Tang Dynasty Crossing Guide: Chang'an and People's Life Manual

Chapter 6 How to be a qualified foodie in the Tang Dynasty (1)
Please be sure to participate in eating and drinking with public funds when you go to Asahi. There are many varieties and plenty of ingredients
Government canteen
Comrades, friends, foodies, gourmets... The Tang Chuan food group that many readers are looking forward to is now open!Sign up quickly!However, there is a consumption reminder that needs to be announced in advance, lest customers call us fraudulent, that is, the group fee of the food group is relatively expensive, more than three times that of the random time travel group...

Why do you ask?
Let’s not talk about how much extra material and labor costs it will cost to taste the top delicacies of the Tang Dynasty (you can inquire about the wages of famous chefs), let’s just talk about the choice of where to travel.

First of all, since it is a gourmet group, it must not be able to pass through and become the largest number of ordinary farmers in the Tang Dynasty.The Tang Dynasty was the same as the previous dynasties before the industrialized society. Even in its heyday, it was already very good for ordinary farmers to have three meals without worrying about food and clothing all year round. It was a bit far away from "food".You traveled all the way back with great difficulty, and you ate millet and dried rice with pickles every day, so it’s no wonder you didn’t get anxious with us.

Secondly, even if you become a rich man, or even a leader, you have to pay attention to where you land.The territory of the Tang Dynasty is vast. If you accidentally become a nomadic patriarch next to Lake Baikal, eating dried mutton every now and then, or even more tragically, you end up on the Korean Peninsula during the reign of Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty. On the case, there are only kimchi, kimchi, kimchi...

In the end, do you think that you will be able to enjoy the best food when you fall into the city of Chang'an and become the top royals and nobles in the country?That's wrong, those high-ranking officials who are extravagant, desperate and vicious are just like the nouveau riche who feast on preserved abalone and shark's fin in luxury hotels all day long, they can't eat any really delicious good things.

To give you an example, the Zhang brothers, the male favorite of Empress Wu, invented a food cooking method that they thought was brilliant, that is, to lock live ducks and geese in a large iron cage, light a fire in the cage, and put Copper basins for sauces.The ducks and geese couldn't stand the fire, so they went to drink the sauce, ran back and forth, and continued in this state until they were roasted and scorched, and their fur fell off, so they were ready to eat. ①Do you think this stuff will be delicious?
So to enjoy the real Tang Dynasty food, we must travel to Luoyang, Chang'an to be a middle-level and senior official from a wealthy family, or travel to Yangzhou, Chengdu to be a wealthy businessman from a wealthy family for generations. These two kinds of people have the best chance to satisfy our appetite Desired.For the first order of the group, let's choose the Chang'an Guiguan route first, and get ready to set sail.

The crossing is successful, the east is white, you open your eyes on the bed at home, the servants come to serve you, and a new day begins.

①The allusion comes from Zhang's "Chao Ye Qi Zai": "It is easy to make a big iron cage, put geese and ducks in it, take a charcoal fire in it, store five-flavored juice in a copper basin, goose and duck walk around the fire, drink juice when thirsty, the fire is painful Immediately return, the outside and inside are cooked, the hair has fallen off, and the meat is red and dead."

The first thing on my mind when I wake up: What's for breakfast this morning? (A little promising, okay?)

The servant asked, is the gentleman eating at home or going out?If you eat at home, you don’t have much time to cook slowly in the early morning, and there are fewer food choices, usually you just eat hoto or porridge.

Porridge, of course you know what it is, so I won't go into details.Hoto sounds quite fresh, would you like to try it?
With a shout, the servant quickly brought a bowl of steaming food on a wooden plate and put it on the dining table.After you finish washing up, go over and kneel down, sit down and take a closer look. In the thick soup filled with white porcelain bowls, there are some soft dough pieces the size of your thumb floating up and down.

It turns out that Hoto is noodle soup!This kind of food in the Tang Dynasty is also called soup cake, suo cake, water glutinous rice cake, and Butuo food, which is more like what modern northerners call cat ears.The production method is also very similar. After the water in the pot is boiled, use your fingers to move the dough down, and remove a thumb-wide, two-inch long, extremely thin piece at a time, and throw it into the water to cook.Or you can pull it into chopstick-shaped, one-foot-long noodles and cook them, which is close to thick leek leaf soup noodles.

