Author: Yi Shun
Author: China Discipline Inspection and Supervision Daily (January 7, 2022, 6th edition)
Exhibition of Chinese Food Culture (Source: National Museum)
The people take food as heaven. The National Museum of China recently launched the "Exhibition of Ancient Chinese Food Culture", which introduces the profound chinese food culture. In daily diet, we can see the fruits of Cultural Exchanges between China and foreign countries, and we can also taste the ideals and political wisdom of Chinese.
Chinese characters conceal the code for Food and Beverage Exchange between China and foreign countries
At the dinner table of Chinese, the drama of civilizational exchange and mutual learning is staged every day, and it is difficult to say exactly when this drama will be performed, and when readers join it, it has been performed for thousands of years.
Just as we need to eat and drink every day, we use Kanji every day. Chinese characters hide some information about the exchange of Chinese and foreign food culture. As early as the Neolithic Age, China has formed a "southern rice and northern millet" diet pattern, rice, millet originated in China, archaeologists in Jinhua, Zhejiang Province, shangshan site found carbonized rice grains dating back to 10,000 years, in Beijing Mentougou Donghulin site found carbonized millet grains dating from 9,000 to 10,000 years ago. The tradition of rice consumption in the South continues to this day, while the staple food in the North has undergone an important change.
Wheat, a food crop native to the Two Rivers Basin, gradually replaced millet in the north. By the late Neolithic period, five thousand years ago, at least, wheat had been cultivated in our country. The information of wheat from outside the territory is cleverly preserved in Chinese characters. The word "lai" in the oracle bone is the appearance of wheat, the middle is a straight wheat straw, the bottom three pens represent the root system, the symmetrical two folding pens represent the wheat leaf, and some glyphs will also show the ears of wheat. The leaves of wheat grow upwards and then bend down, unlike rice. There is a poem in the Book of Poetry that praises the great achievements of houji, the ancestors of the Zhou people, and there is a sentence that reads, "I will come to Mu", that is, Houji taught the people to grow wheat and barley, to wheat and mu for barley. The word "mai" in the oracle bone is an inverted "stop" word under the word "come", which means that it comes from outside. Therefore, the original is wheat, the wheat is coming, the two words are used interchangeably for a long time, and the convention is established and no longer changed.
Left: The "come" in oracle bones is the appearance of wheat. Right: Eastern Han Dynasty kitchen clay figurines, a variety of meat can be seen on the board, now in the Chengdu Museum. (File photo)
Wheat is not as good as millet when eaten directly, so people process wheat into flour and then make a variety of pasta, and the diet pattern of "south rice and north wheat" is formed. With staple food, meat and vegetables must be consummated, and after the prayer of abundant grains, there will always be six animals thriving. Six animals generally refer to horses, cattle, sheep, pigs, dogs, chickens, is the main source of meat intake by the ancients, China is the earliest domestication of pigs, dogs, chickens, horses, cattle, sheep are from outside the territory.
Sheep, an animal, not only provide meat, but are also given many beautiful meanings by Chinese. When explaining the sheep, "Speaking the Text of The Interpretation of Words" says "sheep, Xiangye"; when interpreting the beautiful characters, it says "beauty, ganye, from the sheep from the big", and does not forget to remind the reader that "beauty and goodness agree", which leads to the "sheep is beautiful", which is a hotly discussed topic in the history of Chinese aesthetics. There is also a "soup" character in the Chinese character, take it apart to see the word, the upper part is "lamb", the lower part is "beauty", perhaps the ancients thought that lamb boiled into the most delicious taste of the yokan made of this word.
In the pre-Qin era, soup could refer to roasted meat, juicy meat, pure gravy, or it could refer to a thick soup made of meat ingredients alone or mixed. Soups accounted for a large proportion of the diets of the ancients, and the power of a bowl of yokan sometimes surpassed that of deliciousness. "Warring States Policy Zhongshan Strategy" records that the King of Zhongshan invited guests to a banquet, and the doctor Sima Ziqi was invited to go, because the sheep soup prepared on the spot was not enough, Sima Ziqi did not taste his favorite food, and even ran to the Chu State in a rage, guiding the Chu State to destroy the Zhongshan Kingdom. When The King of Zhongshan fled, there were always two people behind him, he was puzzled, asked the origin of the two, it turned out that their father had received a handout from the monarch when he was about to starve to death, although it was only a simple meal, but saved a life, the father ordered the two to follow the monarch and protect his safety with his life. When Zhongshan Guojun heard this, he couldn't help but sigh: "I have destroyed the country with a cup of yokan soup, and won the two people with a pot of cake." ”
For many things that come from outside the region or from our own frontier peoples, we will add a "Hu" character to indicate their origins - Hufu, Hule, Coriander, Hu Cake, Pepper, etc., which came from the Silk Road and gradually gained our liking and integration into our recipes. In the Tang Dynasty, Hu Feng had an important impact on people's diet and dress, people loved to eat Hu Cake, it resembled today's baked bread, He Zhizhang, Bai Juyi were all fans of Hu Cake, Bai Juyi once had a poem to send to friends, saying: "Flax cake like learning Kyoto, crispy oil is newly baked." Sending to ambassador Yang hungry, taste like a complement to the excitement? "Pepper cake is often added sesame, sesame is also called flax, from outside the territory, tang Dynasty Chang'an Fuxingfang made of the most delicious pepper, Bai Juyi was an official in Chungju at the time, to Ambassador Yang in Wanzhou sent a batch of homemade pepper cake, please let him unwind, see if you can compare with Chang'an?
