Tang Dynasty The emperor held a "cold dinner" in the palace ("Hundred Pictures of Ancient Customs" Wang Hongli)
"Tangmen Palace Music Pictures"
Tang Dynasty gilded silver saucer used to hold snacks ( Famen Temple underground palace unearthed )
Tang Dynasty gilded silver tea daggers, sterling silver fire chopsticks, and gilded tea mills from the Tang Dynasty (From top to bottom, unearthed from the underground palace of Famen Temple)
Tang Dynasty gold and silver tea cages used to bake tea cakes (unearthed from the underground palace of Famen Temple)
Chang'an black tea is as red as blood, with a mellow aroma, and it makes people crazy when drinking it; Chang'an ghost market is close to the palace, far away from Qujiang , and the sun is not seen all year round; the bride is killed, wrapped in a corpse with red cloth. , wearing a hideous mask on his face; famous doctor pretended to die, hid in a secret room, and his desk was filled with the heads of the dead; fur can turn into colorful tigers, wooden birds are comparable to unmanned planes, handsome guys dance with giant pythons, cute cats are possessed by banshees, crocodile gods were originally pretended by officials, emperor favored ministers are illusion killers, beauty medicines attract a lot of money... These magical and weird plots are presented one by one in the costume detective drama "The Record of the Strange Things of the Tang Dynasty". What's even more strange is that if we carefully review the Tang Dynasty documents, we will find that the real life in the Tang Dynasty is so strange. Don't believe it? Then let’s talk slowly based on the plot.
Illusion is magic, from the Western Regions
"Records of the Tang Dynasty" has a total of 36 episodes, and talks about 8 strange cases. In chronological order, they are: Chang'an Black Tea, Gantangyi, Shiqiaotu, Huangmei Killing, Zhongshengtang, Tuo (tuó) God, Human Face Flower, and Tantian Tower. Among them, the first case, "Chang'an Black Tea", and the last case, "Tantianlou", all have villains used "illusion", such as using a tiger's skin to transform into a fatal tiger, turning a living person into a drone (wooden bird) that can fire sharp arrows.
Is there any illusion in the real Tang Dynasty? Not only there, but it is very popular. According to the records of "Old Book of Tang Dynasty: Music Records", there were illusion performances in the palace programs of the Tang Dynasty, including "the white snow of osmanthus trees", "painting the land into a river", "swallowing the knife and spitting fire", "planting melons and pulling the well", "breaking the hands and feet by themselves", "chewing the stomach and intestines and stomach", etc. The original text of " Old Tang Book " does not record the performance details, but you can guess one or two by looking at the name: "The white snow of the osmanthus tree" should cause the osmanthus tree to suddenly become frosted and hang snow, "painting the land into a river" should cause a clear spring to suddenly appear on the ground, and "breaking the hands and feet by themselves" and "cutting the stomach and intestines" must be similar to the slaughtering technique performed by modern magicians and sawing the living person.
The so-called illusion is actually magic. Most of the magicians of the Tang Dynasty came from the Western Regions, which are today's Central Asia, West Asia and northern India. When Emperor Gaozong of Tang Dynasty was reigned, he watched the performance of the Western Region magicians. Because it was too realistic and scary, "I ordered the Western Region Pass to order it to enter China." An order was issued to those guarding the western border, prohibiting the magicians from going to the Central Plains again.
However, after Emperor Gaozong of Tang and Emperor Ruizong of Tang ascended the throne, the ban was lifted. The Brahmin illusionists from India competed to perform skills in the Tang court, which made Emperor Ruizong of Tang very happy. In the drama "The Strange Things of the Tang Dynasty", the emperor's role is based on Tang Ruizong Li Dan as the historical prototype (the prince's prototype is Li Longji, the son of Li Dan, and the princess prototype is Li Dan's sister Princess Taiping ). The Indian magic performance that Li Dan watched in the palace was performed in the last two episodes of the play as the "illusion conference" held on the towering tower.
