When Cao Cao's Chibi was defeated in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, because all the military food was burned along with the warships, and the hunger was unbearable, Cao Cao had to order "cutting horses and roasting meat" to eat. In ancient times, eating horse meat was a helpless move, not only because horses were usually military products, but also because the ancients believed that horse meat was not only smelly, but also poisonous.
On the contrary, the donkeys under the genus of the horse family are different, the ancients were very fond of eating donkey meat, and after a long period of development, even evolved many delicacies with donkey meat as the main ingredient.
Curiously, as a mule hybridized from horses and donkeys, the ancients summed up the saying that "starvation does not eat mule meat". For this reason, the ancients compiled these three kinds of meat into a common saying, "horse meat smells, donkey meat is fragrant, starve to death and do not eat mule meat", in order to warn future generations not to eat mule meat.
So why did the ancients say that? In addition, has not the Xinjiang region always had the habit of eating horse meat? So why did the ancients say that horse meat stinks?
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Before talking about horse meat and mule meat, let's talk about why donkey meat has always been popular.
In ancient times, donkeys were the most commonly used transport and production of livestock, especially in mountainous areas, and donkeys were a more important domestic animal than cattle farming.
However, donkeys have a disadvantage, that is, they are afraid of heat. After sweating a little every time you exert some effort, it is easy to get sick if you don't take care of it well. There is also the fact that every year when hair removal, it is almost once dead. Therefore, if you are not careful when raising a donkey, it is easy to get sick and die if it is hot or tired.
It is a pity that such a large donkey died, so it is a pity to discard it like this, so the ancients would kill the donkey before it died, and then eat the donkey meat. In addition, ancient Chinese medicine believes that donkey meat has the effect of replenishing qi and replenishing weakness, so donkey meat is gradually recognized by the world.
As for the taste of donkey meat, it is very tender and delicious, but it is not as hard and woody as horse meat.
So why is horse meat so hard and woody?
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Horses are highly explosive animals, which depend on the strong muscles of the horses. But we all know that this muscle is often very hard, and the meat quality is very poor, and the taste is naturally much worse.
As for why the ancients said that horse meat is smelly, there are two aspects.
The first is misleading by the lactic acid smell on horses. As we all know, the main job of a horse is to transport and provide for people to ride. When the horse runs for a long time, a lot of sweat will flow from the body, and the sweat contains a lactic acid smell, so people think that horse meat is smelly.
Second, horse meat does have some sour taste, even if some ethnic minorities have the habit of eating horse meat, they also need to use a lot of ingredients to blend it to remove this sour taste. For example, horse meat is eaten in Xinjiang, which is generally eaten by smoking and air-drying.
In addition, ancient Chinese medicine believed that horse meat was poisonous, especially horse liver, and could even poison people to death. This statement is mentioned in the "Compendium of Materia Medica" and "Dietary Recipes for Living with The Breath", and also gives antidotes.
Combining the above points, the ancients would not eat horse meat unless they had to.
So the question is, even the "poisonous" horse meat ancients will eat, why did the ancients say "starve to death do not eat mule meat"?
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For this problem, it is relatively simple to explain, a total of 8 words, "no filial piety has three, no aftermath is greater." ”
As we all know, mules have no fertility, and the ancients paid attention to filial piety and continued incense, even the concubinage system was formed on this basis. Therefore, under this kind of thinking, the ancients easily associated eating mule meat without fertility. Therefore, even if the mule meat is delicious, even if you are extremely hungry, you will not eat mule meat.
It can be seen from this that the "filial piety" in Confucian thought had such a lofty status in ancient times that if you commit the crime of "unfilial piety", you cannot be forgiven, and it is a crime of "unforgivable evils" that must die.
Such examples abounded in ancient times, such as Kong Rong, a descendant of Confucius, Liu Shuang, the son of king Hengshan of the Han Dynasty, Ji Kang, a famous thinker of the Three Kingdoms, and Zheng Huan, a famous scholar of the Ming Dynasty, all of whom were killed for filial piety. Moreover, they were generally subjected to capital punishment, such as Zheng Yan, who was executed by Ling Chi.
Under such a strong contrast, the ancients will have the saying that they do not eat mule meat, after all, compared with "filial piety", even starvation is a commendable thing.
References: Colloquial Compendium, Compendium of Materia Medica