I recently rewatched "The Legend of Zhen Huan" and the food in the show was dazzling and made my mouth water.

Abalone braised with pearls, fish maw braised ham, roasted mutton, duck soup, white jade hoof flower, lotus soup, etc. Not only are the dishes rich, but the presentation is also extremely exquisite.

As a royal family, she lived an extremely luxurious life. It was reported that the Empress Dowager Cixi had to eat more than 100 kinds of dishes at a meal, and each meal cost 200 taels of silver. In addition to the main meal, she also had snacks and cold drinks. Poria cake, pea yellow, butter bracelets, etc. are all Cixi's favorite snacks.

Food is the most important thing for the people, and the ancients were very particular about what they ate. "A Dream of Red Mansions" describes hundreds of kinds of delicacies, and the most drool-worthy one is probably the eggplant that Grandma Liu ate when she entered the Grand View Garden. .

Not only "The Legend of Zhen Huan" and "A Dream of Red Mansions", but also in many film and television dramas, there are many mouth-watering delicacies, such as the iron lion head in "Xilai Le", "Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace" The shrimp hot pot in "Water Margin", the soy sauce beef and daughter's red meat in "Water Margin" make people want to travel back to ancient times and have a feast.

But Baba wants to tell everyone that as a foodie, it is okay to travel back to the Qing Dynasty. If you travel to the Qin Dynasty, you will probably starve to death. Don’t believe it, even the emperor of the Qin Dynasty did not You are eating well now.

There are no eggplants, hoof flowers, lion heads, tomatoes, potatoes, or mung bean cakes.

The staple foods of the Qin people are millet (millet), rice, bean (bean) and wheat. Their meat is mostly game, such as wild boar, hare, etc., as well as fruits such as dates and mulberries.

Five grains: rice, millet, millet, wheat, and beetroot

The capital of the Qin Dynasty was Xianyang (now Xianyang City, Shaanxi Province), and the main cities were Handan, Puyang, Chenying, Suiyang, the territory of the Qin Dynasty was mainly in the Central Plains area, connected to the coast, and the geographical conditions were very suitable for agriculture, which brought great convenience to the agricultural development of the Qin Dynasty.

According to "Mencius Teng Wen Gong 1", the five grains commonly eaten by ancient people are: "rice, millet, millet, wheat, and bean sprouts". We can also read it in "The Book of Songs·Youfeng·July" See the scene of Qin people farming and working, "Building fields in September, harvesting crops in October. Millet and millet are heavy, and millet is heavy, and millet is millet." Shu is beans, millet is millet, and after peeling, it is millet, which is the output at that time It is the largest and is also a food commonly eaten by Qin people.

Before Qin unified the six countries, millet had become the main food of the Qin people, and the output was so large that grain could be lent to other countries.

During the reign of Duke Mu of Qin, Jin State encountered a severe drought and asked Qin to borrow grain. When Qin State came to Jin State’s rescue, the grain provided was millet. "Qin's millet output is so large that it can be seen that it is average.

In addition to millet, rice is also available, but rice is mostly used to make wine. "The Book of Songs·July" describes that "rice is harvested in October, and spring wine is made for it." As for wheat, it is far less common than millet, and Shu Its status is not as good as that of millet.

When Zhang Yi lobbied the King of Korea for the King of Qin, he told the King of Korea that "the food of the people of Korea is mostly beans, rice and grass soup; if one year old is not harvested, the people will not be tired of the chaff." At that time, South Korea was located in a mountainous area with dangerous terrain. In addition to wheat, the food produced was soybeans. Most of the food the people ate were rice made from beans and soup made from bean leaves. When the harvest was not good in previous years, the people They can't even eat the wine grains and grain husks. It can be seen from Zhang Yi's contemptuous words that the people of Qin despise Shu.

The main foods are millet, rice, wheat, and beetroot, and the cooking methods are mostly steaming and boiling. There were no ironware in the Qin Dynasty, and bronzes were also valuable items. It was difficult for ordinary people to own them. There were many cooking utensils used by the people. Made of pottery, millet or rice was boiled in a pottery pot and it was a meal. In terms of modern living standards, people in the Qin Dynasty lived a very difficult life. They basically had no requirements for taste, and it was good to be able to satisfy their hunger.

