During the early Western Jin Dynasty, a high-ranking official named He Zeng was celebrated as a paragon of filial piety and virtue, but behind his pious facade, he was a hypocrite who flaunted ritual propriety while indulging in extravagant excess.
Some praised He Zeng as the epitome of a ritual-abiding scholar, for he was filial to his parents and meticulous in his manners. Even at home, he maintained an air of solemn formality; when meeting his wife, he would first straighten his clothes and adjust his hat, treating her as if she were a guest.
He Zeng, who held the rank of one of the Three Dukes, was permitted to simply bow with clasped hands when meeting the emperor at court, just like his two colleagues of equal rank. Yet He Zeng alone insisted on performing the full grand kowtow, prostrating himself deeply to demonstrate his flawless adherence to ritual propriety.
During the Three Kingdoms period, the celebrated scholar Ruan Ji, known for his brilliance and disdain for convention, attended a banquet hosted by Sima Zhao shortly after burying his mother. As wine and meat were served, He Zeng rose and pointed at Ruan Ji, declaring, "Ruan Ji is still in deep mourning, yet he sits here drinking wine and eating meat—a grave violation of filial piety! He deserves severe punishment!"
How Utterly Solemn!
However, adhering to ritual and law was only one side of He Zeng; his other side was a life of extravagant waste and pursuit of extraordinary pleasures.
He Zeng's lifestyle was an exercise in extravagant excess, far exceeding all standards of his time. He and his family wore only the finest, most dazzling fabrics, their home was a palace of ornate luxury, and when he traveled by ox-cart, he replaced the simple nose-rope with a gleaming copper hook, even polishing the ox's horns and hooves to a mirror shine. But his true obsession was food. His chef prepared a dizzying array of fresh, rich dishes daily, often surpassing the imperial cuisine itself. So renowned was his table that whenever the emperor grew tired of his own meals, he would send servants to He Zeng's home to fetch delicacies to revive his appetite.
He Zeng was extremely particular about his food, spending tens of thousands of copper coins daily without hesitation. Even so, he was often dissatisfied, sometimes sighing at the table full of dishes and saying, "There's really no place for me to put my chopsticks!"
He Zeng's extravagant lifestyle sparked outrage among upright officials, who repeatedly reported him to the emperor, but because He Zeng was a high-ranking minister, the emperor took no action. He Zeng's son followed the same lavish habits, spending up to twenty thousand coins on a single day's meals—truly outdoing his father in excess.
Clearly, the ritual-bound scholar He Zeng never let ritual or law restrict his own lavish indulgences.
"The idiom 'spending ten thousand coins on food daily' refers to spending enormous sums on daily meals, describing an extremely extravagant lifestyle."
Source: *Book of Jin*, "Biography of He Zeng"
Meaning of the Idiom: Later, the Chinese idiom "食日万钱" came to describe spending enormous sums on daily meals, describing an extremely extravagant lifestyle.