The first emperor in China to eat chocolate, after reading the 900 word description, only 3 words we

Mondo Culture Updated on 2024-01-30

China has a long history of more than 5,000 years, and the sons and daughters of China are also known for their hard work, kindness and intelligence. As early as thousands of years ago, the Chinese civilization began to write a glorious history for the world's civilization. Many inventions, such as the compass and papermaking, are the great contributions made by the sons and daughters of China to the progress of the world. However, there are also some new things that have been introduced to our country in Western countries, and later they have become common things in China, such as chocolate. Nowadays, chocolate is so common for everyone that you can buy it at any store. But a few hundred years ago, chocolate was not an ordinary thing, at least for China.

Today, let's take a look at the history of chocolate. Look at the first emperor in China to eat chocolate, and after reading the 900-word description, he only said 3 words.

As early as hundreds of years ago, ancient China was already actively dealing with other countries in the world, and Marco Polo's tour of China is the most typical example. Later, the Qing Dynasty was established, especially after Kangxi ascended the throne, China showed a trend of "learning from the West to the East". Kangxi, the emperor, likes to learn very much, especially for new things, so he often deals with foreigners, and because of this, he has come into contact with a lot of foreign things. In 1706, a Roman missionary named Duo Luo came to China, bringing with him chocolate, which was just emerging from the West.

Kangxi was originally very fond of new things, and now as soon as he heard that the foreign gadgets brought from Rome came to his senses, he sent He Shiheng, a scholar of Wuyingdian University, to receive him. Rather than a philanthropist but a missionary, he came to the Qing Dynasty with the intention of preaching, but he understood that in order to preach, he needed to have good relations with the upper echelons of the imperial court. So Duo sent 150 chocolates directly. These 150 chocolates were a rarity at the time, so they were a big gift. Although he was a university scholar, he did not know much about chocolate, so he asked the Western doctor and the Portuguese missionaries about chocolate.

Later, He Shiheng came to the conclusion that chocolate is warm but bitter, and it needs to be sweetened and mixed with water to taste good. In this way, He Shiheng wrote a 900-word manual on how to eat chocolate and presented it to the emperor. Kangxi only approved 3 words after reading the 900-word manual: "Got it." ”Then Emperor Kangxi really ate it with water and sugar according to the method of the instructions. But after drinking it, he still felt that the taste was not good, and it was not even as good as the Chinese Longjing tea. In this way, Emperor Kangxi no longer paid attention to chocolate. Chocolate was also directly "beaten into the cold palace".

In fact, Kangxi was not only the first emperor to eat chocolate in Chinese history, but also an emperor who came into contact with Western medicine very early. Kangxi had malaria when he was 39 years old. Although it was summer at that time, Kangxi was so cold that he covered the quilt every day. Because medical technology at that time was not as advanced as it is today, the imperial doctors of the Qing court could not cure Kangxi's illness. Later, two French missionaries sent 2 Western medicines, quinine, and immediately cured Kangxi's illness. And this quinine is actually today's cinchona, but the imperial doctor at that time did not understand Western medicine. This incident also made Kangxi like to learn Western culture even more.

However, Kangxi's preference for new things was a bit of a personal interest rather than to popularize knowledge, so his personal hobby could not lead the Qing Dynasty at that time to learn the advanced science and technology culture of the West. In this way, the momentum of Western learning from the East did not continue until Qianlong ascended to the throne, and the Qing Dynasty directly closed the country, and simply hid at home and had fun. After a period of seclusion, the Qing Dynasty lagged behind the world. By 1840, Europe was already equipped with advanced firearms, and the Qing Dynasty was still using broadswords and spears, and then the Qing Dynasty was pressed and beaten.

The materials are from the "Qing Historical Manuscript" and "General History of the World").

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