In ancient times, emperors would hold banquets to celebrate the Spring Festival. What would the Manchus and Han Dynasties eat before the feast? Everyone must be very curious about this. In fact, what they eat is very down-to-earth and what everyone likes to eat, which is hot pot.

You may be curious about the luxury of ancient emperors, thinking that they had a Manchu-Han banquet for every meal. In fact, this is not the case. The Man-Han banquet system is very time-consuming and labor-intensive. Many food ingredients may need to be prepared a month in advance. If they eat every meal, It is a bit unreasonable to eat a Manchu and Han Dynasty banquet for every meal. And the emperor was not that extravagant. In fact, the Manchu-Han banquet was only made on important days or occasions. On weekdays, the food the emperor ate was also very ordinary. We must know that before the Qing Dynasty entered the customs, they had been living in a very cold place in Northeast China, so they did not pursue exquisite food. The ultimate goal was nothing more than eating and clothing. Therefore, in the palace cuisine of the Qing Dynasty, hot pot always played the role of The main force. ?For example, in the 61st year of Kangxi's reign, Emperor Kangxi hosted a banquet for thousands of elderly people in Qianqing Palace to celebrate his 70th birthday. Hongli, who was only eleven years old at the time, also attended the banquet and was very impressed. Many years later, when Hongli became emperor, he followed the example of Emperor Kangxi and held two banquets for thousands of elderly people. It was winter when the first banquet was held, and the dishes went cold quickly. The old people had bad teeth and were not satisfied with the food. Qianlong was a little regretful, so when he held the second banquet, he gave it to He Kun and He Kun. Kun understood Qianlong's thoughts very well. He specifically thought of a way to improve the old-fashioned hot pot because the food at the last banquet was getting colder and colder. He put it on the banquet. In this way, the food was always piping hot. The old people ate happily, and Qianlong was also very satisfied.

The first day of the first lunar month in the 60th year of Qianlong's reign was the annual Spring Festival. That night, Emperor Qianlong held a grand banquet in the palace to entertain the princes, nobles and civil and military officials. The banquet menu is as follows: Hot Chicken Soup with Yams, Onions and Peppers Hot pot, hot pot with deer intestines and tripe, hot pot with bird's nest, hibiscus and duck, hot pot with fat chicken and comb meat, a plate of mutton slices, a plate of chicken in soup, a plate of bird's nest hanging stove duck, a plate of steamed Guandong duck and deer tail, roasted pork belly A plate of meat, a plate of elephant-eye steamed buns, a plate of sugar oil cake, a plate of rice cakes, a plate of side dishes, a plate of bacon, and a dish of japonica rice? If you do the math carefully, you will find that just in this menu There are four kinds of hot pot.

Pu Yi, the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty, mentioned in his autobiography "My First Half of Life" the scene of his "meal": There are two tables of dishes on weekdays, a small table of pickles, three tables of snacks, rice, porridge, and winter. There is also a hotpot. At that time, there was nothing special about the palace banquet. In the beginning, there were not even tables and chairs. ?According to the "Manwen Old Documents": When the Baylors held a banquet, they did not set up a table and all sat on the floor. ? Everyone sat on a piece of animal skin, the hot pot was hot, and everyone ate happily. It can be seen from this that even people as noble as emperors like to eat down-to-earth food like hot pot.