Zhu Yuanzhang got hairy after eating his favorite dish, and the head chef came up with an idea to help the chef get out of trouble and win the emperor's favor.

This is a story from the Ming Dynasty literary work "Phoenix Terrace Chronicles".

The general idea of ??the story is that Zhu Yuanzhang was very angry when he ate hair from the soup.

He called the chef and prepared to question him, but Zhu Yuanzhang saw that the chef was bald.

Whose hair is this?

Guanglu Guan, the head of the royal kitchen, responded in a hurry and said that these were "dragon whiskers" and not hair.

Upon hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang turned his anger into joy, and a group of people in the imperial dining room escaped unharmed.

This story is short and simple, but it actually contains a lot of interesting ancient cultural knowledge.

From this, let’s talk about ancient catering culture and Zhu Yuanzhang’s diet.

What and how Zhu Yuanzhang ate was never a trivial matter.

Looking through ancient novels, there are very rich descriptions of food.

For example, in "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Zhang Fei feasted and drank when Liu Guan and Zhang Taoyuan were sworn in, and when Wang Yun entertained Dong Zhuo, the dishes were rich to the point of "bichen on land and water"; in "Water Margin", Wu Dalang's cooking cakes, and Sun Erniang's fine wines

Meat and big steamed buns, Liangshan heroes "eat big chunks of meat and drink from big bowls"; "A Dream of Red Mansions" even describes a variety of banquet scenes, such as birthday banquets, birthday banquets, reception banquets, wedding banquets, Dragon Boat Festival banquets, Lantern Festival banquets, etc.

Etc., it contains rich and colorful folk culture, food culture, plus more than one hundred delicious dishes described by the author, which will make people mouth-watering and have endless aftertaste.

There are so many good things, how to eat them?

In the works of Cao Xueqin and "Lanling Xiaoxiaosheng", the form of divided meals and single meals is really mouth-watering.

Meal sharing is similar to Western food, and the French meal is our most common way of eating. "Sitting around the table and eating with chopsticks" is the basic feature of the Chinese meal system.

The ancient way of sharing meals generally originated from the current situation of backward social productivity. The relatively even distribution of food was actually the prototype of the meal sharing system.

When the time came to the Zhou Dynasty, productivity developed and the etiquette system continued to improve. Rules such as "laying out is called a banquet, borrowing it is called a banquet" recorded in "Zhou Li? Si Ji Banquet" appeared.

Although dining etiquette tends to be hierarchical, and although the separate meal system became popular in the upper class society, the meal sharing system was still an important way to reflect the identity of the host and guest in the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Yuanzhang Some people believe that the high-legged tables and chairs of the Hu people in the Tang Dynasty were introduced to the Central Plains, and people's eating patterns changed.

In the Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes mural "Feasting Picture", nine men and women sit around a table, each with a set of tableware, and the table is filled with various kinds of food.

We can infer that Chinese cuisine has appeared at least in the Tang Dynasty.

In the Ming Dynasty when Zhu Yuanzhang lived, the first meal was an uncontroversial way of eating.

Did Zhu Yuanzhang eat his hair during meal sharing or during the first meal?

In some versions of literary works, it is said that Zhu Yuanzhang had dinner with Queen Ma.

Then, this meal should be the first meal.

Through the writings of Lanling Xiaoxiaosheng and others, we find that the first meal of the Ming Dynasty's social diet mainly appeared in daily meals at home, private gatherings of friends and other occasions.

The meal-sharing system mainly appears when it comes to pomp and etiquette.

As a married couple, Empress Ma and Zhu Yuanzhang experienced adversity and love along the way and had a deep relationship.

Thinking about it, such a couple would naturally eat and drink harmoniously in their daily lives.

In some versions of the story, the dish Zhu Yuanzhang ate was called "Pearl Jade White Jade Soup".

According to legend, Zhu Yuanzhang liked this stew of cabbage, spinach, tofu, etc. very much.

Legend has it that when Zhu Yuanzhang was young, he did not beg for food for many days and once fainted from hunger on the street.

Later, he was rescued and returned home by a kind-hearted old woman.

The old man's family is also very poor, with only some vegetable leaves, tofu and crispy rice residue left.

The old man scraped together a living to cook a bowl of "hodgepodge" for Zhu Yuanzhang.

As a result, after Zhu Yuanzhang drank it, he became energetic and asked the old woman what she had given him.

The old man replied jokingly: "Pearl, Jade and White Jade Soup."

It was this simplest dish of "Pearl Jade White Jade Soup" that became a delicacy that Zhu Yuanzhang would never forget in his life.

In fact, this is an extremely simple "dish", and the seasoning used is even simpler - salt.

The simplest dish often becomes a memory that people will never let go of.

Zhu Yuanzhang is like this, and most people will be like this.