Portrait of Song Renzong
01
Archaeological discovery, about 10,000 years ago, the West Asians learned to tame sheep. China's history of sheep training is at least five thousand years later than that of West Asia.
It is generally believed that the history of Chinese people's domestication of sheep began around the Bronze Age, when the Qiang people in the Northwest of the Shang Dynasty began to herd sheep as their main business. Gradually, from the northwest to the Central Plains, animal husbandry and cattle and sheep became a trend.
In fact, because sheep are exclusive to food, it was not the main meat food that the people in the Central Plains depend for survival at the beginning. In that era when people believed in gods, the ancestors of Xia, Shang and Zhou were more willing to give "sheep" a symbol of beauty and auspiciousness. The word "mei" derived from the word "sheep" originally means a plump and huge sheep.
However, in the early Central Plains people, they did not have the awareness of distinguishing between breeds and male and females. Therefore, the word "sheep" in the oracle bone inscription "sheep" used in pictographic expression cannot be seen from the beginning. But this did not affect the worship of sheep by the rulers of the previous three generations. During the Shang and Zhou periods, "Tailao" and "Shaolao" were generally sacrifices used in dynasties for high-standard rituals. Sacrifices used in ancient times were first kept in prison before the sacrifice, so this type of sacrifice was called a prison. The only domestic animals that can be honored to worship God in the name of "prison" are sheep, cow, and pig (pig).
In addition, at the Shang Dynasty ceremony, a medium-sized wine vessel called "Zun" also accompanied by "Zhuo", supporting people's admiration for the gods of that era. In order to express your expectations for a better life, people usually engrave symbolic sheep, tiger, elephant, phoenix, etc. on it and present it to heaven as ritual vessels.
Shang Dynasty Four Sheep Fangzun. Source: TuChong Creative
In Chinese history, the civilization nurtured by the Bronze Age has always been regarded as the greatest achievement of the development of a slave society. Therefore, with the expansion of the sheep industry at that time, the government also fully protected the rights and interests of sheep breeding in the system. When Xia Qi was conquering the Youhu clan, he used the captured men and women as "mu Shu" and asked them to herd sheep for the rulers of the Xia Dynasty. The Zhou Dynasty set up an official who specializes in slaughtering and cooking sheep for sacrifices, which was called the "sheep man" and stipulated that "the doctor will not kill sheep for no reason."
Given that people's worship of the "sheep" culture is increasing day by day, sheep are sometimes treated as important gifts and are rewarded by rulers to their close ministers to show their grace. Therefore, in the Bronze Age, the number of sheep flocks could indirectly reflect whether a family's financial resources were strong.
By the Spring and Autumn Period, people began to gain a new understanding of the population distinction between sheep and goats. For this reason, the ancient pre-Qin book "Er Ya" made the earliest explanation: "The goat is a slight, the slight, the slight, the slight, the slight, the slight." The famous scholar in the Jin Dynasty, Guo Pu slight, the slight, the slight." The "sheep" mentioned in "Er Ya" is the Wu sheep white, that is, the sheep; and the summer sheep should be black goat , because the Xia people advocate black, and "Xia sheep" is naturally classified as the black goat.
In ancient times, the Book of Changes used "the first month is Tai Gua ", which advocated that the three yangs were born under the Tai Gua. Winter goes and spring comes, which is consistent with the signs of Yin disappearing and Yang grows, and the extreme comes. Therefore, at the beginning of the year, whether in the folk or in the temple, people always create various far-reaching calligraphy and paintings with the theme of Sanyang Kaitai, praying for good weather and peace in the coming year. "Sheep" and "Yang" are mutually in ancient words, and Sanyang Kaitai then evolved into " Sanyang Kaitai " and spread throughout the world.
After the Qin and Han dynasties, sheep gradually became auspicious things in people's beliefs.
Han Dynasty people are used to writing auspiciousness as " auspicious sheep ", believing that sheep are auspicious beasts representing auspiciousness. Pei Yuan's "Guangzhou Record" by the Jin Dynasty records the myth of "Five Sheeps with Valleys Falling in Guangzhou". This is also the origin of Guangzhou being called "Yangcheng" and "Suicheng".
