The Qing Dynasty historian Zhang Xuecheng said in his essay collection "Notes on Yi Di" that there are 10 kinds of ridiculous things circulating among Beijingers, and the first one is "Guanglu Temple Tea Soup".
What is the origin of the Guanglu Temple tea soup that makes the people of Beijing laugh so happily?
Guanglu Temple is an institution in charge of sacrifices, pilgrimages, banquets, wines, and meals, which was established as early as the Qin Dynasty. During the Ming Dynasty, there was no imperial dining room in the imperial palace to prepare meals, and the daily diet of the members of the imperial family was responsible for the Guanglu Temple. Guanglu Temple spent 360,000 taels of silver a year, but did not let the emperor eat well. The Jiajing Emperor even complained: "Now, no matter when the ancestors were present, the two palaces were divided into provinces, there were only more than ten concubines, and the palace had set up banquets for twenty years." The daily meals are all prepared, and there is no one who can be satisfied. I don't know what Guanglu Temple gave the emperor to eat, so much so that he angrily said something like "cutting".
Jiajing Emperor
However, although the food at Guanglu Temple is not satisfactory, it is quite innovative.
As mentioned earlier, Guanglu Temple is responsible for the sacrifice. In ancient times, the procedures of sacrifice were very complicated, making time extremely long. To this end, Guanglu Temple needs to prepare some food for the royal family members and civil and military officials who participate in the ritual activities to fill the hunger. Beijing is located in the north, and autumn and winter are relatively cold, and these foods can easily become cold and difficult to swallow. So the officials of guanglu temple used their brains to invent a food called "tea soup".
The tea soup method is: first grind the barley rice, millet, etc. into flour and set aside, then the boiling hot water will flush the rice noodles into a thin paste, and then add brown sugar, white sugar, green and red silk, sesame seeds, walnut kernels, assorted fruit, raisins, Beijing cake strips, pine nuts and other spices, you can eat, this food is delicious and sweet and smooth, extremely delicious.
Tea
We can imagine how happy it would be when a festival was held in the cold suburbs, when the hungry and cold members of the royal family and the civil and military officials held a bowl of steaming tea soup.
After the tea soup came out, it was warmly welcomed by members of the royal family and civil and military officials, and they were praised. Officials at Gwanglu Temple were encouraged to continue their efforts to improve the production and raw materials of the tea soup. For example, in order to improve the taste of tea soup and adapt to the taste of more people, they use more exquisite raw materials, and the categories of raw materials are richer. For example, in order to brew more tea soup in the shortest possible time, they developed a large copper pot that can hold tens of kilograms of water and a special set of brewing techniques.
For a long time, tea soup has become the signature food of Guanglu Temple and is widely known.
After the Qing Dynasty entered the customs, a royal dining room was set up under the Ministry of Internal Affairs to manage the diet and ceremonial feasts of the emperor, the queen concubines and other members of the imperial family in the palace. Guanglu Temple still exists, but its functions and responsibilities have changed, and it is no longer responsible for the diet of the members of the imperial family, but mainly undertakes sacrificial activities.
Imperial dining room
The "Qing History Manuscript and Zhiguan Zhi II" records: "(Guanglu Temple) palm Yan Lao recommended food, discernment style, audit funds." Whoever sacrifices will be too evergreen to save the cattle, to complete the ceremony, to enter the Heavenly Son, and to award the hundred deacons. 蕃使廪饩, with a difference, etc. "This means that Guanglu Temple is responsible for comforting the army, Jongmyo temple sacrifices, etc. After the sacrifice was over, the officials of the Guanglu Temple offered meat to the emperor and distributed the meat to the civil and military officials present.
In the Qing Dynasty, Guanglu Temple still needed to provide tea soup for members of the royal family and civil and military officials during the sacrifice activities. However, the officials of the Guanglu Temple became more and more irresponsible, and the raw materials purchased often cut corners and shoddily made, resulting in the brewed tea soup becoming less and less delicious. The members of the royal family and the civil and military officials could not openly complain -- after all, there were more unpalatable gizzard meats in the sacrificial activities, and they could only spit on the tea soup of Guanglu Temple behind their backs, thinking that this food was not worthy of the name and had a false appearance, which was really ridiculous and ridiculous.
However, although the tea soup of Guanglu Temple has become a laughing stock, this royal dim sum has been sought after by the people after it was spread to the people. In Beijing, Tianjin and other places, tea soup has become a daily food for ordinary people.
During the Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty, there was a poem "Words of Bamboo Branches in Dumen" circulated in Beijing: "In the morning, a bowl of sweet porridge is eaten before tea soup and noodle tea are eaten; cold fruit cakes are fried sugar ears, and hanging stoves are burned cakes. Fork fire just sold, and listen to the hard noodles called Rao Rao..." In the lyrics, it is full of famous snacks that the people of Beijing are popular among the people.
In 1985, the TV series "Four Worlds Together" based on Lao She's original work was released. There is such a scene in the TV series: when Mrs. Qi went to the stall to buy rabbit grandpa, a shot turned to the stall owner who sold tea soup, and he held a large copper pot with golden light in his right hand, the mouth of the big copper pot was steaming, and he held a bowl in his left hand and shouted to Mrs. Qi. Old Lady Qi paused for a moment and left on her own.
Tianjin tea soup
In 2008, Feng Jicai, a famous folk writer in Tianjin, wrote an article in "Strange People in the World", "Good Mouth YangBa", telling an interesting story of Li Hongzhang eating Yangba tea soup in Tianjin. Of course, whether Li Hongzhang ate Yangba tea soup or not, we don't know.