The emperor of the Qing Dynasty spent 'golden mountains' for good deeds, 120 dishes cooked only with this precious water source

In the memoir "My First Half Life", the last Qing Dynasty king, Pu Yi, revealed an unbelievable truth: At the time when he was still sitting on the throne, the money spent on eating and drinking of a he basically spent 14,794 white silver a year, not to mention the money to buy fruit or prepare snacks.

While, even at the height of the Qing dynasty's prosperity under the Qianlong king, the average income of the commoners only fluctuated between 2 and 3 taels of silver a month.

The difference between these numbers is enough to show how lavish and expensive in terms of eating and drinking of the characters of the Qing royal family.

The reason why it costs so much money is because during the Qing Dynasty there were many rules, including the rule that each king's meal must have 120 dishes. The concubines are equally luxurious when the Queen's meal is 96 dishes, the Hoang concubine's 64 dishes.

Having only 2 main meals a day, the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty still spent thousands of taels of silver on food.

In the past, the Qing dynasty's royal family were all Manchus in the Northeast. After entering the military, their eating habits are still the same as those passed down from their ancestors. Because of that, the Qing emperors only ate two main meals a day. Their breakfast will be between 6am and 8am. Lunch will be served between 12 noon and 2 pm.

After having breakfast, the Emperor will eat more breakfast. The time to eat this snack is also not fixed. If the Emperor suddenly wanted to eat something, the Imperial Court would have to immediately prepare it and present it. Therefore, the chefs in the palace are always on duty in a state of readiness.

Normally, the Emperor's Ngu Thien Room consisted of more than 100 servants. They are all master chefs from all over the country, trained in culinary skills.

Although the Qing Dynasty stipulated that the Emperor's meal must be full of 120 dishes, some emperors such as Khang Hy and Ung Chinh actively reduced the number of dishes in a meal to save the treasury. But until Empress Dowager Cixi comes to power, each meal of 120 dishes will not be reduced to any dishes.

For the Qing Dynasty emperors in particular, what they value most is not the taste or preciousness of the dish, but the safety. The process of testing poison for the king before each meal was really a complicated and expensive step.

According to the family law passed down since the founding of the country, the Qing kings would only stay with them when they ate a meal with four people specializing in serving them. Among them, there will be an elderly eunuch in charge of bringing food for the king.

Before the Son of Heaven had a meal, this eunuch would have to test all the dishes for poison, then personally taste them to test and then offer them for the king to enjoy.

The Emperor must not eat more than 3 pieces of each dish when dining. This rule was established to avoid the Son of Heaven's preferences being revealed, thereby preventing those with bad intentions.

Utensils and ingredients in the meal for the king must be high-class and top-class.

The ingredients for cooking in the palace must be fresh and of the highest quality. The materials transported to the supply, especially rice, must have a clear origin. The dishes containing food for the Emperor were all gold and silver plates. Specifically, the soup or soup must be placed in a deep bowl with a silver lid, silver-plated bowl, jade spoon. Therefore, it is understandable that eating in the royal palace is expensive.

In the royal palace, the chef serving the king will be carefully selected. The concubines also often have their own 'gut' cooks. There are hundreds and thousands of people in the royal palace, even with a single dish of tofu, there are 3-4 chefs. In addition to eating and drinking in the palace, each time the Emperor went out, he brought 2-3 chefs with him or hired local chefs to prepare a proper dining table.

Not only the food needs to be delicate, the water that the king uses must also be the freshest source of water. Although there are nearly 100 wells in the Forbidden City, absolutely no one uses water here. 

During the Qianlong Emperor's reign, in order to find the best water source, the king of the good room worked hard to find it everywhere and then found the water source located on Ngoc Tuyen mountain. Since then, every day people come here to collect water for the king to use and wherever they go, Qianlong's soldiers have to bring water in Ngoc Tuyen mountain.

The luxury of eating in the Qing Dynasty was also recorded by the last Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, Pu Yi, in a book about his life: 'There is nothing more ostentatious and luxurious than eating and drinking'. . Even this luxury is said to be one of the reasons for the collapse of the Qing Dynasty.

How is the Emperor's leftovers handled?

With so many dishes in one meal, the Emperor could not eat them all. Therefore, unused items will be used to reward concubines, ministers, eunuchs. In the feudal dynasties, receiving food from the Emperor was considered a great blessing. When rewarded, the recipient will stand at a special table and then enjoy it, and at the same time prove it is delicious food or else will commit the crime of disrespect to the Emperor and be punished.

In case if the Emperor did not give the leftovers to anyone, the eunuchs had to mix them together and throw them away. This is a way to eliminate the possibility of outside crooks knowing the dishes the head of the dynasty used to eat, avoiding the risk of assassination.