With the development of the times, after the period of three emperors and five emperors, Xia Yu established the first Xia Dynasty in the world, when people had begun to have surplus food and property, and filling their stomachs was no longer the most serious problem. In order to consolidate the rule, hierarchies were divided.
With the division of hierarchies, there is oppression and exploitation, and the monarch is no longer a service-oriented position, but has become a certain utilitarian. While ruling the country, it is more accompanied by hedonism, extravagance and waste in eating and drinking. Xia Wei, Shang Xuan, and King Zhou Li, there are really not a few such monarchs.
With the development of China's feudal dynasties, the Central Plains has seen frequent changes of dynasties, with eloquent monarchs and extravagant emperors.
The Qing Dynasty was founded by the Jurchens, who originated in the northeast, and during the Chongzhen period of the Ming Dynasty, Li Zicheng, the king of Chuang, led a peasant rebel army to conquer the capital of the Ming Dynasty, and then became emperor himself. The peasant revolt had certain limitations, and Li Zicheng was ousted after only 42 days as emperor.
Wu Sangui opened the Shanhai Pass, and the children of the Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty were able to drive straight in, and finally established the rule of the Great Qing Dynasty. The first emperor of the Qing Dynasty to enter the customs was Aixin Jueluo Fulin, which is what we call the Shunzhi Emperor.
Emperor Shunzhi had an easy time in his life, although he ascended the throne at a young age, but Dolgon kept pressing on his head until 1650 AD, when Shunzhi was able to govern himself. The Qing government was originally a regime established by nomads, and a small number of people ruled the remnants of the Ming Dynasty, which made the rulers of the Qing government a little powerless in the early stage of the rule.
The nationwide rebellion was high, and the call for anti-Qing restoration was very high, which made the Qing rulers sweat in their hands. Emperor Shunzhi also adopted a policy of appeasement, and began to appease the people in the country and increase their recognition of the imperial court. In addition to policy preferences, it takes a lot of money to feed the people.
Therefore, the Qing government at that time was not very wealthy, and Shunzhi did not reign for a long time, and he finished his life at the age of 24, so it may be that the pressure to be the emperor is really too great. After Shunzhi's death, the throne passed to Xuan Ye, who later became Emperor Kangxi. The Qing Dynasty under the rule of Kangxi can be called the pinnacle of the Qing Dynasty's rule, he fought against Tsarist Russia, destroyed Geerdan, and laid a good foundation for the prosperity of Kangqian.
Kangxi's southern expedition to the north to expand the territory, creating merits costs money, therefore, the people in the Kangxi period, the happiness index of life is not high. The cost of perennial conquest is basically from the hands of the people. And Kangxi also realized this problem and stopped the pace of the campaign in time.
Not only that, but also a wind of frugality arose in the court. Whatever the emperor likes, the courtiers will do. While talking to the courtiers, Kangxi asked, "Have you eaten, what have you eaten?"
The courtier replied, "Eat the people's meal." Kangxi: "Let's talk about details." The courtier said: "Wotou, pickles".
Kangxi thought that if he ate like this, he would save a lot of expenses, so he instructed the imperial dining room to eat once and try it, and if it was feasible, he began to reform.
It is estimated that many people do not understand why the emperor still needs to be so troublesome if he wants to eat a nest? This is indeed a big deal in the feudal dynasty. The emperor's diet was strictly regulated. Since the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs, it was still continuing the customs outside the customs, eating breakfast and dinner every day, all of which were ordered by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
There are strict rules on the menu and the combination of meat and vegetables, and they cannot be changed at will. The emperor's meals were varied, and the eunuchs ate them before eating, and then the emperor ate them again. And each dish should not exceed 3 bites, once you eat too many dishes, then you will never see the dish again.
Kangxi wanted to eat Wowotou, which seemed to be a big deal, but it was actually subverting the ancestral system, and at his request, the Ministry of Internal Affairs began to make a "royal customized version" of Wowotou for Kangxi.
After Kangxi tried eating for a while, he thought that he could save a lot of money, and then asked the Internal Affairs Office to check the accounts to see how much money he had saved?
The root lies in this royal custom version of the "Wowotou". The money is mainly divided into two aspects: the original procurement of ingredients for the first piece has already been determined, and if the emperor does not eat it, others are naturally not qualified to eat it, so these dishes can only be spoiled and thrown away.
The other part of the cost comes from Wowotou, the raw material must be selected from the corn with full grains, after grinding into flour, sieved over and over again with Xiaoluo, and the finest flour is used as the raw material. To steam the water of Wotou, it is natural to choose the spring water of the high mountains, and it takes a lot of manpower and material resources from taking water to transporting it.
In the end, even if the emperor only had six nests in one meal, he had to steam hundreds, and among them, he found the six with the best quality and presented them to Kangxi.
As for pickles, naturally, from the selection of materials, to pickling, to selection, the effort in the middle is no less than cooking a table of food. After Kangxi listened to the report of the Internal Affairs Office, he sighed deeply and said, "Recover as before."
Even if this incident in Wowotou is over, the hearts of the people in the Internal Affairs Office can be regarded as letting go.
The reason why this matter is like this, on the one hand, Kangxi's original intentions are good, but this matter will break the original balance.
The emperor's food supply is a chain, and many people or positions are set up for this purpose, once it is simplified, it will inevitably offend the interests of many people. Therefore, except for the emperor, many people do not want this to be done, so they will complicate such a simple thing.
But for Kangxi, these exquisiteness made him very useful to a certain extent, although he didn't save money, so he couldn't blame others. After all, the Ministry of Internal Affairs has too many rules to follow, and if you want to overhaul the diet system, you will encounter a lot of resistance and spend a lot of energy, so it will not be economical in the long run.
Therefore, this is the reason why Kangxi let them recover after listening to the report of the Internal Affairs Office.
Actually, in my opinion, this is not realistic. Emperor Kangxi's idea is just to experience life, and saving money naturally cannot be saved from this aspect. One is that it is a matter of royal face, and the other is that the nutrition is not balanced, and the pickles are really not delicious.
Kangxi Wowotou also ate it, and it was indeed not delicious. The money was not saved, and he figured things out, so it is not surprising that he will return to the same as before.