"Cage rack birds fight clams, and four courtyards raise goldfish." As soon as the words "Eight Flags Disciples" were mentioned, we immediately saw such a scene in front of our eyes. Yes, this kind of leisurely and lazy look is exactly the fixed image left by the Eight Flags disciples to everyone. To a large extent, the Eight Flags disciples can even be equated with the "dumb disciples".
Eight Flags
In fact, at the beginning of the Qing Dynasty's entry into the customs, the Eight Flags disciples were not such an image.
In 1628, Emperor Taiji of the Qing Dynasty formally established the Eight Flags system on the basis of the cattle record system. All the Manchu military and civilians were divided into the yellow flag, the white flag, the red flag, the blue flag, the yellow flag, the white flag, the red flag, and the blue flag. At that time, the young Eight Banners disciples were good at riding and shooting, dared to fight and fight on the battlefield, and made great contributions to the Entry of the Qing Dynasty and the unification of the world. At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the famous generals Azig, Dolgun, Duoduo, Yue Chen, and others all went to the battlefield at the age of teenagers, charged the front line, and made many military achievements.
After the Qing Dynasty unified the world, it continued to maintain the Eight Flags system. Flag people enjoy extraordinary preferential treatment.
The imperial court stipulated: "Whoever has eight banners, sends grain, grass, and cloth, and never stops losing." This means that the children of the Eight Banners do not have to fulfill their obligations for the country, do not need to serve as errand boys, and pay money and food. The only thing they need to do is, "If they go out, they will be soldiers, and if they enter, they will be farmers; and they will not be wasted in the two matters of cultivation and war." In fact, the Qi people were not good at farming, and when they acquired large tracts of land, they leased these lands to the Han Chinese to obtain land rent income themselves. At the same time, after the Qing Dynasty entered a stable state, wars rarely occurred, and the possibility of the Eight Banners going to the battlefield was minimal. Therefore, the Children of the Eight Banners have nothing to do all day.
The land rent income of the flag people is not much, and it is difficult to support the family. The imperial court stipulated that as long as someone in the family of the flag bearer was a soldier, he could receive a certain amount of silver and rice. Silver is distributed once a month, and Lumi is distributed once a quarter. Infantry, escorts, forwards, and pro-army soldiers are 4 taels per month, Lu Mi is 4 stones and 8 buckets per year, Vest Silver is 3 pairs per month, Lu Mi is 4 stones and 8 buckets per year, Infantry Armor Silver is 2 pairs per month, and Lu Mi is 4 stones and 8 buckets per year. If he became an officer, he would have more silver and rice.
Whether it is an officer or an ordinary soldier, the eight flags of the children are not less silver and rice, which can provide the basic living expenses of a family of old and young. If there is a situation such as marriage and funeral, birth, old age, illness and death, the imperial court will also give economic subsidies according to the situation.
What if the Eight Banners want to become an official? The imperial court provided the Eight Banners with a variety of ways to become officials. In addition to taking the imperial examination like the Han Chinese, they can also become officials in the form of ministry and court pen and post, promotion and so on. Many important official positions in the imperial court, such as the Eight Banners Commandery, the Eight Banners General, the Bodyguard, the Minister of the Interior, and the Minister of the Interior, were all specially prepared for the children of the Eight Banners, and the Han people were not qualified for office.
However, although the flag people enjoyed a variety of preferential treatment, the economic situation of many flag people deteriorated with the decline of the Qing Dynasty and their own limitations. Due to the sharp increase in the population of the Eight Flags and the fact that the state's financial resources cannot make ends meet, it is difficult to feed so many of the Eight Flags children, and their treatment can only be drastically reduced. The children of the Eight Banners have lived a life of unearned income for a long time, lost the means of making a living (the state does not allow them to do business and work), and their lives are getting worse and worse. By the end of the Qing Dynasty, there were many Eight Banners disciples who were too poor to please their wives and could not afford to eat.
Puyi's English teacher, Johnston, who has lived in China for many years, recorded the tragic scene of the fall of the Eight Flags in his "Journey to the West" of China: "Many very beautiful and very young girls sold themselves in brothels, and most of the female artists, storytellers, and fortune tellers on the flyover near the Temple of Heaven were Manchus. What's more, the female descendants of the former magnates were forced to sell to the Han chinese as aunts and wives..."
Rao is so, many of the Eight Banners disciples still have to put on a "grand ancestors" appearance, even if they have to die to face the guilt.
The Eight Flags disciple who lived in the capital city obviously drank stick noodle porridge at home, and he preferred to hang a piece of meat skin behind the door. Every morning before going out, wipe your mouth with the skin of the flesh, and then walk out the door with the bird cage and hum a small song. I met someone I knew and asked, "Did you eat it?" He immediately replied loudly: "These days, I am tired of eating meat." You see, the oil is straight up in the mouth, and it comes out to hang out and dissolve the food in the stomach. ”
It is precisely because the eight flags children like to be "poor and exquisite" and also invented fried sauce noodles.
In the past, noodles were the food of the Han chinese, and the Eight Flags disciples disdained eating noodles. However, the family road is backward, the Eight Flags children have no money to pay attention to the diet, but also to put on the pomp, face, just when eating noodles, put some cucumber shreds, beans, tender bean sprouts and other seasonal vegetables on the noodles. And that's not all, they also fried the sauce in oil and poured it on the noodles to make it look even better.
As a result, the Beijing-style gourmet fried sauce noodles came into being.
Fried noodles with sauce
In the capital at that time, there was a passage of smooth words: "Why is the moon so high tonight?" Ride a white horse, shoulder knife, waist knife fast, cut cabbage, cabbage old, cut the skin jacket, thick skin jacket, chop lamb, mutton fat, chop cockroach thief. Barefoot on the eight flags, no horse coat to do in a hurry, when the pants to buy Kang mat, bean juice rice on the radish peel, see if you are in a hurry ..."
This passage of smooth talk embodies the poverty and death of the Eight Flags disciples to the fullest.