All this is a problem for me. It was remoteness that aroused my curiosity.
So when I visited the Forbidden City, I just glanced at the three halls and so on, just looking for two small places: the royal kitchen and the toilet. What will it be like? Is it also a fine decoration? What I am interested in is: how can the emperor get rid of the halo on his head and restore the instinct of mortals after he comes down from the dragon chair and the clouds above thousands of people? Although he pretends to be the real dragon emperor, he is not a fairy after all, but he also wants to eat and drink. No different from ordinary people. He pretends to be dignified and pretentious, and he can't avoid the closest aspect of his personal life.
The kitchen in Qing Palace should be called Imperial Chef. The person who cooks for the emperor must be a first-class chef, which belongs to the "imperial use". There are two occupations in the world that are most afraid of being used by the emperor. One is a scholar and the other is a cook. Court poets can only sing praises, and cooks at the feet of the emperor can only change their tricks to please their masters. And it must be trembling. I am afraid that putting too much or too little salt (etc.) will spoil the emperor's appetite and may even lead to death. This makes it impossible for them to relax absolutely. Art and cooking must be relaxed to be creative and effective. Man-Han banquet belongs to the "masterpiece" of court food in Qing Dynasty. It is said that "its grand and formal etiquette, the expensive and exquisite materials and the variety of dishes are unparalleled at banquets at home and abroad." Tan Qian's "Journey to the North" describes its origin: "The guest retreats from one seat to another, and the overlap is expensive ... The king of England can enjoy a banquet here, which can be 200 seats." Eat for three days and nights. Those chefs are really hard! They should try to avoid the similarity of dishes. Just like writing a metrical poem, it must rhyme and be neat, and the words cannot be repeated. Isn't this making people dance in chains?
The rest of my life is late, and the Manchu-Han banquet has never been tasted. But I think that's all. In the end, I'm afraid both chefs and diners are mechanical. There will be different degrees of "aesthetic fatigue". Once cooking becomes thorough labor, there is no fun. It actually needs inspiration, even a "stroke of genius". In my imagination, the style of Manchu-Han banquet is equivalent to decadent Han Fu, which is a kind of lame and artificial parallel prose, long sentences and gorgeous rhetoric in vain, but lacks soul. Too greasy will turn people off.
As can be seen from the Manchu-Han banquet, the royal family of the Qing Empire liked to show off in food, even to the extent of extravagance and waste. Typical sitting in an empty seat. Very similar to the fate of this dynasty.
Since the Northern Qi Dynasty in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Guanglu Temple has been in charge of royal meals, and has jurisdiction over departments such as high officials, food storage, and Zhangqing (wine). This system has been inherited from the Tang and Song Dynasties to the Ming Dynasty. "In the Qing Dynasty, Guanglu Temple became a foreign court department, only responsible for sacrificial food. Although the institution is still large, it has become a cold institution due to limited funds. The emperor's meals and drinks are the responsibility of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The teahouse, teahouse, dining room outside, dining room inside, dining room outside, wine and vinegar room and grain warehouse under the Ministry of Internal Affairs are organized in an orderly manner, with a large number of personnel and a clear division of labor. There are meat bureau, vegetarian bureau, dim sum bureau, entertainment bureau, oven hanging bureau, secretarial office and other departments under the restaurant, as well as countless directors (chief chef), deputy directors (deputy chief chef), directors (chefs), kitchen services and Sura (handyman). " This is what Mr. Li Dengnian, the author of China Ancient Banquet Map, told me in his natural residence hotel. Hearing this, I sighed deeply: Alas, in order to take care of the emperor's mouth, a huge administrative organization had to be established-this shows the corruption in China's feudal society.
During the reign of Emperor Qianlong, the Imperial Dining Hall "specializes in dining for emperors, offering sacrifices in various palaces, feasting in season, and sitting with attendants." In the "establishment", there are three eunuchs in charge, ten eunuchs in charge, hundreds of eunuchs, and thousands of peripheral personnel (kitchen service and handyman). In addition, there are the Empress Dowager, Empress Dowager, Imperial concubine, etc. I also set up my own kitchen, which is a private kitchen. For example, Cixi's private cuisine is called Western Restaurant. "Sending many skilled kitchen services should be poor, and its supervision is especially worse than that of the royal kitchen. When Cixi was eating, only a few hundred little eunuchs were holding lunch boxes. It is conceivable that there was ostentation and extravagance in those days. In order to cater to Cixi's hobby, the chefs in western restaurants make great efforts to cook all kinds of delicious food. According to reports, chefs in western restaurants were able to cook more than 400 kinds of snacks and more than 4,000 kinds of dishes, which were various. When Cixi is happy, she often gives names to some dishes. " (Quoted from Lv Yingfan's Notes on Drinking Anecdotes in Qing Dynasty) Cixi's dinner was as grand as a military parade, enough for eunuchs (honor guard? ) practice for a while.
