The Ming and Qing dynasties were a period when cultural exchanges between my country and the West began frequently. With the development of ocean trade, many Europeans came to China for trade or life, and thus many strange things from the West have entered China, such as chocolat

The Ming and Qing dynasties were a period when cultural exchanges between my country and the West began frequently.

With the development of ocean trade, many Europeans came to China for trade or life, and thus there are many strange things from the West that have entered China, such as chocolate .

Kangxi Emperor is the first emperor to eat chocolate in China recorded in . However, Kangxi disliked it very much after eating chocolate, so chocolate lost an opportunity to become popular in Qing Dynasty .

He Shiheng offered chocolate

Kangxi's eating chocolate happened in AD .

Previously, Kangxi had replaced malaria . This disease was an incurable disease in China at that time and could only rely on the patient's own physical condition to survive.

However, there were two French missionaries . After hearing that Kangxi was suffering from malaria, he took the initiative to offer Jinji Frost (a drug for controlling malaria) . Kangxi's malaria was quickly cured.

Therefore, Kangxi trusted French missionaries very much. Not only did he let some missionaries be officials in the Qing court, but he also issued an order for these missionaries to send all the novel things they brought to him.

The opportunity for Kangxi to eat chocolate actually comes from some missionaries in the palace 's habit of drinking hot cocoa drinks and eating chocolate .

Kangxi was very curious about this kind of snack that was popular among missionaries. After hearing that such snacks were also popular in Western courts, he immediately became interested and gave him an order to He Shiheng, an Italian missionary who was the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the court at that time, and asked him to give him some chocolate to taste.

High Seheng was also very nervous after receiving the order. He knew that the Chinese emperor had strict requirements on the entrance. In addition, Kangxi was a health expert and usually liked the way to maintain health. So after receiving the order, Heigh Seheng went to the Imperial Hospital to ask some questions about chocolate and pharmacology.

I don’t know how the imperial physicians in the Qing Dynasty experimented. Soon, I came to the conclusion that chocolate is hot food , has the effect of treating stomach deficiency, indigestion , etc., but if people suffering from fever eat chocolate, it will have adverse effects on their bodies.

He Shiheng chose some good chocolate powder and wrote with 2900 words of . The instruction manual not only wrote down the conclusions of the imperial physicians, but also wrote in detail the ingredients of the chocolate and delivered the chocolate and the instruction manual to Kangxi.

Kangxi lost interest in chocolate

Results, Kangxi was very troubled after reading this 900-word instruction manual because He Shiheng wrote too many ingredients for chocolate, some of which were raw materials that could be found in China, but many of them were spices produced in the Americas and Southeast Asia, and Kangxi didn't know them at all.

plus, He Shiheng also wrote a little bit of restrictions on eating chocolate, saying that eating chocolate in some cases is not good for the health, etc., which led to Kangxi's interest in chocolate instantly losing all.

So Kangxi only wrote three words in his reply to He Shiheng "know" , and never had chocolate again after that.

Kangxi was not interested in chocolate later because to a large extent, he regarded chocolate as the drug . The chocolate that He Shiheng gave to Kangxi was , which was made into . After eating it, Kangxi compared it with tea and thought that chocolate was far inferior to tea.

plus He Shiheng said that eating chocolate in some cases is harmful to the body, which makes Kangxi lose interest in chocolate.

Kangxi loves to drink wine

However, although Kangxi does not like chocolate, he has a special liking for another thing in the West, that is wine .

Kangxi came into contact with wine because prince Yinluo died. Yinlu was Kangxi's 18th son. When Kangxi gave birth to this child, he was already old, so Kangxi loved this child who "had a child in old age" very much.

As a result, Yinlu died at the age of 7, which made Kangxi heartbroken and his body suddenly collapsed. At this time, a French missionary presented wine, saying that it could relieve Kangxi's sorrow.

Western people have a special liking for wine. In the Middle Ages, Europeans would not drink water because of water hygiene problems.

Because beer is brewed without alive harmful bacteria, it will not cause diarrhea, etc. Later, when it comes to the Age of Discovery, when European crew members face the vast ocean, wine has also become their best pastime in their spare time.

In the early stages of voyage , if there is no alcohol on a ship, the risk of mutiny will be greatly increased. Therefore, at that time, European ocean ships would rather have no fresh water on the ship than put wine on them.

It is said that after drinking wine, Kangxi felt that all the fatigue in his body dissipated and he felt relieved all over, and Kangxi fell in love with wine in one sip.

What’s more interesting is that Kangxi has never been attracted to alcohol since he was a child. He believes that this thing is messing with people’s minds and causing illness, so he is not a good thing.

Result In his later years, Kangxi, after tasting wine, said that Western wine is a great tonic. Drinking this thing is like a baby drinking human milk, which can increase his strength.

So, drinking wine became a major hobby in Kangxi's later years, and it continued until his death.

and Kangxi is also the famous long-lived emperor in Chinese history. reigned for 61 years and lived a total of 68 years old . I don’t know if Kangxi likes to drink wine, whether it will make his lifespan longer or shorter.