"Man-Han Banquet" is a grand banquet with Manchu flavor, which has always been regarded as the first classical banquet in China. Its scale is grand and noble, and its procedures are complicated. Both China people and Han people eat precious food, with both North and South flavors, and there are more than 300 kinds of dishes. What is the authentic Manchu-Chinese banquet like, and how to classify the dishes? The most widely used menu is the Manchu-Chinese banquet menu recorded in the records of Yangzhou Fang Shu written by Li Dou during the reign of Qianlong Shen Jia. However, there are many speculations about the origin of the Manchu-Han banquet, so it is not clear whether this food list is the most original and authentic. At present, Manchu-Han banquet uses precious materials such as eight treasures of mountain, eight treasures of sea, eight treasures of poultry and eight treasures of grass, and adopts Manchu-Han barbecue, Han stew, boiling and frying techniques, most of which are 108 dishes.
There are several theories about the origin of Manchu-Han banquet. When it comes to Emperor Kangxi's southern tour, he stopped in Yangzhou before setting up a Manchu-Han banquet. This statement is most commonly used in Yangzhou to promote the eight famous banquets in the city. Second, it originated from the reign of Qing Qianlong, because the "Yangzhou Painting Boat" written by Li Dou in Yizheng, Jiangsu Province during the reign of Qing Qianlong listed the menu of "Manchu-Chinese Banquet" for the first time. The third part is extracted from The Complete Banquet of Manchu edited by Mr. Chen. This wonderful book is said to come from the Qing Palace, but it actually comes from Confucius' "Feast Duke's Mansion" in Qufu. According to legend, there are "regular" and "top grade" banquets in Confucius' house. The former has 67 courses, while the latter has 123 courses, and they are all very particular about drinking. It was not until the Qing Dynasty that Ruan Yuan, a great scholar, became the son-in-law of the Feast Mansion and the Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, and Miss Kong's family took the chef as the betrothal gift, so that the secret "mansion dishes" of Confucius' Mansion could be developed. Later, Kong's chef came out to open a shop by himself, but he didn't dare to advertise it as a biography, nor did he dare to advertise it as the governor's house. He named it "Man-Han Banquet" and it has been passed down to this day.
Another book pointed out that the "Manchu-Han Banquet" actually originated from Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin's "Ming Road Banquet". Of course, all this is a bit of a joke. Because it is recorded in a real book, the well-documented book at present is Yangzhou Fangshulu, so I personally think it should come from the Qing Dynasty. Whether it was the Qianlong period or the Kangxi period remains to be verified.
In a word, the Manchu-Han banquet reflected the emperors' desire for the Manchu-Han people to live in harmony from the time when the Qing emperor Nurhachi entered the customs to the time when Shunzhi, Kangxi and Qianlong came.
Confucius feast
I thought this banquet, as its name implies, should be easy to understand, but I didn't expect to explain it in various ways. But on the whole, it is certain that the banquet specifications are quite high. It is a special high-level banquet to receive distinguished guests, become knights, celebrate birthdays, weddings, funerals and birthdays. Banquets can be divided into several categories, including home-cooked banquets and banquets of emperors and imperial envoys. All kinds of banquets are all-inclusive, and they are the pinnacle of China's banquets, and they completely follow the principle of Confucius "Never tire of fine food, never tire of fine food".
At the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, Kong Qiu represented the interests of declining slave owners and nobles, and was the ancestor of Confucianism in China. He advocates that people's words and deeds should obey "ceremony" and that "ceremony" is the highest norm of society. Therefore, the banquets created by later generations under the influence of Confucian culture naturally show the basic form of "ceremony". As early as more than two thousand years ago, Confucius was very particular about diet. As the emperor continued to seal and mourn Confucius, the feast duke was immortal. In addition, the emperor, imperial envoys and other officials came to Qufu to pay homage to Confucius, and some even brought chefs. Gradually, the Confucius Banquet gathers the essence of all parts of the country, the essence of Shandong cuisine, and its characteristics are excellent in color, fragrance, taste, shape, name and materials. The raw materials of Confucian cuisine include precious camel's hoof and bear's paw. There are also local specialties, such as fish and shrimp produced in Weishan Lake, which are commonly used in Confucian cuisine and supplied by special tenants.