Tea culture is Chinese great contribution to world civilization
The exchange of civilizations has always been a two-way street, and in the era when hu cake and pepper were highly sought after in the Tang Dynasty, China's tea culture also spread outward. Tea and coffee, cocoa and known as the world's three major beverages, the hometown of tea in China, "Chinese not only invented the habit of drinking tea in the world first, but also the earliest domestication of tea plants into an important cultivation crop." A unique tea culture has developed around tea, and the Tang and Song dynasties were the era of vigorous development of tea culture, which was an era that gave birth to "tea saints" and "tea idiots".
As we all know, Lu Yu of the Tang Dynasty wrote the "Tea Classic", which is the earliest and most comprehensive book on tea in China and even the world, and Lu Yu is also revered as a "tea saint". Before Lu Yu, people had already begun to drink tea, but the method was relatively simple, "boiling tea as a soup", and even saying "tea porridge". Lu Yu after careful study of tea, created the sencha method, sencha method is used tea cake, and today's direct brewing cake tea is different, there are many processing procedures before drinking, simply put, first to burn the scone tea, to be cooled after it is crushed into tea powder, and then sift off the unqualified part, and finally put the tea powder in a small pot to boil, choose what kind of water, water heating to what extent is exquisite, and the method of drinking tea is also very exquisite, to drink while hot, the first bowl of tea soup is the best, and then decreasing in turn.
Lu Tong, who was born about half a century later than Lu Yu, was called a "tea idiot". He loved tea all his life, lived in seclusion in Luoyang, and became friends with Han Yu, who was then the Ling of Henan. Lu Tong's seclusion life is very simple, with several broken houses, neighboring monks giving rice, and tea leaves sent by his unique old friend who make him ecstatic. One day, Lu Tong, who was still asleep on the three poles of the day, was woken up by a knock on the door, opened the door to see, it turned out that the old friend sent someone to send a new cake tea, this tea is "exquisite and not luxurious", what is the taste of it, Lu Tong's full emotions let him disregard the rules that should be followed in writing poetry, and the letter pen wrote: "A bowl of throat kisses, two bowls of broken loneliness." Three bowls of dry intestines, only five thousand volumes of writing. Four bowls of light sweat, ordinary life, all scattered to the pores. Five bowls of muscle and bone clear, six bowls of fairy spirit. Seven bowls can not eat also, only to feel the two armpits to practice the breeze. Penglai Mountain, where? Tamagawako, take advantage of this breeze to return. Lu Tong's feelings after drinking tea may only be comparable to Li Bai's poems after drinking, both of them have free and uninhibited souls, but what touches them are two very different drinks.
In the Song Dynasty, the "Sencha Method" gradually gave way to the "Point Tea Method", the first few steps of this method were the same as the Sencha Method, except that the tea powder was no longer boiled in a pot, but placed in a cup, injected with a small amount of boiling water to make a paste, and then injected boiling water, or directly injected boiling water into the tea bowl with a tea bottle, while stirring with a teaspoon. Due to the prevalence of the tea order method, people have developed a bucket of tea, better than the tea cooked by whom, the standard generally has two, one to see the color and uniformity of the tea soup, to pure white win the green white, gray white, yellow and white, and the second to see whether there are water marks at the junction of the inner edge of the tea cup and the tea soup, and no water marks are the best products.
Left: Lu Yu's "Tea Classic" book shadow. (File photo) Right: Tang Gilded Lotus Petal Silver Tea Tray, excavated in 1957 at the site of Pingkangfang in Chang'an City, Xi'an, the tea tray is engraved with the words "Zuo Ce Ling House Tea House", indicating that some aristocratic families in the Tang Dynasty had special tea warehouses. Photo by Yi Shun
Whether it's sencha or ordering tea, it takes enough patience to enjoy a good cup of tea. Literati inkers are keen to improve the cultural taste of tea, and they not only comment on the tea produced in various places, but also on various tea sets, and even personify tea sets. A tea lover of the Southern Song Dynasty wrote a book "Tea Set Tuzan", which named, characters and numbers for the twelve kinds of tea sets, and also assigned titles according to the official system of the Song Dynasty, such as "Tao Baowen, the name goes to Yue, the word is thick, the number of rabbit garden guests", this tea set is made of pottery, has a beautiful pattern, not the more real estate, and the thick wall of the utensils, and related to rabbits, that is, the famous rabbit, it is the most well-known product of Fujian kilns, is the tea cup often used when fighting tea.
