There were many famous wines throughout the country in the Song Dynasty, and it was recorded that there were nearly 100 kinds of famous wines in the Northern Song Dynasty and more than 50 kinds of famous wines in the Southern Song Dynasty. At that time, the popular alcohol can be roughly divided into yellow wine, fruit wine, medicinal wine and white wine (Da Shaojiu) four categories. The emperor to drink banquets to enlist ministers, literati to wine to help poetry, the people of the common people's wedding and birthday celebrations, but also inseparable from the wine. In tea, the Song people are also quite elaborate, guests come to use the famous tea hospitality, called tasting tea. At that time, the students had a tea party, gathered to drink tea, talk about the world, become a kind of fellowship organization. Because of the habit of drinking wine and tea into the wind, wedding and funeral guests have a special tea and wine cooks and utensils for people to hire and rent. In addition to this, there are many cool drink stores in Song Dynasty cities, selling drinks.
Song Zhenzong Jingde years, business wine tea salt four taxes totaled 12.33 million guan, of which 4.28 million guan wine tax, to Song Renzong Qingli years, only wine a tax year can get 17.1 million guan, 40 years wine tax increased four times. This shows the prosperity of the wine industry in the Song Dynasty.
Famous stores, luxurious decorations
Song Dynasty high-grade large-scale restaurants, such as Bianjing Renhe store, will be immortal building, Hangzhou's Wulin Garden, Xichun building, rice, food, wine, all in one place, the store corridor rows of pavilions, divided into floor and downstairs loose seats. Some restaurants, or business is very special, or because of the cooking technology to become a legend of the famous store, such as Wang Lou buns, Wanjia steamed buns, Meijia goose and duck, etc., are known as "Tokyo first", "the most refers to".
Song Dynasty restaurants, the environment of the layout, facade decoration and equipment furnishings are extremely elaborate, luxurious. Hangzhou because of the victory of the natural landscape, the restaurant more by the mountains and water, beautiful scenery. Such as the Yongjin Gate outside the Xizihu shore of the "Fung Le House", magnificent and magnificent, pavilions and pavilions, climbing the building overlooking the West Lake, and the boat boat ensemble singing, is the civil and military officials often banquets place. Some hotels and tea houses, or hanging paintings, or insert seasonal flowers, or skillfully set up bonsai, to attract customers. Every holiday, the capital all stores, restaurants have to redecorate the facade, the pagoda on the tie silk hanging color, selling fresh fruit and refined food, the night market is bustling, the people more than on the platform, some rich families in their own pavilions on the platform to enjoy the moon, or set up food or arrange a family dinner, reunion of the children, * * * with the moon and talk about it. At that time, although there was no air-conditioning equipment, but the summer additional cooling ice basin, set up a heating water tank in winter, so that customers always have a feeling of warmth like spring. Many restaurants with gold and silver wine, and even poor people to the hotel to buy wine, but also with silver for delivery.
Song prostitutes to solicit business
Despite the Song dynasty scholarly class advocating "men rule the outside world, women rule the inside world," women can not casually enter and leave the house, but in the lower classes, many women into the business circle activities in the marketplace, especially in the hotel industry. Restaurants often use singers and prostitutes to attract guests and solicit business. The promotion, reward and punishment of officials were also directly linked to their liquor tax, so a large number of prostitutes were employed by the government to engage in liquor promotion. According to records, the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, Kyoto, the front of the hotel is decorated with luxury, colorful, hotel upstairs corridor has hundreds of heavily made-up singers, prostitutes, or soliciting guests or waiting for the guests to call, from a distance it looks like a row of nymphs. Song Dynasty popular "song with the feast", often the powerful class while drinking and enjoying the music, when happy, but also impromptu poetry and lyrics. Courtesans also have the best talent, good color, high skill, and talent, knowledge and artistic interest are very outstanding, their elegance, elegance to the powerful class, the literati fell for it, and such a great beauty and talented women sitting at the same table **** Qi renewed a good story, is not very romantic and cozy? According to records, the "prodigal son of the lyricist" Wen Tingyun, Liu Yong and other courtesans and courtesans to socialize closely, courtesans have become collaborators, singers and disseminators of the lyricist. So many of the "leisure class" spend their days drinking in restaurants, promoting the development of restaurants and liquor stores.
Besides the wine industry, women also played an active role in the food industry, not only participating in the production, but also in the management and operation. Many stores were even named after them, such as Granny Cao's meat cake and Song Wu Sister-in-law's fish soup. In addition, a large number of female entertainers engaged in singing, dancing, theater, amusement, juggling, storytelling and other trades, as well as entertainment venues such as tiles and hooks, appeared in Song Dynasty cities. The largest performance venue in Bianliang of the Northern Song Dynasty was the Elephant Pavilion, which could accommodate thousands of people, and the audience in each pavilion was full day after day in rain, wind, cold and summer. Lin'an in the Southern Song Dynasty, the largest tile to the north of the tile, there are 13 hook bar, female entertainers more than the Northern Song Dynasty.
