As the saying goes, food is the most important thing for the people. The recently released TV series Shangshi has aroused people's attention to the ancient court kitchen. What are the catering management institutions of the ancient court? How do they work? Guanglu temple and Shangshi Bureau According to the records of Zhou rites, during the Zhou Dynasty, there were complete imperial catering institutions and personnel in the palace, including cooks, cooks and so on. In addition to "taking charge of the king's food, drinking and eating shame to support the king and later sons", they also provide food for guests and offerings for sacrifice. During the Northern Qi Dynasty, Guanglu temple, which was originally responsible for the access control of the palace, began to take charge of the palace food. In the Sui Dynasty, Guanglu temple was transformed into a special organization for the management of court meals. This setting followed for more than 1000 years until the demise of the Qing Dynasty. With the continuous expansion of the size of court personnel in each dynasty, Guanglu temple was no longer the only food management organization in the palace. After the Sui Dynasty, a Food Bureau was added. Generally speaking, Guanglu temple is the official institution of the imperial court, which is mainly responsible for the food supply of official activities such as sacrifice, imperial meeting and banquet. The Shangshi Bureau mainly serves the emperor and royal members, which is equivalent to the Royal private kitchen. During the Ming Dynasty, the palace catering management organization continued the traditional two sets of systems: the outer court and the inner court. Among them, the main responsibility of Guanglu temple is to "take charge of sacrificial enjoyment, banquet labor, wine and food shame". These activities also need the cooperation of the Ministry of rites, the Ministry of work, Taichang temple and other departments, such as the Ministry of rites to determine the corresponding etiquette, the Ministry of work to provide dietary raw materials and tableware, and Taichang temple to determine the list of personnel participating in the banquet or sacrifice. Inside the Imperial Palace, the main institutions responsible for Royal meals are the ceremony supervisor, food supervisor, salary cherishing department, wine and vinegar noodle Bureau and so on. Among these institutions, the ceremonial supervisor is the Department in charge of intrauterine affairs and also takes charge of intrauterine meals. Before emperor Xizong of the Ming Dynasty, there were also soup Bureau, meat Bureau and vegetable Bureau under the supervision of Si Li, which were responsible for making meals in the palace and serving royal family members. After emperor Xizong of the Ming Dynasty, a special catering management organization, the catering supervisor, was established in the Ming Palace to take charge of the emperor's imperial meals, intrauterine meals and banquets. Xi salary department is mainly responsible for the fuel supply in the palace. In addition to providing firewood for the kitchen, it also prepares enough fuel for heating in winter. The responsibility of the Bureau of wine, vinegar and noodles is to provide enough wine, vinegar and noodles for the palace. Of course, it also includes sugar, wheat, soybeans and other catering related raw materials and condiments. Due to the large number of royal family members, palace maids and eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty, the food production task in the Ming Palace is very heavy and expensive. Origin of imperial tea pantry Compared with the previous dynasties, the catering management institutions in the Qing palace have both similarities and great differences. First of all, the Qing Dynasty still retained the institutional setting of Guanglu temple, which mainly prepared banquets for court celebrations, sacrifices and other activities, and provided food for officials. Before holding the above activities, the officials of Guanglu temple, together with the officials of the imperial censor, Taichang temple and the Ministry of rites, should personally supervise the slaughter of animals, and be responsible for distributing the meat sacrifice to the officials after the activities. In addition, Guanglu temple is also responsible for providing food for Mongolian princes and foreign tribute envoys. Unlike the previous dynasties, the internal affairs office was responsible for all the palace affairs of the Qing Dynasty, including the clothing, food, housing and transportation of the royal family. In this sense, the Shangshi Bureau and Shangshi supervisor, who had previously been in charge of the palace diet, have been replaced by the interior ministry. Of course, the house of interior is a big Yamen. The construction and security of the Imperial Palace and the management of eunuchs and maids are