Pu Yi once said in "The First Half of My Life" that as an emperor, he can't even eat a mouthful of hot rice, even if he likes a dish, he can only eat three bites. He did this out of reverence for life and out of vigilance for political struggle.
Because throughout his reign, he was always at risk of being poisoned. Since the death of Emperor Guangxu and Empress Dowager Cixi, he has been at the center of the political struggle, and may die at any time due to food poisoning.
Therefore, he asked the eunuchs to taste his food, which was a necessary means of self-protection. This practice did not only appear during the Puyi period, but also in history, many emperors also adopted this method to protect their own lives.
Just imagine, if the food is poisonous, even if it is just a mouthful, it may cost the emperor his life. Therefore, it was a wise choice to let the eunuchs try it, and it was also a guarantee for the safety of the emperor's life.
The story behind the food tasting: from the feudal system to the monarch's centralization In the long history of China, the food tasting is not only the process of tasting food, but also a manifestation of political wisdom.
In the emperor's daily life, food tasting was often regarded as a rigorous procedure, which not only ensured the emperor's food safety, but also concealed deep political significance.
You may wonder why you need to test the poison when you try the food at Pu Yi's place, but in the era of other emperors, the taste is just to try the taste? This involves the emperor system in our country.
China has a vast territory, and the ruler of such a large territory must have strong control, otherwise it is easy to lead to princes competing for hegemony and the country. Before Qin Shi Huang unified the six kingdoms, China's rule was relatively loose, and the system of sub-feudalism was implemented, that is, the Son of Heaven divided the land to the princes, and the princes divided the land to the lower classes.
In this way, the recipients had a great deal of autonomy to collect taxes, raise soldiers, etc., and the ruler had relatively weak control over the localities. However, after Qin Shi Huang unified the six kingdoms, he implemented a monarchical system of centralization.
Under this system, ** firmly controlled the control of the locality, and established the county system, these counties ** did not have the land to be feuded, but only worked for the emperor.
Therefore, under this system, the purpose of testing dishes is more to ensure the safety of the emperor's diet, and drug testing has become an important link.
Qin Shi Huang unified the six kingdoms and created a centralized monarchy system. Under such a system, the emperor has sole power, and the country's politics are controlled by the emperor.
When the imperial power was strong, the emperor's diet was guaranteed in all aspects, and there was no need to worry about poison in the dishes.
However, when the imperial power is weakened, there may be a situation where the emperor is poisoned, and many emperors who have been poisoned to death in history are unable to control their own fate. For example, emperors such as Emperor Liu Geng, Sima Zhen and Yuwenjue of the Han Ping Emperor were all influenced by others.
Therefore, the strength of the imperial power directly affected the security of the emperor and the political situation of the country.
The cow cries at night, then the house; Sheep feather and smack, fat; The dog is red and irritable, and he is ashamed; The birds are colored and the sand is chirping, raccoons; Pig blind and eyelashes, fishy; Horses with black ridges and arms, moles".
Zhou Li stipulates that whether it is cattle, sheep, dogs, birds and other ingredients, they must meet specific quality standards. For example, a bird with dry feathers and a hoarse call was not allowed to enter the court.
If the ingredients delivered are not up to standard, they will be severely punished. Various dynasties also have relevant regulations on this, and the "Tang Law Shu Yi" stipulates that "making a mistake in making imperial food" will be sentenced to two years in prison, and those who choose not to be good will have their sentences commuted.
So, how do you store the ingredients properly after they are delivered? Especially in the hot summer, the ingredients are perishable and spoiled, and there were no refrigerators in ancient times. But the palace had abundant resources and manpower support, and the ice cellar was built without a refrigerator, which was the ancient version of the "refrigerator".
The ancient version of the "refrigerator", the palace ice cellar, the existence of which allowed members of the royal family to taste fresh food. As early as the Zhou Dynasty, there were already people in charge of ice affairs, responsible for cutting ice and hiding ice.
The ingredients are kept fresh and preserved in the ice cellar, which can ensure that the royals can eat fresh food at any time. When the dishes in the Imperial Dining Room are first cooked, they are put into a "lunch box" and covered to prevent debris from entering and affecting the hygiene of the dishes.
The process of passing the food was also very particular, and the eunuchs would hold the food high above the top and pass it to the emperor's bedroom in turn. The emperor would also use separate dishes and chopsticks to avoid the spread of germs.
This strict hygiene standard fully reflects the importance that ancient royalty attached to a healthy diet.
The emperor's cutlery was for personal use to ensure the safety of each dish. From picking ingredients to making food, to the most delicious food, there are strict rules and special people in charge.
