Why did Qing nobles eat venison and drink venison?

Manchu (jurchen) comes from Heishui, Baishan, Northeast China, and lives by fishing and hunting. One kind of meat they eat most often is deer. Cooking methods are simple and rude, or barbecue or cooking, such as boiled white meat, roasted venison, steamed cakes for offering sacrifices to the gods, etc. After the reunification of China, the Aisingiorro family adhered to traditional customs in dress, hairstyle, etiquette and diet, especially Emperor Kangxi and Emperor Qianlong often went hunting on the grassland in Weichang County, Chengde City, Hebei Province, north of Beijing. One trick of Nuzhen deer hunting is to use what they call "Mulan" (translated as "deer whistle" or "deer whistle enclosure"), which is usually made of birch bark or trees and is two or three inches long and shaped like a horn. When blowing or sucking through their mouths, they can make a "yo-yo" sound similar to a stag to lure the roe to come, while the hunters who have been lying in wait just surround and shoot it. Over time, the emperor. In order to train the officers and men of the Eight Banners and meet the Mongolian princes, Emperor Kangxi created the system of "Mulan Qiujia". It is also to swear martial arts and inherit the Manchu tradition. Deer are the most precious prey, and the deer killed by the emperor himself must be sent to the capital to be dedicated to the ancestors of Fengxian Hall. The draft of Qing history? 9? It is recorded in Biography of Empresses that Emperor Kangxi dedicated his deer tail to his mother and grandmother. In his later years, he recalled that he hunted hundreds of deer in his life.

Kangxi

Kangxi not only ate venison himself, sacrificed venison, but also often gave venison to Manchu courtiers, which promoted the popularization of venison. In his later years, Emperor Kangxi held two "Thousand Banquets" at the court, entertaining more than 2,800 elderly people. One of the dishes is a roast deer tail. Interestingly, during the reign of Kangxi, Cao Yin and Xu Li often presented fresh fruits, fresh rivers and dew in the south of the Yangtze River to Kangxi, while Emperor Kangxi gave venison strips, hazelnuts and other northeast specialties. This is also a special cultural exchange between North and South. Kangxi Qianlong went south to Jiangnan, and it is estimated that it also has a lot to do with trying southern cuisine.

There were three main sources of venison in Kangxi period: tributes from three northeastern provinces, tributes from Mongolia and Mulan paddock. Northeast China contributes deer tail, deer tendon and venison to the Qing royal family every year. At the end of each year, the emperor held a "roast deer reward" according to the customs and habits, and distributed venison, venison, deer tail, deer tongue, roe deer, wild boar, pheasant, pheasant, soup sheep, Harhan sheep, curved deer fish, fine-scaled fish and Qin carp to princes and ministers. At this time, there is a Kanto freight yard in Beijing, commonly known as "Deer shed", which sells deer, bear's paw, hump and sturgeon in the northeast, and "purple deer and antelope are piled up all over the street", so that the Eight Banners soldiers and their families who are far away from home can also taste the flavor of their hometown.

Emperor Qianlong, the grandson of Kangxi, often imitated his grandfather in his life. His enthusiasm for Mulan Qiua is no less than Kangxi's. He once saw a herd of deer on horseback in Mulan Qiujia, and ordered the guards to keep a fake deer's head as bait, imitating Luming Literature with Mulan's voice, immediately releasing arrows when the deer was imported, and drinking the deer's blood on the spot. "It is not only good for health, but also difficult to learn." Forty-three years after Qianlong (1778), he traveled to Beijing in the north. General Shengjing made a special trip to visit the fresh deer just bought by Shanhaiguan. Li Hong specifically asked, "Is the deer fat today?" I heard that I was thin, so I ordered the chef to cook Hami venison for dinner. The rest is service and enjoyment. "After his son Jiaqing acceded to the throne, he sympathized with the hard supply of the people and repeatedly instructed the local authorities not to pay tribute to deer and venison, which greatly reduced the source of fresh venison, a nourishing food that Manchu people loved at that time. Ordinary people can't afford venison, so a butcher shop came up with a substitute. By filling sausages, it was mixed with pork stuffing and spices to make it look like venison, which has become a dish that has been handed down to this day.

In A Dream of Red Mansions written by Cao Xueqin, Jia Baoyu and Shi Xiangyun, gifted scholars and beauties in the Grand View Garden, also want to roast venison in the snow, suggesting that their family is of Manchu descent. The rent paid for the fifty-three visit to Zhongjiafu Grange includes "30 big deer, 20 Jin of deer tendons and 50 deer tongues". It is estimated that the place where deer can be raised is most likely in the northeast of Guanwai. Another interesting thing is that Jia Baoyu's nephew Jia Lan chased deer with a small bow in the Grand View Garden after school, which means "competing for deer in the Central Plains", perhaps suggesting that he replaced Jia Baoyu's central position in the family for a period of time after the drastic changes in Jiafu.

Emperors and Manchu dignitaries attached so much importance to venison that it even affected the south of the Yangtze River. Gourmet Yuan Mei once praised venison for its tenderness, freshness and liveliness. Can be made into jerky, suitable for barbecue or slow stew. In fact, most wild deer often run and exercise, and their meat is hard and mature. So in order to make venison taste better, most chefs will marinate venison first, and then stew, stew, stir-fry, stir-fry and hotpot. At that time, venison was rarer and more expensive than pigs, cattle and sheep, so rich bureaucrats often gave it as a gift.

In China, Xinjiang, Heilongjiang and other places, there are special farms to raise deer and sell venison, canned venison and velvet antler. The main species are thick and tender red deer and sika deer. In the world, the largest exporter of deer products is New Zealand. Interestingly, there are no local deer breeds in New Zealand. /kloc-After the introduction of red deer and red deer by British immigrants in the middle of 0/9th century, all kinds of wild deer were once flooded because of the suitable climate, abundant forage and almost no natural enemies. According to statistics, the number of local wild deer in 1930 was as high as 7 million to 8 million, so the government had to encourage people to hunt. Since the 1960s, artificial farms with fenced grazing have appeared in the local area. As many as a million deer live in pastures all over New Zealand, and a large number of deer meat, velvet antler and other commodities are sold to Europe, Japan, Southeast Asia and other places.