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introduction
"The people live on food". It's just five words, but it shows the importance of eating. Food is not only a necessity for human survival, but also a cornerstone to measure whether an agricultural country is rich and strong.
At first, food was just a filling existence, and the ancestors even experienced the era of Ru Mao drinking blood. However, with the development of social economy, in the peaceful era when people can fill their stomachs, people have begun to pay attention to the color, flavor and taste of food, and eating is no longer just for survival, but also for a kind of enjoyment.
(Scene of the Ancients' Banquet)
From the princes and nobles to the common people, everyone pursues the beauty of food and food as much as possible within their own ability to satisfy their appetites. Different regions and dynasties have also formed differences in dietary preferences, and each era has its own unique dietary pursuits.
(Han Dynasty oven)
Many of the ingredients we are Xi to are not actually from the local area, and they have not been introduced for a long time. For example, the corn that is common on our table today was introduced to China in the Ming Dynasty, and there are many delicacies that will surprise modern people.
1. The intersection of the cultural Silk Road of all parties has sparked a spark of special food
Two thousand years ago, Zhang Qian of the Western Han Dynasty sent an envoy to the Western Regions, which not only stabilized the frontier of the Han Dynasty, but also opened a trade route, which allowed the Central Plains civilization and the cultures of various countries to blend and promote the development of human civilization.
("Zhang Qian's Envoy to the Western Regions")
At the same time, the dining table of the common people of the Han Dynasty was also enriched. Coriander, garlic, cucumbers, carrots, spinach, and other ingredients that are ubiquitous today were introduced to China as exotic varieties during the Han Dynasty.
Grapes are one of them. When Zhang Qian was in Dawan, he tasted delicious grapes and drank locally made wine, he praised this fruit, and learned in detail about the local grape planting technology and wine making methods, and after returning to China, he reported to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty that the grapes entered China.
(Grape)
Since then, grapes have been planted on a large scale in the Northwest China, and wine has also begun to enter the wineries of the people in the Northwest.
In addition, Zhang Qian's envoy to the Western Regions also introduced a kind of food that is difficult for ordinary people to eat, and even modern people are difficult to eat, which is the hump. Hump meat was the preserve of the aristocracy and the wealthy in regions such as Central Asia and the Arabian Peninsula, and was only seen at high-end feasts. According to the Han Dynasty, the camel caravan of the Western Regions Protectorate once presented hump meat to the Central Plains.
(Hump)
The hump is extremely heavy in fat and has a poor taste when boiled, so it is mostly used for shabu-shabu, and can also be used for frying, roasting, and frying. Cen Shen in the Tang Dynasty once wrote such a poem, that is, "the plough ox cooks the wild camel". In the Qing Dynasty, the hump was even listed as one of the eight treasures of the mountain, and a famous dish was the Qianlong camel soup made with choy sum and hump meat.
(Qianlong camel soup)
Second, the exotic eating method has been improved locally, and there have been new cooking methods in all dynasties
However, the common people are not only interested in introducing new ingredients and new ways of eating, but also innovating and improving these exotic cuisines.
Yin Shang period. Donkeys have been domesticated in Xinjiang, but donkeys have gradually entered the interior from the northwest and India since the Qin Dynasty, and have become one of the very rare and precious domestic animals. It was not until the Han Dynasty that a large number of donkeys and mules entered Shaanxi, Gansu and the interior of the Central Plains. And as the number of donkeys increases, so do new ingredients and ways to eat them.
It's not just donkey meat that can be used, but donkey offal has also become a delicacy, and donkey intestines are one of them. It is not uncommon to eat animal offal, and the Han Dynasty's "Treatise on Salt and Iron" refers to donkey jerky and lamb tripe.
In the Han Dynasty, people would take out the donkey plate intestine (large intestine) separately for cooking, and generally pay attention to eating and killing. Princes and nobles loved its crispy, fresh and sweet taste.
(Donkey intestines)
In the Tang Dynasty, in order to pursue freshness, he even developed a more cruel way to eat, and Wu Zetian's male pet Zhang Changzong studied a rather cruel way to eat.
First, the donkey was kept in a small room, and a charcoal fire was lit around the house. As the temperature in the house continued to rise, the donkey was thirsty, but he could only drink the seasoning water in the bucket in front of him, and over time, the taste became pickled into the donkey's meat. At this time, the donkey is disemboweled, and the intestines are removed. At this time, the donkey was still alive and could only struggle to die in pain.
In the Song Dynasty, donkey intestines were also cooked by roasting and boiling. It was not until the Ming Dynasty that chili peppers were introduced to China, and the eating methods such as stir-fried began to prevail, and the dishes became richer in taste, and the major cuisines gradually took shape.
(驴肉)
3. Food can be seen in social culture, and the aristocracy and poor have their own ways of eating
In fact, food is inseparable from socio-economic and cultural aspects, and the types of food of the ancients seem to be rich and colorful, but in fact they are also subject to many restrictions. In times of war or famine, ordinary people can't even eat a bite of rice soup or wild vegetables, let alone meat. Otherwise, there would not be the famous poem that Zhumen wine and meat stink, and there are frozen bones on the road.
And today's common beef is also rare in ancient times, and even banned from eating.
Because the mainland was an agrarian society in ancient times, the rulers of all dynasties attached great importance to ploughing cattle, and the practice of slaughtering ploughing cattle for meat sometimes violated the law, and even lost their heads in serious cases.
The laws of the Tang Dynasty once stipulated that those who slaughtered cattle were sentenced to one and a half years of hard labor. Cattle that are old and infirm and unable to work still need to wait for the government's approval before they can be slaughtered.
(Cattle Picture)
However, this does not prevent the people from slaughtering them privately, and the law does not hold the people accountable, and most of the time, officials of all dynasties and generations turn a blind eye. However, when the princes and nobles performed sacrifices, they could place cattle and sheep as tribute.
However, class differences could not stop the people's passionate pursuit of food. An eggplant can not only become the cumbersome and more delicious than meat "eggplant" in "Dream of Red Mansions", but also become the braised eggplant on the dinner table of ordinary people. After all, the ancients were still a minority who were able to enjoy strange ingredients and try new cooking methods at will.
(Braised eggplant)
But nowadays, we living in modern society, even when we can taste the food of Tiannan and Haibei without leaving home, we will inevitably sigh at the convenience brought to us by economic and technological development. Being able to enjoy our favorite food anytime, anywhere, is happier than the ancients.
(Barbecue scene on stone bricks of the Han Dynasty)
Resources:
Cattle slaughtering and eating cattle used to be "heinous" crimes.Yangcheng Evening News,2021-01-20
Ross, Ji Yu, Gong Maohong, Zhang Hao. "The Chinese in the Struggle for Survival." Publication Reference: New Reading 000.001 (2005):P.36.