There is a saying in Historical Records Biography of Lu Jia: "The people are the sky for the monarch, and food is the sky for the people."

"Food is the most important thing for human beings" means: two chopsticks and congenital divination. Exchange, for mouth, for eating. Chopsticks are straight and long, and they are hexagrams. Xun, for the wood, for the introduction. Eat with chopsticks together. What is the entrance? It's chopsticks Chopsticks are round-headed, which means to do divination and do it for the sky. Isn't it "heaven" to eat like this? Therefore, it is believed that "food is the sky" comes from here.

As a large country with a large population, China people always pay attention to diet. After the economic development in the Han Dynasty and the ethnic integration in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the food culture in China in the Sui and Tang Dynasties really became rich and colorful.

So, in the prosperous and open era of Sui and Tang Dynasties, what is people's food culture like?

what did people eat in the prosperous sui and Tang dynasties? Its richness is no less than that of modern times

In modern society, the staple foods in most areas are rice, wheat, corn and so on. In fact, the ancients were similar. During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, food was abundant. Although there are no corn and sweet potatoes, there are various grains, such as rice, wheat, millet, yellow rice and beans. Finally, the eating habit of "southern rice and northern wheat" was formed.

At that time, there were three main staple foods: cake, rice and porridge.

Cake includes not only steamed bread, sesame cake, steamed bread, steamed bread and so on. It can also be soup cakes, water-induced cakes, cooling utensils (similar to sesame flowers), paste rings (similar to glutinous rice balls), and cut cakes (similar to biscuits). Portable bread and steamed bread are very popular in Tang Jun, becoming the most common food to satisfy hunger. Even officials eat steamed bread on horseback, and are punished after being found, thus delaying their career.

At that time, the main meals were glutinous rice, small rice and wheat rice. Due to geographical restrictions, the transportation cost and price of rice are high. Most middle and lower level officials and ordinary people eat millet and wheat. Du Fu asked his friend Wei Ba Chu Shi to be a "new cook of yellow rice" and cook with yellow rice.

porridge mainly includes rice porridge, millet porridge and cereal porridge. Because it is convenient and easy to do, it can quench thirst and satisfy hunger. During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, both ministers and people generally liked to eat porridge, and it has become a custom to eat porridge when it is cold. Noble officials also added honey, almonds, cheese, sesame seeds or other ingredients to the porridge, adding some flavor to the light porridge.

at that time, grain was hard currency. In the middle and early Tang Dynasty, the government implemented a real "rent supervision" tax system, and the official "Mi Lu" was mainly composed of rice and wheat. Mi Lu's grades and standards are different. Except Mi Lu, which was directly taken over under the equal system, the income of other officials, such as rent, monthly salary, wages, etc. , usually calculated according to the price in Mi Lu.

In addition to these staple foods, dietary fiber and vitamins must be supplemented from fruits and vegetables to regulate metabolism and promote health. During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, there were various fruits and vegetables, such as sunflower, leek, celery, radish, taro, wax gourd, cucumber, mushroom, shepherd's purse, bamboo shoots, amaranth, lotus root and green water shield.

In the north, people often eat leeks and horseradish, while in the south, people often eat bamboo and stew bamboo. Zuji and vegetables have been effectively preserved by pickling or processing into soup. There are also many kinds of fruits in this period, such as dates, peaches, plums, apricots, plums, pears, persimmons, chestnuts and hazelnuts.

Jiangnan, Lingnan and other places are also rich in citrus, bayberry and loquat. Similar to vegetables, people also process fruits into preserved fruits. After hundreds of years of communication on the Silk Road, many foreign fruits and vegetables, such as eggplant, spinach, grapes, pomegranate and sugarcane, still enriched the stomachs and stomachs of China people.

foreign spices such as coriander, orchid (basil) and pepper make people's food more delicious. Since Sui, Tang, Ming and Qing Dynasties, pepper has become one of the most extravagant tastes of China people, even a symbol of wealth. The prime minister of the Tang Dynasty was convicted of stealing 8 stone peppers (equivalent to tens of thousands of kilograms).

during the sui and Tang dynasties, people were vegetarian and had meat. The most delicious meat at that time was fish and mutton. However, the livestock raising cycle is long and the cost is high. Ordinary people and junior officials seldom eat meat, while senior nobles can eat all kinds of meat.

The meat in Sui and Tang Dynasties mainly included pigs, sheep, dogs, donkeys, chickens, ducks, geese, fish, shrimps and crabs. Similar to staple food and vegetables, North and South have different eating habits. The north has a long nomadic culture and likes to eat mutton, while the south likes to eat fish and shrimp.

"Prepare chicken and rice for me, old friend, and entertain me on your farm". Poultry breeding is very popular among officials and the people at the bottom because of its low cost, and it is also an important choice for them to improve their lives. Meat such as deer, geese, sparrows and quails often appear on the dining table. The main cooking skills of meat birds are barbecue (open fire), dried bacon, steaming and frying.

aquatic products are mainly eaten raw and dipped in thin sauce. Soup fire (stew), stew, pickle, jade, etc. Appeared in the late Southern and Northern Dynasties, and was popular among famous dishes in the south of the Yangtze River in Sui and Tang Dynasties. Fish and sheep, different food cultures in the north and south combine to form a "fresh" word. All kinds of popular meat made the food world in Sui and Tang Dynasties more colorful.

