In the early Ming Dynasty, in order to save food, Zhu Yuanzhang made strict regulations for diet.

With the development of social productive forces and the improvement of economic level, the richness of dining tables in ancient China can no longer be compared with today. However, compared with earlier times, the dining table of Ming people was also very rich. Although not as modern, you can still eat many "rare" ingredients. At the same time, there are many "new tricks" in the understanding and production methods of ingredients.

However, even so, people from the early Ming Dynasty to the middle Ming Dynasty still can't eat whatever they want. It was not until the middle of the Ming Dynasty that this phenomenon was alleviated, and there was a trend of "retaliatory rebound".

Before discussing this issue, we might as well learn about the diet of ancient China people before the Ming Dynasty. Take the Han dynasty as an example, the people in the Han dynasty have been exposed to more food than the people in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. What kind of food can appear on the table of the people in the Han Dynasty? Dr. Ding Shudong from Zhucheng Mental Health Center in Shandong Province once mentioned in the article "Looking at the ancient diet health culture from the bamboo barnyard unearthed from Mawangdui":

However, even so, the table of the people in the Han Dynasty can not be compared with that of the people in the Ming Dynasty. Since the early Ming dynasty, the people in the Ming dynasty have obviously exceeded the previous generation in the choice of food. There are peanuts, potatoes, corn and so on, and even tobacco was introduced into the territory of the Ming Dynasty during this period.

The reason why people's dining tables in the Ming Dynasty are richer than their predecessors has nothing to do with the progress of social productive forces. No matter how much the agricultural production efficiency of the Ming Dynasty was improved compared with the previous generation, it would not produce crops that had never appeared in this land. The main reason for this is that the international trade in Ming Dynasty was very active. With the rapid development of international trade and the increasing scale, crop seeds from other parts of the world were gradually introduced into the territory of the Ming Dynasty.

in 1368, Zhu Yuanzhang ascended the throne and founded the country after seizing the present Nanjing city, thus the history of the Ming empire began. In the following days, the Ming army won victories in successive battles, and many cities occupied by the forces of the Yuan Dynasty were included in the territory of the Ming Empire. Finally, the old yuan forces were driven back to the grassland and entered a confrontation stage with them.

Although the territory of the Ming Empire is constantly expanding, the domestic economic base has basically been destroyed and production has basically stagnated. Not only the people can't eat enough, but even the resources that the royal family can mobilize are very limited, which is basically similar to the early years of the Western Han Dynasty. In order to revive the economy as soon as possible and put the empire on the right track as soon as possible, Zhu Yuanzhang once ordered that any extravagant and wasteful behavior in society be strictly prohibited, which was specifically manifested in diet.

At the same time, Zhu Yuanzhang also prohibited the court from investing too much energy and financial resources in diet. In this regard, Professor Chen Baoliang from the School of History and Culture of Southwest University once mentioned in "Diet Life Fashion and Its New Trends in the Ming Dynasty":

In feudal times, it was always considered "natural" for feudal monarchs to enjoy high-quality material life. Considering the national strength in the early Ming Dynasty, the Ming Emperor still had the ability to mobilize national resources and ensure the luxurious life of the royal family. However, after Zhu Yuanzhang's "saving order" was issued, the extravagance and waste of the people immediately stopped (after all, some feudal landlords were still able to enjoy a high-quality material life). Although the people in Ming Dynasty could not "eat whatever they wanted" in a short time, it provided some help for the rapid economic revival in the early Ming Dynasty.

As mentioned above, the "saving order" issued by Zhu Yuanzhang in the early Ming Dynasty was only a stopgap measure, and it was a decree that had to be issued to reduce the waste of resources and ensure the stability of resource supply as much as possible. With the passage of time, the economy of the Ming Dynasty has not only been on the right track, but also entered a stage of rapid development. At this time, not only the diet of the Ming emperor became more exquisite, but also the dining table of ordinary people became rich.

What needs to be mentioned in particular is that when the economic conditions in the middle of the Ming Dynasty were greatly improved compared with those in the early Ming Dynasty, even the eunuchs in the court paid attention to the food problem. In this regard, Professor Liu Pubing from the Department of History of anyang normal University once mentioned in the article "On the Catering Institutions and Catering Characteristics in the Ming Dynasty":

Eunuchs and maids-in-waiting began to pay attention to diet, and began to pursue all kinds of delicious food and exquisite dishes, which is enough to show that the "gourmet style" was prevailing in the courts in the middle and late Ming Dynasty. Imperial secretary still so, the emperor's table is naturally more abundant. But at the same time, it also reflects a problem, that is, the court invested too much energy and expenditure in diet in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, which caused serious extravagance and waste. However, behind the waste, it also reflects that people's material living standards have been greatly improved in the middle and late Ming Dynasty.

The economic and material living standards in the early Ming Dynasty were basically the same as those in the early Western Han Dynasty and other early days when a new feudal country was established after a long period of war. Not only are living materials extremely scarce, but the economic foundation is basically destroyed. In this case, most feudal monarchs would choose to save precious materials that were wrong as much as possible. Therefore, the recipes of the court and the people in the early Ming Dynasty can not fully reflect the diet of the people in the Ming Dynasty.

When the time came to the middle of Ming Dynasty, people's diet structure and diet situation in Ming Dynasty were basically completely revealed. Influenced by the bonus brought by the growing prosperity of international trade, the dining table of Ming people became richer and richer. The food that the previous generation had been madly sought after and longed for was no longer "rare" in the middle and late Ming Dynasty.

However, the extravagant trend in the field of diet since the middle of the Ming Dynasty has not been curbed, but has become worse. By the late Ming dynasty, this extravagance and waste had become very serious, even contributed to the corruption, and indirectly promoted the demise of the Ming empire.

References:

1 Looking at Ancient Diet Health Culture from Bamboo Barn Unearthed in Mawangdui, Ding Shudong

2 Diet Life Fashion and Its New Trends in Ming Dynasty, Chen Baoliang

3 On the Catering Institutions and Characteristics in Ming Dynasty, and Liu Pubing