Guangzhou Wuyang Statue.Source: Tuchuang Creative
Although the worship of "sheep" by the people in the Central Plains at that time was positive, everything has two sides. At the same time, some strange novels, such as "So Shen Ji", would often describe sheep as "sheep disaster" to create a story of "ghost turning into sheep".
Due to the society's in-depth concept of sheep deification and auspiciousness, coupled with the vigorous development of animal husbandry since the Shang and Zhou dynasties, a certain amount of breeding experience has been accumulated. Starting from , the animal husbandry industry based on family has become the basis of the agricultural economic structure. "Mozi" and "Xunzi" all say, "Where all the people in the world eat cattle and sheep, and raise dogs and pigs." "As a person is born today, he only eats chickens, dogs, pigs, and pigs, and cattle and sheep." On this basis, the earliest commercial sheep were born.
It is said that when Confucius was the Supreme Judicial Officer of Lu, he cracked the economic crime of Shen You's "drinking his sheep in the morning" to increase the weight of the sheep and defrauding the buyer. It can be seen that at that time, the sheep farming industry, which was based on family, had already gotten rid of the state of self-sufficiency and began to enter the commodity trading stage.
In order to promote the development of the sheep industry, After Qin Shihuang unified the six kingdoms, he immediately issued an economic ban called "Cow and Sheep Class" in Qin Law: "The cow is big and ten female, six are not (no) sons, and one shield for each of the culprits. The sheep is ten female, and four are not (no) sons, and one shield for each of the culprits."
This means that as long as ten adult cows, six of them have no calfs, or ten adult ewes, four of them have no lambs, then the culprits, and others who are responsible for raising cattle and sheep will be subject to economic punishment.
After the rise of commercial sheep during the Qin and Han dynasties, people began to raise sheep on a large scale in some areas dominated by pasture resources. "Records of the Grand Historian: Biography of Merchants" records: "Two hundred horses shepherd on land, a thousand horns of cows, a thousand horns of horns, and a thousand horns of sheep, and a thousand horns of marquis in the marquis... These are all the people who are like Qianhuhouhouhouhouhouhou, etc.." That is to say, as long as the farmer has fifty horses, or the number of cattle, sheep, and pigs is more than 250, his annual income can basically be the same as the annual salary of a Qianhuhouhouhouhou in the Han Dynasty.
Obviously, the Han Dynasty people have unlocked the wealth password for the animal husbandry industry.
02
As the saying goes, "Three hundred and sixty professions come out, every profession is the top scholar." The entire animal husbandry industry has always emerged, and people like Bole Xiangma , Ning Qi Fanniu, and Liu Changru Xiangyu appeared. In the Han Dynasty, a strange man named Bushi also came to the sheep world.
Bushi was born in the Han Emperor Wu of era. Previously, Gongsun Hong had herding pigs in Shanglinyuan, which was appreciated by Emperor Wu of Han and promoted to prime minister, which was a legend for a while, which indirectly reflected the prosperity and development of the animal husbandry industry in the era of Emperor Wu of Han. But compared with Gongsun Hong, Bu Shi is a complete herder. He was born into a herdsman family in Henan. His parents died since childhood and he depended on his younger brother for life. When his younger brother grew up, Bu Shi split up with his younger brother, and he only "takes more than a hundred animals and sheep" and leaves most of his money and property to his younger brother.
Although the sheep in Bu Shi's hand was quite valuable at the time, he went into the mountains alone to grazing for more than ten years. In his hands, more than a hundred sheep passed down from his ancestors became a flock of more than two thousand sheep. With the wealth accumulated by these sheep, Bu Shi not only repurchased houses and fertile land in the local area, but also borrowed money from his hands many times to rescue his younger brother who was scattered and accumulated a reputation for selecting officials in the era of " filial piety and integrity ". When Emperor Wu of Han went to the mountains to shepherd the sheep, the military war against the Xiongnu was in full swing.
