Although "four dishes and one soup" is often mentioned in daily catering life, few people know where this word comes from and who invented it, and they don't know what the most primitive "four dishes and one soup" looks like.

Introduction

People today always habitually use "four dishes and one soup" as the standard when eating. Although "four dishes and one soup" is often mentioned in daily catering life, few people know where this word comes from and who invented it, and they don't know what the most primitive "four dishes and one soup" looks like.

Regarding the most primitive "four dishes and one soup", Hongwu Emperor who created the Ming Dynasty Zhu Yuanzhang has the most say. The Great Emperor of Hongwu Zhu Yuanzhang, from a monk, joined the rebel army, destroyed Yuan Dynasty , restored China, established Ming Empire , and created Hongwu Governance . is such a hero. When Ming was just founded, in order to take the lead in advocating frugality, the banquet specifications were formulated for "four dishes and one soup".

The origin of "four dishes and one soup"

Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang was born in a poor family. At that time, the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty became extravagant and only focused on levying heavy taxes from the people, regardless of the lives of the people. When Zhu Yuanzhang's parents died, he didn't even have the money to bury his parents, so he could only roll up his parents' bodies with two straw mats to get things done.

People who have been wet with rain naturally know how uncomfortable it is to get wet with rain. Therefore, after Zhu Yuanzhang succeeded to the imperial career, he always took the lead in advocating frugality and hated the bureaucratic corruption. However, in the early years of the Ming Dynasty, many officials were tempted by glory and wealth, embezzled public funds and used people's wealth to eat, drink and have fun.

At the beginning, because officials at all levels deceived their superiors and concealed their subordinates, Zhu Yuanzhang did not know about the illegal behavior of the officials below. He always thought that with his own leadership in frugality, the people should live a good life. It was not until a private visit that Zhu Yuanzhang saw that officials became greedy and the people lived in dire straits. Due to the natural disaster of , , the people even had the tragic phenomenon of changing their children.

Since then, Zhu Yuanzhang decided to start from the system and limit various specifications of the treatment of officials to eliminate the phenomenon of extravagance and waste of borrowing public funds.

Zhu Yuanzhang's Empress Empress Ma is a famous virtuous queen in history. After discussing with her, Zhu Yuanzhang decided to determine the specifications of the banquet for the official banquet at Empress Ma’s birthday party. So at Empress Ma’s birthday party, Zhu Yuanzhang prepared "four dishes and one soup" for the officials. In order to take the lead, Zhu Yuanzhang also creatively attached his own description and feelings to each dish, and then took the lead in eating.

Zhu Yuanzhang used this trick very cleverly: "Four dishes and one soup" are mostly vegetarian dishes. Those who are used to eating big fish and meat must not be used to these light vegetarian dishes for a while, but those people must not ignore them. The emperor took the lead in eating it, so the ministers naturally dared not ignore them. In this way, those officials who are usually greedy for public funds and extravagant waste will appear.

At Queen Ma’s birthday party, something unexpected happened to many officials. It is a big event for a country's queen to celebrate her birthday. When officials give gifts, they will naturally choose those precious things to give. If they win the favor of the queen, their career will definitely be smooth.

Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly asked his nephew Zhu Tao what gifts he had prepared for the queen during the banquet. When Zhu Tao heard this, he quickly told Zhu Yuanzhang that he had prepared precious jewelry such as gold Buddha and jade bracelets for the queen. He originally thought that his gift was so rich that he would definitely be praised by Zhu Yuanzhang. But unexpectedly, after hearing his words, Zhu Yuanzhang said furiously: "How can you afford such expensive jewelry with your salary!" After he finished speaking, he was arrested in the heavenly prison.

Zhu Tao's affairs played a role in killing the chicken to scare the monkey, and the ministers at the banquet were so scared that they dared not look up. Seeing this, Zhu Yuanzhang announced that in the future, "four dishes and one soup" would be the standard for the ministers' banquet. If someone dared to exceed this standard, he would be severely punished.So which four dishes and what soup are the "four dishes and one soup" mentioned by Emperor Hongwu Zhu Yuanzhang?

Such four dishes and one soup

After seeing the content of "four dishes and one soup", I have to admire Emperor Hongwu as the most frugal among the emperors of all dynasties. This "four dishes and one soup" is a real and simple four dishes and one soup.

The first dish is a dish that is so home-cooked that it cannot be cooked anymore, stir-fried radish. Zhu Yuanzhang had a special liking for food like radish. He once described it as a "good ingredient for medicine". People will not get sick again after eating radish. Even if such a dish is placed at the homes of ordinary people, it can be considered "frugal", let alone in the palace.

The second dish is stir-fried leeks, which is also a very common home-cooked dish. However, Zhu Yuanzhang gave this dish extraordinary meaning. Zhu Yuanzhang told the ministers that the leeks were evergreen all year round, which symbolized the good weather and long-term stability of the Ming Empire. This dish that symbolizes auspiciousness must be eaten.

The third dish is stir-fried vegetables. In Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes, vegetables symbolize integrity. Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes cannot tolerate sand. This is to beat those corrupt officials in the name of vegetables.

