There is a saying that "food is the most important thing for the people". Although the emperor is the "son of heaven" above him, he is still human and needs to eat like ordinary people, but he can choose too many delicious foods.
It can often be seen in film and television dramas that when the emperor dines, little eunuchs or maids-in-waiting offer various dishes one after another, and so do the real emperors in history. Then the question is coming. People's appetite is limited. Where are the dozens and twenty kinds of dishes that can be eaten in one meal? What should the emperor do after eating the rest?
In fact, it is not easy to be an emperor. Perhaps in the eyes of the following people, the emperor above ten thousand people can be said to be the happiest person in the world. As the king of a country, I'm afraid I have to obey more rules than ordinary people, and I can't even eat as I like.
Why do you say that? It is understood that ancient emperors had to abide by a rule that "food should not exceed three spoonfuls", that is to say, no matter what dishes were served in the court, the emperor himself ate at most one or two bites, and immediately withdrew after eating three bites. Even if there are more dishes in the palace, only one or two dishes are allowed, which is really enough to torture people. This is not good for the emperor's health. Of course, not every dynasty has such a rule, but it is undeniable that the emperor will leave a lot of leftovers after eating, so it is natural to deal with the leftovers of the emperor.
All the delicious meals are eaten by the emperor alone, and others have to wait on them. Sometimes when the emperor is happy, he will distribute these meals to ministers, concubines, princes and eunuchs. Those who accept the emperor's gift must stand at another table and finish eating before the emperor gives them his seat. If you don't finish the food given by the emperor, you are likely to lose your head. Not only that, in principle, you have to show that it tastes good.
Of course, there are still a few royal dinners. Under normal circumstances, after the emperor has finished eating, the leftovers left by the emperor will be sold outside the palace in the name of imperial food. This trend was very popular, especially in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. People will think that everything the emperor has eaten must be contaminated with imperial power. People in the past were superstitious. After all, it was the food that the emperor had eaten, indicating that it was polluted by the emperor's saliva. That's not ordinary saliva, but "dragon's saliva" After eating these, there is absolutely no problem for a scholar in the senior high school entrance examination.
Therefore, the people are obsessed with these leftovers to a certain extent, but the real situation is different. You think that eating the leftovers of the emperor is contaminated with the emperor's anger. Who knows that in the palace, the emperor's leftovers were eaten again and again by the little eunuch, where there was only the emperor's saliva and the eunuch's saliva?
No matter how good the royal food in the palace is, it has been eaten after all. Although that man is an emperor, the price can't be much more expensive. Some products with bad appearance will even be sold at low prices, that is, sold to street vendors for direct sales. Products with a better appearance can be sold to hotels at a 50% discount. After the restaurant gets it, it will be put on the market for sale, which is equivalent to the current advertisement, telling the outside world that there are meals eaten by the emperor here, and the restaurant will also carry out secondary processing on these royal meals, and the sales target is of course the rich. This kind of business is very profitable, and businessmen in this line often earn a lot of money.
Therefore, the author believes that there are probably two ways to deal with the emperor's leftovers. The first is that the emperor gives it directly to his own people, and the second is to sell it outside the palace. Of course, it is also possible to be stolen by the little eunuch in the imperial dining hall.
Here, I still want to say that some people think that the emperor's eating is too extravagant, which has caused serious waste, but in fact, these leftovers have become business opportunities and fed a group of people. To some extent, there are still some merits, which is equivalent to forming a food chain.