We often say: "Our country is an ancient civilization with a history of five thousand years." "But the relics and history associated with diet are much older.
The earliest cultivated millet found in archaeology is from the Donghulin site in Mentougou, Beijing, which dates from 9,000 to 10,000 years ago, which is also the earliest millet grain found in the world. The domestication of rice and the cultivation method of rice agriculture are earlier, and "carbonized rice" was found in the Majiabang culture 10,000 years ago.
When wine was invented or discovered is unknown, but the black pottery cups used for drinking alcohol have been excavated in large quantities at the Longshan cultural site more than 4,000 years ago.
"What is the production process of tofu", "When did fruits and vegetables such as cucumbers, spinach, and pomegranates come to China", "What were the drinking utensils of the ancients", "How was the ancient wine brewed", "What are the famous dishes of the past", "What is the image of everyone at the Hongmen banquet"...
Whether it is a foodie or not, everyone will care and pay attention to these diet-related contents, after all, "the people take food as the sky".
What I wrote above can be found in the newly opened "Exhibition of Ancient Chinese Food Culture" in the North 11 Exhibition Hall of the National Museum on December 28.
New Year's Day Spring Festival is coming, this unfolded too timely and too rich, everyone into the exhibition hall, not only can understand the development of ancient Chinese food culture, but also can appreciate many exquisite cultural relics, you can also learn music, dance, painting, sculpture and other knowledge related to food, but also can experience the production of some food on the spot, secretly learn a few food practices, let their double festival table plump up.
The exhibition is divided into five parts: "Eating from the Eight Directions", "Tea Rhyme and Wine Aroma", "Beautiful Instruments", "The Change in Dingzhong" and "Etiquette And Food". More than 200 pieces (sets) of cultural relics, introducing the development and change process of food, utensils, techniques, etiquette, etc. from the Neolithic era to the Tang and Song dynasties, plus the "China on the Tip of the Tongue" looped in the video, tea ceremony performance, food production experience, ancient people's dining method experience, etc., everyone swallowed saliva while watching, while walking around, thinking about where to eat these delicacies, but also endure stomach grunting...
For thousands of years, Chinese cuisine has accumulated more than 100 kinds of exquisite cooking skills such as burning, frying, roasting, boiling, stewing, and bursting, which is inseparable from the exploration and summary of generations of chefs, and even more inseparable from the development of ancient drinking utensils such as Ding, Mane, Zun, Gui, Yong, Kettle, Yong, And so on, and the production of beans, pots, plates, horns, Yi, bowls and other containers. The materials are also pottery, bronze, gold, silver, jade, glass, porcelain, etc., according to local conditions, depending on status and identity.
When were the ancient pigs, cattle, sheep, chickens, ducks and other "six animals and three animals" domesticated by people, what their original shape was, what kind of environment they were raised in; Chinese until the Western Han Dynasty did they eat cucumbers, the Eastern Han Dynasty tasted walnuts, the Jin Dynasty had eggplant, and the five generations used watermelons to relieve the heat... It turned out that the eight precepts of the pig eating watermelon were invented by Wu Cheng'en himself.
There are many more contents in the exhibition hall, today I will introduce it here, if you are interested, I will find time to talk to you in the future.