Looking up the archives of the Qing Palace Department, I found a series of food lists of emperors, which made people "dizzy". Festive festivals are naturally delicious, and even the daily breakfast is not willing to make up. Take the breakfast menu in Qianlong as an example (it is the simplest): one for bird's nest, one for red and white duck, one for Nanxian hot pot, one for wine stew and tofu stew, one for steamed duck, one for pork and deer tail, one for bamboo rolls, four for Shu Fei, Ying Fei, Yufei and Jincai, two for cakes, and one for enamel sunflower boxes and silver enamel. There are also four tables of extra food: No.2 yellow bowl with four dishes, one product of shredded mutton, eight products of milk, and one table of * * * thirteen products; A table with fifteen kinds of products; A table with eight plates of meat; Mutton has two sides and one table. This is just the emperor's breakfast (light meal), with 53 kinds of dishes. Dinner, and increased to seventy-five. As for holidays, such as New Year's Eve, there are more than 120 dishes on the lunch list in Gan Long. What's it like to provide a person with food and drink? How big is the emperor's mouth and stomach? It is estimated that many dishes are just chopsticks to taste. There are also some purely for decoration, which are used to "feed" the emperor's eyes. In recent years, the drama of the Qing Dynasty has been very popular. Every time the emperors and princes are drinking, they can only put a few pairs of chopsticks symbolically, and the camera flashes by. Can't pursue realistic effects. On the one hand, we can't afford the expenses, on the other hand, it also shows that contemporary people have a little knowledge of the palace banquet, or even can't imagine it at all. Therefore, in the drama of the Qing Dynasty, the real food is absent.
Alas, even if we can find the queen's food list, we can't find a chef who can "write a paper" on this basis. Some court dishes were lost like this.
The emperor not only pays attention to his meals, but also likes to entertain guests. A thousand banquets are quite representative. In the history of banquets in China, there is a record of "the best in the world": "The palace banquets hosted by the Qing emperor for thousands of old people all over the country are rare in the history of ancient banquets because of the long attendance time and the fact that the emperor personally presided over them. The participants of the Millennium Banquet were all over the country, all of whom were personally determined by the emperor, and the relevant government offices set out in advance according to the distance of the road. Far away, I even have to travel to Beijing two months in advance. " (Li Dengnian) The founder of the Millennium Banquet was Kangxi. On his sixtieth birthday, he wanted to have fun with the people. In order to show his concern for many "veteran cadres", he hosted two banquets in three days, and nearly 3,000 people over 65 were invited. Nine years later, a banquet was held for thousands of people, and more than a thousand old people were seated in two groups: Manchu and Han. It's really hard to see the sun, even though it's brilliant.
Kangxi's pioneering work was deliberately imitated by Qianlong. In the first month of the fiftieth year of Qianlong, a banquet was held in the palace to celebrate the seventieth birthday. In addition to the royal banquet in front of the throne, * * * attended 800 tables and 3000 old people attended. There are two kinds: first class and second class. The first category is: two hot pots, a pork slice, a roe deer mutton slice, a plate of roast venison with deer tail, a plate of roe deer mutton black fork, four bowls of meat dishes, a plate of steamed longevity dishes, a plate of oven longevity dishes, two snail boxes of side dishes, two ebony tendons and shredded pork rice. The second category is slightly inferior.
After the Manchu-Han banquet, there is also the all-sheep banquet, which is the highest-level banquet specially held for Islamic guests. "The menu arrangement and serving order of the all-sheep banquet are carried out with reference to the Manchu-Han banquet, but the banquet hall requires prominent Islamic characteristics, and the tablecloth is sewn with the word' halal' in blue or white cloth." Li Dengnian can cook a series of special dishes with strange names and meaningful tastes from various parts of sheep, such as brain, ears, nose, tongue, lips, cheeks, eyes, eyelids and even heart, stomach, intestine, waist and tail blood.
