As the saying goes, "the people take food as the sky", and in the feudal era, it was unimaginable for the people to be able to eat and eat enough. But for the emperors, how to eat tall is the most troublesome thing for them, and the emperors of the Qing Dynasty can be said to have reached the extreme for eating, which can be said to be unprecedented and unprecedented.
<h1>Qing Dynasty imperial dining room and court meals
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After entering the customs, the people of all ethnic groups with the Han nationality as the main body, through mutual learning and exchange, created a high degree of material civilization in the feudal era, and also created a high degree of feudal spiritual civilization, including cooking technology. The cooking technology and court cuisine culture of the Imperial Dining Room of the Qing Dynasty are the products and typical examples of the material civilization of the Qing Dynasty.
In order to ensure that the emperor and members of the imperial family enjoyed the glory and wealth of the world and the life of fine clothes and jade food, the Qing court set up a huge organization in the Ministry of Internal Affairs to manage the emperor's drinking and eating, and the rulers also recruited skilled craftsmen and culinary masters from all over the country to serve him.
The governing bodies of the Qing Dynasty's court meals were mainly the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Guanglu Temple. The Imperial Tea Dining Room, Tea House, Charcoal Vault, Chai Vault, fruit house, etc. under the Ministry of Internal Affairs all have a close relationship with the palace drinking and eating.
In the early Qing Dynasty, the "Imperial Tea Dining Room" was divided into tea rooms, tea rooms and dining rooms, which were responsible for managing the daily meals of the emperor and imperial personnel, and also undertook some feast affairs. In May of the fifteenth year of Qianlong (1750), the Qianlong Emperor decreed that the dining room should be changed into an internal dining room, and from then on, the dining room was divided into internal and external dining rooms. The inner dining room consists of the Meat Bureau, the Vegetarian Bureau, the Dim Sum Bureau, the Meal Bureau, the Hanging Stove Bureau and the DivisionAlpin, which are specially responsible for the daily meals of the Empress and her concubines.
Guanglu Temple is the Qing Dynasty state specially managed the feast of the institution, the Qing Dynasty Ming system, in the first year of Shunzhi (1644) set up Guanglu Temple, initially subordinate to the Ministry of Rites, Kangxi Ten years out, Guangxu twenty-four years again into the Ministry of Rites, soon divided, until the 32nd year of Guangxu official reform, Guanglu Temple was again incorporated into the Ministry of Rites, until the end of the Qing Dynasty.
Guanglu Temple is mainly responsible for foreign court meals, such as the emperor holding large feasts, receiving envoys from various countries, etc. In theory, Guanglu Temple is the real dietary management agency of the country. However, despite this, Guanglu Temple was never comparable to the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Qing Dynasty, and the meals of the imperial family were all from the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
<h1>Regulation of daily imperial meals in the imperial harem of the Qing Dynasty</h1>
The emperors and imperial families of the Qing Dynasty not only studied the diet and cooking techniques in the daily meals in the palace, but also the etiquette was extremely strict and cumbersome. The emperor's meals are called "passing meals", "eating", and "eating", and their locations are not fixed, mostly in the emperor's bedchamber, palace or place where he often moves.
The emperor of the Qing Dynasty ate two meals a day, in the morning and evening. Breakfast is mostly after midnight (six or seven o'clock in the morning); dinner is at noon and not two o'clock (twelve o'clock to two o'clock in the afternoon). In addition, there is also a "late snack" (snack) every night around unitary time (6 p.m.).
Whenever the emperor was dining, the eunuch first set up a dining table at the place where the meal was passed, and when the meal was transported from the dining room, it was quickly placed on the dining table according to the regulations, and if there was no special will, no one could eat at the same table with the emperor. As for the meals of the emperor and his concubines at each meal, there are many records in the relevant historical materials of the Qing Dynasty. For example, on December 30, the eleventh year of Xianfeng (1861), the Menu of the Tongzhi Emperor Chinese New Year's Eve, who had just ascended the throne, was:
"Four large bowl dishes: bird's nest gold and silver duck, bird's nest three fresh fat chicken, bird's nest pot roasted duck, bird's nest assorted chicken shredded; four kinds of Huai bowl dish: bird's nest slip duck strips, silk pigeon eggs, chicken silk wings, slippery duck waist; dish four products: bird's nest fried oven duck shredded, fried pheasant feet, small fried carp, scrambled eggs with meat shredded; slices and plates two products: hanging stove duck, hanging stove pig; two products of rao: sugar oil cake, ruyi roll; bird's nest eight immortal soup."
Judging from the above records, although the Qing Emperor's diet is rich, it is not like the film and television works described, each meal is more than a hundred dishes, let alone a full Table of Manchus. But even so, the emperor could not eat this large table dish, and many delicacies were only used for posture, and then according to the rules of the Qing Palace, they were given to his subordinate ministers or eunuchs. The rest of the concubine's meals were given to the palace maids and eunuchs.
There are many dishes, obviously the ingredients and materials are also used, so how much do the emperors and concubines use in a day?
