Everyone has to admit the fact that China cuisine is so rich and colorful that it cannot be separated from the contribution of the upper class who can afford high-end consumption, although historical moralists often dismiss their objective contribution as extravagance and waste. However, the development of food to the realm of beauty is not something that can be completed in a few thousand years. It needs an economic strength that respects luxury consumption, and also needs high-end consumers to have considerable cultural taste and spiritual height.
During the Qin and Han dynasties, food only stayed at the low level of pot stew, the only difference was that there were several pots with high official rank on the table. As for how many kinds of meat are stewed, it has not developed into a culture. Jin Dynasty became the most important watershed. This is a changeable and deviant dynasty. At this time, the nobles really realized that they should enjoy their privileges.
Emperor Sima Yan visited Wang Ji's son-in-law's house and was surprised by a steamed pig. Ji Wang proudly unveiled the mystery. It turns out that this pig is raised by human milk.
Enjoy the life that the emperor never had, and don't be afraid, which gives the rich in the Jin Dynasty a tolerant space. Not only Ji Wang, but also once took his own food to the palace for dinner. At that time, the fermentation capacity was limited, and the emperor could only make do with eating steamed bread, but he once insisted on eating flowering steamed bread. He spends 10,000 yuan on food a day.
The upper class in ancient China lived a life of food, clothing, housing and transportation.
Enjoyment is the moral standard of the right path. The recipes in Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties became more and more abundant. There is a famous dish in Jiangnan called fish pot, which has been passed down to this day. Now it's sashimi, cut as thin as cicada's wings, dipped in seasoning and melted in the mouth. When Hans Zhang, a native of Jiangsu, went to Luoyang as an official, he always missed the delicious fish in his hometown. After some ideological struggle, he decided to quit his job and go back to his hometown just because the fish was so delicious. Otherwise, how could a officialdom middleman make such a spontaneous choice? grow
Fish fillets were still loved by nobles until the Song Dynasty, but they were called crystal bowls at that time, probably because they were crystal clear. Song Renzong likes fishing. When he caught it, he had it made into a crystal bowl and gave it to the nearby ministers to eat together. Gifts are not given casually, and the emperor always feels good. Ministers felt your majesty's kindness while eating and made up their minds to continue their efforts. A crystal bowl makes the monarch and his subjects feel that they have become the biggest winners.
A grand feast, paying attention to every detail. Sometimes it doesn't matter whether you eat delicious food or not. Enjoying the pleasure brought by luxury itself is the inner spirit of the feast.
Yan Song, the prime minister of the Ming Dynasty, had more than 20,000 pairs of tableware in his home, with high-grade materials and complete types, including gold chopsticks, ivory chopsticks, tortoiseshell chopsticks, ebony chopsticks, spotted bamboo chopsticks and painted chopsticks. Of course, there must be a luxurious exhibition behind every grand banquet, and the satisfaction it brings may be able to resist many inner weaknesses. After all, they may not be as happy as we think because of wealth.
The ancients liked to build villas. It was not difficult to buy land at that time, but how to make the villa affectionate was a bigger problem. No one wants to spend a lot of money, but the effect is mediocre. Finally, he ended up in the name of a local rich man. This word has been extremely unpopular since ancient times.
Therefore, to evaluate an ancient man's accomplishment or peek at his spiritual code depends on his garden. Compared with the first house, the purpose of the villa is not to meet the needs of living, it can tell too much, show the owner's wealth and extravagance, cultivate his own feelings, escape from the helplessness of the officialdom, and pin his ideals on life.
There was a villa in Shichong in the Jin Dynasty, which was the richest in the world. This may also be the earliest recorded villa in China, or more accurately, it is a landlord's manor named Jinguyuan, which has clear springs, dense forests, fruit trees, bamboo and cypress herbs, an area of 40 hectares, 200 sheep, chickens, ducks, geese and pigs, and a water reef fish pond. These assets are things that Shi Chong is proud of.
He proudly lamented that everything was ready, entertaining people's eyes and ears, and cheerfully hosted a large-scale gathering of scholars as the host. All the people who come here have extraordinary skills, and everyone writes poems generously. Shi Chong compiled these poems into "Golden Valley Collection". Wealth is a boring thing, and Shi Chong was just an admirer of luxury, a master of spelling wealth. Once arty, the owner was full of confidence, and the villa, which was originally only a symbol of wealth, confidently followed suit.
Facts have proved that compared with modern people, the life of food, clothing, housing and transportation in ancient upper class is really unsatisfactory. But this reflects that the life of the ancient upper class was extravagant, which proves a truth: the gap between the rich and the poor has a long history.