Fortune teller's fortune-telling video for Cixi _ Fortune teller's fortune-telling video broadcast for Cixi

A video of a fortune teller telling the fortune of Cixi.

Empress Dowager Cixi is a famous "luxury empress dowager" in history, especially in diet. Take Shoushan House, which is responsible for Cixi's personal diet. This cooking class, located on the east side of the Summer Palace Grand Theatre building, consists of 108 rooms, occupying 8 courtyards, with 128 chefs working in it! Such a large-scale cookhouse squad can provide food for one person and even serve an assembler.

Empress Dowager Cixi, who is so extravagant, has a puzzling eating habit, that is, she doesn't eat beef. So why on earth don't people like Empress Dowager Cixi eat beef? We must first know the importance of beef in ancient times. In ancient times, beef was regarded as the highest sacrifice, ranking first among the "three sacrifices" used in sacrificial ceremonies. At the same time, cattle are important agricultural animal power and are specially protected. In the Western Zhou Dynasty, there was a saying that "governors did not kill cattle for no reason". From the Han Dynasty to the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, there were clear punishment measures for slaughtering cattle privately, such as fines, exile and even beheading in serious cases.

Cattle is an important means of production in the farming era. In many dynasties, it was forbidden to slaughter cattle without permission. As the Book of Rites said, even a vassal would not kill an ox easily when he had nothing important to do. As early as the Han Dynasty, cattle had been protected by legislation, and China law stipulated that "no less teeth should be slaughtered". The punishment for killing cattle in the Han Law is very severe, and those who violate the ban will be punished and pay the price of their lives. It seems that beef was a very precious meat at that time.

The situation in the Qing Dynasty during the Cixi period was very grim. Although Empress Dowager Cixi was particular about food, she still had to abide by the rule that her ancestors could not eat beef.