A "Gongle Map" in the collection of the National Palace Museum in Taipei leaves a picture of the Tang Dynasty's food system
The "Exhibition of Ancient Chinese Food Culture" being held by the National Museum of China has aroused the interest of many people.
Food is the most basic and important activity in people's lives from ancient times to the present, and food culture has become an important part of traditional culture in different periods. The Ancient Chinese have many profound understandings of diet, such as the "Book of Rites and Inner Rules", which says: "Fan he, spring and more acid, summer more bitter, autumn more spicy, winter more salty, blended with sweet and smooth", that is, advocating the diet of the four times, you can get a glimpse of the ancient concept of health, and some of the philosophies of "the unity of heaven and man" are contained in it. At the same time, the ancients also carried out a series of related activities such as farming, hunting, games, song and dance around "eating", reflecting the cultural outlook and customs of different historical periods. Even, diet played a very important role in ancient Chinese political activities, and the Book of Shang called "food" the first of the "eight policies".
In the cultural relics and records handed down from the dynasties, the activities carried out around the diet can convey a vision, telling or grand or mysterious narrative; on another level, under the witness of many surviving images and utensils, we can glimpse the operation and understanding of the ancients in the way of "food", and the yearning for a better life.
From the melodious bells of the distant Western Zhou Dynasty, the melodious bells of "bells chiming and eating" stirred up thousands of years, turning into the steaming heat of the soup on the family's dinner table and the joy and laughter of reunion. After thousands of years of vicissitudes, these intertwined scenes have been annihilated in the depths of history, and now the diet is as Wang Zengqi wrote: "Four square food, but a bowl of human fireworks." Food culture is endless, when we eat fish, we may be able to think of a fish from the West Lake in the Plate of the Song Dynasty; when tasting roast duck, we may think of a Han Dynasty chef who removed the goose breast from the suspension... When tasting tea, when it is white, you may think of an ancient person in a certain fragment of history, who is doing the same thing as us, eating the same food, and carrying the same emotions.
Jue is an ancient Chinese vessel used to hold, pour and heat wine. The picture shows the Bronze Lord of the Shang Dynasty in the National Museum of China
In ancient China, the matter of food and drink was closely related to the manifestation of liturgical civilization
In ancient China, the food utensils and wine utensils used in the diet were not only to meet the daily life, but also often used as ceremonial vessels for ancestors and gods, so they reflected solemnity and sacredness in texture and appearance. At that time, eating and drinking was not just about obtaining energy, but in a greater sense, it was to show the civilization of liturgy, to enlighten it, and to expand its majesty and merit.
The Book of Rites and Fortunes says: "The birth of the husband's ceremony begins with the diet of all things.". As early as the pre-Qin dynasty, there was a complete culture of liturgical music. During the Western Zhou Dynasty, the well-known "Bell Ringing Ding Food" ritual system was formed. Zhou Tianzi and people of different classes, such as princes, secretaries, doctors, and scholars, used ingredients and utensils that conformed to the status of etiquette during the feast, accompanied by bell and drum music. The "Zhou Li Chun Guan bo" has a record: "All sacrifices, food, and feast music" are recorded; in the "Li Ji Wang Ling", there is "Tianzi eclipse, the day is lifted to be happy"; the sixth of the "Moon Order", there is "Tianzi drinking, using Li Le" to know the Tianzi food, need to use music to persuade food. In order to cooperate with this set of ritual music system, the official positions of the great sile, the musician, the master, the small master, the bell master, the sheng master, etc., were formed, and each of them was a ceremonial music during the feast. The ritual of eating and drinking is given a sacred meaning in its meticulous execution. For example, the Mountain Luxury Tiger Basket, which is hidden in the Shanghai Museum, is a vessel that functions as both a ceremonial vessel and a food vessel during the Western Zhou Dynasty, and is used in conjunction with the Ding to serve meals during sacrifices and feasts. It has a rectangular large mouth diagonal wall, decorated with four ears, and the upper and lower shapes are decorated in the same way, which are combined into one instrument and separated into two instruments. Each side of the lid has a calf head that is fastened to the rim of the vessel.
Mane, generally shaped as a luxury mouth (the mouth edge is tilted outward), has three hollow feet, easy to cook and heat. The picture shows the Bronze Mane of the Western Zhou Dynasty (Photo: Chen Tuo)
"How to eat" and "what to eat" have many manifestations in the cultural relics of the Han Dynasty
In the Two Han Dynasties, dietary resources were greatly expanded compared with the ancient times. Zhang Qian went to the Western Regions and opened up a channel for economic and cultural exchanges, thus driving the exchange of Chinese and Western food cultures. According to historical records, during this period, through the Silk Road, pomegranates, sesame seeds, grapes, watermelons, melons and other fruits, as well as cucumbers, spinach, carrots, fennel, celery, beans, lentils, lettuce, green onions, garlic and other grains and vegetables were introduced one after another.
