The work and rest of ancient feudal emperors were usually regular and had timetables.

When the emperor says he is hungry, he is usually later than scheduled. At this time, the food was ready, just waiting for the emperor to say dinner.

The emperor can't keep eating.

The most famous is the story of Song Renzong Zhao Zhen.

Once, Zhao Zhen was thirsty and wanted to drink water. Looking back, the attendant didn't bring any water, so he had to endure thirst and didn't drink water until he returned to the palace. Zhao Zhen said he didn't mention it to the servants because he didn't want anyone to be punished. But you think, even if he mentioned it, if he didn't bring water, he didn't bring water. Isn't he thirsty?

On another occasion, Zhao Zhen was hungry in the middle of the night and wanted to eat mutton soup, but said nothing. Because Zhao Zhen knows very well that there is no ready-made mutton soup in the palace, so if you want to eat it, you must make it now. Another time I wanted to eat roast mutton, but I didn't say anything, because there was no ready-made mutton in the palace, so I had to go out late at night to buy it.

Judging from the situation in Zhao Zhen, it is not certain that the emperor doesn't want to eat or drink at once.

However, the ancients were not stupid. They still prepared some snacks for the emperor. Most of them are cold.

This is easy to understand. After all, ordinary people often prepare snacks, but not necessarily for eating, but purely greedy and playful.

Is there an emperor who can eat hot food whenever he wants? Of course, they are all bad kings.

Ready to eat hot food at any time, the cost is very high, not a bad king is generally unwilling to do so.

A famous example is Cixi in the late Qing Dynasty. Xiao Zeng, the last eunuch in charge, was in charge of the Sanpin Imperial Chef case. In Memoirs of a eunuch in the Qing Dynasty, Zhang Xiaode once said that in order to let Cixi eat hot meals at any time, the imperial kitchen kept cooking and stopped working without a ceasefire.

Fortunately, Cixi only likes to eat a few things. The royal chef cooked several identical meals at different times, waiting for them to be ready, waiting for Cixi to serve. Never hand over rice, throw away all the wasted rice. This led to Cixi's daily food expenses as high as more than 10,000 taels of silver.

At that time, a cruiser was only five or six hundred thousand taels of silver. In other words, in order to make Cixi eat hot meals at any time, she destroyed a cruiser in two months.

The key is to cook the same meal in different periods, and to make several copies. If it is wasted, it will be thrown away.

For example, Cixi wants to eat eight-treasure duck. Although she only eats one dish, there may be more than a dozen dishes thrown away in the end. At this price, only a bad king is willing to do so.

Because the emperor has rules for eating.

Although "Zhou Li" stipulates that emperors eat four meals a day, few emperors do so. Most emperors, like the people of the whole country at that time, ate two meals a day and a snack at night (conditionally).

For example, the Qing dynasty. The emperor must get up at three o'clock in the morning, get dressed, wash and tidy up, and start the morning at five o'clock sharp. The emperor, like a minister, can't even eat or drink, otherwise ... that's why he can't eat his first meal until after eight in the morning. Have the second meal around 1 pm. I will eat snacks at 5 or 6. Then rest around nine o'clock. Because I will continue to get up at three tomorrow.

In fact, the emperor's diet has strict rules. Every day, meat, grain, oil, vegetables and fruits have quantitative standards, specifically how many dishes to fold.

The daily supply standard of the Qing emperor: 22kg of vegetable meat, 2kg of vegetable meat15kg, 2 sheep, 5 chickens, 3 ducks, 60g of vegetable19g, 60 radishes, 6 kohlrabi, 6 crocodiles, 6 onions, 240 jiaozi, 32kg of white flour, 8kg of sesame oil, candied walnuts and black dates.

Puyi's breakfast:

The real core problem is that the emperor's diet is not what he wants to eat in TV dramas. There will be no saying of eating steamed taro;

For example, suppose the emperor has a standard dinner of 50 courses, most of which are stewed, fried and steamed. There will be no cooking and no fresh seasonal dishes. Side dishes are not dried bamboo shoots and mushrooms, but non-seasonal dishes such as cabbage, tofu and bean sprouts, which are suitable for repeated heating without deformation. Therefore, most dishes can be kept in tableware, and water can be heated with fire to generate steam to keep the temperature.

