But interestingly, up to now, pork has become one of the essential meats in our daily life. What happened during this period to make pork turn over and attack and successfully beat other meats? We know that pork is rich in nutrition, and cattle and sheep can also replace it. But generally because beef and mutton are more expensive, we modern people eat beef and mutton instead of pork, which was not the case in ancient times.
Banquet map
Pork had different status in different dynasties. The earliest record of pork appeared in the Zhou Dynasty, and pork appeared in the Book of Rites: "The emperor ate too much, both cattle and sheep can be eaten, the princes ate cattle, the Qing ate sheep, the doctors ate tapirs, and the scholars ate fish and vegetables." During the Zhou Dynasty, pork and beef and mutton were collectively called "prisons". In addition to offering sacrifices, only the monarch and the Qing doctor are qualified to eat meat at the daily table. The tapir here refers to pork. However, these people at the bottom are not always unable to eat meat. Generally, you can eat meat during Chinese New Year holidays or celebrations, but it is basically pork.
"Salt and Iron Theory" records: "Non-rural drinking, fat wax, sacrifice without wine and meat." Like Xiang Yu's hongmen banquet, there is pork. Only the pork that Xiang Yu gave Fan Kuai was raw, but Fan Kuai ate it abruptly, which forced Xiang Yu to face him squarely. The status of ancient pork was not high, which had nothing to do with the price of meat, but with the productivity at that time.
Banquet map
Since the emergence of the iron plow in the Spring and Autumn Period, cattle have become the most important labor tool for farmers. Since then, the status of cattle has been greatly improved. All previous dynasties banned the slaughter of cattle on cultivated land, so beef became a luxurious meat on the ancient table. Because there is no other source except normal dead cows or dead cows, then beef is naturally rare. So this can't help but remind people of the scene description of Liangshan hero "drinking in a big bowl and munching on beef" described in Water Margin. It can only be said that this is either the author's imagination, or the author's contempt and provocation to the court by Liangshan heroes, and some dynasties such as Han Dynasty, Tang Dynasty and Song Dynasty also made laws specifically for this purpose.
Don't eat beef, you can only eat the other five of the six animals: pigs, sheep, horses, chickens and dogs. But only sheep can become the daily meat on the table like pork. Dogs and horses, especially horses, used to eat little. Although it's not without fans, compared with people who don't eat, it's really nine Niu Yi hairs.
Banquet map
There are records about raising pigs and sheep in the Han Dynasty: "A thousand-legged bustard in Zezhong" and "a thousand-legged sheep". "A thousand feet" here does not mean that cows and sheep have 1000 legs, but that the total number of legs of all pigs and sheep is 1000, so a thousand feet is 250. It can be seen that it is very common to raise pigs and sheep from an early age. However, in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the status of pork suddenly declined, and the storage capacity was greatly reduced. For thousands of years, mutton has become the main meat on the table of ancient people in China.
Documents in the Southern and Northern Dynasties praised mutton as the best edible meat on land. Mutton is the meat most described by literati in Tang Dynasty. There are more than 100 descriptions of meat, 47 descriptions of mutton and only 12 descriptions of pork in Taiping Guangji. Moreover, it is also recorded that people who live in Buddhism also eat mutton. This also reflects the important position of mutton at the dinner table at that time.
Jiuguan banquet
The Tang Dynasty was a period of highly developed civilization, and various cultures were perfected during this period, such as food culture and so on. After the Tang and Song Dynasties, the food culture of mutton has become a fashion in the Song Dynasty. The mutton culture of the Song Dynasty also perfected the culture of the Tang Dynasty. The most rare thing is that it not only kept the menu details of the royal banquet, but even recorded the raw materials and practices in detail. Moreover, with the advancement of the dynasty, the emperors of the Song Dynasty not only did not get tired of eating, but became more and more fond of eating.
Of course, the figure of pork will also appear, but the chances of appearing are pitiful, and it is not the protagonist, just side dishes and watching movies. Dongpo pork, a well-known food, was probably not visited by many people in the Song Dynasty, especially in the eyes of aristocratic families, because it was made of the most contemptuous and dirty pork. According to records, the imperial court in the Song Dynasty consumed more than 400,000 Jin of mutton every year, while pork was only a few thousand Jin. Sometimes in court, even more than 100 sheep are slaughtered in one day!
Ancient diet
As for the Yuan Dynasty, it goes without saying that Mongolians liked to eat mutton, and people in the Song Dynasty also liked to eat mutton, so no matter how deep the national hatred was, at least a consensus was reached on diet.