Bamboo tube can make fire, not match
If you pay attention to the details in the play, you will also find that a small prop often appears. It is made of a bamboo tube, which is about the same size as a flashlight, but when you blow it gently, it can even produce flames and last forever. It can ignite candles or be used as a torch at night. For example, the heroine Pei Xijun was robbed in the ghost market. The hero Lu Lingfeng took out a small bamboo tube, blew out a flame, lifted the flower sedan chair, and leaned over to check if there was a secret passage under the sedan chair. In the 13th episode, Lu Lingfeng and Su Wuming went to Gantang Post to investigate the case. In order to light a candle, the innkeeper Liu Shiba also took out a small bamboo tube and gently blew out the flame. In the 19th episode, Lu Lingfeng visited the medicine warehouse of the Junyuan Garden of Zhongsheng Hall at night, and used a small bamboo tube to illuminate the fire.
This small bamboo tube is so magical, it is simply a combination of modern lighters and flashlights. Has the Tang Dynasty ever been there? There is indeed, but it is not as fast and convenient as in the play. In the Tang Dynasty and even later in the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, people often set up a set of ignition tools when traveling: Fire Knife , flint, fire medium, and fire tube. Fire knife is made of cast iron, shaped like a knife, but not a blade; flint is a piece of flint, which will burst out from the impact; fire medium is made of cotton paper, velvet and hay, which is very easy to ignite; fire tube is made of bamboo or copper iron, which can preserve the fire. When it is necessary to ignite, use a fire knife to cut the flint to let Mars fly to the fire medium. Blow a few lightly and Mars can turn into flames. What if there is no need for flames for the time being? Then knead the fire medium into a ball, stuff it into the fire tube, and cover it with a lid. When you need a torch, pull out the lid and blow the fire tube hard. When the flame appears, then spray grease to make it a torch.
A scholar once exaggerated the scientific research level of the people of the Tang Dynasty, saying that they invented the match and named it "Fazhu". In fact, the 243th volume of " Taiping Guangji " contains detailed records of the shape of "fa candle". It is wrapped in rags and rotten hemp on wooden sticks and soaked with grease made of seeds of locust tree seeds. It can be used as a torch when used urgently, but it is definitely not a match that can be touched. Even so, this torch, which looks quite simple today, was a big seller in the Tang Dynasty, and its inventor was able to become the richest man in Chang'an .
Merchants are highly discriminated against, even if you are the richest man
The inventor of the Dharma candle is Dou Yi, who is a legendary wealthy businessman in Chang'an. Volume 10 of the early Song Dynasty document " Beimeng Saoyan " was written by Dou Yi, saying that he was successful in business, was involved in the hotel industry, catering industry and construction industry, and opened many stores in Chang'an. However, in order to protect the property, Dou Yi still had to bribe officials and the eunuch and , and once handed over a large piece of land to a eunuch with great power. This story shows that merchants had no status in the Tang Dynasty and had to make friends with powerful people to fight for status.
Coincidentally, one of the driving forces of the plot of the "Stone Bridge Picture" case in the play is that businessmen are discriminated against: Ouyang Quan, a wealthy businessman in Nanzhou, is kind-hearted, admires the scholars, and admires the "Fourth Sons of Nanzhou". He dreams of becoming the fifth son of Nanzhou. He is repeatedly rejected by the four sons of Nanzhou because he is a businessman. In the thirteenth episode of this drama, Ouyang Quan hangs himself and is rescued by Su Wuming and Lu Lingfeng. He cried in despair: "I, Ouyang Quan, is a businessman. Even if my family has a billion yuan, I am still looked down upon!" This is the desperate accusation of the serious imbalance between the economic status and social status of merchants in the Tang Dynasty.