Sunflower, hyacinth, scallions, onions, leeks and game

After talking about rice, let’s talk about what to eat. During the Spring and Autumn Period, vegetable gardens appeared in the Qin State, which were called vegetable gardens. "Juji" is where all kinds of vegetables are grown. Although there are vegetables, there are very few types. From a modern perspective, the vegetables eaten by the Qin people can only be called wild vegetables. For example, the main vegetable sunflower at that time was winter amaranth. The hyacinth is the leaf of the bean, the sage is the small root of garlic that we use to make pickles now, and the green onions and leeks are the common green onions and leeks we have now.

There are few types of vegetables, but there are many varieties of fruits. "The Book of Songs·Yellow Bird" writes that "crossing yellow birds ends with thorns" and "crossing yellow birds ends with mulberries", among which "thorns" It is a jujube tree that bears wild jujubes, and "mulberry" means a mulberry tree that bears mulberries. Wild grapes, melons and gourds are also described in "The Book of Songs·July", and cherries are also recorded in "Lu's Spring and Autumn·Original Flavor": "Midsummer" "Night, peach", peach refers to cherries, jujubes, mulberries, grapes, melons, cherries, pears, apricots, persimmons, oranges, etc.

Although the laws of the Qin Dynasty were strict, they did not stipulate that hunting wild animals was prohibited, so friends who like to eat game would be very happy if they traveled to the Qin Dynasty. The premise is that you need to be able to hunt.

The area where the Qin Dynasty was located had many rivers, such as the Yellow River and the Wei River. Wherever there are rivers, there are fish. Moreover, part of the Qin State is close to the sea and has abundant fish resources. It is not difficult to infer from the geographical and natural environment at that time. Qin people know how to fish and eat fish.

"The Book of Songs: July" also describes the scene of Qin people eating meat. "Sacrifice lambs to sacrifice leeks" and "say killing lambs". It can be seen that the meat resources of the Qin people are still very abundant, and the nobles The feast included chickens, ducks, fish, sheep, and all kinds of birds and animals.

Although the conditions in the Qin Dynasty were difficult, it did not affect people's desire for delicious food. The Qin people who had a lot of meat also mastered a certain degree of tasting ability, which is described in "Lu's Spring and Autumn Period·Original Flavor" Views on three types of animals: the smell of animals in the water, the smell of animals that eat meat, and the smell of animals that eat grass, but "the smell is as good as the smell, they all have their reasons", and there are many cooking methods, in addition to steaming, There are burnt, broiled, and boiled meats, which are roasting the meat on the fire, skewering the meat and roasting it on the fire, and wrapping the meat in mud and roasting it on the fire. The barbecue techniques are no less than today.

It’s just that the barbecue of the ancients was definitely not as delicious as it is now. The seasonings at that time were very scarce, only pepper and salt. Although there were few seasonings, the cooking method was very particular. "Book of Rites· "Nei Ze" records a variety of cooking techniques, such as Chunbo, pouring the fried meat sauce on the rice and then pouring oil on it. This should be the oldest method of "rice donburi". In addition to the simple "cover rice" "Pouring rice", there are also more complex cooking techniques, such as "Pao", one of the eight delicacies: slaughter a pig or sheep, wash the internal organs, stuff the dates into the belly, wrap it with reed-woven foil, and coat it with The mud is roasted over fire. Take out the roasted meat, apply rice slurry on the meat, put it in a cauldron and fry it, and then boil the cauldron in water for three days and three nights. The meat made in this way is tender and delicious. Season it again.

However, although there was a lot of edible meat in the Qin Dynasty, there was one animal that could not be eaten, and that was cattle. In ancient times, cattle were extremely important production tools. Whoever killed the cattle would If you don't eat meat, you will lose your head, so friends who like to eat beef can't eat soy beef in the Qin Dynasty.

In terms of diet, the Qin Dynasty can be said to have set a precedent for the Han Dynasty. However, if we really traveled back to the Qin Dynasty, it would still be very miserable. Although there are staple foods and a lot of edible meat, people often eat The food here is still very simple. Although there is a small barbecue, there is no MSG, cumin, chili and other seasonings. Many vegetables that are commonly eaten today, such as potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc., only entered China after the Qin Dynasty. As for what we think There is no eggplant, iron lion's head, lotus root starch and osmanthus cake, pine nut fish, or milk. Think about it, our daily diet now has surpassed that of the emperor at that time!

Time travel still requires skills. If a foodie travels back to the Qin Dynasty, the biggest benefit should be that he can lose weight!

References

[1] Peng Wei "On Qin People's Diet"

[2] Ling Xue "Study on Qin People's Recipes"

[3] Chen Liang "Study on the Ethnic Types and Diets of Qin People from Eastern Gansu and Western Shaanxi from the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Spring and Autumn Period"