Tasting Confucius Banquet is different from ordinary banquets. For example, firecrackers should be set off before the wedding banquet, and every dish should be handled in a unique way. And every dish of Confucius has a beautiful legend. The naming of dishes is extremely exquisite and has far-reaching influence. Some use traditional names, some are elegant and simple, poetic, such as "Shili Ginkgo"; There are also names used to praise one's family honor or express good luck, such as "good luck" and so on. The Confucius Banquet is also very particular about containers, with silver, copper, tin, lacquer, porcelain, agate, glass and other tableware, which is used to hold things, and its image is perfect. In all kinds of containers, besides fish, ducks, deer and other special pictographic tableware, there are square, round, ingot-shaped, gossip-shaped, cloud-shaped and other utensils. These containers adorned the cushion with splendor.
Five feasts of Confucius:
Birthday Banquet: Confucius has a special book to record the birthdays of the duke, wife, son, young lady and their close relatives, and will hold a banquet to celebrate and form a birthday banquet. The famous dishes and delicacies at the birthday party were exquisite, with exquisite tableware and elegant furnishings. The names of dishes also have different meanings, such as "longevity", "longevity scares ducks" and "longevity fish". Carefully crafted, its "one-quality peach" is the first delicious food at Confucius' birthday banquet.
Flower Banquet: This is a banquet hosted by the feast duke at his son's wedding and his young lady's wedding. Confucius has always married famous families, so the flower banquet is naturally noble and decent. In this kind of banquet, the word "Xi" is empty, and there is a high plate in the shape of "double happiness" in the center of the banquet. The name of the dish is also appropriate and elegant. Such as Peach Blossom Shrimp, Mandarin Duck Chicken, Phoenix Shark's Fin and Taking to Court.
Festive banquet: Confucius' family should hold a banquet to congratulate all the festive events, such as being blocked, attacked and given a son. This kind of banquet can often highlight the festive atmosphere. How beautiful and auspicious the name of this dish is. For example, fried chicken, the third floor of yangguan, and the four joys meet.
Welcome Banquet: It is a banquet used to welcome the holy driver and entertain senior officials such as courtiers. Because of the special political function and position of Confucius' house, emperors of all dynasties advocated Confucianism. Sometimes emperors came to worship Confucius, and sometimes they sent princes and ministers to receive these high officials. The banquet is of high specifications, and there are delicious foods such as "Swallow Stewed with Bean Curd", "Grilled Beef Tendon with Bear's Paw" and "Imperial Pen and Monkey Head" on the table. One of the most luxurious is the Manchu-Han banquet in Qing Dynasty, which is a feast specially prepared for emperors and imperial envoys. 404 pieces of tin tableware with different shapes, famous dishes 196. For example, Manchu whole lamb barbecue, Han camel's hoof, bear's paw and so on. Confucius' banquet pays attention to ostentation and extravagance. In addition to "Man-Han Banquet", there are also "All Sheep Banquet", "Shark's fin Banquet", "Sea Cucumber Banquet" and four or three seats.
Home-cooked banquet: a banquet used by Confucius to receive relatives and friends. The dishes often change with the seasons. In addition to the internal kitchen and external kitchen, there is also a small kitchen that can cook by itself.
Whole duck pad
Originated from Beijing Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant. Its characteristic is that the banquet consists of all kinds of duck dishes cooked with Beijing stuffed duck as the main ingredient, and there are 100 kinds of hot and cold duck dishes to choose from. Cooking all kinds of dishes with the same main raw material constitutes one of the characteristics of banquet makers. The famous state banquets include: the whole sheep banquet in Tianjin, the whole chicken banquet in Shanghai, the whole eel banquet in Wuxi, the whole snake banquet in Guangzhou, the whole fish banquet in Suzhou and Hangzhou, the tofu banquet in Sichuan, the dumpling banquet in xi, the vegetarian banquet in Buddhism and so on.