Relying on the court's importance to Ma Zheng , the cavalry of the Han Dynasty was equal to the Hun cavalry outside the border, and they had victory or defeat. As we all know, war is about economy. Years of war brought huge burdens to the Han Dynasty's economy. To this end, the court had to introduce various tax increases policies, such as the " calculation order " that imposes asset tax on the wealthy class, requiring commercial and handicraft practitioners to declare their assets regularly and impose asset taxes ranging from 6% to 12% on these people in a proportion.
When the calculation order was issued, Bu Shi planned to lose money and save the border, and hoped to go to Shanglinyuan to shepherd the sheep for Emperor Wu of Han to increase the fiscal revenue of the Han Dynasty.
Unexpectedly, this move was rejected by Prime Minister Gongsun Hong, who was also a herd-born background. Gongsun Hong believes that Bushi's "selflessness" may have other intentions. Emperor Wu of Han then sent someone to ask Bu Shi if he had the intention to become an official, or if he encountered something difficult to seek justice?
Bu Shi told the messenger that he had been shepherding sheep since he was a child and had no interest in being an official. "The ministers are born and do not compete with others. Those who are poor in the town will lend them, and those who are not good will teach them. Everyone lives in the house. Why do they see the wronged?"
The envoy of Emperor Wu of Han was very puzzled by this. Bu Shi said seriously: "The emperor killed the Xiongnu. I foolishly thought that the wise should die for death, and those with wealth should lose, so that the Xiongnu could be destroyed."
Bu Shi's patriotic knowledge was fed back to Emperor Wu of Han. Bu Shi was immediately admitted to the court and went to Shanglinyuan as a Langguan to shepherd the emperor's sheep.
Bu style shepherds are very good. Choose the elderly or those with a kind heart as shepherds, choose grasslands with far-flung water sources to grazing, and use the "half-feeding and semi-grazing" method to shepherd according to the season and local conditions. In this way, the "lamb death risk" caused by natural disasters and man-made disasters can be reduced when shepherds. It is said that less than a year after he took office as the royal shepherd, Shanglinyuan "has countless cattle and sheep for sacrifice." The idea of shepherding sheep was later inherited by Jia Sijie, an agronomist of the Northern Wei Dynasty and the author of "Qimin Yaoshu".
The Northern Wei Dynasty where Jia Sijie lived was a regime established by the Xianbei nomadic tribe. The people who live there have been grazing for generations. When Jia Sijie became a local official as a scholar, the people of the Northern Wei Dynasty were displaced due to years of war and abandoned agriculture and pastoral desolation.
In order to restore the local economy as soon as possible, Jia Siyi could only put down his posture and go deep into the fields to collect and organize agricultural production technologies. He even did not hesitate to follow the herdsmen to herd sheep with the shepherds as the emperor. Therefore, through long-term practice, he also summarized an advanced sheep raising technology.
Northern Dynasties agronomist Jia Siyi. Source: Internet
Jia Sixi believes that shepherds need to fully consider the local climate and geographical environment to leave a suitable breeding period for pregnant and young animals. According to his experience, "those who often keep lambs born in the twelfth lunar month and the first lunar month are the most popular, and those born in November and February are the second." Although the sheep born in autumn are in a time of fertility, the following winter will prevent spring grass from growing and breast milk failure, which is particularly unfavorable for the growth of newborn lambs, resulting in the inability to meet the standards for breeding and retaining seeds.
Based on the divine sheep raising method, Jia Sixi also found that "sheep are slow in nature and like to gather together". The breeding and management must follow their living habits and make it different from cold and warm in grazing time. Generally speaking, the flocks living in the north should "float early in spring and summer and later in autumn and winter". "The circle is never too close to it, and must be connected to human settlements, open the window to the circle, set the north wall to form a factory, and use the platform in the circle to open the sinuses. There is no water cut off. It will be removed every two days, so do not cause feces to be filthy."
In addition, sheep must reserve winter forage grass in advance and feed the sheep with straw racks. Otherwise, once winter comes, ewes have no grass to eat and will die of freezing and starvation, which will seriously affect the breeding problems of lambs.