Is there any way for Ouyang Quan to break the deadlock? Yes, if he really understood the social structure at that time, he should find ways to get close to the political forces, rather than make friends with hermits like the Four Sons of Nanzhou. Let’s take Dou Yi, the richest man in Chang’an, as an example. He was committed to commercial operations when he was a teenager. He was successful in middle age and focused on making friends with the powerful. He heard that Taiwei Li Sheng likes playing polo , so he bought a large house in front of Taiwei Li Sheng's mansion, demolished it into white land, transformed it into a "shot place", and gave it to Li Sheng with both hands. He also held a meeting in the East and West City of Chang'an, gathering some colleagues and asking them if they were willing to send their descendants to the officialdom. Everyone expressed their willingness, so he invested 20,000 yuan to buy entry-level official positions for these descendants of their peers. Many years later, some of them will surely be successful. How can we not be grateful to Dou Yi's funding? Dou Yi himself had no descendants, but when he settled in Xicheng, Chang'an in his later years, most of the guests in the mansion were in the officialdom, and his wealth and glory had long surpassed ordinary officials.
However, Dou Yi's life path also has a shortcut - he was born in the Dou family of Pingling (now Xingping City, Shaanxi Province), and two generations of women in the family married Emperors of the Tang Dynasty one after another. The wife of Emperor Gaozu of Tang Empress Taimu and Emperor Ruizong of Tang Empress Zhaocheng are all relatives of Dou Yi. Among them, Empress Taimu is the biological mother of Emperor Taizong of Tang Li Shimin, and Empress Zhaocheng is the biological mother of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Li Longji. Because of this relationship, the Dou family in Pingling has always been favored in the Tang Dynasty. Dou Yi, who was born in the Pingling Dou family, had more political resources than other businessmen from the beginning."Taiping Guangji" wrote: "(Dou Yi) all the relatives of the dynasty, and his elders were the Minister of Works." The grandmother and aunt were both the queen mothers, and the uncle was a high-ranking official in the court. What if Dou Yi was born in an ordinary family? Then the process of making friends with the powerful must be very tortuous and difficult, and there will be fear and helplessness of "wanting to burn high incense but not finding the temple gate".
The five surnames and seven families. Compared with the discriminated businessmen, another group of the Tang Dynasty had much higher social status, that is, the "five surnames and seven families" mentioned many times in the play. Five surnames are five surnames, and seven families are seven families. The protagonist of this drama, Lu Lingfeng, said proudly in episode 34: "My Tang Dynasty gentry is the most noble of five surnames and seven families. In addition to my Fanyang Lu family, there are also four surnames Cui, Li, Zheng and Wang." This line is a true portrayal of history.
Five surnames including Lu, Cui, Li, Zheng, Wang, and seven families including Longxi Li family, Zhaojun Li family, Boling Cui family, Qinghe Cui family, Fanyang Lu family, Xingyang Zheng family, and Taiyuan Wang family, had a very noble status in the Tang Dynasty and very powerful figures emerged. Among the well-known Tang Dynasty poets, Wang Wei, Wang Bo , Wang Changling , and Wang Zhihuan all came from the Wang family in Taiyuan; Cui Hu , which wrote "Human face and peach blossoms are red" and Cui Hao , which wrote "Yellow cranes will never return" all came from the Cui family in Boling; Lu Zhaolin , which wrote "The early Tang poet 2 Lu Zhaolin , which wrote "They only envy mandarin ducks but not immortals" came from the Lu family in Fanyang... In the play, Lu Lingfeng was arrogant as soon as he appeared, not only because he had the title of "General of the Jinwu Guard", but also because his family background was superior.
Nowadays, we all believe that "everyone is born equal", but people in the Tang Dynasty are unequal when they are born. If you were born in the Li family in Longxi, which is the same family as the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty, or in the Lu family in Fanyang, Lu Zhaolin, and Wang Wei's family in Taiyuan, you will be born more respected than ordinary children and will be easier to become an official. If you unfortunately have an ordinary surname, it is best to try every means to get along with those noble families.