Chinese pay attention to food and beauty utensils, when the food is swept into the belly by the wind and clouds, only the beautiful utensils have gone through the vicissitudes of the years and remained to this day, and the bits and pieces of Chinese food culture have been put into bloom.
There is a profound truth in the diet of governing the country
There is a "Bronze Age" in Chinese history, equivalent to the Xia, Shang, and Three Dynasties, in which "the production and use of bronze ware occupies a central place in the lives of Chinese." There are many eating utensils in bronze, Chinese pay attention to "hiding rituals in utensils", and "at the beginning of the ceremony, the beginning of the diet", so the bronze food utensils themselves are part of the ceremonial system, which has the function of emphasizing hierarchy and standardizing order.
There is a famous food street in Beijing, "GuiJie", which is used in conjunction with our familiar Ding, which can be used to hold food, Ding is used to hold a variety of meat, and Gui is used to hold rice, millet and other grains. The Zhou Dynasty ritual system had strict regulations on the number of Ding Gui that could be used by nobles of different ranks: Tianzi Nine Dings and Eight Gui, Princes Seven Dings and Six Gui, Dafu Five Dings and Four Gui, Shi San Ding Two Gui; there were also clear regulations on the meat that was served in the dings of nobles of different ranks. Enjoying more than one's own status and the type of meat eaten is an act of trespassing etiquette.
The use of Ding Gui did not start from the Zhou Dynasty, but the clear stipulation of its quantity began from the Zhou Dynasty, the number of Ding is odd, the number of Gui is even, the odd number is yang, the even number is yin, the odd and even collocation, yin and yang are reconciled. Perhaps, the bronze food vessel that best expresses the harmony of yin and yang is the 甗, which is composed of two parts, the mane and the koshiki, the mane is filled with water, the food is placed in the koshiki, there is a grate hole at the bottom of the koshiki, the water in the mane is heated with fire, and the water vapor enters the koshiki through the grate hole, and the food in the koshiki is steamed. In the tomb of the Shang Dynasty, a triptych was excavated, which can steam three kinds of food at the same time, which is suitable for the needs of large-scale royal sacrifices or banquets. It is said that water and fire are incompatible, but our ancestors understood the principle of water and fire, and first created the cooking method of steaming, which is also the earliest use of steam by humans.
Harmony is the essence of Chinese food culture, cooking emphasizes harmony, and personnel is not the case. The pre-Qin zhuzi received a lot of inspiration from the diet about handling personnel and political affairs, and their incisive expositions have survived to this day.
Yan Zi, a chancellor of the State of Qi in the Spring and Autumn Period, was well versed in the principle of the harmony of the five tastes. Once, Qi Jinggong returned from hunting, Yan Zi waited for Qi Jinggong to return at this place, and Liang Qiu went to greet him on horseback, and the two met in the middle of the road, and Qi Jinggong sighed: "Only with me and my husband." When Yan Zi heard this, he did not think so, believing that Liang Qiu and Qi Jinggong were only "the same" and not "together", and then he talked about the difference between the two. Yanzi is cut from the perspective of diet, first said "and like soup", the chef with water, fire, vinegar, sauce, salt, plum to cook fish, to keep the various flavors balanced, the taste is not enough to put some spices, the taste is too strong to put some water, the gentleman will be at ease when eating such a soup. If a policy has a reason that can be implemented and a reason that cannot be implemented, and the king thinks that it can be implemented, then the minister has the responsibility to point out the inappropriateness, and vice versa, this is "harmony", if the king says something, the subject only echoes it, it is only "the same", not necessarily beneficial to political affairs. Yan Zi believed that the reason why the previous king "ji wu wei and five voices, in order to calm his heart and become his government", handled various relations well, and naturally achieved political affairs.
Yan Zi's exposition is easily reminiscent of Confucius's statement that "gentlemen are harmonious but different, and villains are the same but not harmonious". Outside of Confucianism, Taoists have a unique view of the relationship between diet and governance. "Lao Tzu" has a saying that "if you cook a small fresh country", "cooking small fresh" must first understand the characteristics of "small fresh", just because it is small, it should not be turned too much, otherwise it is easy to break, just because of fresh, it should not be attacked by fire, otherwise it will lose its taste. The same is true for governing a big country, and it is necessary to grasp the objective laws of social development, understand the national conditions and public opinion, and govern scientifically and rationally. In Lao Tzu, cooking and governing are no longer just techniques, but an art.
Chinese culture is rich in both ethical spirit and artistic spirit. The artistic spirit of Chinese culture is of course embodied in calligraphy, painting, sculpture, architecture and other artistic disciplines, as well as in our daily diet and living. In the past, time was slow, and our ancestors lived an ordinary and unremarkable life with a taste of art, a dish, a bowl of tea, a pair of chopsticks, condensed with the wisdom of Chinese, flowing with the artistic spirit of Chinese.
Editor: Xiang Yu
Proofreader: Water Life
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