As we all know, the main work of the ancient courtiers is to go to the court to discuss the matter, advice and counseling, and often it is not yet dawn to be fully loaded into the palace, so it can be said to be "the rooster crows that is to get up". The poet Gao Qi of the early Ming Dynasty described in his "Early Arrival at the Forbidden City" that "the moon is brightly shining, halfway along the Royal Gully Bridge, and the archway is not yet open for the court", that is to say, when the moon is still shining brightly in the sky, ministers have to rush to the Forbidden City gate to wait for the door to be opened but there is still a period of time until the door is opened. hungry and formal standing outside the palace gates, forcing a smile on their faces.

Just like modern office workers, courtiers get up in the morning and go to work, and then return home to continue to deal with political affairs, and the emperor is their boss. Only the emperor's court time is mostly in the dawn, that is, now five to seven o'clock, and the ministers live outside the palace, and most of them walk into the palace, taking too long, had to get up in the middle of the night to freshen up, two or three o'clock in the morning to be ready to enter the palace. According to the Ming dynasty records, the ministers have to cross half of the capital in the morning at three o'clock in the morning to wait in line outside the Noon Gate, to be about five o'clock in the morning on the tower bells ringing, the palace doors open, ministers will be able to enter in turn. If there are those who can not arrive on time, light will be punished, heavy will be demoted. In addition, ministers who cough, spit or walk unsteadily and other "disrespectful" behavior, will be responsible for picketing the imperial historian record reported, may face a small punishment.

So it seems, the ancient courtier's working life is not as easy as it seems in the movie and TV drama, in addition to climbing up in the middle of the night on the morning court, but also to bear the huge psychological pressure of accompanying the king as a tiger. I'm sure many people still have a question, since the time to go to court is so early, so how do the ministers solve the breakfast?

The TV series "towards **** and" there is such a scene, the palace somewhere in the courtyard set up a breakfast stall, many ministers wearing court dress sitting at a small table to eat breakfast, breakfast is mostly fried dough, porridge, fried fruitcake, etc., and the situation of the modern community breakfast stalls in general.

This place is called Tianjie, located in the military office outside the gate of the Longzongmen, is the way to enter the Qianqingmen. As the beginning of the court before all the ministers have to wait here, and come too early, most officials are too late to eat breakfast or no breakfast to eat, some clever eunuchs will see a business opportunity - set up breakfast stalls. Coincidentally, the emperor's law does not prohibit the stalls in this business, the eunuchs will be drilling a hole in the secret arrangements, breakfast stalls so smoothly opened.

While such a breakfast stall is not "formal", but the sale of food is also rich. The morning stall at Longzongmen was described in the lyrics of Shousen, the commander of the infantry, in his poem "Hundreds of Words on Remembering the South of Jiangnan," "Remembering the previous dynasty, I remembered to come to Longzong. Su Zao meat is fragrant and sesame cake is hot, fried liver and intestines are rotten and apricot tea is thick". The end of the Qing Dynasty, He Gangde's "Dream Collection" is also described in the "military aircraft office in front of the steps, every morning must be listed in the baklava, fried fruit pieces, ready to prepare for the central ministers summoned as a snack, can be described as frugal extreme. Su made meat, sesame biscuits, fried liver, boiled, almond tea, etc. have become Beijing's classic snacks, of which Su made meat in the many breakfast is particularly famous, according to the late Qing Dynasty eunuch Xin Xiu Ming's "Palace Zuoji" contained in the Forbidden City, there is a "Su made meat week" to make a handful of good meat, "broth boiled noodles burnt, plus meat, fragrant and beautiful, but also for the Great Neighborhood of the city, and the most beautiful. Beautiful aroma, but also for the big floating stalls trading". It is also said that this Suzao meat is the predecessor of today's boiled meat.

It can be seen, Longzongmen breakfast stalls not only from the hands of the princes and ministers to get a lot of money, as far as it as a restaurant, not only a wide variety of flavors, and taste is also at a higher level, made a lot of achievements.

Breakfast stalls to bring the earnings of the eye **** witnessed, and thus the Palace gradually emerged two private dining hall to. According to the ascension of the eunuch Geng Jinxi said, the former Qing dynasty in the East Room that is now the "Palace Museum" at the opening of two restaurants, one called the four righteousness, a six righteousness, "specializing in the House and the eunuchs of the sale". Rumor has it that the four He Yi's boss surnamed Wang, the main "pig and sheep two meat, cakes fried vegetables", and the Imperial City outside the "two meat store" similar to the characteristics of its good value for money attracted many customers.

Interior staff often come here to eat, there are greedy eunuchs will also come to order a soy sauce meat burrito and beans porridge, the price is not expensive, but also very tasty. Fame gradually, and even the Queen, concubines also often call the eunuchs to the four He Yi to buy soy sauce meat burrito to eat, which is not surprising. Siheyi rice store with their own strength, so that the solemn Forbidden City has a little fireworks.

In fact, in the early Ming Dynasty, the palace set up a special place for ministers to eat breakfast, after the end of the court, hungry ministers only need to shout a "thank you", you can leisurely go to eat a free breakfast, after a full meal you can go home. Such high-quality treatment, perhaps because Zhu Yuanzhang led his subjects to fight the Jiangshan, developed a good character of the same sweet **** bitter, coupled with the leadership of the small, more than enough to add a few pairs of chopsticks. But with the growing central group of the Ming Dynasty, the number of officials is increasing, if you continue to day after day "tube meal", the Treasury can not afford, so to the end of the Ming Dynasty, the officials had to reluctantly bid farewell to this system. In the earlier Tang Dynasty, officials were treated better, not only half a day's work, but also enjoy a palace-level lunch after the court.

In addition to eating breakfast stalls in the palace, there are some officials choose to eat outside the palace. 70s movie "The Tipping Point" in the officials before going to the court to eat breakfast outside the Donghuamen scenario, they are one by one, "Chaozhu complementary coats, the top of the plume brilliant", but all holding a bowl squatting in the street stalls to eat, eat nothing more than some wontons, Tofu brain, rice porridge and so on, a glance at the picture of this and some funny. But these "loss of official body" officials are mostly lower middle class, the status of some of the prominent natural will not choose this kind of wretched method, most of them will go to the small restaurant, eat some porridge, doughnuts, etc.

These are the most important things in the world, and the most important thing is that they will not be able to eat.

In short, the world's impression of the sacrosanct Forbidden City, in fact, also has the side that hides the soul of the city.