pork knuckles to the ministers, and if he did not eat the pig's elbows in front of Qianlong, the ministers could take them home to eat. In that environment, in fact, many ordinary people had difficulty eating meat, but for these princes and ministers, the situation was completely different.
In the face of the people's difficult to eat a bite of the gourmet pork knuckle, many ministers of the Qing Dynasty were very helpless, sometimes when they saw these pig knuckles, they wanted to vomit, let alone eat, and after eating some of them with a feeling of vomiting, the remaining part, as long as the ministers walked out of the palace door, they wanted to throw it away, why did they have this idea?
Pig's elbow as a reward from the Emperor
The emperors of the Qing Dynasty are Manchus, their ancestors are riding and shooting people, before the establishment of the Qing Dynasty, there is a more traditional custom, that is, to sacrifice gods or ancestors, they usually make a kind of white boiled meat when they sacrifice, that is, the pork is cut into large pieces and boiled in boiled water until seven or eight points are cooked, just can not see the blood, immediately fished up for sacrifice.
The meat of this sacrifice is divided into three types, one is the better pork belly, usually these meats are enjoyed by the emperor or concubines after the sacrifice, and the second is very fat fat meat, which looks like white flowers, after the sacrifice, is usually rewarded to the minister to eat.
The first two kinds of meat cut into pieces or slices, known as gizzard meat, the symbolic meaning is very different, usually the emperor will not easily reward ordinary people, but where the emperor rewards you with meat, it shows that the emperor attaches enough importance to you, such as when Yongzheng after the end of the sacrifice, he will give a piece of good gizzard meat to Hongli to eat, a simple move, you can see that Yongzheng intends to pass the throne to Hongli.
Qianlong was very happy to eat the piece of meat that Yongzheng rewarded, so after Qianlong became emperor, he was particularly enthusiastic about this sacrificial activity, and rewarding ministers with gizzard meat was also more and more frequent with the prosperity and strength of the Qing Dynasty, and those who originally felt that they could get the emperor's reward were a kind of honorable ministers, and in the Qianlong period, they often received rewards and began to be helpless, after all, this kind of meat was really difficult to swallow.
The third type is the pig's elbow, which is usually relatively large, and it seems unlikely that it will be possible to eat it on the spot, so the emperor also allows the minister to take it home to continue eating, as to whether it is finished or not, Qianlong generally will not continue to ask.
For the first two kinds of gizzard meat that need to be eaten on the spot, in fact, the minister has no chance to lose it, because Qianlong will watch you eat on the spot, even if it is difficult to eat, the minister must show a very happy and delicious appearance when eating, if he shows pain or can't eat it and spit it out, then Qianlong will inevitably get angry and directly clean up the minister, so the minister has no possibility of throwing it away.
Why is this meat so unpalatable? The main reason is that it is not only fatty, has not added any condiments, is directly boiled in boiled water, there is no salt at all, eat naturally without any taste, the emperor also does not allow anyone to add condiments to the meat, the purpose is to commemorate the hard life of the ancestors, while experiencing that feeling, can not forget the original.
For some guards, the emperor may not have so much energy to stare at them, so some guards will prepare the glutinous rice paper soaked in condiments in advance, and then quietly wrap it in glutinous rice paper after the emperor rewards the meat, so that there is some taste.
But for the minister, it is obviously impossible, the emperor looks at you, it is not realistic to want to cheat, and once discovered, the consequences are very serious, for example, there was an iron hat Wang Yi Prince who felt that the meat was unpalatable, wanted to add a little salt, and the result was that the emperor directly closed up, after this precedent, no one dared to cheat, even if it was difficult to eat, he must eat happily.
Is the pig's elbow really lost?
As mentioned earlier, the gizzard meat rewarded by the emperor is impossible to have a chance to lose, the minister will eat it in front of the emperor, but for the relatively large pig's elbow, the minister may also eat it in front of the emperor, and he can take it home to eat, but many of the ministers at that time have eaten this unpalatable pig's elbow, and they are eager to throw it away as soon as they leave the palace, but they dare not and cannot throw it away, once discovered by the emperor, it is the crime of deception, and the consequences are unimaginable.
It is also in this case that the ministers have produced a more unique solution, that is, to send people, in the Qianlong period, usually these ministers will give pig elbows to Ji Xiaolan, because Ji Xiaolan especially loves to eat meat, there are historical records, Ji Xiaolan to eat ten plates of pork at a meal, how powerful its combat effectiveness, can be imagined.
Fair raw noodles are not eaten or occasionally, and rice is not eaten. When drinking, only ten plates of pork are boiled, and a pot of tea is boiled.
It is precisely because Ji Xiaolan loves to eat pork, and the rest of the officials do not want to eat it, so after leaving the palace, everyone directly gave the remaining pig's elbow to Ji Xiaolan, so that Ji Xiaolan could eat it, even if ji Xiaolan could not eat it sometimes, he could also take it to others, after all, at that time, these ministers ate tired of pig's elbow, for ordinary people, it was a rare delicacy.
Of course, before Ji Xiaolan, it is estimated that these ministers also choose to give people, in short, there will be people who like to eat, or there will be people who take it to send people to do good deeds, help the minister solve the problem of pig's elbow, not only help others, but also meet those who like to eat or do not eat meat, it can be said that there are many in one fell swoop, why not enjoy it?
epilogue
The court officials have already eaten pig's elbows to swallow, but for ordinary people, what they want to vomit is something that others can't get at all, the old saying has clouds "Zhumen wine smells of meat, the road has frozen bones", probably so, originally it was to commemorate the ancestors, remind everyone not to forget the original intention of the sacrifice activities, but eventually became a show and burden, why bother?
Remarks: The picture comes from the Internet, infringement must be deleted, welcome to comment to leave interesting ideas.