Service "modern", reasonable prices
The two Song Dynasty catering industry is characterized by attentive service, reasonable prices, a large number of practitioners, benefiting different social strata. In general, the customer to the door, there will be "bottles of tea", seated, the first drink a cup of wine, pay a few guan money, called "official wine". Then, the end of the "look at the plate" (similar to the current menu), let customers look at the sample dishes, and reported the name of the dish, a person to take the paper, all asked what to order wine and vegetables, one by one to remember, sing and read the report with the kitchen. Kitchen has a "bell head", recorded in the record, in order to burn dishes. After a while, the line of food (similar to the present-day ushers), the left hand end of a few plates, the right hand holding a few bowls of food. If there is a mistake, will be "scolded", fined money, serious "expelled". Such as customers in a hurry, to fast food, the hotel will be first on the cover of rice and so on, and then on the fine dishes, almost now "fast food". Some customers have a small appetite, you can also call half soup noodles (i.e., half a bowl of noodles).
According to different economic conditions and consumption levels, the high can be nearly a hundred taels of silver a seat, the low tens of coins a meal, different classes have different places to spend money.
The hotel, in addition to the main practitioners of the cook, there are neighborhood women, waist tie cloth handkerchiefs, head combed high bun, for customers to change the soup pouring wine; there is no call to come to the feast before the blowing and singing, rely on customers to give a small amount of money to send away; there are automatically offered fruit, incense and so on, for the customers to sober up. In short, as long as the customer is satisfied, everything, and no wonder. Customers if you feast at home, there are "contractors", leasing equipment, supply of food and wine, including under the invitation, arrangement of seating, honored before the deacon, etc., are people to undertake to do, the master as long as the money, do not have to spend the slightest effort. What's more, whether in Bianzhou or Hangzhou, the catering industry has a night market, all-night service, from dawn to five o'clock, the supply of different varieties of meals, for customers, it is really convenient.
Both the "tea house" and the pot seller
Song Dynasty, tea is also an important part of people's lives. Tea drinking place also has a teahouse, tea house points, different status of people have their own preferences. In addition to the fixed tea place "tea house", there is a pot to and from the people selling. In Hangzhou City, there is also a mobile tea, tea stalls, known as the "tea division", the object of service for the general public. In the Song Dynasty, the best quality of the Dragon and Phoenix group tea, a catty sold for two gold. Before the Northern Song Dynasty, the city, generally is the workshop, the city zoning, that is, residential areas and commercial areas strictly separate. Song Dynasty, with the development of the city, completely breaking the neighborhood, the city boundaries, the city appeared "wazi" (entertainment venues), within the "hook bar" (performance venues), liquor stores and teahouses. Song Dynasty capital city teahouse tea house all over the streets and alleys, and popularized by the city to the countryside.
The Song Dynasty tea house system of hired labor, tea house owners to recruit people familiar with the art of cooking tea, called "tea doctor", for daily business. Dr. Tea is the city of professional specialization of strong technical workers, is one of the characteristics of the civic class of people. In order to attract customers, the Song Dynasty tea shop attaches great importance to furnishings, to the Southern Song Dynasty, it is carefully arranged. According to records, at that time, Hangzhou tea house is: "inserted four seasons of flowers, hanging celebrity paintings, decorative facade." The big tea house is even more magnificent, pay attention to the cultural decoration, to create an environment for drinking. Su Dongpo also has a "taste of tea to see the painting is not bad" poem.
In order to attract different levels of customers, the tea house to provide services are increasingly diversified, a variety of entertainment activities came into being. Recreational activities in the more common is the string song, the tea house in the string song can be divided into three types: First, the employment of music prostitutes and singers, which is one of the important methods used by the tea house to attract customers. Secondly, the tea guests specifically to the tea house to learn music and singing; and then the arrangement of rapping artists to tell the book, as well as the game of chess and other activities. Teahouse in addition to the supply of tea, also began to supply cakes. Tea in China is the earliest as a medicinal, to accompany meals and quench their thirst. It took a long time before it became clear drinking, i.e., brewed with boiling water and no condiments were added to the tea. However, the way of mixing the tea has always existed, and the method of decocting the tea was popular in the Tang Dynasty, where ginger and salt were used in the decoction. This custom still exists in the Song Dynasty, but people are more favorite tea.
The general tea house has a variety of tea and soup for customers. Southern Song Lin'an big tea house "four times to sell strange tea soup", the sale of cold drinks are sweet bean paste, coconut wine, bean water, deer pear syrup, brine plum water, ginger honey, papaya juice, incense water, and so on. Women and children know the "Water Margin" mentioned in the tea is also colorful, Pan Jinlian four times to the next door to the tea store of the king's wife, will be mentioned in four kinds of tea: plum soup (tea put a few grains of plum decoction made), combined soup (a kind of sweet tea), ginger tea and wide fried leaves children's tea. Some tea shops in the Song Dynasty also ran other businesses, such as hotels or bathhouses, in addition to selling tea.
The Song Dynasty saw a wide range of people visiting teahouses, including princes and nobles, literati, countryside villagers, and even the emperor, who was the most powerful man in the world, who came to patronize them on a whim. Although many people like to go in and out of the teahouse, but in the view of the Song Dynasty scholarly men, the teahouse is still a place of contempt. Scholar drinking tea and the ordinary people drink tea is different: ordinary people are good to adjust the drink, so the teahouse with a variety of tea soup; Scholar is still clear drink. Ordinary people drink tea, add spices, thick flavor and aroma, heavy utility, can quench thirst and cure hunger; scholarly drinking tea, focusing on the product, is to play with the flavor of tea, water, equipment, environment, the mood of the composition of the people.