after eating, people must enjoy some drinks. During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, tea, wine, cheese and various drinks led the trend. Tea gradually spread from Jiangnan Shui nationality to all parts of the country. With the development of Buddhism, tea sitting has become a fashion and the preferred way for literati to get together. In the Tang Dynasty, Lu Yu, a Cha Sheng, wrote the Book of Tea, expounding the taste of tea and water, and the method of cooking tea.

entertaining guests with tea has become an important social habit in the Tang Dynasty, and tea drinking has gradually spread to Tubo, Silla, Japan and other places. With the increasing status of tea in the social life of the Tang Dynasty, "tea tax", like "salt tax", gradually became an important source of income for the Tang Dynasty government.

besides tea, wine also developed greatly in the Tang dynasty, and the progress of agriculture led to the increase of wine production. The Tang Dynasty controlled the western regions, which spread the brewing technology of wine to the east, and the types of wine were increasing: Jiannan Shaochun, Gan and Grape were all famous wines at that time.

The pulp of Tang Dynasty is similar to modern fruit juice, which can be divided into mulberry pulp, grape pulp and peach pulp according to different raw materials. Because of the immature crystallization technology, sugarcane pulp was widely used as sweetener in Sui and Tang Dynasties. At that time, there was a kind of "sugar" fruit powder similar to today, which could be preserved for a long time for tourism.

In addition, a drink called "Sanle Juice" appeared in the Tang Dynasty, which originated in Persia and is similar to today's cocktails.

Due to frequent contacts between Hu and Han, northerners prefer to eat mutton and cheese food since the Northern Dynasties. In the Tang Dynasty, "frozen cheese" appeared in Chang 'an, similar to shaved ice today. Scratched ice is poured with sugar cane pulp, and even mixed with cherries, which has become a delicious dish for dignitaries in summer.

The Tang Dynasty was an era of highly developed economy and culture. Food culture promoted the development of the catering industry, and various banquets came into being. Among them, it can be divided into "official banquet" and "private banquet". Most official banquets are normal working meals, and officials discuss some affairs related to government affairs while eating. This banquet is more like a social platform, which enhances the communication between officials.

In addition, common private banquets include: scholars' banquets, family banquets, sightseeing banquets and welcome banquets. Among them, "Qujiang Banquet" is the most famous, prevailing in the middle and late Tang Dynasty, and named after the apricot garden beside the Qujiang River in the southeast of Chang 'an. Organized by the new Golden Lion, kabuki in the square was invited to perform and cheer. On the day of the banquet, officials get together and sometimes invite the emperor. After the banquet, there are often activities such as boating and inscription on the tower.

However, although the Jinshi banquet has brought the relationship between Jinshi and examiners closer, it has also played an important role in promoting nepotism. Therefore, during the reign of Premier Li Deyu, such banquets were prohibited.

Mountains and seas, fresh fruits and vegetables, jade Qiong and colorful food reflect the rich and colorful food culture of people in Sui and Tang Dynasties and the innovation and tolerance of Chinese civilization in that era.

as the saying goes, food is the most important thing for people, and if they don't eat for a day, they will panic. As gourmets, our diet has a long history. As we all know, the Tang Dynasty was the most prosperous dynasty, so their customs and habits in different places must be different, just as they are in different places now. So today, let's talk about what people in the Tang Dynasty ate. Let's take Chang 'an citizens as an example to see what they eat together.

What food and home cooking did people eat in the Tang Dynasty in history

People in the Tang Dynasty generally lived on bread and rice, of which bread played a major role. The content of the cake mentioned here is much wider than that of our cake today. In addition to all kinds of pasta accidents, they have become cakes, the most representative of which are Hu cake, steamed cake and soup cake.

Rice also played a certain role in the three meals a day in the Tang Dynasty, which was inferior to bread, but it was also indispensable. In some areas, rice is more popular than cake. People in the Tang dynasty also like to drink porridge, such as Bai Juyi's "It's cold in spring today, ask yourself what you want." It's all porridge Their raw materials range from wheat, barley and coix seed, and their auxiliary materials range from vegetables to meat to fruits.

At that time, mutton was the main meat in the Tang Dynasty (beef was eaten when beheaded illegally, while pork was available, but few people ate it). They also like to eat raw fish, but at that time, fishing and hunting were very popular, and fishing was also very common, so there was a famous dish "Slicing Silver Carp", which is actually sashimi today.

why don't people in the Tang dynasty like duck and goose? None of this was meat at that time. There is a story behind it. In the early Tang Dynasty, he liked eating chicken very much. Later, I was played. Emperor Taizong said: "I forbid the empire to eat meat, and I am afraid that the state and county are expensive. What is the reason for eating chicken? " As for the means of living, I am afraid of extravagance and waste. Imperial officials are forbidden to eat meat, but how can eating chicken be regarded as eating meat? Speaking of vegetables, potatoes, tomatoes, green peppers, corn and so on. It's very common now, and you can't eat it at all in the Tang Dynasty. What was their most common vegetable at that time? Okra is also called "winter amaranth". There is a poem by Du Fu: "When the rice is ripe, it will be white, and when the okra is ripe, it will rejuvenate. Whoever is smooth and full will always be soft and even. " Not very often now. We eat very little in the north and eat more in the south. There is also a vegetable called xiè, which is not common now and can still be bought in some cities in the south.

So what we could eat at that time in the Tang Dynasty was not so delicious, and some dared not try. How can I eat well now? Every dish has changed and changed, and it was once favored by the majority of gourmets!