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This year, Beijing’s Palace Museum – the former Chinese imperial palace, known as the Forbidden City, in use from the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) up to the end of the Qing dynasty (1644-1911) – is offering an insight into how the nation’s emperors would have celebrated the occasion in lavish style.

An exhibition, titled “Celebrating the Spring Festival in the Forbidden City” – staged in galleries above the Meridian Gate, or Wumen (午門) until April 7 – allows the public to see exactly what, and how much, Emperor Qianlong would have eaten at his lavish Lunar New Year’s Eve dinner in 1779, thanks to the painstaking recreation of his opulent “golden dragon banquet table” (金龍大宴桌).

This luxurious feast – featuring 80 dishes arranged in eight rows – was served to the Qing dynasty emperor and other members of the imperial family for the annual celebrations during the 44th year of his reign.

Yet a daily ritual – before the emperor could start to eat anything at mealtimes – included a test for poison, with a loyal servant given the task of eating small portions of each dish to check they were safe for royal consumption. So the emperor would have had to wait while all 80 dishes were tested.

The golden dragon banquet table would have been placed in front of the emperor’s throne, in the Forbidden City’s Palace of Heavenly Purity, or Qianqinggong (乾清宮), with rows of tables with dishes carefully arranged to the sides by the palace’s eunuchs and maids.

Music would have started to play as soon as the emperor stepped inside the hall, with the rest of royal family members trooping in after him in decorous and solemn fashion.

After all of the family members had taken their seats according to the hierarchical seating order – those of highest rank on the emperor’s left and others on the right – the eunuchs and maids would have streamed into the hall to distribute the dishes, one by one, using both their hands.

His daily meals of the Qing emperor were also lavish affairs.

Let’s check out some of the most intriguing rituals involving the everyday meals of the Qing emperors inside the Forbidden City to see how meals from hundreds of years ago and today compare.

Emperor’s latest daily meal at only 2pm

In China, when there were emperors and palaces, there was one particular department that had responsibility for preparing the imperial food for the emperor, other members of the royal family, and the large numbers of maids, eunuchs, and other palace staff.

During the Qing dynasty, this department was called the Yuchashanfang (御茶膳房), or Imperial Buttery. Another agency, called the Guanglusi (光祿寺), or Court of Imperial Entertainments, took care of state banquets held at the palace.

A Palace Museum report reveals that the Imperial Buttery had to prepare two meals each day for the emperor – the first soon after 6am and the second at noon, although sometimes it would be postponed until 2pm.

Drinks and snacks were served in between the two feasts – usually in the afternoon or at night – but at no set time, because it would depend on the Emperor’s whim.

Emperor-sized food portions

Inside the Forbidden City, the food allotment for each imperial family member was strictly controlled.

The Qing emperor’s ancestor’s had laid down rule which specified the precise portion of different ingredients, such as rice, meat, vegetables and condiments, that the emperor, empress and his concubines should receive each day.

For instance, for a single day, the emperor alone would be served 22 catties – about 13kg (28 pounds) of meat in his dishes; five catties of meat for broth; one catty of lard; two lambs, five chickens; three ducks, various vegetables; 100 catties of milk; 12 buckets of water and 75 packs of tea.

An essay recorded that on February 11, 1761 – the 26th year of Emperor Qianlong’s reign – “the son of heaven” was served 19 dishes for his breakfast and 37 dishes for his dinner.

It is easy to imagine that the emperor was unable to finish all the food by himself. Instead, he would have granted his unfinished dishes, as a reward, to his family members or officials.

The last Chinese Qing emperor, Aisin-Gioro Puyi – who reigned from the age of three, under a regency, from 1908, until being forced to abdicate in 1912 following the Chinese Revolution – clearly agreed that such practices were unnecessarily extravagant; the food was prepared mostly as displays of wealth and power.

Puyi, who died in 1967, wrote in his autobiography, From Emperor to Citizen: “The food served as a decoration. The dishes were cooked without anyone eating them, the clothes were made without anyone wearing them.”

The emperor had his own spring, paddies and dairy farm

Imperial food represented a dynasty’s best cuisine, with good materials proving an essential part of each fine delicacy.

Only the best ingredients were chosen for use in imperial food, with each item coming from their own particular source.

Every morning, the imperial palace’s staff would transport fresh water to the palace from just one particular place – the Jade Spring.

It was believed that the water from this celebrated spring, located in the south of the Jade Spring Hill in northwest Beijing, was soft, clear and nourishing.

It was acclaimed by Emperor Qianlong as “the first spring in the world”.

Today, the Jade Spring Hill is situated in the villa area of the Central Military Commission, and is not open to the public.

Rice, milk and mutton were sourced from different places, either inside or outside the palace.

Qingfengsi (慶豐司) at the palace was the place where the Imperial Kitchen reared cows and lambs for the royals.

However, the eating of beef was prohibited inside the Forbidden City, and cows were raised only for milk.

The royal family’s staple food of rice was sourced from paddy fields located in three different places – Fengzeyuan (豐澤園), or Garden of Plenty, on the artificial Yingtai Island (瀛台) to the west of the imperial palace; Tangquan (湯泉) in Hebei province and the Jade Spring Hill.

Some of the raw ingredients were bought directly from the local markets situated outside the palace, while other produce was sent from all over the country as tributes for the emperor.

Things to do before the emperor started his meal

You may have been astonished to see the splendid Porcelain Dining Room at the Palace of Versailles in Paris where Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette would enjoy their extravagant meals.

However, inside the Forbidden City, there was no set venue for serving the emperors’ meals. The rulers would eat wherever they wanted inside the palace.

When the emperor called for his meal, the eunuchs and maids would quickly deliver the food from the kitchen to wherever the emperor was at the time.

Yet before the emperor was able to start eating from the dishes, his attendants would insert a silver marker into the food several times – because it was believed that the plate would change colour if the dish was poisoned – and also eat a small portion of each dish to ensure the food was safe for the emperor to consume.

Unless there was an edict from the emperor, no one was allowed to accompany his majesty when he ate his meals.

Manchu and Han Imperial Banquet

The earliest written record of the sought-after Manchu and Han Imperial Banquet (滿漢全席) was in the Recipes from the Garden of Contentment (隨園食單), a text on gastronomy providing details about the cooking and ingredients used in the meal, which was published in 1792, the 57th year of Emperor Qianlong’s reign.

However, some historians believe that the banquet actually appeared before the Qianlong period.

When the Manchus conquered China and founded the Qing dynasty, the Manchu and Han Chinese people struggled for power.

The Qing emperor wished to resolve the dispute by adopting a kid-glove approach.

As a result the emperor continued to hire Han Chinese officials from the previous dynasty and invited officials from both ethnic groups to his important imperial banquets.

The Manchu and Han Imperial Banquet, with Manchu tables and Han tables at the same dinner – catered to both groups, according to their diverse eating and drinking customs.

The original banquet included expensive and rare ingredients from both the land and sea, such as bird’s nest, shark’s fin, bear’s paw and camel’s hump.

Although the banquet’s original menu and recipes are no longer used, Chinese chefs have interpreted its ideas into modern dishes served at banquets, which usually combine the two distinct kinds of food served on the same table.

Today Fangshan Restaurant (仿膳飯莊), in Beihai, Beijing, serves dishes that were served at the imperial palace, including some of the food served during the Manchu and Han Imperial Banquet.

If you are travelling to the Chinese capital before April 7 don’t miss the chance to visit the exhibition, which also features some of the traditional Lunar New Year decorations used in the palace, as well as 885 other cultural relics.

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