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Why was beef not allowed in Song Dynasty?

At the beginning of his ascension to the throne, Song Zhenzong was extraordinarily diligent in political affairs. He not only exempted various taxes owed by the people since the Five Dynasties, but also issued an imperial decree in the sixth year of Xianping (1003), prohibiting the killing of cattle and the consumption of beef. Song Zhenzong said that as early as the Spring and Autumn Period, the “Book of Rites” established a rule: “The princes do not kill cattle without any reason”, which means to put an end to the indiscriminate killing of cattle and extravagant food in all social strata, and to curb corruption. The purpose of Song Zhenzong’s actions was to protect cattle and develop agricultural production.

In fact, beef was quite expensive back then, for a very simple reason – the government was not allowed to kill cattle. In an agricultural society, cattle are the most important production tool. In the Western Zhou Dynasty, there was a rule that “the princes do not kill cattle for no reason”.

The special protection given to cattle by the ancient Chinese government is beyond the reach of today’s Indians. For example, in the Han Dynasty, killing a cow was to pay for your life, even if you were the owner of the cow. After the Han Dynasty, the punishment for killing cattle was no longer so severe. The owner of the cattle killed the cattle without authorization. In the Tang Dynasty, he was sentenced to one year in prison, and in the Yuan Dynasty, he was punished with a cane.

If you kill your own cattle, then if you kill someone else’s cattle, the punishment will of course be heavier. In the Song Dynasty where Liangshan heroes lived, if they killed other people’s cattle without legitimate defense, they would be sentenced to “twenty spine-judgment sticks, and they should be released anywhere for one year.”

In the Tang and Song dynasties, no matter whether the cow was too old to pull the plow, or was crippled by accident, it could not be killed unless the cow died naturally. Although some people secretly kill cattle to try early adopters, it is impossible for those restaurants to have such a sufficient supply of beef as in “Water Margin”. Perhaps Zhang Qing, Sun Erniang and his wife are buying and selling human meat buns because beef is so hard to find.

“Eat meat in big chunks and drink in big bowls” has always been the way of life that the heroes in “Water Margin” yearn for. The beef must have left a deep impression on the officials. For example, Wu Song ate a few pounds of beef before fighting tigers in Jingyang Gang, and Shi Xiu ate a large plate of beef before jumping off the building. Wu Yong of Shijie Village invited Ruan Shi San Xiong ate ten pounds of beef in one go. According to a simple statistic, the Water Margin Book describes eating beef as many as 48 times.

In fact, the most likely thing for heroes to go out to restaurants is: “Cut two catties of mutton.” In the Northern Song Dynasty, mutton was the main meat. “Qingbo Magazine” recorded that the imperial kitchen in the Northern Song Dynasty “only used mutton” in the imperial palace. Su Dongpo also has a poem that says “Beijing is tired of fat for ten years.” This gourmet was tired of eating lambs that were five months old, so he invented “Dongpo Pork”. Of course, pork was not consumed in Song Dynasty cities.

So, why do Liangshan heroes like to eat beef? The eating habits of the Han people are mainly pork, followed by beef and mutton, chicken, duck, goose, fish and shrimp. The Liao people’s feast is nothing more than taking out the liver of the rabbit and eating it with deer tongue sauce.

Huaxia is a farming nation, and farming and producing grain is the foundation of the country’s stability. Therefore, in ancient times, cattle were an important production tool. An ox is sometimes even more valuable than an adult labor force.

Therefore, it is forbidden to kill cattle without a reason. Usually, who owns the cattle, how many cattle, when to resell them, when the cattle died, why they died, etc., all need to be filed with the government. But after the death of the cow, people are generally allowed to eat meat (such as death of old age or accident, etc. After the death of the cow is registered with the government, the meat can be sold or eaten). In addition, the price of farming cattle was very expensive in ancient times, so ordinary people Family, even if there are cattle, they will not be willing to eat meat and kill cattle.