In addition, the feudal land ownership system of the Han Dynasty made the productive forces develop greatly, especially in the Eastern Han Dynasty, with the accumulation of the rich wealth of the landlords, the manor economy was formed, and many kitchens, feasts and drinking theme images or utensils can be seen on the existing Han Dynasty cultural relics. There are similar kitchen figurines that have been found in the tombs of the Eastern Han Dynasty in Sichuan, reflecting the Han people's emphasis on food life and the concept of "death as life". The male figurine is smiling, wearing a scarf on his head, wearing a right coat, with his sleeves up, kneeling on the ground, with a round basin in front of him, and a shelf on the basin. Hold a knife in your right hand and press the fish with your left hand to cut the fish. The expressions of the characters are vivid and pleasing, the proportions are harmonious, and there is a moderate artistic treatment in the realistic style.
There are similar kitchen figurines that have been found in the tombs of the Eastern Han Dynasty in Sichuan, reflecting the Han people's emphasis on food life and the concept of "death as life"
In addition to the kitchen figurines, there are many themes such as scooping rice, harvesting fishing and hunting, brewing wine, and salt mining in portrait bricks and stones. Among the portraits showing the music and dance and game themes after the feast, a very representative is a portrait brick of the Eastern Han Dynasty guanqi excavated from tomb No. 2 of Yangzishan in Chengdu. It shows that after the feast, the guest of honor begins to appreciate the content of the song and dance. The food plate is withdrawn, leaving only a large and a small wine vessel visible in the middle of the picture, which is convenient for drinking when watching. In the upper left of the picture, the two people sit on the seat, the man wears a crown on his head, wearing a wide-sleeved robe, and a high-haired woman next to him plays a flute to accompany him. The two people in the lower left sit together and play in unison. In the upper right, one person is naked and dancing with the seven pills; the other person is hitting the bottle with his left elbow and dancing with his right hand, and the tip of the sword is provoking a pill. The lower one is a beautiful, the upper body is naked, bent knees and arms, one hand is holding the stake, dancing while singing open mouth, witty and funny; opposite a female trickster, head in a double bun, upper body tightly bound, wearing flared pants, thin waist belt, hand dancing scarf, sideways backwards, tiptoe of the toe to its over-the-top, will dance.
Farmers obtain food through labor, and then cook and process by cooks, and the owners of the manor feast and drink with relatives and friends, and play games such as pot throwing and six bo, presenting a busy and rich scene. The food images in the Han portraits can not only record the composition and cooking techniques of food in the Han Dynasty, but also reproduce the scenes of the life of the manor owners at that time, reflecting the class social hierarchy and status status.
Tang Dynasty Qianfu Three Years Guangqi Palace Silver Colander, National Museum of China Collection
The Gongle Tu left a visual archive for the Tang Dynasty's meeting food system
In the Tang Dynasty, one of the significant features of the transformation of food culture was the food system. From the Shang Zhou to the Tang Dynasty, the meal sharing system that people usually used when feasting and drinking was transformed into a meeting food system in the Tang Dynasty, and later after gradual development, it was finalized in the Song Dynasty as a "shared meal system". "Meeting food" means that people practice sitting around each other and eating separate meals. The reason for this may be because the environment and social concepts of the great integration of the Tang Dynasty were open, coupled with the use of high tables and chairs to make it possible for people to sit around together, and people began to change their living habits accordingly. A painting of GongLe tu in the collection of the National Palace Museum in Taipei is an example of the food system in this period. The painting depicts the scene of the powerful ladies feasting and drinking in the middle and late Tang Dynasty. In the picture, you can see the ladies sitting around the pot door, in the center of the big case is a tea kettle, a woman holding a long handle tea stick, is scooping tea soup into the tea cup, and there are several other women in the upper part of the picture. Playing music, enjoying music, tasting tea, performing wine orders, a scene of luxury and luxury.
The ear cups on the table are also known as feathers. "Chu Ci" said: "Yao pulp honey spoon, real feathers to covet." "Appeared in the Warring States and was a dietary vessel that could be used to hold wine or soup. According to scholars' research, the origin of its name is said to be because its shape resembles a knight (finches) and its ears resemble the wings of a finch; One said that feathers can be inserted into the cup, which has the meaning of urging people to drink quickly. The feathers used by the Tang people in the "GongLe Tu" picture are mainly imitated from the lacquerware of the Han Dynasty, such as the Western Han "Junxing Wine" cloud pattern lacquer ear cup excavated from the No. 1 Han Tomb of Mawangdui in Changsha City, Hunan Province in 1972, wooden tires, the outer wall of the black base red paint, the inner wall has a red background, outlined with a delicate black lacquer cloud decoration, and the three words "Junxing Wine" are written on the bottom, that is, "please drink Jun" and "drink this cup". Although the ear cup is finely outlined but does not give people a sense of weakness, the shape of the instrument is stable, and the red and black colors also increase the sense of solemnity.