Poetry Immortal Li Bai did this. He came from the distant Western Regions. As soon as he entered the Central Plains, he met with the "Longxi Li Family" of the Tang Dynasty emperor family. After failing, he met with the Li Family of Zhaojun. Finally, he became a small county magistrate Li Yangbing in the Li family of Zhao County as his uncle, and finally made himself successfully become a fake child of the Li family of Zhao County. The father of the poet sage Du Fu also did the same. The Du family was not very high, so he married the Cui family in Qinghe; the father of another great poet Yuan Zhen still did the same-Yuan Zhen's family was originally changed from the Tuoba family of the Northern Wei royal family, and it was no longer in the Tang Dynasty, so Yuan Zhen's father married Xingyang Zheng family.
Why did the Tang Dynasty attach so much importance to family status? Why are some families nobler than others? It is difficult to explain clearly in just one article. You only need to know that although the Tang Dynasty was not a "caste society", it could be called a "school society". The root cause of this strange phenomenon is the historical inertia of the accumulation of water during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, and it is also related to the fueling of the Tang Dynasty rulers.
During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, wars continued, regimes changed, and the king's flag changed at the top of the city, but only the great families remained unmoved. These aristocratic families include not only the geniuses of the Wei and Jin Dynasties, but also the royal families of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and also the local tyrants who had a strong accumulation effect due to the large number of people and powerful forces during the war. The Sui Dynasty was established, and the gentry, royal family and local tyrants continued to grow. They could monopolize the officialdom from above and control the village from below. Emperor Yang of Sui attacked these clans many times, but they all ended in failure.
After the founding of the Tang Dynasty, Emperor Taizong of Tang and Wu Zetian chose to follow the situation. Not only did they no longer attack the aristocratic families, but they promoted the royal family and the families of officials above the fifth rank and above to new aristocratic families. Emperor Taizong of Tang divided the 287 clans of the country into 9 levels by promulgating the "Zhenguan Clan Chronicle", and their Li family was placed in the highest level; Wu Zetian continued to classify the aristocratic families by revising the "Scholar Name Record", and also included , Wu family in the higher level.
The trend of the clan is prevalent, and the officialdom level and the imperial examination system were seriously affected.In the seventh episode of the play, the eighth-rank county magistrate Cui Wuji was born in the Cui family of Qinghe. Although his official position was low, his family was high. When he saw the Zhe Chong Duwei, who was higher than his, he ignored it at all, and was killed.
Is there any positive significance for the wind of the clan? There is also, that is, it can enable some children of a family to maintain their self-esteem, hope and fighting spirit, and strive to bring glory to their family glory. The protagonist Lu Lingfeng in the play is not greedy for money or fear of death, and he is brave enough to solve the case because he wants to safeguard the glory of the Lu family in Fanyang.
cherry glutinous rice, the "foreign fast food" of the Tang Dynasty
talked about politics, and then talked about food. There are not many foods in the play, and there are two plots related to food, from episodes 16 and 23 respectively.
Episode 16, scholar Dugu Xia sharpened a knife in the kitchen and chopped the filling, and gave his wife a red envelope of wontons. The wonton skin is like modern times, square. In fact, the "wonton" mentioned by the Tang Dynasty was not wonton, but dumplings. It was not just the Tang Dynasty, but from the Southern and Northern Dynasties to Northern Song and Southern Song . The wontons that the Chinese people have always been dumplings. What evidence is there? Northern Qi Yan Zhitui said: "Today's wontons are shaped like crescent moon, and the whole world is full of food." Li Kuo of the Tang Dynasty said: "Steping on the moon to make wontons, the wind brings tea cream." My writing "Eat an interesting Song Dynasty banquet" also verified that the wontons of the Song Dynasty are still half-moon-shaped foods made of round dough wrapping. There was another delicacy in the Song Dynasty called "王风", which was pronounced as "口", which was a real wonton.