Boiled noodles in white water are too unpalatable, and some auxiliary seasonings need to be added to it.What to put?It depends on your personal preferences. According to the records left by the people of the Tang Dynasty, there are Yangchun noodles with lard and green onion, parent-child noodles with chicken and eggs, and duck, mutton, ginger sauce, and so on. Dogwood's...

Although this noodle soup is not unpalatable, but you are a big man in the north, you are still willing to choke on some dry food to be full, otherwise it is not considered a meal at all?Sigh, you said it earlier, it was convenient and trouble-free for us to go out to eat, and it saved time. You have to go to the government office to work after eating today, so you can't be late, otherwise you will be spanked...

Sorry, KFC doesn't have the six-yuan breakfast, nor does McDonald's hamburger coffee. (It took so much effort to wear and eat these in the Tang Dynasty, what kind of food do the breakfast shops in the Tang Dynasty provide?That's quite a lot, let's just pick the most popular ones.

You put on your clothes first, ride your horse, and go out with your entourage.At this time, the sky is still gray, and the door of the Lifang where you live has not yet been opened, but several breakfast shops next to the Fangmen have already lit up the lights and started business.Do you want an exotic breakfast?The one over there, the master who works at the door has a high nose, deep eyes, and a full beard. It's a pastry shop.

Go over and have a look, it turns out to be the same as the sesame biscuits we eat now.Make a cake base from the white flour, apply oil, sprinkle some sesame seeds, put it in the oven and bake it until it is cooked. It tastes fragrant and crisp when it comes out of the oven, and it is blowing in the wind. Eat it while it is hot!If you live in Fuxingfang, you will have a lot of food. The Hubing in Fuxingfang is famous in Beijing. Comrade Bai Letian (Bai Juyi) once imitated his products.

You think the pancakes are too greasy, and you want something light in the morning?Yes, there is a shop over there that sells steamed cakes.The steamed cakes mentioned by people in the Tang Dynasty include the steamed buns, steamed buns, flower rolls, siu mai, steamed dumplings, etc. that we talk about in modern times. Anyway, they are all fermented dough, which may be filled with various fillings, and steamed by steaming in the basket.

If there is a light taste, there will be a heavy taste. You think the mustard oil is too big, but the guest over there thinks the mustard is bland and tasteless!It doesn't matter, we have a complete range of colors and varieties, and there are also more greasy pancakes, that is "pancakes".

It's not the kind of pancakes that fellow villagers in Tianjin use to spread sauce on fried dough sticks and wrap them in crispy pancakes.The pancakes mentioned here are more like deep-fried big balls. Mixed vegetables and noodles are kneaded into a ball and fried in an oil pan. Take them out and let them cool and put them in the palm of your hand.This food can be eaten for breakfast, but is more popular as a late-night snack.

Are you worried that this stall owner is frying pancakes with waste oil?I really can't do anything about it, where do you tell me to find law enforcement officers from the Food and Drug Administration to check it.No, this is not peanut oil (peanuts were introduced to my country from the Americas only in the Ming Dynasty), nor is it olive oil, nor is it arowana blended oil.Otherwise, you can wear it back and forget it...

Most of the oil eaten by people in the Tang Dynasty was animal fat and oil refined from fatty pork, and mutton also produced some oil.The plants used for oil refining are mainly soybeans and flax, and there are also pockmarks, red and blue, etc.

Alright, eat up the pile of food you bought, we’re going to work—you’d better eat it in the store, if you take it out and eat it on the street, if the censor sees it, he will think you are “disgraceful” "Official silence", once you sue, you might lose your official position.

After swallowing breakfast, what are you going to have for lunch? —I said you are too hungry, right?Anyway, I have to go to work for half a day first, and then I want to eat lunch.Who told you that you can eat and not work in the food travel group?

What's more, where you go to work this morning also has a lot to do with the place and content of your lunch.

To put it simply, as long as you are an official of the ninth rank or above, then on weekdays, the lunch at noon is a public treat, you can, and you must corrupt public funds with your colleagues.However, for the officials in the capital, there is a difference between this working meal, which is "eat in the corridor of Chaosanri" and "eat in the kitchen of non-Chaosanri public kitchen".

To visit the sun, that is, to enter the palace to meet the emperor, everyone understands, right?The Tang Dynasty stipulated that officials below the third rank (not including the third rank) would go to court on the first and fifth days of each month, that is, if the person you crossed over is a seventh-rank official, then the first, fifth, eleventh, and Fifteen, 21, 25 to go up.