Jia Sixi's method of sheeping has had a great impact on later generations, indirectly promoting the prosperity and prosperity of family sheep breeding in the north, prompting the local people to gradually use mutton as the main meat, and profoundly affecting the preferences and favors of mutton in later dynasties.
As a farm book, Jia Sixi's "Qimin Yaoshu" also records many delicious cooking methods with mutton as the main raw material. As recorded in the book, the "enema roast" is made of chopped mutton minced with scallion, mixed with salt, soy sauce, ginger and pepper, and poured into the washed sheep intestine . Two intestines are skewed side by side and cut food with a knife.
modern version of sheep intestines. Source: TuChong Creative
The popularity of mutton is also closely related to the drastic changes in the social structure during this period.Since the Wei and Jin Dynasties, northern ethnic minorities such as the Huns and Xianbei have repeatedly marched south to conquer the Central Plains, and the phenomenon of great ethnic integration has occurred in the Central Plains. The long-term migration of northerners to the south made the flock of sheep following their masters south quickly squeeze out the "meat-eating bully" that passed through the Central Plains, pigs, and became the leader of the six animals.
The scale of pig farming is getting smaller and smaller, but the sheep industry has developed rapidly.
historical records that since Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty moved the capital to Luoyang by Yuanhong, the Northern Wei Dynasty has developed Hexi and Heyang pastures that are more suitable for the Central Plains environment based on the two former state-owned ranches - Daijun Ranch and Monan Ranch. These pastures refer to the management model of Shanglinyuan in the Han Dynasty. In addition to herding horses, they also grazed cattle, sheep, pigs and other livestock, providing necessary meat reserves for the royal family, the capital and various departments. In order to satisfy the habit of people in the Northland to eat sheep well, these state-owned ranches have all expanded the scale of sheep.
According to the "Book of Wei", "After Zhengguang (520-525), there were many troubles in all directions and floods and droughts. The national use was insufficient. The food and meat of officials and foreign guests were reduced by half, saving 1.599,856 kilograms of meat." It can be seen that the four major state-owned ranches in the Northern Wei Dynasty were important for the supply of meat in the court.
During this period, the private breeding industry also developed rapidly. Under the influence of the rulers, the people in the market focused on developing the sheep herding industry and expanded the scale of feeding, ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand, which directly caused the situation of "the sheep are the most produced in the land" mentioned in "The Legend of Luoyang Galan".
04
As a descendant of Li Hu , the Emperors of the Tang Dynasty themselves had the blood of the Hu people. In terms of diet structure, they also preferred the meat eating habits left by their ancestors and were famous for their preference for eating mutton.
According to " Zizhi Tongjian ", Tang Taizong The deposed prince Li Chengqian has loved Turkic culture since childhood. He built a tent in the Eastern Palace, often wearing Turkic clothes, roasted lamb in the tent, and cut food with a sword. But this practice later became one of the evidences of the deposed prince by Emperor Taizong of Tang.
Roasted whole lamb. Source: Tuchong Creative
However, Emperor Taizong of Tang Dynasty attached even more importance to mutton and herds.
Since the Eastern Turks were eliminated, Emperor Taizong of Tang was regarded as "-day Khan " by the Uighur tribes. These tribes have always been rooted in the grassland and make a living by herding cattle and sheep. The gifts paid to Emperor Taizong of Tang were mostly made of cattle and sheep. Emperor Taizong of Tang did not dislike this. Through tribute, the Tang Dynasty
formed a "sheep and horse trade" channel with the surrounding tribes. The empire usually exchanged silk, tea and other things in their hands for good horses, cattle and sheep from the north to enrich the Tang Dynasty's arms and daily meat needs.
Considering that the supply of mutton is too high, Emperor Taizong of Tang issued an order to include mutton on the official’s salary distribution list. " Tang Liudian " states that from princes to fifth-rank officials, each person can receive his own share of mutton in the corresponding salary every month.
