What did the imperial palaces eat during the Spring Festival?

Since ancient times, people have been looking forward to the New Year in China. One of the reasons is that food can be improved on the occasion of the New Year in China. For the ruling class, daily luxuries and Chinese New Year meals are also very expensive, but what is more important is the sense of ceremony in the court. Then let Lao Huang Li introduce to you what the palaces of the past dynasties ate for the New Year.

Not all ancient people thought the Spring Festival was the most serious time of the year. For example, in the Song Dynasty, there were many festivals, and the birthday of the son of heaven was also celebrated with dinner. There are so-called three festivals in Qing dynasty, namely, Chinese New Year, May Festival and August Festival. In addition, the imperial court usually eats well, unlike ordinary people, who have an appetite and eat a big meal on New Year's Eve. Therefore, the sense of ceremony is much more important than the taste at the palace New Year's Eve.

Before the British introduced turkeys, they ate wild boar at Christmas, as did Tang Xuanzong in China: the wild boar was cooked and dried, sliced and mixed with rice, mixed with Cornus officinalis and salt, dried and steamed. At first glance, it seems strange that wild boar has dogwood blindly. After all, the role of Cornus officinalis is to kill insects and disinfect, dispel cold and wind, and can be used as medicine or cooking. Isn't that weird?

However, this is the logic of our ancient people: Chinese New Year should focus on dispelling wind and cold and avoiding evil spirits. Therefore, we should not only eat vegetables, but also drink Chinese prickly ash and cypress leaf wine-wine soaked with Chinese prickly ash and cypress leaf. When Chu people offered sacrifices to immortals, they used Chili wine. In the Han Dynasty, people believed that pepper could make people live longer and cypress trees were evergreen. Drinking this kind of thing will naturally lead to a long life.

During the Spring Festival between Tang and Song Dynasties, the imperial court also drank Tu Su wine. Needless to ask, it is also a good thing to warm yang, dispel wind and cold, and avoid evil spirits. Wang Anshi said that "firecrackers are removed in one year, and the spring breeze warms Tu Su". The words "Spring Breeze in send warm" show that since ancient times, people like to eat cold and warm food in winter.

During the Han, Wei and Six Dynasties, the court ate five spices during the Spring Festival. Spiced, garlic, small calculation, leek, mustard, coriander also. Before Columbus discovered the new world and peppers spread all over the world, Asians basically ate these things. Sun Simiao's theory is: Eating five spices in the first month can open the five internal organs and dispel the summer heat.

Cixi Lafayette in the Qing Dynasty said that she was extravagant and wasteful, but in fact, her old man's house spent a lot of money over the years, but the essence was insufficient. Chinese New Year dinner, or in Ningshou Palace, or set up three tables in the topic and hall. Lafayette sits at the middle table, the emperor sits at the east table and the queen sits at the west table. The emperor holds a pot to pour wine, the queen holds a lamp to bless the queen mother, and Lafayette drinks a glass of wine three times. This is a precious body.

If Lafayette really eats it, the first most common dish is bird's nest, which is longer than Nanshan, more auspicious and better looking, but not necessarily delicious. In fact, most auspicious dishes are on chickens and ducks, such as the word "shou" in bird's nest, red and white shredded duck; Bird's nest "year" word, three fresh fat chicken; Bird's nest "Ru" word, Eight Immortals Duck; Bird's nest "Italy" word, ten (even) silk golden pheasant.

The second category is typical dishes, which are quite satisfactory-think about it from another angle: when serving food in the imperial kitchen, most people seek a "golden mean". Good supervisors in the Qing Dynasty thought very clearly: What are the rare seasonal foods? The son of heaven eats well, and if he wants it every day, he can't live in the imperial dining hall.

The third category is tribute dishes, such as bear's paw, deer breast and lobster, which are rare and authentic. Unfortunately, no matter how delicious it is, the queen mother used to eat three chopsticks per plate, so she withdrew it.

Finally, according to Manchu custom, you must eat a boiled cake-that is, boiled jiaozi. But even making cakes has a pattern: there are ingots in the cake, and whoever eats them will be happier and live longer in the coming year. Needless to ask, in the end, Lafayette was carefully arranged to eat, so everyone pretended to be surprised and happy, and just wanted to be happy together.