Empress dowager cixi, who spent money like water, pushed the "food culture" of the Qing palace to the extreme. She likes to watch a play while eating. Changchun Palace, Ningshou Palace, Summer Palace, etc. There are seven or eight stages. In addition to the western restaurant, there is also a team dedicated to acting for Lafayette, which can be described as one-stop service. In the 10th year of Guangxu (1884), Cixi celebrated her 50th birthday. During the celebration, she ordered meals in Tihetang, with more than 100 kinds every day. "There are fifty or sixty kinds of staple foods, twenty or thirty kinds of refreshments and more than one hundred and twenty kinds of dishes. Consume 500 Jin of pork and mutton every day, 100 chickens and ducks. A day's meal cost sixty taels of silver. Just cooking, making refreshments and serving in the kitchen, we have to serve 450 people, and there are as many as 180 eunuchs and maids who serve her every day. " (Zhang Yanan) She was really offered as an ancestor.
Empress Dowager Cixi often accepts the tribute of dignitaries. For example, in the 20th year of Guangxu (1894), on the 60th birthday of this year, Duke Kong Lingyi (grandson of the seventy-sixth generation of Confucius) and his wife went to Beijing to pay homage, and their mother Shi Peng and his wife Dow each paid tribute to Cixi with a watch worth 242 taels of silver. You can't understand its color, smell and taste. You might as well look at this menu.
Two kinds of seaweed: duck with eight immortals and boiled carp. Four dishes in the middle bowl: steamed tremella, gourd wings, longevity duck soup and braised fish bones. Four kinds of big bowl dishes: bird's nest, golden and silver duck slices, bird's nest, red and white shredded duck, bird's nest, three fresh shredded duck, bird's nest and mushroom fat chicken. Four kinds of Huai bowl dishes: fried fish fillet, stewed duck loin, stewed shrimp and shredded chicken. Six dishes: sweet-scented osmanthus wings, fried water bamboo, fried meat with leek, cooked fresh shrimp, golden leg with honey sauce and fried cucumber sauce. Two products: hanging pigs and hanging ducks. Two tables: four steamed dishes, four oven dishes, four pig dishes and four sheep dishes. Bobo's four major products: Shouzi Yougao, Shouzi Osmanthus Jelly, Bai Shou Peaches and Ruyi Juan. Bird's nest eight immortals soup. Noodles with shredded chicken.
It is said that this is just a brunch. Let people see it, even if they don't eat it, they are still in a hurry.
The food in the Qing palace is vast, and now there is only an armchair strategist. We didn't have a chance to enjoy it, so we read more leftover court menus and regarded food as American literature, which is also an indirect addiction. This is the "secret history" in the Secret History of Qing Palace.
I also looked up a series of paintings describing the diet in the Qing Dynasty, such as Fu Cui Gong Xiao Yan and Zi Guang Ge Ye Yan. On the screen, eunuchs are either setting the wine table or carrying cold dishes and cooking like folk shopkeepers, shuttling between carved beams and painted buildings. In short, they are busy. Compared with the menu, these paintings are more realistic and vividly show the lively scene that is infinitely far away from us. I think it was written by a court painter. Otherwise, who dares to "peek" and "sneak shot" the emperor's eating so boldly? Puyi, the last emperor, revealed his breakfast menu in March of the first half of my life. At that time, he had abdicated, but he still maintained the eating and drinking habits of the court and luxury class:
Mushroom fat chicken, three fresh ducks, shredded chicken, stewed meat, stewed belly and lungs, stewed cabbage with meat slices, braised mutton, stewed spinach and tofu with mutton, stewed cabbage with cherry meat and yam, sliced radish with mutton, fried sea cucumber with duck strips, diced duck with Gexian rice, roasted arrowhead, stewed magnolia slices with meat slices and stewed shredded mutton.
-lost Jiangshan, he still has the mood to eat and drink? Perhaps, for this embarrassed emperor, eating is purely a ceremony. Show it to others and show it to yourself. It is a kind of self-consolation: Oh, the "quality of life" has not declined!
The food in the Qing Palace finally ended here in Puyi.
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