"Water Margin" is one of the four famous works, deeply loved by the majority of readers, among the many characters in it, perhaps Li Kui is one that everyone is more familiar with, his simple mind and developed limbs image is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and even sometimes do some funny things, causing everyone to laugh.
Compared with Song Jiang's dark and complex, Li Kui's simple and straightforward personality has won the love of many people, but once Li Kui entered the restaurant to eat and asked for two pounds of beef, but the bartender said that the store only sold mutton, no beef, Li Kui listened, and then poured the fish juice on his face and poured on the bartender.
When many people say this paragraph, they are boasting that the good man of Liangshan ignores this government ban and deliberately wants to eat beef, reflecting the temperament of the good man of Liangshan who is not afraid of heaven, and this statement is currently very popular.
There is a heroic one, but li kui heard that he did not sell beef why he suddenly became so angry, since they were ignoring the government's ban on eating beef, after seeing that the shop Xiao Er did not beef with them, it should be laughed, in order to laugh at the timidity of the shop Xiao Er.
Why did Li Kui say that it was "this is rude, bullying me to eat only beef, not to sell lamb with me!" This feels like Li Kui has been greatly insulted, how can a proud thing be like being insulted, the truth of the matter is often hidden in the details of history.
Imperial court ban
When many people talk about eating beef, they always use the fact that the imperial court has always banned the killing of cattle to explain the characteristics of good people in Liangshan, and deliberately want beef to show their personality.
So what did the Song Dynasty think about the killing of cattle, and did it really issue a ban on killing cattle and eating cattle?
The answer is yes, not only clear records but also some detailed statistics, such as the first year of the Song Zhenzong Jingde (1004 AD) issued a ban: "Those who slaughter cattle are worth thousands of miles, and the disciples are three years." The informed meat sellers were in vain for two years. "The slaughterer of cattle was discovered by the government, sent thousands of miles away, and sentenced to three years in prison. Those who know that the slaughter of cattle is illegal and still buy and sell beef are sentenced to two years in prison.
Such a record clearly says that killing cattle is sinful, so is this ironclad evidence, don't worry if you look a little more carefully, you will find that there are more such records in the historical materials of the Song Dynasty, and according to the "Song Huijiao" record, in the two Song Dynasties and three hundred years, the imperial court has promulgated at least fifty holy decrees to prohibit the killing of cattle, so many holy wills on such a large scale, it can be seen that the attitude of the imperial court to the killing of cattle is nailed.
At this point, it seems that Li Kui is indeed deliberately eating beef in defiance of the king's law, and more than fifty sacred wills are appropriate ironclad evidence, but as a middle-aged uncle who loves to think, based on years of survival experience, the conclusion I have come to is completely opposite, that is, the reason why more than fifty sacred decrees are needed to prohibit the killing of cattle and eat cattle is only one reason, that is, the imperial court is simply unable to control the fact that the people eat cattle.
Many things must be seen through the manifestation of the essence, the holy will is the supreme instruction of the imperial court, and the Song Dynasty is a country with a very complete code of law, under normal circumstances, the slaughter of cattle can be prohibited by decree, but in addition to the decree, more than fifty holy decrees have been issued to solemnly declare this matter, which can very clearly see the helplessness of the imperial court, and the prohibition can only be a few more shouts.
Reading a history book must not be to look at what is said in an edict, sometimes it is often the things advocated in the edict, which may be exactly what the people do not have, so it is necessary to issue an edict to promote it, and the things that are repeatedly ordered to be prohibited in the edict just show that this kind of thing has become very common in the people, so it will be forbidden by the edict five times.
So the question is, the business of killing the head is done, the loss of the business no one asks, why eating cattle is always forbidden, the answer is about to come out, that is, no matter how you prohibit, you can't stand the cheap beef.
Turn over the beef to sing
In our impression, beef is a high-grade ingredient, has always been more expensive than pork, and beef in the taste is also much better than pork or something, and cattle also have the function of cultivating land, so beef has always been relatively scarce, the price has been relatively expensive from ancient times to the present.
The problem lies in this four words "from ancient times to the present", many things are often only popular for decades, but in our short lives always account for most of the time, we mistakenly think that this thing has been like this since ancient times.
For example, recently Dr. Zhang Wenhong only from the perspective of nutrition, suggested that breakfast do not drink porridge, to eat eggs and milk, did not expect that the following many people are saying, breakfast porridge is the traditional habit of Chinese, from the ancestors there are thousands of years of inheritance is like this, you do not let you drink porridge for breakfast, this is the number of classics forget the ancestors of the admiration of the foreign.
Many people themselves drink porridge from childhood, they mistakenly think that this matter is "since ancient times", in fact, you can clearly tell you that the Song Dynasty even breakfast did not exist at all, people at that time only ate two meals a day, not even breakfast, and where to talk about breakfast porridge is our traditional habit.
This kind of thing that occupies one's life experience is easily considered to be such a thing since ancient times, and beef is very expensive, but it has only happened in the last decade.
Ancient beef is not expensive, and most of the time cheaper than pork, the core reason needs you to play a question first to understand this reason, if the canteen aunt when cooking, give you a large piece of fat, what can explain the problem?