For example, the name of the dish and the name of the chef are engraved on the edge of the plate so that accountability can be pursued. These measures were a luxury that was unattainable for ordinary people at the time, and only the emperor had such treatment.
However, with the development of the times, every ordinary person today is like an "emperor", because our country has established a perfect "Food Safety Law" and strictly implements food safety supervision in all aspects of catering.
The state will also take severe measures to crack down on those irresponsible or shoddy enterprises, and this concept of "if the law is not clear, it will not be cured, and if the order is not strict, it will not work", which was borrowed from the ancient court.
As for some of the emperor's dining habits, such as the use of separate chopsticks and chopsticks, these habits have also been widely popularized with the popularization of the concept of hygiene in modern society.
Imperial Diet: How to Ensure the Safety of the Emperor's Diet? The Qing court had a strict system to prevent poisoning. The chief butler of the emperor's henchmen is usually selected from the children of the Eight Banners to ensure the safety of food.
After Guangxu passed away, a large amount of arsenic was detected in the body, and the preparation of ingredients and the cooking process of the imperial kitchen were strictly supervised and recorded in detail throughout the whole process, and every link was meticulous to ensure the safety of food.
For this reason, there is not only one person but three overseers around the Imperial Chef, who are ready to allow the Imperial Chef to carry out the act of poisoning.
The Imperial Dining Room is strictly monitored, and the preparation and preparation of ingredients are handled by dedicated personnel. Even if the Imperial Chef really wanted to poison it, since each dish had a clear name and who made it, the Imperial Physician could find the culprit by going back to the records.
At the same time, once the poisoner is determined, he will face the crime of conspiracy, including the direct extermination of the Nine Clans, so few people dare to take the risk. As for the eunuchs who delivered the food, their actions were also closely monitored.
Each eunuch was held high above his head to form a procession with people in front and behind him watching, and unless all the eunuchs decided to conspire to murder the emperor, it would be difficult for them to poison the food during the delivery.
In addition, there are silver needle poison tests and eunuch food tests as the last line of defense.
Silver needle poison test, you may have heard, is to use silver needle in the dish to detect whether it is poisonous. But we need to be skeptical about the role of this approach.
Because the poison in ancient times was mainly arsenic, and silver and arsenic did not react chemically, unless this arsenic was a shoddy inferior arsenic, which accidentally contained a large amount of sulfur, which could make the silver needles discolor.
But for arsenic** to show such a large amount of sulfur, the poisoner must be very careless, and this level of sulfur can be seen with the naked eye. So, what poison can be laid besides arsenic?
The poisons we often hear about are the plover and the crane top red, but in fact, these two poisons are also arsenic. In general, the ancient poison is not as complicated as we think, and the situation like Ding Chunqiu in "Dragon Babu" is just a fiction of art.
In ancient times, there were only a limited number of poisons, and it was not as comprehensive as martial arts dramas, and the eunuch testing for poison was more like a cautious move by the emperor than a necessary means. Because before the eunuch tested the poison, the emperor had passed many tests and avoided the possibility of poisoning.
Eunuch poison testing is more of a safeguard than a necessity. Of course, the emperor did not really rely on the eunuchs to test the poison, which does not mean that he cared much about the lives of the eunuchs.
If the eunuchs did try to poison them, the emperor would only feel glad and not sympathize with them. On the contrary, Emperor Puyi even used eunuchs as a tool to test poison for himself, which is the tragedy of the little people under the emperor system.
The emperor was at the top of the entire hierarchy, with a high status and far-reaching significance to the state, so the little man could only become a tool in front of him and could not turn over. In the movie "The Last Emperor", Johnston saw a scene of a eunuch tasting the emperor's food, which was incomprehensible in England.
In "The Last Emperor", we see the tragedy and fate of the little people in the feudal era.
Pu Yi said indifferently that these dishes were all sent from the imperial concubines, and he had already tasted them, which not only showed that he did not care about the fate of the eunuchs, but even the female concubines were just tools for him to try the dishes.
Pu Yi once revealed that in "The First Half of My Life", he only ate a maximum of three bites of food per meal, and none of them were hot. This shows that in the heyday of imperial power, eunuchs were not just tools in the eyes of the emperor, and their main duty was not to test drugs, but to taste the salty taste of dishes for the emperor.
In fact, in the imperial palace, eunuchs have always been a special presence for the emperor.
As we all know, the emperor mainly faces two major affairs in his daily life, one is state affairs, and the ministers of the court and the central government give him advice and implementation; The second is internal affairs, and the eunuch is the person closest to the emperor and is responsible for the emperor's food, clothing, housing and transportation.