The emperor, the empress dowager, the crown prince and the Fujin were clearly defined for the materials needed for daily meals. They are all prepared by each place according to a certain number of rules. For example, the emperor needs to prepare for the following every day:
"Twenty-two pounds of meat, five pounds of soup meat, one pound of lard, two sheep, five chickens, three ducks, nineteen pounds of cabbage, spinach, coriander, celery, leeks, etc., sixty large radishes, water radishes and carrots, one melon and one winter melon, six pounds of green onions, four pounds of Yuquan wine, three pounds of sauce and sauce, and two pounds of vinegar." Eight plates of breakfast and dinner are served with 30 plates, and each plate of gluttony requires 4 pounds of fine white noodles, 1 pound of sesame oil, 5 spoons of sesame seeds, 3 halves of chengsha, and 12 pairs of sugar, walnut kernels and black dates. In addition, the imperial tea room also prepared tea, milk, etc. for the emperor every day. The emperor used fifty cows, each cow to pay two catties of milk per day, a total of one hundred catties; and he used twelve cans of jade spring water, one pound of emulsion, and seventy-five packets of tea leaves (two or two per pack) every day. ”
The Queen's daily supply is:
"Sixteen pounds of meat, ten pounds of vegetable meat, one chicken and one duck, twenty pounds of cabbage, coriander, and celery, twenty pounds of water radish and carrots, one winter melon, two pounds of green onions, one pound of sauce, eight pounds of sauce, two pounds of sauce, and one pound of vinegar." In the morning and evening, there are four plates of food, thirty per plate, and the ingredients are the same as those of the emperor with the meal. In addition, the Imperial Tea House also prepares tea and milk. The queen used twenty-five cows, and received a total of fifty catties of milk every day, twelve cans of jade spring water and ten packets of tea leaves. ”
The concubines of all levels under the empress had different materials to prepare every day. As for the Crown Prince's Dining Room, four catties of meat, two catties of vegetable meat, and ten ducks per month are prepared for the Crown Prince every day. The Crown Prince and Fu Jin, each example uses eight cows, plus eight bags of tea leaves.
<h1>Sources of ingredients and materials in the Qing Palace
In addition to rice, noodles, vegetables, wine, vinegar, etc., meat, game, fish, etc., which are needed for meals on a daily basis, are mainly paid and purchased from various places. Every year, there are strict rules for the items to be submitted to the palace in various places. For example, General Shengjing paid 780 deer per year, 210 roe deer, 2,000 deer tails and 2,000 deer tongues, 100 catties of deer tendons, and other wild boars, pheasants, and tiger bones.
In addition, the local Huangzhuang Zhuangtou and Garden Head also have to pay a ration of chickens, ducks and other things every year according to the regulations, such as the Zhuangtou outside the Guanwai, each year rated 120 deer, 120 deer tails, 2,700 dried venison, 3,000 pheasants. Other provinces also have a considerable number of specialties. Although there are many varieties of things handed in everywhere, these are still not enough.
Therefore, in the twentieth year of Qianlong (1755), the Qing court decided: "The pigs, chickens, etc. used by the inner court, sent the dining room officials to receive 22,000 taels of silver from the Guanglu Temple, used the number of silver, verified the sale at the end of the year, and still consulted the Guanglu Temple for verification." "By the twenty-eighth year of Qianlong (1763), the Qing court increased this silver from 2 to 30,000 taels, which was supported by the household department, and decided that every thousand and two pieces of silver would be deducted from the remaining 22 taels of silver, which would be stored in the dining room and used when the price was expensive.
<h1>The court cuisine is rich, and everything used is pursued to the extreme
In addition to the traditional Manchu diet, the meal customs of the Qing Palace also include dishes and dishes of Shandong cuisine and Suzhou and Hangzhou cuisine. When cooking, raw materials and spices must not be arbitrarily coordinated, and the primary and secondary relationships are strictly distinguished, and at the same time, the unification of seasonings is emphasized. In addition, the palace diet is very concerned about the fact that every time the imperial dining room sends a meal to the emperor, the raw materials and spices used must be recorded in detail into the menu, and no matter when and where, the dishes eaten by the emperor are not allowed to change the taste.
That is to say, if in the late Qing Dynasty, the Guangxu Emperor wanted to eat the dishes of the Qianlong era, the imperial dining room could be prepared according to the menu at any time, and the taste was exactly the same, absolutely maintaining the original taste, no bad at all.
In addition to pursuing the ultimate in cooking technology, it is also at any cost when it comes to water use. Royal drinking water is a special supply, and there is a special water source. The emperor's drinking water is the "jade spring water" that is transported daily from the western suburbs of Beijing. Taking jade spring water for the emperor to drink was a rule set by the Qianlong Emperor. He once tasted the spring water and well water on the outskirts of Beijing, and ordered a special small silver bucket to weigh the weight of famous springs in various places, and the result was that the jade spring water weighed one or two, so the jade spring water was sealed as "the first spring in the world".
The fruits used in the Qing Palace are all fine products from all over the world, and it is not exaggerated to describe it as "a red dust concubine laughing, no one knows that it is a lychee". During the Qianlong period, the types and quantities of fruits were considerable, and there were all kinds of seasonal and superior fruits almost all year round. In order to ensure that authentic and fresh fruits can be eaten, the Qianlong Emperor also transplanted some valuable fruit trees to the palace, and also specially used the method of freezing cellars to store various seasonal fruits.
According to statistics, in the forty-sixth year of Qianlong alone (1781), comprador fruits and other items cost 18,350 silver. According to the current price, that is, one or two hundred and eight silver dollars per stone of wheat, this silver can be purchased for more than 1.8 million catties, which can be used by more than 5,000 people. It can be seen that the luxury and consumption of the qing dynasty royal family were realized.