However, even so, the people from the early Ming Dynasty to the middle Ming Dynasty could not eat whatever they wanted. It was not until the middle of the Ming Dynasty that this phenomenon was alleviated and there was a trend of "retaliatory rebound".
Before discussing this issue, we might as well learn about the diet of ancient people in China before the Ming Dynasty. Take the Han Dynasty as an example. The people in the Han Dynasty have been exposed to more food than those in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. What kind of food can appear on the table of the Han people? Dr. Ding Shudong from Zhucheng Mental Health Center, Shandong Province once mentioned in the article "Looking at Ancient Diet Health Culture from Bamboo Slips Unearthed from Mawangdui":
However, even so, the dining table of the Han people can't be compared with that of the Ming people. From the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, people in the Ming Dynasty obviously surpassed the previous generation in food choice. There are peanuts, potatoes, corn and so on, and even tobacco was introduced into the territory of the Ming Dynasty during this period.
The reason why people's dining tables in the Ming Dynasty were richer than those in the past had nothing to do with the progress of social productive forces. No matter how much the agricultural production efficiency of the Ming Dynasty was improved over the previous generation, it would not produce crops that had never appeared in this land. This is mainly because the international trade in Ming Dynasty was very active. With the rapid development and increasing scale of international trade, crop seeds from other parts of the world were gradually introduced into the territory of the Ming Dynasty.
In A.D. 1368, Zhu Yuanzhang ascended the throne, seized the present Nanjing City and founded the country, thus the history of the Ming Empire began. In the following days, the Ming army won in successive battles, and many cities occupied by the forces of the Yuan Dynasty were incorporated into the territory of the Ming Empire. Finally, the old yuan forces were driven back to the grassland and entered the stage of confrontation with them.
Although the territory of the Ming Empire was constantly expanding, the domestic economic base was basically destroyed and production was basically stagnant. Not only do the people not have enough to eat, but even the resources that the royal family can mobilize are very limited, which is basically the same as that in the early years of the Western Han Dynasty. In order to revive the economy as soon as possible and put the empire on the right track as soon as possible, Zhu Yuanzhang once ordered that any extravagant and wasteful behavior in society be strictly prohibited, which was embodied in diet.
At the same time, Zhu Yuanzhang also prohibited the imperial court from investing too much energy and financial resources in diet. In this regard, Professor Chen Baoliang from the School of History and Culture of Southwest University once mentioned in "Diet Life Fashion and Its New Trends in Ming Dynasty":
In feudal times, it was always taken for granted that feudal monarchs enjoyed high-quality material life. Considering the national strength in the early Ming Dynasty, Ming Chengzu still had the ability to mobilize national resources and ensure the luxurious life of the royal family. However, after Zhu Yuanzhang's "saving order" was issued, the extravagance and waste of the people stopped immediately (after all, some feudal landlords could still enjoy a high-quality material life). Although the people of the Ming Dynasty could not "eat whatever they wanted" in a short time, it helped the rapid economic revival in the early Ming Dynasty.
As mentioned above, the "rescue order" issued by Zhu Yuanzhang in the early Ming Dynasty was only a stopgap measure, and it was a decree that had to be issued in order to reduce the waste of resources and ensure the stability of resource supply as much as possible. With the passage of time, the economy of the Ming Dynasty not only got on the right track, but also entered a stage of rapid development. At this time, not only did Ming Taizu's diet become more exquisite, but the dining tables of ordinary people also became rich.
In particular, when the economic conditions in the middle of the Ming Dynasty were greatly improved compared with those in the early Ming Dynasty, even the court eunuchs began to pay attention to the food problem. In this regard, Professor Liu Pubing from the Department of History of anyang normal University once mentioned in the article "On Catering Institutions and Catering Characteristics in the Ming Dynasty":
Eunuchs and ladies-in-waiting began to pay attention to diet, and began to pursue various flavors of food and exquisite dishes, which was enough to show that the "gourmet style" prevailed in the court in the middle and late Ming Dynasty. Imperial secretary still so, the emperor's table is naturally more abundant. But at the same time, it also reflects a problem, that is, the court in the middle and late Ming Dynasty invested too much energy and expenditure on diet, which caused serious extravagance and waste. But behind the waste, it also reflects that people's material living standards have been greatly improved in the middle and late Ming Dynasty.
The economic and material living standards in the early Ming Dynasty were basically the same as those in the early Western Han Dynasty and other early days when a new feudal country was established after a long war. Not only are living materials extremely scarce, but the economic base is basically destroyed. In this case, most feudal monarchs would choose to keep the wrong precious materials as much as possible. Therefore, the court and folk recipes in the early Ming Dynasty could not fully reflect the diet of Ming people.
By the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the diet structure and status of Ming people were basically completely revealed. Influenced by the bonus brought by the growing prosperity of international trade, the dining tables of Ming people are becoming more and more abundant. The delicious food that the previous generation was madly sought after and longed for was no longer "rare" in the middle and late Ming Dynasty.
However, since the mid-Ming Dynasty, the extravagance in the food field has not been curbed, but has intensified. By the late Ming dynasty, this extravagance and waste had become very serious, even contributed to corruption and indirectly promoted the demise of the Ming empire.
References:
1 "Looking at the ancient diet health culture from the bamboo warehouse unearthed in Mawangdui", by Ding Shudong.
2 "Fashion and New Trends of Diet Life in Ming Dynasty", by Chen Baoliang.
3 "On the Dietary Institutions and Dietary Characteristics in Ming Dynasty", by Liu Pubing.
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