In the court, although it is often said that eunuchs are not only castrated physically, but also spiritually, it is an undeniable fact that there are still many people who want power and become close confidants of the emperor at all costs.
However, becoming a close confidant of the emperor is not an easy task, and the biggest challenge is to always pay attention to the emperor's joys and sorrows, accurately understand the emperor's needs, and never cross the bottom line.
Mencius divided people into laborers and laborers, believing that those who work hard rule others and laborers are ruled, but the eunuchs' "labor" is ruled at a deeper level.
Among the many eunuchs, Li Lianying is exemplary.
Li Lianying is a model of slavery among eunuchs, and his ingenuity is unmatched. Once, after the troupe sang for the Empress Dowager Cixi, the Empress Dowager Cixi asked them what kind of reward they wanted.
The head of the team plucked up the courage to ask the Empress Dowager Cixi for her ink treasure. The Empress Dowager Cixi wrote down the word "Fu" with a pen, but accidentally wrote the word "Fu" next to the word "Fu" next to the word "衤", which made the team feel very embarrassed.
At this time, Li Lianying saw an opportunity, and he responded wittily: "Lafayette is a god in the sky, and his blessings are naturally much more than those of us mortals, so it is also appropriate to write more." ”
Li Lianying's ingenuity and sleek way of doing things won the favor of the Empress Dowager Cixi, and he became the emperor's right-hand man. Although the other eunuchs may not be able to reach Li Lianying's realm, they should all have enough intelligence and emotional intelligence to become intimate little padded jackets by the emperor's side.
From the emperor's meal, we can see the importance of eunuchs. They were familiar with the Emperor's preferences and often consulted the Emperor to ensure that the food that was delivered to the Emperor every day would please him.
In addition, the eunuch would test the temperature first to ensure that the food was suitable for the emperor's taste. In terms of food tasting, eunuchs played an important role, they filtered out dishes that were not suitable for the emperor through tasting, and ensured that the dishes enjoyed by the emperor were the most delicious.
Therefore, the emperor's meal can be said to be completely mastered by the eunuchs, whose expertise and experience make the emperor's meal full of possibilities and surprises.
The eunuch's duty was to filter out dishes that were not suitable for the emperor, including those that were too salty, too light, raw, or not hot enough. These dishes do not meet the quality standards and must be excluded first.
But the rest of the dishes are the real test of the eunuchs, because these imperial chefs are all top masters, and most of the dishes they make are high-quality and have their own characteristics.
Therefore, the eunuch needs to take his own taste as the emperor's taste, and master the salty, light, sweet and spicy as the emperor's meal.
Of course, this requires the eunuch to have an in-depth study of the emperor's tastes. However, some people may ask, since the emperor's taste is fixed, why not make the emperor's favorite flavor every day?
The emperor's eating habits were different from ordinary people, and they not only considered the nobility or delicacy of the dishes, but also included some political considerations. As a result, the cooks had to introduce new dishes every day to make the emperor's tastes elusive to those below.
It was at this time that the value of the taster eunuch became apparent. Although the emperor had new tastes every day, there was still a certain pattern to cooking and tasting dishes.
For example, the Manchu rulers of the Qing Dynasty liked to eat pork, lard roasted vegetables, salty pickles, pickles, as well as mushrooms, fungus and other mountain delicacies and seasonal melons and fruits.
Each emperor had his own unique taste, such as Emperor Qianlong, who was particularly fond of chicken and duck meat.
Emperor Qianlong's preference for food is vividly reflected in the menu.
According to the data, the number of dishes on his menu varies according to different times and places, with the total number of main dishes (excluding side dishes, pastries and soup staples) ranging from 7 to 16, while the total number of chicken and duck dishes is between 4 and 9, accounting for 62% of the total number of main dishes, or even as high as 100%.
Among the 44 menus, a total of 263 chicken and duck dishes appeared, and the total number of main dishes was 419. It can be seen that chicken and duck meat were the protagonists of Emperor Qianlong's diet.
Although the Interior Office, the Imperial Dining Room, and Tai'an may not have knowledge of modern statistics, they should be able to easily find some patterns from them. This undoubtedly reduced the pressure and difficulty of the "food testers" to choose, and they only needed to prepare the dishes according to the emperor's taste.
In the case of the stability of the imperial power, the eunuchs not only played the role of testing drugs, but more importantly, they became the emperor's "intimate little padded jackets" to ensure that the emperor tasted his favorite delicious food.
Because the emperor is also a human being, their tastes have a certain regularity, which highlights the value of the eunuchs' observation of words and feelings.