During the Qing Dynasty, the emperor's meal was called "eating" or "eating", and had its own set of strict rules and procedures.
The imperial family of the Qing Dynasty originated from the Manchus in the northeast, so they continued the eating habits of the Manchus in the northeast in terms of diet, eating only two meals a day, called breakfast and dinner. Breakfast is served from 6:00 to 8:30 a.m., dinner is usually from 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m., and one hour earlier in summer and autumn. After two meals, another snack will be added, the time is not fixed, if the emperor wants to eat something temporarily, he can send it to someone at any time.
Imperial dining room
The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Guanglu Temple were the catering institutions in the Qing Dynasty Palace, the Imperial Tea Room under the Ministry of Internal Affairs was responsible for the emperor's daily diet, and the Ceremonial Department of the Guanglu Temple and the Ceremonial Department of the Imperial Tea Dining Department and the Imperial Tea Dining Room jointly hosted various banquets in the palace. The dining room, the tea room and the tea room together form the Imperial Tea Room, of which the dining room has three general leaders, two undertakers, fifteen undertakers, three ku chang people, and twenty ku people. There were more than 120 people in the Imperial Tea Room and the Qing Tea Room, in addition to 1560 eunuchs. The emperor's daily meals were first listed by the officials of the Imperial Tea Room, and after being reviewed and filed by the minister in charge of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, they could be cooked and made.
Pass on the meal
Most of the time, the emperor dined in the east and west of the palace and in the office. When eating, no one is allowed to leave on the east and west sides, and all the people who serve the food go to the middle south gate, and the east and west sides are reserved for the emperor, and the emperor needs to follow the etiquette system and sit east to west to eat. The eunuch in the dining room needs to arrange the dining table, and when it is time to open the meal, the guards will arrange for the imperial dining room to deliver the meal, which is called "passing the meal".
Cloth dish (film and television stills)
Then, the eunuchs lined up in an orderly manner with red lacquer boxes in hand, and quickly brought various dishes, meals, soups, etc. to the table, arranged in accordance with the prescribed positions, and the irrelevant personnel retreated one by one, leaving only the eunuchs who served the meal. At this time, the emperor, surrounded by eunuchs, stepped into the dining table and prepared to eat, four eunuchs stood behind the emperor with their hands hanging down, and an elderly eunuch stood aside, responsible for giving the emperor dishes. The dining table is generally made of three tables in a north-south direction, and the middle table is for the emperor to eat, mainly placing a few seasonal fresh vegetables and fruits. There are also a few cases next to the dining table, in preparation for the emperor's reward, the emperor thinks which dish is particularly delicious, say "reward", this dish will be put on several cases, and later it will be put into a food box with boiling water to warm, and sent to the rewarded official's palace or the concubine's palace.
The meals eaten by the emperor were generally eight products for the main dish and four small dishes, plus hot pot, porridge, soup, etc., adding up to about twenty products. Because the emperor's meals are strictly in accordance with the ancestral family law, I am afraid that it is not interesting to eat, but it is just a pomp and procedure.
Puyi
Puyi, the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty, said in "The First Half of My Life": "After these dishes were put on the table through various procedures, they had no use except to indicate pomp and circumstance. The reason why it was able to be quickly placed on the table under a meal order was because the imperial dining room had been prepared half a day ago or the day before, simmering on the fire and waiting..." He also summed up the emperor's meal in four sentences: "Flashy but not real, fee but not beneficial, camp without nourishment, light and tasteless." ”
A variety of dishes (Picture from the network)
No matter which dish, even if it is delicious, the emperor can not eat three bites in a row, this is the family rule handed down by the ancestors, called "eat vegetables are not allowed to eat three spoons." Because what the emperor likes to eat and what he does not like to eat must not let outsiders know, first, for fear that someone will poison and murder the emperor; second, he does not want to spread the news that someone outside the palace borrows the name of the imperial meal and deceives the people of silver. The four eunuchs standing behind the emperor during the meal were specially enforced by the family rules, and even the emperor had to follow the rules of the ancestors. The emperor looked at the dish with his eyes, and the eunuch pushed the dish closer to the emperor, and then spooned it into the dish. If the emperor tastes it and says, "This dish is good," or nods in approval, the eunuch will scoop it for the emperor again, and at the same time push the dish backwards, and cannot scoop it a third time. If you scoop it three times in a row and eat three bites in a row, one of the four eunuchs will shout, "Withdraw," and the rest of the eunuchs will withdraw the dish, and they will not see the dish again for the next ten and a half days. The palace called this rule "passing on the meal and not persuading the meal". Therefore, the emperor's meal is not elusive, and others cannot easily grasp the rules.
Bottom of the meal
Not only that, the Qing Palace's "Meal Bottom File" is a special record of the emperor's meal situation of the inner court information, no matter how big or small, every bit is recorded, but what dishes the emperor loves to eat can never be recorded on the file, and the emperor will never say what he likes to eat, or what he wants to eat today. Eunuchs and palace personnel who serve meals are not allowed to talk about it casually, which is a major taboo in the palace, and those who talk about or leak the emperor's meal situation at will are lightly reprimanded and heavily beheaded.
Without the emperor's will, no one, including the empress, could eat with the emperor. If the emperor is in a good mood or wants to talk to his courtiers, he can give others to accompany him to dinner, and the only lucky people who can bathe in this imperial grace are the empress, concubines, princesses and daughters, and individual favored subjects. When the emperor eats, there is also music accompaniment, which is probably the "Zhou Li" stipulated that the emperor eats with music and food. Of course, the emperors of the Qing Dynasty were no longer prone to "bells ringing and eating", but instead played more relaxed blowing tunes by musicians. After eating, the emperor also rinses his mouth, rinses his mouth, in the spring and summer, the emperor will generally eat some fresh fruits for refreshing the heart, and in autumn and winter, he often drinks hot tea to help digestion.
Imperial menu
The daily recipes of the Qing Dynasty Imperial Diet were recorded and integrated into one volume per month, because to this day, people can still see a large number of imperial meal lists in the Qing Palace archives. At the same time, the minister in charge of the Ministry of the Interior is also responsible for supervising the preparation of the chef, and each dish must be strictly matched according to the ingredient regulations, neither allowing arbitrary additions or deletions, nor allowing the ingredients to affect the original taste of the main ingredients, so that the main and secondary are different.
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Li Zhuoyang
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