On the basis of the cattle and sheep sheep shepherd left by previous generations, the Tang Dynasty also developed its own set of official group herder prisons. At that time, the sheep farm organization was mainly , Taipu Temple and group herds supervision. For example, Ningxia, Gansu, Hebei and other places today were the bases for the royal shepherds and sheep in the Tang Dynasty. The "Tang Lu Shu Yi" clearly records the management methods of the Tang Dynasty sheep farm, such as "620 sheep are in groups, and one sheep leader is appointed in groups, and one lieutenant is appointed in groups, and one lieutenant is led by fifteen years old." According to this calculation, the size of a sheep farm is not included, and the scale of a sheep farm is at least 10,000.
These sheep in herds supervision need to pay tribute regularly every year. The tribute ratio is calculated based on "one hundred Aries, seventy lambs every year" and "one hundred sheep, eighty lambs". If the ranch fails to complete the tribute of the sheep within the prescribed time in proportion, the herdsmen from the chief magistrate to the lieutenant and below will be beaten 30 times each.
The demand for mutton in the palace also led to the dietary style of the people of the Tang Dynasty.In " Taiping Guangji ", there is a record that Buddhist layman Yao was unable to fast mutton when he was practicing at home. The people of the Tang Dynasty did not forget to kill sheep to entertain their relatives in their daily rituals. During the 6th year of Emperor Gaozong of Tang Dynasty, a bride in a shop on the west road of Chang'an City gave birth to a son. At the full moon, relatives gathered together to kill sheep and cook sheep, so that the mother would hold her son and cook meat.
During this period, raw sheep slaughtering, mutton processing, sheep products and other links have achieved unprecedented development. According to "Taiping Guangji", during the reign of Emperor Gaozong of Tang Dynasty, there were slaughterers who made a living by slaughtering sheep for generations. When it comes to killing sheep, they have a scientific method: "Just like killing sheep, two sheep catch hands, all sheep catch their feet, one sheep holds a knife and stabs the neck, bleeding several times..." The " Qingyilu " records that the queen Wu Zetian likes to eat "cold cultivation sheep". This dish is similar to today's white-cut mutton . It is to cook the mutton with spices, remove the bones while it is hot, flatten the cubes, and then slice them thinly when eaten. Wu Zetian also gave this dish to his favorite minister, Zhang Changzong, and called it "Zhenlang killed himself to serve the country." "Zhenlang" refers to sheep, which shows her love for mutton.
white cut mutton. Source: Tuchuang Creative
Medical books using mutton as diet therapy also appeared in the Tang Dynasty. "Feedle Therapy of Materia Medica" records that mutton is warm in nature, "they are caused by wind, dizziness, thinness, convulsions and epilepsy in children, five labor and seven injuries to the husband, and weak and cold in vivo qi." The book also pays great attention to the origin and medicinal use of raw sheep, saying that "Hexi sheep is the best, and Hedong Hedong sheep are also good", but the sheep in the south have no medicinal value: "Even if you drive to the south, the muscle force will be damaged by itself, how can you benefit people?"
05
To the Song Dynasty , the "sheep" completely destroyed the "pig". This point has been clearly explained in Su Shi's "Ode to Pork". Even in the southern areas of Huangzhou, few people eat pork, "the price is as low as the soil, the high ones refuse to eat it, and the poor ones do not understand how to cook it."
The royal family of the Song Dynasty even introduced an ancestral family law, which specifically stated: "The diet is not expensive and the imperial kitchen should not use mutton." In this way, with the Song Dynasty, the official demand for mutton was greater than that of the Tang Dynasty. In the Song Dynasty, the official establishment of the cattle and sheep department was responsible for shepherding the royal family to raise sheep. When Emperor Zhenzong of Song Dynasty was held in the cattle and sheep department every year, the number of sheep slaughtered by Kaifeng Prefecture in was as high as 3,000 sheep slaughtered by Kaifeng Prefecture during major festivals.
Due to the further improvement of iron smelting technology in the Song Dynasty, iron pots entered people's daily lives for the first time. As a result, the cooking of mutton has also added methods such as stir-frying and splashing oil in the past.
Among them, the most outstanding one is lamb wine . Lamb wine is not wine, but a food after fermentation of mutton, glutinous rice and wine koji. After tasting the Su Dongpo , the that teaches the people to eat pork, also left a poem "Try to Kaiyunmeng lamb wine, quickly drain the Qiantang medicine king ship."
