However, born in the contemporary era, we don't feel deeply about the saying that "food is the most important thing for the people". The problem of food and clothing is not the most urgent livelihood issue, and most people live a life of eating meat. However, the diet of ancient people is a huge problem. Famine exists all the year round, and not enough to eat is the normal state of people's livelihood. So what did the poor people in ancient times eat?
Nowadays, three meals a day has become a daily habit. You will feel uncomfortable without a meal, but in fact, the habit of eating three meals a day did not exist in ancient times. The ancients ate so as not to starve to death, so they could survive one or two meals a day.
In addition, under the monarchy, sometimes in order to solve the famine in a certain place, some poor people may only eat one meal a day. But the situation of the rich is the opposite. Although they eat twice a day, the food they eat is very different from that of the poor.
Now we watch ancient TV dramas. Some nobles in the palace have all kinds of delicious food and seem to be very particular about their food. But in fact, this situation only exists in the royal family, and the royal meals in real history are far less delicious than those in TV dramas.
The custom of three meals a day was gradually formed after the appearance of the night market in Song Dynasty. However, the luxury of three meals a day still belongs to the rich, and the poor can't afford three meals even if they are better than before. But whether it is three meals a day or two meals a day, people nowadays may not be able to stick to this aspect for a day. Why do you say that?
The first thing to discuss is what did the poor in ancient times eat? There has always been a saying that there are whole grains in our lives. Rice, millet, millet, wheat and beans constitute the most important grains in our history. However, not all crops are grown in China. For example, potatoes, an important food today, were introduced in the17th century.
Before the Zhou Dynasty, even wheat did not appear. Ancient people could eat much fewer kinds of food than modern people. Their staple food is millet, which is millet. Nowadays, millet is generally used to cook porridge for breakfast, which is no longer the staple food choice.
But in ancient times, corn was the only food that most people could afford. They may only eat corn all day. After the Zhou Dynasty, wheat appeared, and before the appearance of steamed bread, people learned to make steamed bread. Later, with the improvement of economy and agriculture, wheat gradually became the main grain.
Today's worthless steamed bread was also a food that only rich people could eat at that time. With whole grains, you need vegetables to eat. In the Yuan Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang said four dishes and one soup, but before the Yuan Dynasty, for a long time, the poor all ate wild vegetables.
Compendium of Materia Medica records that ferns grow in mountains. Roots like Arnebia euchroma. People eat whatever they eat. " This shows that it is very common for the poor to eat wild vegetables in ancient times. In fact, wild vegetables are still delicious food. When famine came, bark became the choice of most poor people. Now people think that bark can't be eaten, but in ancient times it was a necessity for people's life.
In the Ming Dynasty, sweet potato was introduced to China, and it was quickly welcomed by the poor because of its strong adaptability to the environment. Sweet potato tastes sweet, feels full, and the price is not expensive. The poor people's diet has been greatly improved.
It is precisely because of the introduction of sweet potato that the problem of "eating" has been alleviated from the root. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the population of China also ushered in a blowout. Until now, sweet potato has been regarded as one of the staple foods.
The series of foods mentioned above are not as important as in ancient times. Millet is mainly used for porridge and breakfast, while wild vegetables are no longer the food category of modern people. Although sweet potatoes can still be eaten, they are not delicious.
Imagine if we eat corn and wild vegetables every day from now on, how many people can persist?
When watching the Water Margin, there is a particularly attractive place, that is, the image of the heroes of the Water Margin eating meat. Every description of eating meat is swigging meat and drinking, and we can often even see the description of "no meat and no joy" in literary works.
The way these heroes eat meat always makes people feel that the meat tastes great, but is this really the case? Obviously, the meat dishes of ancient people were not as delicious as they looked. First of all, these classic handed down literary works always describe the lives of rich and powerful people, but fail to touch the real poor.
Eating meat was a luxury for the poor in ancient times. They may not eat a bite of meat for a year. In addition, modern people in China eat the most pork, but interestingly, the ancient elites basically don't eat pork, because in their view, eating pork is a very bad thing.
Ancient people generally ate beef and mutton, but under the farming economy, cattle are one of the agricultural productive forces, and people have great respect for them. It can only be slaughtered after death, so beef is generally not common.
So beef is scarce and mutton is eaten more. It was not until Su Dongpo invented Dongpo meat in the Song Dynasty that pork gradually became popular and became the most common meat food.
Eating meat is common among the rich, but the meat they eat is definitely not good for modern people. In an era when the economy is not so developed, people's greatest pursuit is to eat enough, so the requirements for taste are not high.
Modern people can't cook without seasonings, such as vinegar, salt and soy sauce, but there were no such rich seasonings in ancient times. Meat can be eaten as long as it is cooked most of the time. However, the ancient people still love to eat mutton, without the cover of spices, and the smell of meat is very strong, which is by no means the meat that modern people like to eat.
After the popularity of time-travel dramas in previous years, many people often say that traveling back may change history because modern people have historical knowledge. But perhaps what people didn't expect was that even going back to ancient times would become a huge problem.
After understanding the historical truth, it seems no exaggeration to say that "food is the most important thing for the people". In ancient times, the poor ate simple food, with few kinds of food and no seasoning. They only eat to survive.
In ancient times, the poor people's diet, if it were us, might not last a day. Contemporary people have long been accustomed to eating three meals a day and living on meat. People's pursuit of food is no longer limited to filling their stomachs. There are more and more delicious dishes that most people can afford.
Today, there is even an industry called Eating Radio, which is still highly sought after. The proliferation of broadcasting industry is not only a waste of food, but also a disrespect for the efforts made by generations of China to solve the problem of food and clothing. Modern people can't stick to the diet of the poor in ancient times, but they need to remember the hardships of achieving food and clothing and resolutely can't waste food.