Today’s popular Manchu-Han banquet has long deviated from its original intention.

编者按：《传膳啦！（清朝篇）》依据翔实的史料，用古雅幽默的笔触介绍了清朝的饮食文化，皇帝、皇太后日常的饮食搭配，以及美食背后的趣闻逸事，更收录了很多隐藏在故纸堆里的宫廷美食和养生药食的秘方。

今日一说起宴席的豪华，读者们脑海中浮现的必然是摆满了各式山珍海味的满汉全席。甚至会想当然的以为，皇帝老儿，每顿饭都是百余种山珍海味组成的大餐。今日更有诸多商家，推出了所谓的满汉全席，山珍海错，琳琅满目。可在清代的宫廷之中，并无满汉全席的说法。

清代在内廷设御茶膳房，负责皇室的日常膳食，在外朝则设有光禄寺，负责承办筵席。 据《光禄寺则例》载，光禄寺的宴制分为：“满席自一等至六等，汉席自一等至三等，又有上席、中席”。满席一等至三等，是祭祀历代帝后妃嫔。四等满席用于元旦、万寿节、皇帝大婚或大军凯旋，五等赐予达赖喇嘛、班禅额尔德尼的贡使和下嫁外藩的公主及蒙古王公等。六等赐予经筵讲书、衍圣公来朝及各国贡使。满席根据级别不同，所供应菜肴的数量也各有不同，如一等席用面一百二十斤，饼饵二十四盘，六等用面则为二十斤，饼饵十二盘。满席以饽饽为主，以干鲜果为辅，同时使用羊肉等。

Chinese banquet is mainly used to entertain examiners, examiners, censors, and transfer officials. Compared with a full banquet, the dishes in a Chinese banquet are more abundant. The first-class Chinese banquet includes 23 bowls of meat such as goose, fish, chicken, duck and pig, three bowls of steamed meat and four bowls of vegetables. The second-class Han nationality does not need geese, the third-class Han nationality does not need geese and ducks, and the others are roughly the same as the first-class Han nationality. Comparatively speaking, Chinese banquet pays attention to dishes, while full banquet pays attention to food.

In addition, there are "upper seats" and "middle seats", which are used to entertain new scholars and examiners. This is the so-called "honor banquet". The upper seat hosts the examiner and the top ranked Jinshi, while the middle seat hosts the lower ranked Jinshi. The upper and middle seats combine the characteristics of full seats and Chinese style, including the cakes in full seats, the dishes in Chinese seats, and the tables used are short tables full seats. The reason for this is that among the new Jinshi, there are both Manchu and Han Chinese, so the two are compatible, and a nondescript name (said to be taken by Ao Bai) is adopted. Enrong banquet will be full of seats and compatible with Chinese seats, laying the foundation for the full and Chinese seats in the next day.

When Qianlong went down to the south of the Yangtze River, there was a record of "Manchu seats". In the forty-first year of Qianlong (1776), when Qianlong visited Jiangnan, he cruised to Yangzhou. The governors of Liangjiang and Jiangsu hosted a banquet in Yangzhou to entertain the governors of Jiangnan provinces gathered in Yangzhou. There is a detailed record of this feast in Yangzhou Painting Boat. "Before and after Shangshang Street, the temples are all big kitchens, so as to prepare for the six departments and officials to eat." The menu of this banquet is as follows:

In the first place, there are ten bowls with the top five baskets, bird’s nest and shredded chicken soup, stewed pork tendon with sea cucumber, shredded radish soup with fresh clams, stewed pearl vegetables with kelp and shredded pork belly, stewed shrimp soup with mussels, shark’s fin and crab soup, stewed chicken with mushrooms, and stewed ham with fish belly.

Second, there are ten bowls with five baskets on the 2nd, stewed bear’s paw with crucian carp’s tongue, rice-chafed scarlet lips, pig’s brain fake leopard fetus, steamed hump, pear slices with civet cats, steamed deer tail, sliced pheasant soup, wind pig slices, wind sheep slices, rabbit breast and milk room to sign the first-grade soup rice bowl.

