Diet Of Ming Dynasty 500 Years Ago

500 years ago in 1514, the Zhengde ninth year of Zhu Houzhaos reigning in the Ming dynasty. Zhu Houzhao was the most naughty, banging trouble shooter in the Ming dynasty history. Under his leading, along with the economic development and commercial prosperity of Ming dynastys midium-term, the whole society began to advocate to eat, drink and having fun. The austerity in the early Ming dynasty had gone. Now lets go back to 500 years ago and take a look at what people eat, drink, and what are the differences of their diet and life compared with today.

The “Nanjing bustling scene” created in the Ming dynasty is a picture showed the vivid city life of the late Ming dynasty. It showed the bustling scene of Ming dynastys capital Nandu——Nanjing city and Qinhuai river reflecting all aspects of life then. On the 3.5 meters long scroll , there were about 100 stores and 1000 characters, detailed and vivid. The picture is known as the Qingming Festival of Ming Dynasty.

The tradition of

"vegetarian" for

the imperial family

It is said that the Ming dynasty's founding emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, only ate two meals a day, the main course was green vegetables and tofu, he eat meat only twice a month Thus the tradition of “vegetarian” for the imperial family was laid. The tradition lasted for over one hundred years. The dad of the emperor Zhengde——Ming Xiao Zong Zhu Youtang kept the tradition best, he was a vegetarian a third of all the year. He even used vegetarian diet as awarding the ministers banquet. Even on the days which were not a vegetarian, he also reduced the slaughter as much as possible. However, most emperors dont like such life. They struggled to break through the vegetarian tradition.

Zhu Yuanzhang had ruled that there must be tofu dishes on the dining table, mentioning the offsprings the thrift lifestyles. As the Ming Xian Zong Zhu Jianshen was in control, he still took tofu as main course, this tofu was not made from beans, but spent nearly one thousand birds brains, which looks like tofu, actually completely lost the original meaning of the dish. Ming Shi Zong Zhu Houcong was keen for fast dojo, he was really a vegetarian, but the vegetables must be mixed with meat juice to serum to his liking.

The gradually

thriving luxuries

The diet then was quite exquisite, "food, the finer, the better", we can find the evidence from the novels. Although the novel" Jin ping mei" told the stories in song dynasty, it reflected the city life in mid and late Ming dynasty. There is such a description about diet:

Firstly, four dishes of fruit, then four dishes of specialty: red Taizhou duck egg, curved king melon mixed with Liaodong gold shrimp, delicious fried burned bones, fat drying steam chicken. Then four bowls of dishes: steam duck, crystal hoof, white fried pork, quickly fried pig kidney. Finally the blue and white porcelain, the delicious hilsa herring just melt in the mouth.

These are just a regular lunch of a rich family. Every dish was complete, the cooking methods were diversified. You can estimate how luxury the banquet was.

American

new ingredient

not appeared yet

500 years ago, although the food type was various, there were some things you still couldnt eat. If you want to eat fried potato, green peppers and eggplants, sorry, there were no peppers or potatoes then. You can only have a braised eggplant. If you want to chew a sweet corn, sorry, the Ming people havent seen it. Its impossible if you want a refreshing cold tomatoes, for they are still in their own home!

Don't be surprised, this is the case. Corn, peanuts, tomatoes, peppers, these ingredients that are so common today can be introduced into China for another few decades. If waiting for another one hundred years, the squash, potatoes, sweet potatoes, string beans, pineapple, Lychee would also be placed on the table. Many smokers cannot leave the cigarette, its main raw materials of tobacco also landed in China at that time. The origin of all of these, is America, the other shore of the ocean

Good wine,

fine aggregates

500 years ago, people can drunk wine, fruit wine, flowers and grass valley wines ,animal wine and so on. Valley wine is grain liquor, some used millet and sorghum as raw materials, such as rice wine and Jinhua wine, becoming shochu after high temperature distillation; some usedbeans as raw materials, such as green beans and coix seed, creating bean wine and job wine. Fruit wine was brewed with various fruits as raw materials, it had low degree had thick fruit flavour, usually drunk as a diversion in peace. Herbal wine were mixed by wine, sugar,fragrant grass or herbal mixtures, such as chrysanthemum wine. Animal wine were made by mixing meat and other materials, for instance, the lamb wine were brewed with glutinous rice and lamb.