Gan Long is busy? Apart from painting and writing poems, I have never lost in eating!

Gan Long is busy? Apart from painting and writing poems, I have never lost in eating! Interested readers can follow me to have a look.

Busy, he is not only a busy emperor, but also an emperor with many "hobbies".

He likes to seal the inscriptions of famous painters and calligraphers of past dynasties. According to incomplete statistics, there are more than 1000 seals of Emperor Qianlong. He also likes to write poems and draw pictures. According to incomplete statistics, Emperor Qianlong painted more than 1400 paintings and wrote more than 40,000 poems in his life.

▲ "Portrait of Emperor Qianlong" axis, collected by the Palace Museum in Qing Dynasty.

Among the voluminous poems, there are many very vivid poems. For example, there is a poem called cucumber: "The best food is the most beautiful, and the new products in February are not necessarily evaluated. The frame fence is biased, and the scenery of Tianjia is true. "

It can be seen that Qianlong is different from the general "people who eat melons" and is still an emperor who loves to eat and is very particular about eating.

Is Emperor Qianlong a foodie?

At least relative to his father Yong Zhengdi, he is.

Yongzheng advocated frugality and thrift, and didn't care about the luxurious diet in the court.

During the Qianlong period, Qianlong not only expanded the Imperial Tea Restaurant, but also loved the exquisite Suzhou cuisine. To this end, he often tasted Suzhou woven official dishes during several southern tours, and even brought the official chef back to the palace directly during the fourth southern tour.

▲ "Back to the Forbidden City" Qianlong South Tour, painted by Xu Yang.

The imperial chef in the palace has been handed down from generation to generation, and outsiders can't just join the job. The chef's name is Zhang Dongguan, who was personally selected by Qianlong to enter the palace, which proves that Qianlong's choice is not wrong. This chef not only brought innovation to the imperial cuisine of the Qing Dynasty, but also pushed Chinese cuisine to a new height.

Zhang Dongguan, who officially became a chef, began to improve the imperial cuisine of the Qing Dynasty on the basis of Su cuisine. With his exquisite craftsmanship, he added many new dishes to the table of Emperor Qianlong, which was deeply loved by Emperor Qianlong.

From thirty years of Qianlong (1765) to forty-nine years of Qianlong (1784), Zhang Dongguan worked as a chef for nineteen years. The first course of Emperor Qianlong's daily menu must be signed by Zhang Dongguan. What's more, Qianlong can judge whether a dish is cooked by Zhang Dongguan by tasting it, which shows that the emperor fully recognizes him.

"Food is the most important thing for the people" is also true for emperors. It doesn't have to be extremely luxurious, but it must be exquisite Only the right ingredients, the right time and meticulous techniques can extract a delicious meal, which is the unique realm of China's food culture.

Is Qianlong an emperor who loves to eat alone?

As an emperor, eating is not just a simple daily action.

"Li Yun" said: "The beginning of husband ceremony begins with diet." Since ancient times, etiquette and diet have been closely related in China.

Whether it is the daily diet of the queen or the large-scale banquet activities in the palace, it is a vivid embodiment of the ritual culture in the diet.

At the end of the year and the beginning of the year, the emperor had many ceremonial activities, and the banquet was the most important part. In addition to the Chinese New Year, the number and types of royal banquets held in the Qing Palace are more numerous and complicated than the previous generation.

▲ The Banquet Map of Wanshu Garden, written by Qing Qianlong Lang Shining, is in the Palace Museum.

Ganlong, in particular, is an emperor who likes "playing alone is not as good as playing with many people". The biggest banquet in the Qing Palace is the Thousand Banquets, which began in Kangxi and prevailed in Qianlong, but ceased to exist after Jiaqing. According to documents, in the fifty years of Qianlong (1785), a grand banquet was held in Gan Qing Palace, with as many as 3,000 people.

As early as the 26th year of Qianlong (176 1), Qianlong held a grand celebration banquet in Ziguangge in recognition of the Western Expeditionary Army that put down the rebellion in Junggar and Uighur. Participants included nobles, ministers of civil and military affairs, Mongolian leaders, soldiers of the Western Expedition, etc. 107. Yao, a court painter, gave a banquet in Ziguangge.

▲ "Ziguangge Ci Yan Tu" (partial), painted by Qing Qianlong and Yao, collected in the Palace Museum.

In fact, there are many kinds of imperial banquets of the emperor, which are roughly as follows: Yuan Di's enthronement banquet, the first three festivals of New Year's Day, the winter solstice and longevity festival (the emperor's birthday), the birthday of the empress dowager as the holy birthday banquet, the queen's birthday banquet, the emperor's wedding banquet, the big banquet, the reunion banquet, various festivals, the clan banquet, the family banquet, and the thousand banquets widely celebrated.

Within a year, there are many banquets, all of which are court food, delicious food and exquisite utensils.

Isn't beauty inferior to food?

The Palace Museum now has a large collection of tableware, all thanks to various banquets and celebrations in the Qing Dynasty.

Yuan Mei, a gourmet in Qing Dynasty, said in Notes on Food List and Garden Appliances: "As the old saying goes,' Good food is not as good as beautiful utensils'." Si Yu also. "The vessels used in the imperial palace of the Qing Dynasty are various and exquisite, all of which reveal the luxury and exquisiteness in the court.

▲ Li Qinghua wooden plate Mo Wen hollow beam food pick box in the Palace Museum.

Picking up boxes was quite popular in Ming and Qing Dynasties. There is a hollow box with mahogany plain pattern in the Forbidden City, which is engraved with the pattern of "ten thousand words don't end", meaning "harmony between heaven and earth, long life". The inner drawer is polygonal and round, and holds silverware, plates, bowls, chopsticks and other tableware respectively.

Good food must be beautiful. A Five Blessingg food container gift box introduced by Wenchuang in the Forbidden City was redesigned and manufactured on the basis of this exquisite Qing Dynasty food container.

The common modeling elements of the Forbidden City are selected in the modeling, and each piece has a very beautiful meaning.

In terms of material, the combination of black iron glaze and sheep fat white glaze makes the granularity and delicacy of clay perfectly integrated, making pottery thick and soft.

Putting it on the dining table can add a little interest, and it is also an elegant good thing that can improve the quality of life.

Food with exquisite utensils is not only the pursuit of food culture by Qing people a hundred years ago, but also what we live up to today.