The Emperor's 'Grocery List': Ancient Tribute Data in Ming and Qing Records
Introduction: The Emperor’s Taste and Ancestral Glory Behind Local Specialties For overseas Chinese searching for their roots, a “local specialty” is often the most stable taste or visual coordinate in memory. However, if we travel back in time and open the Bamin Tongzhi (General Gazetteer of the Eight Prefectures of Fujian), compiled during the Hongzhi era of the Ming Dynasty, we discover that these specialties were not just livelihoods for commoners; they were elite items on the Emperor’s desk, known as “Tu Gong” (Local Tributes). ...