The fourth dish is scallion tofu. As the saying goes, scallion and tofu are both green and white foods. This is Zhu Yuanzhang hopes that his officials can be as innocent as this dish, emphasizing the importance of integrity to his ministers. The soup in "Four dishes and one soup" is the most ordinary bowl of clear soup, which also reminds the ministers to be honest in their officials.

Zhu Yuanzhang's method of "four dishes and one soup" has indeed achieved results for a period of time, and the extravagance and waste in the officialdom has been stopped to a certain extent. Unfortunately, Zhu Yuanzhang's method ultimately only treats the symptoms but not the root cause. The officials below have policies and countermeasures, and after a period of time, they continue to become corrupt in different ways.

For example, some officials served four dishes and soup several times in succession. Anyway, as long as there are four dishes and soup on the table, it is enough. Some people regard four dishes and one soup as staple food, which does not seem to violate the regulations, but those complementary foods are more expensive than the other. Later, the officials even simply refused to comply with the regulations on four dishes and one soup, and went straight to the mountains to delicacies.

Although Zhu Yuanzhang's "four dishes and one soup" practiced by him did not achieve the expected results, it is undeniable that he was indeed an emperor who could understand the sufferings of the people. Just as mentioned in the previous article, Zhu Yuanzhang was born in a small way and could personally experience the difficulty of living the lower class. After becoming emperor, he did not lose his original intention, but wanted those lower class people to live a better life.

He originally thought that under his governance, the lives of the people would have a great improvement. But unexpectedly, the officials below disobeyed and continued to do their own things and corruption and waste their money. So he began to rectify the officialdom. The provision of "four dishes and one soup" was just the beginning of his rectification of the administration.

Zhu Yuanzhang made regulations from stipulating the catering specifications of officials, to stipulating the size of housing, to the vehicles and clothes they travel, etc. In order to prevent the people from wasting food, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered a ban on the people's production of wine.

Zhu Yuanzhang's frugality was not "only allow the state officials to set fire and not allow the people to light the lamps". He and Empress Ma took the lead in setting an example. His diet was never a delicacy, but completely in line with the "four dishes and one soup" standard. In addition, Zhu Yuanzhang was so meticulous that he also made regulations on the size, specifications and quality of the tableware for his diet.

How detailed are Zhu Yuanzhang’s regulations? In terms of official travel, even the size and decoration of the sedan have corresponding specifications. There was an official who was arrested by Zhu Yuanzhang in the imperial prison of the Jinyiwei just because he had a slight mistake in his size. For Zhu Yuanzhang, "diligence and thrift to prosper the country, luxury to destroy the country" was his highest criterion for governing the country. He also wrote this concept into " The Emperor's Ancestors of the Ming Dynasty ", passing it to the later kings of the Ming Dynasty.

From frugality to extravagance to extravagance, it is easy to go from extravagance to frugality to

It's a pity that such a governing philosophy will not continue in the future. During Zhu Yuanzhang's reign, under his high-pressure policy, officials below did not dare to touch the red line of corruption. Even if there were a few bold examples, they could only do it secretly behind their backs, for fear of being discovered by Zhu Yuanzhang.

However, in the middle and late Ming dynasties, the corruption trend began to prevail again. This actually has a lot to do with the changes in the ruler's philosophy of governing the country. After Zhu Yuanzhang, those who were the first-class wise monarchs, those were all first-class wise monarchs. So much so that during their reign, there were a series of prosperous situations such as " Yongle Prosperous Times " and " Renxuan's rule ". During this period, politics was clear and the frugal style of Zhu Yuanzhang's period continued.

But after Emperor Xuanzong of Ming Dynasty, the emperors were more ridiculous than the other. Emperor Yingzong of Ming Dynasty favored eunuchs, which led to the "Tumu Fort Incident", which led to the decline of the Ming Dynasty. Emperor Shizong of Ming Dynasty Zhu Houyan created the wonder of not attending court for decades and not seeing court officials. Under the rule of these absurd emperors, the national strength of the Ming Dynasty was getting worse every year. The emperors were so absurd that the officials below naturally became corrupt and corrupt.

The most typical of this is the most powerful chief minister of the Ming Dynasty, Zhang Juzheng . During the 3 years of Wanli, although Zhang Juzheng led the reform and brought the "Wanli Revival" to the Ming Dynasty, which was in twilight, Zhang Juzheng himself was an absolute corrupt official. The money for a meal at Zhang Juzheng is enough for an ordinary family to eat for a month. It takes 32 people to carry the sedan chair - Ruyizhai.

With such emperors and officials, how could the rule of the Ming Dynasty last for a long time? In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, eunuchs intervened in politics, party struggles, and Jurchen invasion and peasant uprisings completely defeated this huge empire and eventually perished under the iron hoof of the rebel army. If Zhu Yuanzhang knew that the dynasty he established had perished because of this, he would be so angry that he would jump up from the coffin directly.

Conclusion:

It is easy to go from frugality to extravagance, but it is difficult to go from extravagance to frugality. Zhu Yuanzhang formulated the "four dishes and one soup" which explained this truth very well. As the saying goes, "No one can reach a thousand miles without taking a single step." If you want to truly eradicate the bad habits in society and the officialdom, you cannot only make regulations from the big aspects, but also from small things, so that you can truly treat the symptoms and root causes.

Reference materials:

"Things in the Ming Dynasty"

"Biography of Zhu Yuanzhang"