Third, there are ten white soup bowls, pork belly fake Jiang Yao duck tongue soup, chicken bamboo porridge, pig brain soup, hibiscus eggs, goose gizzard soup, steamed shad, fake fish liver, Xishi milk, Vince bean curd soup, nail fish film soup and cocoon son soup.

Fourth, twenty pieces of hairy blood dishes, fried Harba, piglet, fried pork and mutton, fried chicken, goose and duck, pigeon, pig offal, mutton offal, burnt pork and mutton, boiled pork and mutton, steamed piglet, lamb, chicken, duck and goose, white flour cake paper, ten-brocade fire and plum blossom steamed buns.

Fifth, 20 foreign dishes, 20 hot dishes to persuade wine, 20 small dishes, 10 tables of dried fruits and 10 tables of fresh fruits.

At the end of the menu, the author wrote, "This is a Manchu-Chinese banquet". The Manchu banquet here is a banquet for Manchu and Han officials, not the so-called "Manchu banquet" later.

There are several characteristics in the menu contained in Yangzhou Boat Record. First of all, there are a large number of rare ingredients, such as bear’s paw, scarlet lips, hump, deer’s tail, etc., among which there are shad, puffer fish (western milk), crabs and other Yangtze River fresh water. Secondly, the five points listed in the menu are not attended according to the five levels. The dishes listed in the menu should be combined dishes. According to the rules of entertaining in the officialdom of Qing dynasty, there should be cakes, dried fruits and so on in the formal full table. There are no cakes and fresh fruits in the menu from one to three, but only in the fourth and fifth middle schools, so they are combined.

During the Qianlong period, ingredients such as bear’s paw and scarlet lips were hardly used in the imperial kitchens, and even shark’s fin and sea cucumber rarely appeared. Emperor Qianlong doesn’t like fish, and there are few fish on the menu. This menu is obviously specially prepared by Jiangsu officialdom to show off and to make friends with governors of other provinces. The emperor himself did not think that his courtiers ate a hundred times more luxuriously than himself. When accompanying the emperor on a patrol, it is not unusual for officials to eat delicacies in private. According to "The Continuation of Xiao Ting", the Hao family in Huairou is one of the richest people, with thousands of hectares of fertile land at home. When Emperor Qianlong was stationed in his home, there were more than 100 kinds of mistakes made by Lu Zhen in Sheung Shui. Princes, guards, and even slaves of sedan chair also provide luxurious meals, which cost more than 100,000 yuan a day. There are more than a hundred kinds of land and water treasures, which have entered the belly of princes and ministers.

In the Qing dynasty, influenced by the separation of "full seats and Chinese seats" in the imperial court, the practice of Han people asking Manchu to eat full dishes and Manchu asking Han people to use Chinese dishes began to appear above the officialdom. This practice has caused a storm of public opinion and is considered to be "extraordinarily pleasing." So smart merchants will choose the essence of full dishes and Chinese dishes and gather them on one seat to attract dignitaries. Yuan Mei recorded: "The dish of officialdom today. It is also known as the Manchu banquet. Used for new relatives to come to the door and the boss to enter the country. "

Please note that Yuan Mei was talking about a Manchu banquet, not a Manchu banquet.

The specialty of Manchu-Han banquet is double roasting, that is, hanging pig and duck. Hanging pigs and ducks really come from the imperial cuisine of the Qing palace. There is a Baoha Bureau in the imperial kitchen, which specializes in making roasted dishes for the palace. In the daily diet of the Empress Dowager, "double roasting" is often seen. During the reign of Emperor Qianlong, duck and meat hanging from the stove appeared from time to time in the morning and evening meals. During the Guangxu dynasty, Emperor Guangxu often had two kinds of breakfast, namely "hanging pigs and ducks".