Episode 23, Su Wuming took his girlfriend Cherry to Chang'an Night Market and invited Cherry to taste a snack called "Cherry Eggs (bì luó)". Cherry praised it: "This is the first time I have tasted such a delicious thing!" At the same time, Lu Lingfeng and his girlfriend Pei Xijun also ate cherry Eggs at the night market. The four of them met. Lu Lingfeng asked Su Wuming to treat her, and Su Wuming had to spend more than 40 Eggs.
Cherry Ethanthium is a thanthium that uses cherries as fillings. So what is Ethanthium ? There are only names in the existing Tang Dynasty recipes, but I found the recipes of "crystal oxalo" and "crystalogue" in the Yuanchao life manual "Complete Works at Home". The crystal thiol is made of translucent mung bean paste , cut into square shapes, and use lamb, lamb belly, lamb tongue and other ingredients to make filling, pinch it into a triangle, steam it in a basket, serve it out in a small plate, and pour it with broth; the thiol is made of hot noodles as the skin, rolled it into a round, wrapped in meat filling, put it into a narrow and long mold with grease, press it into a mold, fry it thoroughly, and take it out to form the shape of an eyebrow. From this we can see that glutinous rice is a kind of stuffed food, and the method is not uniform, either steamed or fried, or triangular, or eyebrow-shaped. The cherry thimble in the play is narrow and long, with silk thread tightly tied in the middle, so the filling cannot be seen clearly, but the method is not far from the thimble recorded in "The Complete Works of Must-Available at Home".
The name "龙游游" is very strange. It is actually a transliteration of Turkic . It should have been introduced to the Central Plains from the Western Regions or the Tang Dynasty, which belongs to foreign fast food, and then continued in China for hundreds of years. In the Song Dynasty's palace recipes, there are still names such as "Taiping Essence", "Sliced Essence", and "Crystal Essence".
During the Southern and Northern Dynasties and Sui and Tang Dynasties, Hu Feng was prosperous, and foreign food was passed on, and many pasta names were transliterated. In addition to the glutinous rice, there are also the "阿阿" that was introduced to the Central Plains during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and the "阿阿" that was introduced to the Central Plains during the Sui and Tang Dynasties. Some scholars of the Ming Dynasty did not understand the origin of roasted wheat, so they looked at the text to express it as "made by grinding wheat with ground". In fact, this word is a transliteration of the Turkic bun sa mu ai.
Chang'an black tea, the method of cooking tea in the Tang Dynasty
talked about eating, and then drinking - talk about how people in the Tang Dynasty drank tea.
The first case in the play, "Chang'an Black Tea", is about an expensive but unknown black tea in Chang'an City . Due to the ban on sales in the imperial court, vendors and tea lovers can only get goods from the ghost market. They cannot buy it with copper coins, and must use gold and silver. This tea is boiled and the soup is as colorful as blood, with a strange fragrance that is addictive, but after drinking it for a long time, there will be mental problems and even death.When Su Wuming and Lu Lingfeng investigated the case, they found that the main raw materials of this tea were actually "Western Regional Phantom Grass" and the blood of the extremely yin people.
Is there any such tea in Chang'an of the Tang Dynasty? There is no designation, let alone black tea made from human blood, not even ordinary black tea. What kind of tea did the people in the Tang Dynasty drink? There is only green tea, that is, tea that is only fried, steamed, but not fermented. Liu Yuxi poem says: "It's like you are cheering up your clothes for the guest, picking the eagle's beak by the fragrance of the flowers. This must be fried to the full room, so you can brew the golden sand water." When the guest arrives at home, picking tea and stir-frying it. He describes fried green tea. Liu Zongyuan poem says: "The summer in Nanzhou is drunk like wine, and the sleep is in a quiet place, and the northern wall is opened. I feel alone at noon, and the mountain boy knocks on the tea mortar through the bamboo." I am drunk in the middle of summer, sleeps heavily in the morning, wake up at noon, and asks the child servant to cook tea, and the child servant knocks on the tea mortar processed with bamboo tubes. What is the tea mortar used for? For pounding tea. Steam the tender green tea leaves thoroughly, cool them, put them in the tea mortar, pound them with a wooden stick, and make them sticky, press them into a mold, knock them out, and then roast them. This is the most popular steamed green tea in the upper class of the Tang Dynasty, and is usually roasted into small black tea bricks. How to make small tea bricks into tea soup? If you cannot brew, you have to re-bake it with charcoal fire, knock it open with a hammer, put it in mill and grind it into powder, and then boil the tea powder with boiling water.