During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, pork began to counterattack, and soon the Yuan Dynasty perished and the Ming Dynasty was established, while the status of mutton gradually decreased with the demise of the Yuan Dynasty. On a palace menu in Yongle period, you can see that 5 Jin of mutton and 6 Jin of pork were used. This means that the status of mutton began to decline in the early Ming Dynasty. In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, according to the records left by Guanglu Temple, we can see the number of livestock used by the court: pigs 18900, sheep 10750. Although mutton still occupies a place on the dining table, its status is not what it used to be. On the contrary, pork has turned over and become the darling of people's table.
But the emperor of the Ming Dynasty was Zhu, so how to avoid it? It's simple. Just change the name of the pig to "Bi". In fact, there is another allusion here. Zhu Houzhao prohibits raising pigs, killing pigs and eating pigs, and has specially formulated punishment measures. Wu Zongshi's records in the Ming Dynasty recorded: "When I was lucky enough to visit, folk livestock and pigs were banned and slaughtered far and near. People with property in the family were told to throw them into the water. ..... those who were exiled. " He did this not only because his surname is Zhu, but also because he is a pig. But pork is not only the meat on the table, but also one of the main sacrifices in the sacrifice. Killing pigs is not allowed. What should we do in the sacrifice? So I finally figured out a way to change the name of the pig!
Ren Qing diet
By the Qing dynasty, pork had achieved a thorough counterattack. Although the nobles in the Qing Dynasty were all Manchu, they liked to eat pork very much. Nurhachi and Huang Taiji especially like pork, and Huang Taiji especially likes that kind of badly cooked pork. After entering the customs, the Qing emperor's love for pork not only did not fade, but "intensified"! In addition to the daily diet can not be separated from pork, such as the royal banquet held by the court and even sacrifice can not be separated from pork. Manchu people believe in shaman, and the most important link in the sacrificial ceremony is to cook pigs: choose a pig with thick fat and black body color and send it to the Forbidden City. Slaughtered, peeled and dismembered, then thrown into the cauldron at the entrance of Kunning Palace and boiled with clear water. After cooking, starting from the emperor, harem concubines, royalty, princes and ministers, everyone symbolically eat some meat. After all, the meat cooked in this way tastes terrible, and no one wants to eat more. According to records, a royal court banquet held in Qianlong forty-seven years used a total of 65 kg of pork, 3 pig elbows, 25 kg of wild pork and other pig parts, which was called a pork feast!
Ancient pig breeding, stills of Cixi eating.
Whether it is pork or mutton, since the demand is so large, it is definitely impossible to supply it by its own growth, and it must be raised artificially. Obviously, the growth rate and meat yield of pigs are much higher than that of sheep, and it is not only high in yield, but also much easier to raise pork. Ancient people tried to feed pigs with all kinds of things, such as locusts. Facts have proved that no matter what you feed it, it can eat and grow well. Pig manure can also be used as feed for farmland. On the contrary, the cost of raising sheep is relatively high, because they are vegetarian animals with limited food, so the cost is quite high and the output is not comparable to that of pork. One more thing, sheep need vast grasslands, but ancient people made a living from agriculture and could not provide enough grasslands, especially in the south, let alone realize it. Therefore, raising pigs is definitely more cost-effective and relaxed than raising sheep.
Summary: From the development of pork's status, in the past, the highest status has always been cattle, followed by horses. Because agriculture was the mainstay in ancient times, China has been a big agricultural country since ancient times. Cattle that can help farmers cultivate land are the basic tools for human survival, so no matter which generation, they will come up with various ways to protect cattle. The reason why the horse has such a high status is that it is the most advanced means of transportation in ancient times and an indispensable mount on the battlefield. Therefore, the status of horses will not be much lower than that of cattle, so although horses are one of the six livestock, they will basically not appear on the table. Especially in wartime, horses can also save people. If a team runs out of ammunition and food, it can also kill horses, delay for a while and strive for rescue. As for dogs, don't talk about the past, even today, except for some people who love dog meat very much. Most people are not interested in dog meat.
Qing court diet map
While mutton has occupied people's dining tables for two thousand years, pork has not faded out of people's sight even during these two thousand years. The defects of mutton are also obvious, such as low yield, slow growth and high cost. With the development of dynasties, the living standards of ordinary people are also improving year by year, and meat often appears in ordinary people's homes, instead of eating meat only on holidays as in Qin and Han Dynasties. Then, under such circumstances, if mutton is still the mainstay, it is absolutely not available in terms of the growth rate of mutton. Then a pig with a short growth cycle, not picky about food, eating everything, even its own feces, naturally becomes the best choice.
The reason why most nobles in Song Dynasty didn't eat pork was actually because of the so-called face. In their view, pigs even eat their own feces. How delicious can such pork be? And when you eat pork, you will naturally think of it and feel disgusted involuntarily. But actually think about it, these nobles can be picky about not eating, and those ordinary people, in the case of eating mutton is extremely luxurious, where is there room for picky? I wish I had meat to eat. Therefore, although the status of pork was far inferior to that of mutton, it did not gradually disappear on people's dining tables.