1, this aunt loves you very much and wants to marry her daughter to you
2, you look ordinary, even a little bit obscene, aunt hates you
Obviously many people will choose 2, a large piece of fat meat is so unpalatable, do I look so unpopular aunt to see, you firmly believe that you are still young and still in school, and when you grow up, you will become Peng Yuyan, this time the rice aunt loves to answer you, in the future you will let her climb high, after thinking about you and thinking about a lot of ancient and modern Chinese and foreign counterattack stories, the heart is full of motivation for struggle.
This does not have to wait for the future, not to mention far before, that is, Gao Xiaosong's student days, if there is a canteen aunt, when cooking, gave him a large piece of fat, Gao Xiaosong must be very proud, and even wonder in his heart, is the aunt really want to marry his daughter to him.
This is not a deliberate paragraph, just a few decades ago, this is all real history, when people liked fat meat, and now people like Kobe beef is the same fanaticism.
Most of the commoners in ancient society have been in the subsistence line for a long time, beef fat content is low, there is no calorie, there is no fat pork to eat fragrant, so people do not like to eat beef, which is the root cause of the relatively low price of beef.
So in the Song Dynasty, if you want to entertain guests with high standards, you need to ask him to eat what is the most face-saving thing, the answer is not the same as now, now it is seafood or Kobe beef, if in the Song Dynasty, the lamb is a proper high-grade ingredient, if you invite a friend to eat a piece of lamb, it is absolutely possible to move the friend to cry.
Scarce things are more expensive
For example, during the reign of Emperor Gaozong of the Song Dynasty, a public security bureau chief only received a monthly salary of 7,700 yuan, while the mutton at that time was 900 yuan a catty, which means that the monthly salary of a public security bureau chief could not afford to buy ten catties of mutton.
Mutton is so expensive in the Song Dynasty that there is a reason, because the sheep do not say that the Song Dynasty is now a very magical animal, as one of the animals domesticated by humans, it has not been able to be farmed on a large scale like pigs, cattle, chickens and ducks from ancient times to the present, raising sheep requires two conditions, the first is the place, the second is forage, and the song dynasty's hay is mainly for horses to eat, the Song Dynasty has been in a state of war since the founding of the country, and the few good pastures and hay are absolutely priority for raising horses
At that time, the lamb of the Song Dynasty mainly relied on imports, so the sheep in the Song Dynasty was absolutely a high-grade ingredient that was rare and expensive, so many envoys to the Liao State or the Song Dynasty people who passed by had recorded the situation of eating mutton after they went on the mission, because the mutton was not expensive there, and the ideal of eating meat in a large bowl could be realized.
There was an official in the Southern Song Dynasty named Hong Hao, once he went on an envoy to the Jin Kingdom, when he first arrived, he was surprised by the number of sheep in the Jin Kingdom, a group of tens of thousands, trekking hundreds of miles, covering the sky, this can make him happy, thinking that he can eat a good meal, the Jin State entertaining emissaries after all is not ambiguous, after all, it is the Song Dynasty, relative peace is good for everyone, naturally it is to be entertained.
Just when Jin Guo was going to entertain him to eat the whole sheep feast, when he thought of the delicacies about raising lamb, lamb belly, sheep lung, milk room, red white waist, sheep blood, fried white intestines and lamb liver soup, and the tender lamb, the messenger was happy to blossom in his heart, but when the whole sheep feast came up, the messenger was surprised to find that there was only mutton, and there was no water at all.
And for the cooking skills of making sheep, Jinguo is also far behind, Jinguo people do not eat sheep water at all, that is because they do not lack sheep, people who have been sewn into the water know that this thing is time-consuming and laborious to do, and it is even more difficult to do well, and people who have made fat intestines by hand know how difficult it is to make a delicious and clean meal.
In fact, most of our memories of delicious food come from inheritance, and the exquisite production of various types of water has finally become a delicious famous dish, which is essentially a manifestation of food lack, and any part of the animal is reluctant to waste a little.
If you travel back to the Song Dynasty, if you want to appear generous when you invite guests, remember to invite others to eat mutton, and it must be a fat sheep, only a fat sheep can relieve hunger, in order to show your identity and status.
The mystery is revealed
Seeing this, the question we had at the beginning basically had an answer, Li Kui said to the bartender to come two pounds of beef, the bartender said that we only sell mutton here, Li Kui, a man with a straight personality, was immediately anxious.
Why is that? Because he felt that the bartender looked down on him, although the good man of Liangshan looked dashing, but most of the time he was not rich, especially from a background like Li Kui, he was most afraid that others would look down on him, if Chai Jin would definitely not, the more a person was nothing, the more he would care about something.
Beef belongs to ordinary food, lamb is a high-grade ingredient, understand this, the behavior of the black whirlwind Li Kui can make sense, this and you take the big brother to eat at a high-end restaurant today, open your mouth to ask for three pounds of beef, others come to a sentence, sorry this store does not have beef, only sell abalone, if you are a grumpy temper, maybe you will also beat the waiter, look down on who it is.
Meditation Moment: Many people saw that the imperial court had a ban on the killing of cattle, and they thought that the beef at that time was rare and expensive, and the good people of Liangshan ate it to show their contempt for the king's law, which was a natural idea, only through the logic behind the text, we can see the truth at that time through the text.