episode 2, Su Wuming cooks tea for Lu Lingfeng, and recreates the process of making tea bricks by the Tang Dynasty: pick up small black tea bricks, grill them on charcoal, knock them open them, crush them, grind them finely, put them in the pot and cook them for a few times, stir them with long chopsticks while cooking, stop the fire and come out of the pot, use a long-handled copper spoon to scoop the tea soup, and distribute them to the small tea cup, and serve them to the guests. In the book "Tea Classic" by the Tang Dynasty tea saint Lu Yu, in order to remove the bitter taste, some ginger and salt are also sprinkled.
Is it delicious to make tea like this in the Tang Dynasty? To be honest, it is not delicious, at least it cannot adapt to the tastes of our modern people. I have a friend who is a Hong Kong tea man who has been committed to restoring the Tang Dynasty tea ceremony in recent years. He wore Taoist robe when cooking tea, and his fairy style was fairy-like and the ceremony was solemn, but the performance was performed, and he still used modern brewing style to drink tea by himself.
Ghost market ghost marriage, let living people get psychological comfort
Finally, let’s take a look at another strange trend in the Tang Dynasty: ghost marriage. In the fifth episode of
, the heroine Pei Xijun takes a sedan chair to pass by the ghost market at night and holds a wedding with her dead lover. According to the "Old Book of Tang", Tang Zhongzong once held a ghost marriage for his brother-in-law Wei Dong, who was mourned before marriage, and dynasty Emperor Tang once held a ghost marriage for his brother Li Bing . Looking at the "Compilation of Epitaphs of the Tang Dynasty", there are actually ten epitaphs written for those who are underworldly marriages. Both parties at the wedding are either dead or dead or dead married living people.
The ghost marriage has a long history and did not begin in the Tang Dynasty. As early as the late Eastern Han Dynasty, the legendary prodigy, Cao Chong, died young, and his father, Cao Cao, also organized a ghost marriage for him. During the Three Kingdoms period, the daughter of Emperor Ming of Wei died young. Emperor Ming of Wei selected the son-in-law from the dead nobles and buried the two sides together. The ghost marriage did not die after the Tang Dynasty. There are still living people holding ghost marriages for the dead in the Song, Yuan, Ming, Qing and even today. What is the reason? The main reason is that some people are afraid that their relatives who were unable to marry during their lifetime will come back to cause trouble after their death, so they use the strange ceremony of ghost marriage to seek peace of mind. There is a wooden slip from the Wei and Jin Dynasties in the Gaotai County Museum of Gansu Province. It is buried with the people who are married with ghosts. It says the most sincere wish: "Long live the whole world and never harm your family. Life and death are different. Each has a city wall. Life moves forward, but the dead are ignored. Life comes to power and the dead are buried deep... From now on, we will not return after the thousands of years and never return. We will be as urgent as the law!" It means that we have a ghost marriage for you, so you must not come back.
This superstitious psychology is deeply rooted and is also the fundamental reason why all kinds of witches and charlatans are still popular today. In fact, it doesn’t matter whether there are ghosts in the world, and it doesn’t matter whether the witches and charlatans can expel ghosts. What’s important is that humans have a long-standing fear of unknown things and must be driven away by some unreliable rituals.
This article is provided with pictures/ Li Kaizhou
