From ancient times to the present, China's food culture has been in the same vein, thousands of years ago, the ancients ate, we are still basically eating, such as chicken, duck, fish and so on, but the same is certainly different. Take the Han Dynasty, when the ancients' standards for eating animals were different from those of today, what were the differences? The following Xiaobian will reveal the secret to you.
Before revealing the secret, it is necessary to tell you about the Mawangdui Han Tomb, because the answer to the question is all in it. At the end of December 1971, it was the coldest time in Changsha, Hunan Province, but the workers still braved the severe cold to build a hospital in Mawangdui. Unexpectedly, when a worker was digging the foundation, he actually poked out a hole in the bowl with a shovel.
After the investigation of archaeologists, it was determined that the place was a Han Dynasty tomb, because it was buried underground for thousands of years, so a large number of combustible gases (biogas, etc.) were deposited. In order to properly protect the tomb, experts have subsequently carried out in-depth excavations and cleaning...
The mawangdui tomb that shocked the world was discovered. After the experts' research on the excavated cultural relics, it was determined that the owner of the tomb was the Western Han Dynasty Changsha State Xiang Licang, and in the subsequent excavation process, a large number of exquisite wooden lacquer, silk fabrics and bamboo paintings were unearthed.
It is worth mentioning that the experts also cleared out a large amount of food and animal remains in the burial chamber. For example, there are rice, indica and barley, etc., which shows that the northerners at that time mainly ate wheat, and the southerners mainly ate rice, and they were exactly the same as our eating habits in the north and south today. But the animal remains unearthed are very interesting.
Through the identification of biological sciences, experts have determined that there are a wealth of animal species in a large number of remains, such as the most common chickens and ducks, pigs and dogs, cattle and sheep. Of course, there are also uncommon game meats: geese, cranes and marine fish, among others. After research, the experts have made a surprising discovery, that is, the standard of eating animals in the Han Dynasty is very different from our modern times.
After summarizing the identification results, experts found that the animal remains unearthed at Mawangdui were very "immature", such as the pigs in it, their growth time was not more than half a year, most of them were only about 3 months, and the pigs at this time were only piglets. We now raise pigs, and the general time of the pen is about 1 year, so the time difference is more than 9 months.
Secondly, there are dogs, the growth time of dogs in the burial chamber is also very short, most of them are only about 1 year, and if we eat dog meat now, we generally like to eat 3-5 years old dogs, because the meat of old dogs is more fragrant and endless. There are also cattle and sheep among them, and their growth time is not very long, only about one or two years. It can be seen that the Han Dynasty people like to eat young and strong animals, rather than old animals, which is completely different from our current standard of eating animals. Experts wonder why the Han Dynasty people chose this way.
In fact, the reason is also very simple, mainly because the health conditions in captivity at that time were very poor, resulting in poultry and livestock beings prone to illness, and there were not many veterinarians at that time, once sick will soon die, and then there were often outbreaks of plague, so it is better to eat them early to meet the needs of the mouth and abdomen, otherwise they will not have to eat when they die. In addition, there is another reason that cannot be ignored, because people's food shortage at that time led to many families not enough food to eat, so they would not raise poultry and livestock for a long time, after all, even people could not eat enough, so they simply killed poultry and livestock just after they grew up.
Diet is a university question, carrying the development of Chinese civilization for more than 5,000 years, so when we discuss and study diet, it is also a kind of thinking and recall of history and culture. Different eras, there are different dietary standards, what to eat, what not to eat, the ancient ancestors have their own best choices for them, and the profound truth contained in it is also worth our careful consideration