within its scope of authority. Providing palace meals is only part of the work of the house of interior. In terms of time, the catering management organization of the Qing palace has a continuous development process. In the early years of Shunzhi, the interior government set up "teahouses" and "pantries" respectively to take charge of the catering affairs of the court; In the 13th year of Emperor Qianlong's reign (1748), the teahouse and dining room were merged into the "imperial tea dining room", which became the special management organization of the meals in the Qing palace. In order to cooperate with the imperial tea pantry, the house of interior also set up a "control and Defense Department". Its subordinate official Sancang, enfeng warehouse, inner pastry room, outer pastry room, wine and vinegar room, vegetable warehouse and so on are institutions that provide ingredients, snacks and condiments for court meals. In addition, the tea storehouse of the Guangchu Department of the Ministry of internal affairs, the charcoal storehouse and firewood storehouse of the construction department, the fruit room of the Zhangyi department and the Livestock Group under the jurisdiction of Qingfeng department are closely related to the palace diet. As the production department of palace meals, the imperial tea pantry also has a clear division of responsibilities. For example, under the dining room, there are meat Bureau, vegetable Bureau, stove hanging Bureau, dim sum Bureau, meal Bureau, etc. Among them, the meat bureau is responsible for providing fish, meat and seafood; The vegetable bureau is responsible for providing green vegetables, dried vegetables, vegetable oil, etc; The stove hanging bureau is responsible for providing barbecue dishes; The dim sum bureau is responsible for providing steamed stuffed buns, dumplings, baked cakes, pastries, cakes, etc; The restaurant is responsible for providing porridge, rice, etc. In addition, the imperial tea dining room also has a comprador meat office, meat room and dry meat warehouse, which are responsible for the collection, storage and supply of meat and seafood. Meal bottom and longevity bottom In terms of layout, there are many dining rooms in the Qing palace, the largest of which is the imperial dining room serving the emperor. There are two imperial dining rooms. One is the external imperial dining room (also known as the imperial dining room) outside Jingyun gate, which is responsible for making the "Manchu and Han banquet" for the officials of the grand banquet, and also preparing meals for the ministers on duty; The other is the inner imperial dining room (also known as the imperial dining room of Yangxin Hall) on the side of Yangxin hall, which is basically a small kitchen dedicated to the emperor. In addition to the emperor, the princes also have their own dining room and tea room, and the imperial concubines in the palace also have corresponding dining rooms. Generally speaking, the lower the status, the fewer dishes, and the corresponding degradation of tableware, ranging from gold and silver to tin and porcelain. During the Jiaqing period, a tea room was added in Shoukang palace, which was a place for the Empress Dowager and concubines. In addition, the palace also has an external dining room, which is a dining room for bodyguards. Outside the Forbidden City, there are also dining rooms in imperial gardens such as the Old Summer Palace and the summer palace, namely "Yuanting dining room". In Mulan autumn service, Rehe Palace (Chengde summer resort) and Luanhe palace along the way also have imperial dining rooms, that is, "walking in the imperial dining room". Every time the emperor travels, such as patrolling Jiangnan in the South and Mount Tai in the East, he also carries imperial catering personnel to ensure the food safety of the emperor and others outside. Everywhere they went, local officials often offered local specialties. If the emperor was satisfied, he sometimes brought the chef back to the palace. It is worth mentioning that the reason why the diet of the Qing emperor can be fully understood by later generations should be attributed to the establishment of the archives under the imperial tea pantry in the 36th year of Qianlong (1771), which is mainly responsible for recording the diet in the palace and keeping documents and archives. Among them, the emperor's meal bottom file and the Empress Dowager's longevity bottom file are the most well preserved. They respectively record the recipes for breakfast and dinner of successive emperors and empress dowagers, the list of chefs, the place of eating, various tableware, table furnishings, rewards after eating, etc. When the emperor went out on a tour, the corresponding food files were also recorded, which provided quite rich materials for the study of the Qing palace and the food culture of the Qing Dynasty. (outlook new era)