In the Qing Dynasty, there was a brick oven in the palace. There was an arch in front of the oven, and there were three shelves in the oven. Pigs or ducks to be roasted were hung on the shelves in the oven. The oven uses jujube, pear and peach as fuel, and there is no smoke after the fire. During the barbecue, the chef should constantly change the position of the duck or pig to roast the whole body. When barbecuing, ducks or pigs can’t directly touch the fire, which will burn. Grasping the heat well, roasted ducks and pigs have crispy skin, tender meat, fat but not greasy, and fruit and wood flavor.

In the folk Manchu banquet, besides double roasting, rare ingredients such as bird’s nest and shark’s fin are also used as side dishes to improve the grade of Manchu banquet. In a formal Manchu banquet, the favorite food of Manchu people is also indispensable. In the end, the stir-fry and soup in the Chinese banquet, together with the barbecue and cake in the full banquet, formed a rich Manchu banquet.

By the time of Tongzhi in Qing Dynasty and Guangxu Dynasty, there was a record of "Man-Han banquet". It is recorded in "Qing’s Banknotes" that there is a barbecue at the banquet in the capital, "commonly known as the Manchu-Han banquet, which is the highest grade in the banquet." In addition to bird’s nest and shark’s fin, roast pigs and ducks must be used in Manchu-Han banquet. After three rounds of wine, the pigs were roasted, and the dressed servants broke them down with knives and dressed them up for the guests. "The pot should be filled with Shaoxing wine, and ducks and pigs should be hung on the stove." On top of the banquet, roast duck and pigs should be served with more than good Shaoxing wine, which is an ordinary scene of banquet in the officialdom of Jingshi.

During the reign of Tongzhi and Guangxu, the atmosphere of entertainment in officialdom became increasingly complicated, mainly because Cixi pursued luxury enjoyment after taking power. With the demonstration of Cixi, the whole officialdom began to pursue enjoyment, so various banquets such as barbecue seats, swallow dishes, shark’s fin seats, fish lips seats, sea cucumber seats, dried pork seats and three-silk seats emerged one after another. Among many big banquets, the Manchu-Han banquet is the most important.

Han Bangqing wrote in the 18th chapter of Flowers on the Sea in Qing Dynasty that the patrons of Shanghai’s high-class brothels celebrated an official’s birthday: "Chinese food for lunch, a banquet for dinner, and three classes of children’s play." Li Baojia in the Qing Dynasty wrote in Volume 6 of "The Officialdom in the Present": "Two meals a day, without Manchu or Yan cuisine, invited him to eat big dishes. He has been tired of eating Yancai barbecue all the way. Wait for him to be light for two days. " Volume 18 also describes: "On the third morning, after receiving the umbrella of the people and the political card of virtue, we sailed back to the province after dinner. It is time that flies, and the next day has arrived in a twinkling. On this day, Hecheng Wenwu prepared a Manchu-Chinese banquet at the yamen of our government, and the public money led and invited Master Zhou. "

During the reign of Emperor Tongzhi and Emperor Guangxu, the big restaurants opened in Shanghai all took the Manchu banquet as a signboard. Among them, the famous ones, such as Hongyun Building, Jufeng Garden, LaoYiqing, Wanfang Garden, Zuichun Garden, Taisheng Building, etc., all advertised in Shenbao that they hired famous chefs from the palace to produce Manchu banquet, hanging pigs and ducks, and Beijing-Soviet cuisine.

On that day, there was the title of Manchu-Chinese banquet, and there were also people who called Manchu-Chinese banquet, and the title of Manchu-Chinese banquet was occasionally used. No matter what the title is, there are two must-have dishes, namely "hanging pigs and ducks". Manchu-Chinese banquets and the like are popular in officialdom and even used in diplomatic occasions.

