After the death of his biological mother, Nurhachi lived a hard life, often without food. Long-term survival in the wild made him extremely adaptable, especially good at drinking in the wild. Nuerhachi eats tigers, bears, roe deer, roe deer, goats, wild boar, pheasants, pheasants, wild ducks and so on. All the animals that can be caught in hunting are his favorite foods. Most of them are game, and they especially like to eat wild boar raw (interestingly, the name Nurhachi means "wild boar skin" in Manchu), which is very strange. Why did the founding emperor of Qing Dynasty associate his name with wild boar? According to the Record of Xianbin: "The custom of nuzhen is easy to raise tapirs and eat meat." In other words, eat your own pork and make pigskin into leather clothes. It seems that this is the life demand of Jurchen in the era of tribal life. Not only that, the names of brothers, descendants and nephews in Nurhachi family are also related to animals. Dorje, the fourteenth son of Nurhachi, means badger; Gulmahon, the son of his nephew A Min, means hare; The eldest grandson Du Du means spotted finch; Sun Tzu Kuerhuan, which means grey crane, and so on.
As you can imagine, Nurhachi was hungry while hunting, so he ate the wild boar alive to meet his hunger needs. However, Nurhachi maintained this tough diet personality until his death.
Nurhachi not only likes to eat raw meat at ordinary times, but also eats raw meat during sacrifices, even as a tribute, and he himself eats raw meat before confessing. Until he called me yellow, this habit of eating raw meat still appeared from time to time. We found Nurhachi's lunch recipes in the eleventh year of Destiny (1 62 6) in the archives: raw wild pork, roasted bear's paw, steamed mutton, potatoes, sesame rolls, grilled fish, creamy pheasant, finger-grabbed rice, salty drum corn soup, Kung Pao rabbit meat, garlic vinegar white blood soup, five-flavored roasted pheasant, mashed potatoes, Chili cucumber soup and spicy roasted donkey meat.
Ministers said it was difficult to accept Nurhachi's habits. Whenever ministers accompany Nurhachi to sacrifice, they will feel chilling when they see him eating raw meat, especially when they can't accompany him to eat raw meat.
However, Nurhachi also has many food inventions, which are still widely circulated in various places today, such as "golden meat".
According to legend, when Nurhachi was young, his family was in decline. He lived in Fushun, Liaoning, where he worked as a chef for a leader of Jurchen tribe. At that time, tribal leaders were very particular about eating and drinking, and every meal required eight dishes and one soup. At a banquet for guests, he chose a maid in the tribe who was good at cooking, and Nurhachi was his assistant. The maid suddenly fainted after finishing the seventh course. At this time, the outer hall is waiting to order the last course. When Nurhachi saw it, he used his quick wits. He wrapped the sliced tenderloin in egg yolk, quickly fried it in an oil pan and put it on a plate. After the leader tasted it, he felt that the taste was different from before, and he especially liked it. The leader was very happy and immediately asked Nurhachi about the name of this dish. Nurhachi said it was called "golden meat", which meant good luck. Nurhachi was therefore appreciated by the leaders. This delicious food later entered the court and became a famous dish in the eight bowls of Manchuria.
The second one is a vegetable bag. It is said that Nurhachi marched hard. One day, because he didn't have a cooker, he had to let his soldiers eat rice wrapped in leaves, which was called "Bao Fan" or "Cai Bao". This way of eating was imitated by later generations when it was absolutely necessary. However, the current vegetable package is small rice wrapped in Chinese cabbage leaves, and the eating method is already very particular. Nurhachi doesn't drink hard liquor. He believes that "fools die because of this, and saints lose their virtue because of this." Therefore, Nurhachi himself does not drink alcohol, and it is strictly forbidden for ministers to drink alcohol.