In fact, the meat eaten by the ancients is not much different from that of modern people, mainly pigs, sheep, chickens, fish and so on. However, the ancients would not eat horse meat and beef easily, because these animals were tools for them to make a living, and horses were very precious, much more valuable than cattle and sheep. However, in the Han Dynasty, it was not so simple to want to eat a meal of meat. For some poor families, they might not be able to afford meat at all, so they had to eat it in the water or wait for the Spring Festival. However, with the later dynasties, this situation is much better, at least most people will not worry because they have no meat to eat.

Because of the different economic development levels of different dynasties, eating meat was different in China.

For example, during the Han dynasty, horses and cattle were important strategic resources, and even if they had money, they could not eat them. The daily meat is mainly pork, mutton, dog meat and chicken, and there are also various aquatic products. Ordinary people can eat chicken on holidays, and the urban poor can also eat pigs if they catch up with good years. "The History of the East View" records that the poor in the city at that time were "old and sick and poor, unable to buy meat, and bought a piece of pork liver every day".

As for the rich? Then eat a lot, such as barbecue, and often bring pork, mutton, venison and fish to barbecue, especially "roast", which means bringing the whole sheep to barbecue. There are also dishes such as fried fish and pork, which are delicious for the rich.

In the Tang Dynasty, due to the development of pig industry, pork became more common. The dignitaries in the Tang Dynasty mainly ate mutton. Pork is basically not the table of dignitaries. Wang Wei Lee Tae once ate pork elbows in a civilian's house, wiped his mouth after eating, and immediately warned people around him not to leak out. In the aristocratic banquets in the Tang Dynasty, venison, bear and rabbit are often precious, and there are many exotic dishes, such as camel hoof soup made of camel hooves, which are famous in the aristocratic circles of the Tang Dynasty.

As for the homes of ordinary people, it is easier to eat pork. According to Taiping Guangji, the basic pork was out of stock among the people on holidays in the Tang Dynasty. It's easier to eat chicken, of course. In the Tang Dynasty, ordinary families basically raised chickens, so there was the famous poem: preparing me chicken and rice, old friend, you entertain me at your farm.

In the Song Dynasty, China's cooking technology advanced by leaps and bounds, and frying, cooking and frying were all in full swing. Pork is more popular. In Bianjing, the capital city, it is recorded in Menglianglu that tens of thousands of pigs are sent to Bianjing every morning for the people of Bianjing to eat. Even the monks in Sokokuji run the pork business, and the unique pig-killing dishes are sold in Bianjing. Su Dongpo, a great writer who invented Dongpo pork and was a big eater, summed up the status of pork in one sentence: the rich refused to eat it, but the poor couldn't cook it. The price of aquatic products is also cheap, and the fish in Bianjing can sell for 30 yuan a catty, which is basically affordable for ordinary people.

What do rich people eat if they don't eat pork? Mainly mutton, especially in the court, mutton is a delicious food on the high ground. There are also treasures such as puffer fish and Jiaqi fish, which are only eaten when the rich show off their wealth. However, due to regional differences, ingredients such as crabs can be sold for thousands of dollars in Beijing, but they are basically picked up in the coastal areas, and each sells for 2 pence, which is quite different.

By the Ming Dynasty, it was much more average. According to Five Miscellanies, due to the developed transportation and the more advanced aquaculture technology in the Ming Dynasty. At that time, in the aquatic products market of the big cities in the north, there were treasures almost everywhere, such as crabs and other aquatic products, and the prices were cheaper than the origin.

The meat food of Ming people is naturally richer. Especially in the developed cities along the southeast coast, the meat on the table is also varied. Portuguese traveler Kruse estimated that in Guangzhou at that time, five or six thousand pigs and ten thousand ducks were consumed in one day, and there were countless meats such as dogs and cows.

As for the delicious mutton that belonged to the royal family in the Song Dynasty, it was more popular in the Ming Dynasty. According to Dream Record, in Kaifeng City in the Ming Dynasty, ordinary mutton shops slaughtered several sheep every day. When the wind blows in autumn, every family in Beijing and big cities in Hebei will eat mutton on this day. In addition, geese were a treasure in the Ming Dynasty. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, there was a saying that "the imperial censor did not eat geese" to show the incorruptibility of officials. However, in the middle and late period when the commodity economy was developed, the imperial censor ate geese. People have a big banquet, and goose must be served.

In the late next year, banquets in the Ming Dynasty are more luxurious, and the cost of a major banquet is often the living expenses of ordinary families for several months. There was a public meal recorded in Five Miscellanies, but the host and guest used 72 chickens, 18 geese and 150 Jin of pork. At that time, the major banquets were all about meat, and even fresh ingredients such as bear's paw and scarlet lips were extremely extravagant.

The world of each dynasty is myriad, and only looking at the meat on the table is a dense microcosm.