Jiangnan imperial examination affairs have always been presided over by Jiangsu Francisco. During the examination, a bureau is set up in the neighborhood of Hiram’s Hospital as a supply office, and the elite personnel in the yamen are selected to handle the meals, ranging from three or five people. In the view of the officials taking the home examination, "the kitchen is the first important thing in the field", rather than recruiting talents. The person in charge of catering, "First, we must mix the delicacies of the Manchu banquet with salt sauce one by one, and ask members to taste it", and then judge whether it can be used. The cost of one seat can reach the production of ten Chinese people. This job is a good job, and only an old hand in officialdom can handle it.

In the 15th year of Guangxu (1889), Zhang Zhidong, the new governor of Hunan and Hubei Provinces, set sail from Shanghai by China Merchants Jiangkuan steamboat. When Zhang Zhidong’s ship arrived in Zhenjiang, it docked and visited places of interest. The local officials hosted a Manchu banquet. "Military lunch. Visit all the scenic spots. I still went back to Jiangkuan, so I sailed on the drum in the afternoon. "

In diplomatic activities, Manchu-Chinese seats have also been used. For example, in the 17th year of Guangxu (1891), Russian Chu Jun traveled to China, accompanied by the Prime Minister’s Foreign Affairs Office. When Chu Jun, Russia arrived in Wuhan, local officials in Wuhan hosted a Manchu-Chinese banquet. The dining table imitates a western-style long table, with various kinds of small bottles, flowers and fruits, and glass wine bottles and knives and forks are prepared for each table. "The dishes are a feast for the Han people. Every time you eat them, you will be happy to make them. There are 20 dishes, four snacks, and milk tea clouds for westerners."

When the China Navy visited Japan in the late Qing Dynasty, it also specially prepared a Manchu banquet to entertain the Japanese side, which made the Japanese slightly stimulated. When Li Hanzhang was in charge of Guangdong, he once hosted a banquet for foreigners, using western food. Unexpectedly, the foreigner was not satisfied and protested: "I really hope to taste your barbecue and shark’s fin when I come to this treasure land." Barbecue and shark’s fin are delicious, that is, Manchu banquet.

In the 26th year of Guangxu (1900), when Cixi and Guangxu fled to Xi ‘an, Liu Kunyi, Minister of Nanyang and Governor of the Two Rivers, held a birthday banquet in Nanjing, which was a day when "Duyuan was richly decorated inside and outside, with no special embroidery". In order to do a good job in the banquet, hundreds of chefs were invited to prepare 50 Manchu banquets and 50 vegetables and sea cucumbers for the birthday party. Interestingly, on the way to escape, the Qing court also ordered Wu Yong, the magistrate of Huairou County, to prepare a banquet for the Empress Dowager and the Emperor.

In the late Qing dynasty, the first half of the Manchu-Han banquet was Chinese food, and the second half was barbecue. Before the barbecue goes on stage, the people present at the table are filled with shochu, two plates of sweet sauce with green onions are placed at the four corners of the table, and two plates of pancakes are placed in the center, and then four plates of roast pig are served, two fat and two essence; Four plates of roast duck, thinly sliced. At the same time, a cup filled with tea is made of tin and inlaid with mahogany. The cup is full of lotus seeds, longan, pine nuts, melon seeds, jujube seeds and so on, and covered with red orange peel silk, which has a beautiful appearance. After the barbecue, I changed to boiled tea. This tea is slightly salty, made of green beans and slightly added with milk. It is called "milk tea" in the north.

After the Revolution of 1911, there were several kinds of national sentiments, and some Manchu-Chinese banquets were renamed as "Big Man Banquet", but Manchu-Chinese banquets still existed, with different sizes. Big and small Manchu banquets were popular in Beijing and Tianjin in the early years of the Republic of China, with the big Manchu banquet ordering 108 items and the little Manchu banquet ordering 64 items. At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, the signs of "Manchu Banquet" were hung at the gates of high-end wine restaurants all over the country. The so-called Manchu banquet in ordinary wine restaurants is nothing more than a few dishes full of Chinese food, which is nominal. By the time of the Republic of China, Manchu-Han banquet had lost its dominant position in high-end catering, and "Cantonese was the first choice for delicious food".