What if it is a senior official of the third rank (including the third rank)?That is to go to the court on the first, fifth, and ninth of every month.In addition, there is a group of unlucky people... Cough, there is a group of officials with relatively important positions. In theory, they have to enter the palace to see the emperor every day. Yuanwailang, Dr. Taichang", they are called "Chang Shenguan".

Well, today is your pilgrimage day.As for you, you'd better get up and get dressed at three o'clock in the middle of the night.why?Because according to the regulations, you have to enter the gate of the palace at 05:30 in the morning, otherwise you will be late.If you are late for the court, the consequences will be very serious.

Do you know how big Chang'an City is?If your family is rich and powerful, and you bought a house in a workshop not too far from the imperial palace, it would be better. Get up at three or four o’clock, get dressed, eat and go out. When the morning drum beats, the gate of the workshop will open. , and hurried to the palace.If it’s not raining or snowing, and it’s not too dark, you can probably run to the palace gate on time, sign up for the fish test ① and clock in for work.

Standing in the court hall all morning, listening to the leaders at all levels and departments chatting about things, and finally waiting until the court ends at noon, you must be tired, hungry, dizzy, and just want to lie down.

The system of the Tang Dynasty showed a more humane side at this time. Beginning from the reign of Taizong Zhenguan, after each court meeting, the public officials would let the officials of the previous court sit and have a meal under the eaves and verandas of the palace. The meal is called "corridor food".

What is there to eat in "Corridor Food"?Alas, meals prepared with public funds and eaten in the open air should be the standard of four dishes and one soup. It won’t be so simple and shabby as to embarrass the emperor’s old man, but don’t expect extravagant delicacies from mountains and seas.Anyway, the meat ration of the officers is three sheep per day, so the amount of mutton distributed to each person's mouth should not be too much.

However, in addition to the daily supply, there are heatstroke prevention meals in summer, fire meals in winter, and extra meals in various festivals.

If you go to court during the three or nine days when the dripping water turns into ice, and then sit and eat in the semi-open air under the corridor where the northwest wind blows, the Guanglu Temple in charge of food will serve you a bowl of bubbling as usual The hot soup cakes are actually the same type of food as the Hoto you eat in the morning, which can be regarded as a high-end work meal.In addition, the extra meal in winter is millet, which should also be a kind of meat soup with yellow rice, which should be eaten while it is hot.

① Fish Talisman, the identity certificate carried by officials in the Tang Dynasty, is usually cast in metal and in the shape of a fish, and is allowed to enter the palace only after being checked by the guards.

② Corridor, here refers to the corridor passage outside the house wall.

If you go to court in the scorching summer and eat "corridor food", you will be served cold noodles and porridge that have been pulled in cold water, and some chestnuts, peaches, pears, pomegranates, persimmons, etc. will be served.

On special festivals, such as the Cold Food Festival, sweet rice porridge will be given; pancakes will be given on the seventh day of the first lunar month (people’s day) and the third day of March; ; Cake cakes on July [-]th; cakes on the Double Ninth Festival on September [-]th; yellow rice soup on October [-]st... These are added in addition to the daily meals, which are considered extra benefits. You honestly follow your colleagues Thank you for your grace.

①拉 (bá), refers to putting something in cold water or ice to make it cold.

② Mi is an ancient grain similar to millet and yellow rice. It is not sticky. The cake made of this grain is called mi cake.

For work meals like this eating environment, whether the food is good or not comes second.Some people pay more attention to the honor and political significance of it, and feel that it is too honorable to have a meal under the eyes of the emperor. (Please, the emperor has left long ago. Do you think people will sit inside and watch you eat and drool? They are also hungry!) Zhang Ji who wrote "I hate to meet you when you are not married" once wrote for the Cold Food Festival. "Corridor Food" is a poem:
The palace building is full of auspiciousness in the morning light, and colorful fish and dragons are thick all around.

The royal kitchen in the corridor distributes cold food, and the fragrant horses in front of the hall chase flying balls.

Thousands of officials are drunk and still teach to sit, and all the plays are still on.

Congratulations to Bai En, who came out at night, and Jin Wu dared not ask the reason. ①
Guest, please don't run around, don't be so excited.This work meal is really not easy to eat, because the etiquette requirements for eating are very strict. If you sit in the wrong seat, go in the wrong direction, or meet an acquaintance and make a joke, you may be impeached by the censor. If you make a mistake, you will be fined for one month's salary .