As time goes by, the problem of the Song Dynasty focusing on civilians over military personnel and redundant officials was further revealed in the middle and late stages, resulting in limited increase in mutton being insufficient to eat. Under the premise that demand continues to surge, the unscrupulous merchants of the Song Dynasty even used dead horse meat as live mutton to supply restaurants.
After the founding of the Southern Song Dynasty, the climate in the south of the Yangtze River was humid and different from the north, so the original northern sheep raising technology could not continue. Seeing that the Southern Song Dynasty's monarchs were about to suffer from the lack of sheep, Emperor Gaozong of Song Dynasty issued a special order to order the shepherds to choose suitable areas for experiments in sheeping in Jiaxing and Taihu Lake areas. At this point, a new sheep breed, " Lake Sheep ", has been released.
Lake sheep produced in Jiangnan. Source: Tuchuang Creative
Lake wool is white, has no horns, long head, large and drooping ears, and strong fertility, which largely met the demand of the monarchs and ministers of the Southern Song Dynasty for eating mutton. According to " Dream Lianglu ", on the streets of Lin'an, major famous teahouses and restaurants supply "geese stew blowing sheep big bones, steamed soft sheep, boiled sheep on the tripod, four soft sheep, steamed sheep on the wine, embroidered sheep, five-flavored apricot cheese sheep, etc." sheep are served from time to time every day to meet the appetite of the people in the market.
However, from today's meat slaughter data, it is not difficult to find that the average weight of an adult sheep is about 200 kilograms, and the meat yield rate is only between 40% and 55%. In other words, if an adult sheep removes bones, at most, it can only produce 80-110 kilograms of meat. The yield rate of meat is low, so in the notes of the Song people, there are many records that "the price of sheep in Wuzhong is extremely high, and one pound of meat is 900 yuan."
You should know that even during the period of Song Xiaozong, when society was slightly stable, an ordinary worker could only earn 150 yuan in wages a day. According to this algorithm, if ordinary people want to eat mutton, they have to work hard for a week before they can get what they want. It is precisely because of the scarcity of mutton and the abundant fish in the Jiangnan area, a famous dish called "Fresh Fish and Sheep" has entered the public's attention.
06
After the Yuan and Ming dynasties, the population increased sharply, and the per capita arable land area decreased. The "pig" who was once defeated by the "sheep" came back again with its omnivorous nature and low price advantages and successfully regained the throne of the head of the six animals.
Although people's demand for lamb has dropped significantly at this time, this does not mean that the sheep have lost their value in utilization.
The palace diet in the Ming Dynasty emphasized "cooking dragons and roasting phoenixes", which means having a brand name. While beef cannot be eaten and pork has a low status, mutton still maintains its precious "identity". Even though he was as frugal as Zhu Yuanzhang, on his daily diet list, he could still see mutton stir-fried, mutton bones, mutton crystal dumplings, steamed mutton and other dishes on his daily diet.
In addition to eating, the Ming Dynasty people were also very interested in textile raw materials such as wool and leather.
According to the consumption needs of the palace, the Ming Dynasty's inner palace needed to manufacture "two thousand pairs of aries felt socks" every year for the emperor and the empress to keep warm. In matters such as decoration and extravagance of palace curtains, the yamen responsible for procurement also needs to pay tribute to "35,000 kilograms of white sheep and 500 white-saked goat skins" every year. This huge demand also indirectly led some officials who were ordered to run the imperial prisoners to gain the opportunity to exploit the people and make huge profits.
After the fall of the Ming Dynasty, the Eight Banners of Manchuria, which came from outside the pass, quickly took the initiative and entered the Central Plains. Although it was rumored that the Qing Dynasty did not eat mutton, due to the dietary habits retained by the Qing Dynasty rulers outside the pass, the demand for mutton in the Qing Palace and even among the people was even greater than that in the Ming Dynasty.