In the old days, there was a beautiful garden in Guangzhou. People called it "Panjia Flower Group". Later, Pan Shi declined, and it was changed to Hume Pavilion Restaurant, then to Jiya Garden, and finally to Yinlong Restaurant. In those days, Mo Shang Restaurant was a representative of luxury in the catering industry. A table of dishes in Mo Shang Museum, with snacks, fruits and vegetables, is only more than 50 items, which costs 400 yuan, while a table of "Man Han Banquet" was only 100 yuan. At that time, people lamented, "Compared with its richness, Beijing and North Korea sent non-Guangdong enemies."

The top-grade Manchu-Han banquet will look shabby and unusual compared with the Han banquet in Guangzhou Mo Shang Museum. The menu of Mo Shang Museum mainly includes various delicacies, such as stewed bear’s paw, stewed white crane silk, stewed leopard and so on. Influenced by it, high-end restaurants in Beijing, even Tan Jiacai and Guanjia cuisine, all imitate the luxurious style of Mo Shang Pavilion. In 1927, when the Kuomintang moved to Nanjing, Tan Zuan spent 120 yuan to buy a high-grade Cantonese dish, and went to Niushou Mountain to pay homage to the painter Qing Daoren (Li Ruiqing) and invited friends to eat together. At that time, people marveled at the vastness of this banquet, and major newspapers reported it one after another, but they didn’t know that there was already a top banquet with a table of 400 oceans at this time. At this time, in Beijing, there are excellent swallow-wing seats, and a table is only sixteen oceans.

It can be said that the Manchu-Han banquet introduced by major restaurants in the same light-year period was influenced by the palace to some extent, with double roasting as the main task, supplemented by bird’s nest and the like. As for the Manchu-Han banquet developed by later generations, it embarked on a luxurious road. Today’s Manchu-Han banquet is full of delicacies, such as bird’s nest, shark’s fin, sea cucumber, fish belly, abalone, shad, hump, deer tendon, bear’s paw, civet cats, etc., but it follows the routine of the Mo-Shang Museum.

The prosperity of Manchu-Han banquet in the late Qing Dynasty paid attention to the compatibility of Manchu and Han, including full cakes, double roasting and various dishes of Han banquet, but it did not emphasize quantity and rare ingredients. Today’s Manchu-Han banquet, with more than 100 kinds of dishes, uses all kinds of delicacies, but it deviates from the true meaning of Manchu-Han banquet.

The derivative product of Manchu-Han banquet is Beijing roast duck. In the late Qing Dynasty, there were two famous shops, Cheap Square and Quanjude, both of which were famous for their ducks. Cheap Square’s main dish is braised roast duck, and Quanjude is hanging roast duck. The roast duck in Mishi Hutong Cheap Square is a must-have when you arrive in the capital on the same day, and it is even known as the first in the capital.

Roast duck with hanging stove is originally a palace dish, and it has gradually entered the folk. During the Tongzhi period, Yang Quanren, a native of Hebei Province, bought a dried and fresh fruit shop, hired a chef who cooked roasted ducks in the palace and started the roast duck business. The shop was originally a dried and fresh fruit shop. Yang Quanren had a brainwave and used fruit branches as fuel to cook ducks. The roasted duck has a fruity smell and is very popular. This is the famous Quanjude in later generations. In the end, Quanjude, the roast duck in the old cheap square, the roast beef in Aner Hutong, the sauce beef in Jushengzhai, the sauce mutton in Yueshengzhai, the white meat in Shaguoju and the fried beef in Mujiazhai all became the symbol of old Beijing.

This article is taken from "Passing the Meal", written by Yuan Canxing, CITIC Publishing Group, June 2019.