Even the eunuchs in the imperial kitchen were corrupt and repeatedly used the dishes that had not been touched in the distance from the emperor's seat. After all, the emperor doesn't look at distant dishes, and eunuchs deliberately throw away greasy and heavy dishes.

For eunuchs, winter is especially a good time to save money. No matter how many times the meat is steamed, it will not go bad, and even keep its shape. It is natural to pay attention in summer, and you have to change fresh dishes in two or three days to avoid the smell irritating the emperor.

Do you understand?

The chef prepares dinner twice a day, and all kinds of dishes are heated on the fire. Once the emperor wanted to have a meal, the personal eunuch shouted, and the chef eunuch immediately asked the waiting little eunuch to pass the meal.

After two dinners, the legal work of the chef was over that day. At about four o'clock the next morning, bank up evacuated and fired again to prepare breakfast.

If the emperor is hungry, he must ask the waiter to serve supper.

In the memoirs of the last emperor Puyi, he said that when he was the emperor, he never ate a hot dish.

The emperor can eat whatever he wants. This is too many TV plays. In fact, it is difficult for the emperor to have a hot meal. It is a great event for the emperor to eat. Everyone in the palace is very nervous. The preparatory work is not done well and the procedures are wrong. In case the emperor has food problems, such as diarrhea and severe food poisoning, he will lose his head as soon as he traces it.

The first is the distance. Cooking for the emperor is a chef, and it is impossible to be located next to the emperor's hall. Civil and military officials are sitting in court. The smell of cooking smoke and food wafted in. The emperor swallowed saliva to deal with state affairs. He was so hungry that he asked the eunuch for a chicken leg to chew. Ministers should sit still and beg the emperor to invite him to dinner. The emperor's face fell and he said there was not much food in the palace. This is a joke.

From the chef to the main hall, the food served was carried by eunuchs and maids. It's ok in summer, but it's certain that hot dishes will get cold in winter. Think about it, 100 how long does it take to serve more than one dish at a time? You can't get there in 40 minutes. It is not a blessing for the emperor to eat while it is hot. At best, there is a steamer on site, but how to steam 100 dishes is another problem. Therefore, the emperor's dinner is for the whole world to see, not real. If you are hungry, it is still possible to eat snacks, drink a bowl of hot noodle soup, cook a hot pot and have a barbecue.

Secondly, food safety is the top priority of the palace. There are many people inside and outside the palace who want to kill the emperor. Without strict food safety regulations, the emperor will be poisoned in minutes. Therefore, no matter how hungry the emperor is, there is nothing he can do. He can only move chopsticks after the eunuch who tries to eat feels that everything is normal. In the palace, the chef is a big institution, which belongs to the real power institution. The word "safety" means complete personnel and clear division of labor. As for the taste of the food, it can only be hehe, and no one really cares. After all, no matter how expensive things are, they are delicious and not spicy.

So in this world, looking good and being really good are two different things. The ancients said that the emperor was in no hurry, not that he was in no hurry, but that he was in no hurry. At that time, there were not many rules and regulations, and the emperor's estimates of eating, drinking, clothing, housing and transportation were compiled into manuals.

The question you asked is a bit abstruse for you. You should know what an emperor is first.

Making a TV series will definitely delete the waiting plot.

First of all, because of the particularity of the emperor's identity, he can't eat and drink at will like ordinary people.

Take the Qing Dynasty as an example. What the emperor eats needs to follow the ancestral system. Generally speaking, meals are prepared half a day to a day ago and kept warm on the fire.

Imperial meals are basically dozens or even hundreds of dishes, except for ornamental dishes, which can not be eaten much. And every dish must be tasted, and the emperor can't have more than three spoonfuls of each dish. Once the emperor takes a few more bites or shows his love for it, this dish will temporarily disappear from the emperor's royal diet.

This is to prevent anyone from knowing the emperor's preferences and poisoning him.

In addition, the emperor's diet does not depend entirely on the chef. Empress Dowager, Empress and Concubine all have their own stoves, among which there are many skilled chefs. At every meal, most ladies-in-waiting who want to compete for favor will send food or cakes to the emperor. Maybe the emperor ate it before dinner.

In contrast, it is the happiest to throw away the aura of the emperor and eat well with your own heart, but who told me that I have never been an emperor? I can't feel the happiness of the emperor [covering my face]

So many people serve the emperor, there must be a record of the emperor's eating rules. Do you think serving food anytime and anywhere is just an accurate grasp of the daily life rules of the emperor?