Nowadays, people regard dogs as pets, and their status is in full swing. However, in the pre-Qin period, dog meat was a very common meat in the northern Central Plains cultural circle and the southern Chu cultural circle. There are recipes for eating dog meat in Eight Treasures of the Book of Rites, and there are also contents of eating dog meat in Songs of the South. Eating dog meat was common in Qin and Han dynasties. According to Zhang's History of China Customs, people in the Han Dynasty "loved dog meat, so heroes killed it."

Dog meat is hot, and there is a folk proverb: "Eating dog meat is warm, and you can spend the winter without a quilt".

It is not difficult to understand that "drinking dog broth in winter can cure quilts", and it is not difficult to understand that the inland areas of Qin and Han dynasties are bitter and cold, and they like to eat dog meat. "Winter is coming, dog meat is fat" or "Autumn is coming, dog meat is fat". It's a great pleasure to eat a pot of dog meat in cold weather!

But dog meat is a relatively low-grade food in history, so there is a saying that "hanging sheep's head to sell dog meat"; Because dogs are filthy things, you can't serve dog meat on the main table, and you can't entertain guests with dog meat. Otherwise, it is disrespectful to guests, and it is serious insult.

In the Tang Dynasty, in order to protect cattle, the Tang government banned beef for a long time, while dog meat disappeared from the table because of the general resistance of nomadic people in the northwest. In the Tang Dynasty, Han people seldom ate dog meat like Han people, but mutton was favored by Tang people.

Because "sheep" and "yang" have the same meaning, the world in the Tang Dynasty was robbed from home, so it was politically reasonable to eat mutton in the Tang Dynasty. Similarly, the mountains and rivers of the Qing Dynasty were snatched from Lao Zhu's house, so Manchu people who love to raise pigs and eat pigs advocated eating pork, and the position of mutton on the table was given to pork until now.

Listen, everyone who eats meat has something to do with politics. Is it a bit "scary"?

There are still thrilling. There was a rich man named Shen Wansan in Jiangnan in the Ming Dynasty. On one occasion, he invited Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang to dinner. The emperor looked at the dishes on the table and asked him to introduce them one by one. So Shen Wansan got up quickly and introduced the names of the dishes one by one. Speaking of pig's trotters, he had a brainwave and said it was a home-cooked dish called "three thousand trotters". It turned out that Zhu Yuanzhang wanted him to say the word "pig" (this word conflicts with the emperor's surname), so that he could be treated as a crime of deceiving the king. I don't believe this Shen Wansan is so clever that he didn't fall for it, or that he did his homework in advance.

Then, the emperor asked again, so this dish, such a complete plate, should be cut with a knife when eating? Shen Wansan said, can't use a knife, you see this meat is very ripe, you can eat it with a gentle move. As he spoke, he pulled out the bones on the pig's trotters and pressed the meat with small bones. Sure enough, when he pressed a piece of meat, it came down and was completely cooked. Seeing that Shen Wansan didn't dare to have bold ideas, the emperor was satisfied with his answer, so he was relieved to use chopsticks.

Is it more horrible to eat a meal in such a state of fear?

This may be a folklore, but the Great Historian Sima Qian's The Hongmen Banquet is a legend: Liu Bang entered the customs, Cao alienated, Liu Bang met Xiang Yu, Fan Zengju Yu Jue, Xiang Zhuang danced with a sword, Xiang Bo defended him, Fan Kuai broke in with a sword, mediated and dispatched, and Liu Bang fled under the pretext of going to the toilet ... A meal was choppy, earth-shattering, and earth-shattering.

It can be seen that eating is never a simple matter.