Eight dishes and one soup are generally rich, usually on special festivals, banquets and other important days, which are relatively rare. In daily life, cooking eight dishes and one soup is generally inexhaustible, which will cause waste, usually four dishes and one soup.

The earliest origin of four dishes and one soup was Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, whose corruption was very serious. So Zhu Yuanzhang was determined to rectify this bad atmosphere, so he ordered Ming officials to experience the sufferings of the people. Later, when celebrating Ma Huanghou's birthday, I hosted a banquet for ministers, but the dishes served were dumbfounded, including fried radish, fried leek, 2 bowls of green vegetables and chopped green onion tofu soup. So the custom of four dishes and one soup came from here.

Extended data

Tracing the origin of Chinese characters for "Cai" and "Tang"

The original meaning of vegetables is vegetables. In ancient times, vegetables only referred to vegetables, excluding meat and eggs. After the Middle Ages, the scope of vegetables expanded to include meat, eggs and cooked food. In Shuo Wen Jie Zi: "Vegetables are edible. From death, choose sound. It means: edible plants in vegetables and herbs. The glyph takes "Fu" as the edge and "Zi" as the silent edge.

Soup refers to hot water in ancient times, but now it refers to soup drunk in daily life. Soup is a general term for foods containing liquid or semi-liquid ingredients, both hot and cold. In Shuo Wen Jie Zi: "Soup, hot water is also available. Hiss from the water. Meaning: soup and hot water are shaped with "water" as the square and "Yan" as the sound side.

References:

Baidu encyclopedia-four dishes and one soup