Nowadays, many people may think that the ancient emperor must have the highest status and the best treatment in the world. The emperor can be said to have enough to eat and wear, and the food and clothing are the best, and the use and play are also the best. No matter what good things there are, there will be them in the palace, and anything that comes to the palace will be the best. But did the ancient emperors eat delicacies every day? What did the ancient emperors eat? Is it really as good as people think? Why do you say that the food eaten by emperors in the Ming Dynasty was even worse than that of eunuchs? What happened? What did the Ming emperors and eunuchs eat? Why are there such differences? Next, let's take a closer look. 1. What did the ancient emperors eat?

The internal affairs office, signed by officials in the Qing Dynasty, was in charge of court affairs. The chief officer is called the minister in charge, and there is no quota. The Manchu princes or ministers are both responsible, ranking second, and correcting second when they are dry.

It is generally believed that the royal meals will be served by the "imperial dining room", which is the royal kitchen, but this is not the case. As we know, most of the "imperial kitchens" originated from the dramas of the Qing Dynasty, and in history, only the Qing Dynasty set up imperial kitchens, which were responsible for catering for the royal family and preparing the banquets needed for the celebration. Of course, this imperial kitchen belongs to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Moreover, there was no imperial dining room before the Qing Dynasty.

The institution that prepared meals for the royal family in the Ming Dynasty was called Guanglu Temple, which belonged to a "deputy ministerial level" unit, because the position of Guanglu Temple Secretary was one level higher than that of Zhengsipin Magistrate. In the later period, Guanglu Temple was basically dominated by the internal supervision department, which was responsible for the emperor's meals. Guanglu Temple is responsible for providing many kinds of food, ranging from jade food, celebrations and ceremonies to the daily supply of officials, ordinary banquets, and even the diets of guards go out from here.

In addition, there are many people in Guanglu Temple, covering a wide range, and it undertakes all the banquets in the palace. Moreover, Guanglu Temple is also responsible for making sacrifices, including "Fu Zhen", "Fu Jiu" and "Furnishing Sacrificial Ritual" for the emperor's tomb. In addition to cooking for the emperor, Guanglu Temple also has a huge procurement system, which specializes in purchasing and selecting items from all over the world, such as fish, meat, vegetables and local products. Guanglu Temple receives all the tributes, then processes them, and finally becomes a delicacy on the dining table. 2. What the emperors of the Ming Dynasty ate

In the Ming Hui Dian, it was recorded that every year, the local government would supply 1, animals to Guanglu Temple, that is, 5, animals in the first half of the year and 5, animals in the second half of the year. The Chief Secretary of Zhejiang and the official of Zhili Prefecture were responsible for delivering the goods to the capital.

Xie Zhaozhe recorded in "Nine Miscellaneous Things: Part III" that there are almost no delicacies in the food that the dignitaries eat, but they can have as much fish or other animal meat as they want. In fact, there are many delicacies in the ingredients stored in Guanglu Temple, but there are no delicacies in it. Because Guanglu Temple is a government-run canteen, similar to the current state-run restaurants, and its service quality and cooking skills are very limited.

In the second year of Yongle, after the suburban worship activities, Guanglu Temple will prepare a banquet for them. The menu of the banquet is as follows:

There are five kinds of wine, five kinds of fruits, five kinds of tea, five kinds of baked bread and three kinds of soup;

There are four kinds of wine, four kinds of fruit and three kinds of soup in the middle table.

The generals in the army are a kind of wine and some soup powder.

All the guests are senior officials, and they must eat big fish and big meat. There are no more advanced ingredients than these. But, unexpectedly, these meals are really bad. In Wanli Wild Collection, there are some items in Beijing that are not worthy of the name. Among them, there are articles from the Hanlin Academy, swords and guns from the armory, meals from the Guanglu Temple, and prescriptions from the Imperial Hospital. All the above reputations are inconsistent with reality.

you can tell at a glance that these meals are simply horrible. Although people have no chance to eat these "delicious dishes", they know how poor their quality is. 3. Why is it said that the emperor's food is not even as good as that of eunuchs? Then, the food in Guanglu Temple is so bad, can the emperor choose not to eat it and change to other places?

no, you have to eat if it tastes bad. this is the rule of the imperial court.

It is very difficult for a "state-owned unit" like Guanglu Temple to reform, but there are still ways. In the late Ming Dynasty, the banquet was still hosted by Guanglu Temple. Officials continued to spend money there, but the emperor didn't have to eat. They could go to the eunuch to rub food.

Liu Ruoyu, a eunuch of the Ming Dynasty, mentioned in his book "Meditation on the Records" that every day, the emperor's meals were arranged for him by the eunuchs who were in charge of the East Factory in turn. In addition, in recent years, the position of Shang Shan supervisor has been set up, which is dedicated to preparing the daily diet for the emperor. Later, the supervisor of Shangshan was revoked, and the eunuchs of Zhangyin, Bingbi and Dongchang took turns to prepare meals for him, just like the previous system.

Now, eunuchs take turns cooking for the emperor, even the eunuchs in charge of the East Factory, making eunuchs serve as the emperor's chefs.

The main duties of the East Factory are to catch important criminals, detain prisoners and try cases. As the followers of the emperor, they are better at food than the emperor. In fact, this is normal. Eunuchs have no descendants, and all the money they earn is spent on eating, drinking and having fun. Moreover, they pay special attention to diet, and almost all of them are gourmets.

It is recorded in "Deliberating on Meditation, Eating Well and Paying Attention to History" that eunuchs like to practice Buddhism, drink tea and sit up, or pursue delicious food and pay attention to the quality of diet. Eunuchs living in the court can only recite Buddha spiritually, but enjoy delicious food materially. Except for the above two things, nothing else can be done. Eunuchs know how to enjoy themselves, so the emperor will no longer tolerate bad meals.

in the late Ming dynasty, emperors knew how to find eunuchs to prepare some better meals for themselves, so that the emperors could also improve the conditions in the palace. Of course, the food eaten by the emperor was not cooked by the eunuchs themselves, but by the eunuchs who asked the chef to cook. They only needed to fulfill the requirements of the emperor. Therefore, the imperial meals undertaken by eunuchs will naturally be better than those of Guanglu Temple. One is that the scale and attitude of state-owned enterprises and the other is definitely completely different.

Let's look at a diet menu of Emperor Wanli:

One hundred and twenty-six catties of pork, ten catties of donkey meat, five geese, thirty-three chickens, sixty quails, ten pigeons, five catties of bacon, fifty-five chickens, twenty catties of seeds, twenty catties of flour, twenty catties of sesame oil, eight catties of white sugar, eight ounces of brown sugar, eight catties of bean flour, three liters of sesame seeds, and so on.

It can be seen that eunuchs are not only rich in ingredients, but also good at cooking. If so, the emperor is not satisfied, then there is really no way.