In fact, in the Qing dynasty, what to eat was not so important in the national ceremonial celebrations, which highlighted the complexity of etiquette and the solemnity of the scene, that is, the so-called "no ceremony." The red tape of giving tea and toasting, accompanied by elegant music, accompanied by the command of ceremonial personnel and the ceremonial team, kowtowed over and over again and thanked the court. If so many people eat together, it will be very difficult to cook, and the production site is also a certain distance away from the venue, not to mention the winter like New Year's Day. Even in August, when Qianlong celebrated his birthday, the food was already cold, but it was not inconvenient to rinse meat in hot pot.
Not only is there only one kind of mutton at the state banquet, but these sheep are not all provided by the royal family. According to records, some tables, mutton and wine used in the big banquet should be presented by princes and nobles according to their titles. The most is the prince, and each person has to sit at the table with eight, three sheep and three bottles of wine. The least is Zhen Guogong and Fu Guogong in the imperial clan, each of whom should bring one, a sheep and a bottle of wine to the table. The rest is provided by the internal canteen, and the rest is left. It's not that the emperor is stingy. The relationship between the monarch and his subjects in the Qing Dynasty has always been more or less reserved. After all, even the prince should call himself a slave in front of the emperor. It is an old custom of Manchu people outside the customs that these masters do things and governors add food. Even in the late Qing dynasty, this habit has always existed.
Although the diet of the big banquet is not rich, it has been finished, and the programs arranged are also very interesting, from the traditional projects that highlight the old customs of Manchuria to the "Chen Baixi" with a variety of juggling tricks. Traditional programs are basically fixed, that is, dragon dance, hi dance and Mongolian music. The guards performed a dragon dance. Some dressed as hunters, standing on stilts, riding horses made of bamboo, and some dressed as beasts. Accompanied by pipa, Sanxian, Xiqin, Zheng and other musical instruments, the hunting legend story of Manchu ancestors when they went through customs was interpreted.
Yao's Miscellaneous Notes on Bamboo Leaf Pavilion records the origin of Qinglong Dance. "Daur lived in Heilongjiang and never returned to Wang Hua. There is a wild animal there. I don't know its name. It likes to bite horse's legs. It is twice as terrible as a tiger and dare not rest. At the beginning of the country, because riding a fake horse with a high chariot, I went there to shoot animals. Dahl thinks that God is sincere. Because this is a kind of dance. " The ministers performed a happy dance. There are singers in mink hats and leopard skins, and dancers in royal costumes. During the performance, musicians played flutes and drums, dancers danced to the beat, and singers sang in Manchu the most diligent thing when the Qing Dynasty was founded, that is, telling some difficult stories about fighting for the country in wartime. After the joyful dance, there will be "contestants entering the temple" to play Mongolian music.
The first three programs belong to ceremonies with clear political purposes, and then they enter the pure entertainment link. Take the twenty years of Guangxu as an example. Mongolian music was followed by geisha abandoned by North Korea, geisha from Hui (referring to Xinjiang), rough Burmese music and Fanzi Fantong lion dance in Jinchuan. I'm afraid few people can give a clear explanation for these four kinds of juggling nowadays, and only one kind of performance can be inferred from the clues of historical records.
Among them, North Korea throws geisha down and geisha comes back, which may be a kind of performance. Guangxu dynasty recorded the variety of New Year's Day banquet in the case of the Qing Empire, saying: "Lead North Korea and leave geisha behind. It can be seen that this is just a different style of "throwing" performance, but what is "throwing"? In another file, we see another name of North Korea, that is, "Korean somersault", that is, somersault, how to do it, what tricks are there, and what are the similarities and differences between it and backflip? In addition, the lion dance we see now may not be the same as the court skills. Generally, lion dances, whether sent from the south or the north, basically flourished in the eastern region, and the Jinchuan Fanzi Fan Tong mentioned in the archives was the person who was captured or surrendered in the war to pacify western Sichuan during the Qianlong period. During the 100 years from Qianlong to Guangxu, Jinchuan people specially performed this content at state banquets, which is quite characteristic of southwest ethnic minorities and is quite different from the common interpretation methods today.
After the vaudeville performance, the emperor returned to the palace with elegant music, but the activities of the ministers did not end. According to the rules of the Qing dynasty, most of the court banquets attended by ministers are "even eating and taking" dinners, and they will naturally be rewarded by the emperor at the end of the banquet in the Hall of Supreme Harmony. Take the New Year's Day during the Qianlong period as an example, which was the most prosperous period of the Qing Dynasty. Generally, there are fabrics such as "yellow fine cotton silk" and "white fine cotton silk", "dragon curtain mat" and "square mat with flowers", such as otter skin, paper and glutinous rice. The emperor seems to be a man who lives. The gifts for ministers are very real. Even glutinous rice has 40 stones. In front of it, what needs to be highlighted is "the grandeur is beyond measure". After the establishment of "prestige", everyone has to live a down-to-earth life, and living a good life is the foundation of the country.