Every winter, the bannermen in the capital pay attention to eating and drinking. When the bannermen are in winter, they must boil the pot of pork. According to tradition, on the first day of the ninth lunar calendar, the people of Beijing have to eat hot pot, and on the last day of the end of the "ninety nine" lunar month, they have to eat hot pot. In other words, throughout the winter, the bannermen have to eat at least ten famous shabu-shabu meals. This is the first time I have eaten hot pot, as usual, mutton hotpot. This mutton sauté is not pure sauté, it must include the full sheep belly, sheep liver, sheep waist , etc., in this way, the mutton sauté is considered to be "full".
mutton flask. Source: Tuchong Creative
As the emperor famous for his "foodies" in history, Qianlong's daily diet list has more than ten meals of mutton in winter. In the dietary files of Emperor Qing Dynasty preserved in the Forbidden City today, Emperor Qianlong had two regular meals a day, and dishes such as boiled mutton, mutton buns, roasted mutton, and stewed mutton with wine were often seen. Even Emperor Daoguang, who claimed that he could not waste a penny for his mouth, had to eat traditional palace delicacies such as stewed with mutton, stewed with cabbage, mutton slices, and winter melon all year round.
The so-called "not eating sheep" people in the Qing Dynasty may be an example.
It is said that Cixi's zodiac sign is the sheep, so she can't bear to speak up when facing her similar species. But is this really the case?
of course not. Similar to the ban on "killing pigs" by Emperor Wuzong of the Ming Dynasty, Cixi had some solutions.
In ancient times, the "five blessings" were emphasized, namely wealth, longevity, health, good virtue, and good ending. These five blessings correspond to the five zodiac signs such as tiger, sheep, rat, pig, and dragon. Therefore, when Cixi wanted to eat mutton, she told the imperial kitchen to prepare "longevity meat".
It is worth mentioning that during the forty-seven years when Cixi was in charge of the Qing Dynasty, five other politicians with the sheep appeared in the late Qing Dynasty. They are: Zeng Guofan, born in 1811, Li Hongzhang, born in 1823, Yuan Shikai, born in 1859, Emperor Guangxu, born in 1871, and Regent Zaifeng , born in 1883. This group of "sheep" led the glory and decline of an era in a specific historical period. In the end, in isolation and helplessness, the youngest "sheep" - Regent Zaifeng, invited Yuan Shikai, who was two laps older than him.
Unexpectedly, this "old sheep" was the hammer holder who rang the death knell of the Qing Dynasty.
On February 12, 1912, the Qing Dynasty was destroyed. The chain influence caused by this has backfired to some auspicious proverbs that have been circulated for a long time, such as "Ninety-one sheep are blessed" and "Ninety-one sheep are not complete".
However, as Yuan Shikai's aide Xu Shichang said, "The Qing Dynasty was not destroyed by the revolutionary party, but by the 'young men'."
Whether it is a real or a metaphorical "sheep", they are obviously innocent in the great changes in history.
References:
[Northern Wei] Jia Siyi: "Qimin Yaoshu", Shanghai Bookstore, 1989
[Tang Dynasty] Li Linfu et al.: "Tang Six Dynasties", Zhonghua Book Company, 1992
[Song] Li Fang: "Taiping Guangji", Zhonghua Book Company, 1961
[Song] Tao Gu: "Qing Yilu", China Commercial Press, 1985
Xie Chengxia: "History of Chinese Cattle and Sheep (with a brief history of raising deer)", Agricultural Press, 1985
Li Xiangtao: "Talking about Sheep in the Year of the Sheep", China Forestry Publishing House, 2003
Zhao Rongguang: "Introduction to Chinese Food Culture", Higher Education Press, 2003
Wang Saishi: "Tang Dynasty Food", Qilu Bookstore, 2003
Duan Bianren: "The Palace", Beijing Press, 2005
Hui Yuan: "A Study on the Diet of Northern Lamb in the Tang Dynasty", Master's Thesis of Shaanxi Normal University, 2011
Jia Yibao: "Analysis of the Official Sheep Sheep System in the Ming Dynasty", Master's Thesis of Shanxi University, 2015
Cheng Minsheng: "The Status of Sheep in the Diet Life of the Song Dynasty", "Chinese Cooking", 1986 No. 12
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