The above paragraph is used the most, but I have also seen that the whole duck banquet is a Shandong-style banquet. But I like the above paragraph better, because there is a duck banquet menu in the 1930s, which was kept by a foreign guest who frequented Quanjude. Now it's in the Capital Museum.
Shaowei banquet
Ancient famous banquet. A banquet specially held for scholars to enter a certain department or get promoted was popular in the Tang Dynasty, which was a typical representative of China's celebration banquet. The word "burning tail" originated in the Tang Dynasty, and there are three sayings: one is that the beast can change people, but the tail can't disappear and can only be burned; Second, it is said that new sheep can only be accepted if they burn their tails when they first enter the flock; Although these two statements are different, they both think that "tail burning" is a ritual, indicating a sudden change from the original identity.
Thirdly, it is said that yue longmen, a carp, must be burned by skyfire to become a dragon. This statement originated in the period of Tang Zhongzong. It is said that an official named Yang Zaisi made a table of delicious food with great fanfare in order to kiss the emperor's ass, but when the food was ready, he didn't know what to name the banquet. At this time, he heard someone report: "Longmen Shouyang Ren Jun has arrived!" Hearing this, he remembered the story that the carp needed the sky to burn its tail when it jumped from the Longmen. Thus, the word "burning tail" has an indomitable meaning, and it is a symbol of great prospects, great wealth of officials and boundless emperors.
These three statements all have the meaning of promotion and renewal, so this banquet was named "Shao Wei Banquet". Although the "tail-burning" banquet in the Tang Dynasty was popular for a while, it only lasted for about twenty years until Su Gui began. Su Guichuan, a book of Tang Dynasty, records that Su Gui worshipped the right servant of Shangshu and shot three books. When he entered Xu Guogong, he never offered a "barbecue banquet" to the emperor. At that time, not only officials laughed at him, but even Emperor Zhongzong was silent. Facing the sarcasm of the Ming Dynasty and the emperor's dissatisfaction, Su Gui directly remonstrated with Emperor Zhongzong: "The Prime Minister assisted the emperor in managing state affairs. Now, rice is expensive, people don't have enough to eat, and the guard company hasn't eaten for three days. Although I am powerless, I dare not burn my tail. " Zhongzong also had to acquiesce. Since then, the "barbecue banquet" will no longer be held.
Barbecue menu [according to Wei Juyuan's recipe (part)]:
Snacks: Jushengnu (honey powder), Brahman light high noodles (steamed noodles), Guifeihong (red crispy noodles), Hangongqi (boiled and printed round noodles), longevity porridge (dietetic food), sweet snow (candied noodles), single cage golden milk cake (steamed crispy noodles) and mandolin-like sandwich cake (baked in the oven).
Dishes and Soups: Bronze beef intestines (cooked with sheep oil), roasted prawns (roasted alive), white dragon loin (made of repeatedly beat tenderloin), shredded sheepskin (fried mutton, cut into a foot), Snow Baby (with bean sprouts on the frog), Fairy Bell (stewed chicken with milk) and Xiaotian Crisp (fried with deer and chicken).
The list of food for the banquet includes Notes on Hui, Notes on Yue, Novels of the Five Dynasties and Diet in Qing Dynasty annotated by China Commercial Press, Wang Zihui.
Wen Huiyan
Cultural banquet is one of the important forms of literary creation and mutual communication of ancient China literati. Free and lively in form, rich and colorful in content, pursuing elegant environment and interest. Generally, more choices are made in places with pleasant climate. Dinner, food and wine, poetry and songs, singing and dancing. Many famous literary and artistic works in history were created at cultural banquets. The famous Preface to Lanting Collection was written by Wang Xizhi at the Lanting Conference.