① From Zhang Ji's "Two Poems of Cold Food Inner Banquet" (Part [-])

You sit down here on this food table first, and I will tell you a real story.It is said that in a certain year, Yan Shou, the prime minister of the imperial court, participated in the "corridor eating" after retiring from the imperial court, and the emperor sent eunuch Ma Jiangchao to give cherries to the officials.When Yan Shou was a Jiedu envoy outside Beijing, he knew Ma Jiangchao. When they met and talked, his mind was confused.This violation of etiquette was considered a catastrophe. On the same day, Yushitai was impeached, Yan Shou and Ma Jiangchao were both punished, Ma Jiangchao was demoted, Yan Shou was dismissed from office, and demoted to other officials. ①
Because of the strict etiquette requirements, the government in the late Tang Dynasty became poorer and poorer, and the food of "porch eating" became more and more inferior. Some officials in the court found various excuses to sneak away halfway, and would rather go out to eat by themselves than suffer from this crime. up.Even the imperial court issued a special edict, rigidly stipulating that courtiers must participate in eating and drinking with public funds at noon.

The above is about the situation of "eating under the porch" during the visit to the court. On the days when you are not going to the court and you are working in the office, will the public manage the meals?

Of course, let’s take a look at the civil servant canteen of the Tang Dynasty government together.

①The allusion comes from Biography No.90 of "Old Tang Book"

According to the unbreakable rules that our country has pursued since ancient times, the public manages the food, the stove is big and the stove is small, and there are many dishes and few dishes, which must be provided according to the administrative level.If you want to eat the highest-level canteen meals, then please work hard, get promoted quickly, and reach the level of the prime minister as soon as possible, and then you can eat in the "Zhengshitang" - this is what most people in the Tang Dynasty wanted lifelong dream.

What?You say I lied to you?You have searched the roster of officials in the Tang Dynasty, and there is no official title called "Prime Minister"?
It is true that the Tang Dynasty did not have the official position of prime minister, but everyone from the emperor to the peasants often talked about the prime minister, and they all knew that this official was the highest and largest official who assisted the emperor in handling state affairs.

The Tang Dynasty implemented the system of group ministers, that is, more than one senior official in the three provinces can be recognized as equivalent to a prime minister by being awarded the title of "Tongzhongshumenxia Sanpin", enter the political affairs hall to participate in state affairs, and eat To the most exquisite and high-end small stove rice.

Where is the political hall?Basically, this is an office hall for the prime ministers to use together. It is located in the palace, close to the hall of the court and the emperor's office.If you still don’t understand, you can refer to the positional relationship between the Hall of Mental Cultivation and the Military Aircraft Office in the Forbidden City in Beijing. Of course, the prime ministers of the Tang Dynasty have much more power than the military ministers of the Qing Dynasty, and their nature is completely different.

As for you, when you are 60 or [-] years old, you may one day pay homage to the prime minister and enter the political affairs hall.Together with the other prime ministers, they each sat behind their desks, chatting and discussing some political issues. After working until noon, a handyman outside reported: "Everyone, the emperor has given you food."

At this time, a handyman from the imperial kitchen came in carrying a food box.You, the new prime minister, are quite excited, but when you look at your colleagues, they all seem to be familiar with it.Of course Shane is still required.It turns out that the emperor rewarded the "cooks" of the prime ministers with the food made in his imperial dining room every now and then. Short-handed but soft-mouthed, you eat my food and turn a blind eye to my private life such as hunting and picking up girls, so let's take care of it. (A prime minister surnamed Wei: You are dreaming!)

So let's have dinner!There is no need to change rooms, just in the hall of Zhengshitang, there are servants who set up food tables, put seats, and carry water to serve the prime ministers to wash their hands. Put it on the case.

After everything is arranged, Zhang Xianggong invites you, Mr. Li Ge goes first, and Wang Shangshu does not need to be overly modest... Everyone sits down in the order they have agreed to, raise their chopsticks to start the meal, and chat while eating.

The atmosphere of this lunch in the office is much more relaxed and harmonious than the "corridor dining".The imperial court not only allowed, but also encouraged the prime ministers to talk about work while eating.If everyone has food in their stomachs, they will feel better, and many difficult matters will be solved by eating and drinking.If you only eat for a long time and don't talk about work or work, you will be ridiculed by others as "the prime minister with food", which means similar to a vegetarian meal with a corpse.

Even if you don't talk about government affairs, you can talk about the customs, anecdotes and anecdotes of your hometown during meals, which will help increase your knowledge and promote your relationship.Of course, it's best not to bring the political affairs hall to talk about your fragrant experience at the little lady's house in Pingkangfang last night.

(End of this chapter)