Mawangdui No. 1 Han Tomb excavated from the Western Han "Junxing Wine" cloud pattern lacquer ear cup
A set of brick engraved rubbings bear witness to the female kitchen lady of the Song Dynasty
The food culture of the Song Dynasty is delicate and exquisite, and the popular color is prominent. Thanks to the development of commerce, the catering industry in the Song Dynasty was unprecedentedly prosperous, and restaurants, tea houses, restaurants and night market vendors were opened everywhere. And due to the high degree of commercialization, food processing is more delicate than the previous generation. Books such as "Tokyo Dream Hualu" and "Wulin Past Events" have recorded more than 100 kinds of Song food, and each merchant also has several signature dishes, such as Wang Lou plum blossom buns, Cao Po meat cakes, Xue family lamb rice, Mei family goose and duck... In addition, the public eating system of the cities of the Song Dynasty has been built in an orderly manner, conforming to the seasons, and eating specific foods on specific days has been customary: "Yuanyang cocoon on the first day, oil painting pearl in the shangyuan, six dishes on the day of people, nirvana pocket on february 15, cooking in the hands of shangmi, winter food in the cold food, finger tianjun stuffing on april 8, ruyi yuan of heavy five, green lotus buns of Furi, spicy chicken luan of Ershe, luo rice of Tanabata, playing moon soup in mid-autumn, obano pie filling in zhongyuan, rice brocade of chongjiu, yipan of winter solstice, The grass noodles of the Wax Moon, the Fayu Ke Dou of The Eight Moons..." It is conceivable that the food enjoyed by the commoners of the Song Dynasty was rich and exquisite, and the folk life was colorful.
Female cooks of the Song Dynasty were particularly fashionable. For example, the elaborate "Past Affairs of Wulin" contains a Song fifth sister-in-law, who was originally from the Fenjing clan and later exiled to Lin'an, famous for cooking "fish soup". Among the cultural relics reflecting food culture in the Song Dynasty, there is a set of four kitchen lady brick carved rubbings excavated from the Song Tomb of Yanshi Jiuliugou in Henan. These four brick carvings give a close-up description of a song dynasty cook's entire process before and after cooking tea: first wash your hands and the whole crown, after the clothes are cleaned, pull up the sleeves and cut the fish, then leisurely cook the tea, finish the polyester, and wipe the pots and pans one by one. Obviously, it is busy, a whole set of processes flowing smoothly, but it can make people feel admired.
Fish mackerel has extremely high requirements for knife work and is extremely delicious. Ye Mengde's "Summer Escape Record" recorded: "In the past, when the south was not written, there was no one in the Beijing division who could cut the fish, thinking that it was a treasure. Mei Shengyu's family has an old maid who can do it alone, and every time Ouyang Wenzhonggong and Liu Yuanfu think about eating fish, they will mention fish to Shengyu. Later, a large number of aquatic products from the south were imported into the Central Plains, and by the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, just like the brick carving above, a northern kitchen lady from Yanshi was already good at cooking fish dishes.
A set of four brick carved rubbings of kitchen girls excavated from the Song Tomb in Yanshi Jiuliugou, Henan Province, provides a close-up description of a whole set of processes before and after a Song Dynasty kitchen lady cooking and boiling tea. The picture shows one of them
The Imperial "Hot Pot" of the Qing Palace shows the admiration for luxury of Ming and Qing banquets
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, food culture matured and flourished, reaching its peak. Jiangnan in the Ming Dynasty was rich in products and many people pursued delicious delicacies. In addition to calligraphy and painting, the literati also regard food as a good thing, pursue exquisite elegance in their diet, and write food treatises is also regarded as a graceful thing. Many of the literati notes handed down during this period included cooking, drinking, and health maintenance, such as Gao Lian's "Eight Notes on Zunsheng", Yuan Ming's "Suiyuan Food List" and so on. There are also a large number of scenes depicting eating and drinking in the novel, and a wide variety of dishes and fruits. Like the "eggplant" practice of Jia Fu in "Dream of the Red Chamber", it is admirable. In Qiu Ying's "Spring Night Feast Peach and Plum Garden", he uses the allusion of Li Bai and Zhu Congdi's "opening a feast to sit on flowers, flying feathers and drunkenly drinking the moon" in the garden, but at the same time, he also shows the scene of the Ming Dynasty literati feasting and drinking poetry during the collection. The diet at this time was undoubtedly "elegant", but it was not so lofty and made people unapproachable, which was an example of the literati class's pursuit of a beautiful, meticulous, and leisurely life at that time.
Part of Qiu Ying's "Spring Night Feast Peach and Plum Garden Map"
From the middle and late Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, feasting and drinking advocated luxury. Whenever there is a major festival, corresponding feasts and entertainment activities are held to show the prosperity of the dynasty. After the accumulation of previous generations, whether it is ingredients, condiments or cooking methods, it can be said that it has reached a peak in the Ming and Qing dynasties. The eating activities of the Ming and Qing dynasties showed three characteristics: exquisite production, meticulous classification, and grand scenes. "Fine" is reflected in the Ming and Qing dynasties ingredients, methods, utensils and other aspects are very exquisite. In the Qing Dynasty, the utensils used to eat hot pot dishes were commonly referred to as "wild guys". A silver wrong gold shou character fire bowl in the collection of the Palace Museum is such a vessel, the shape is simple, the decoration is exquisite, the whole body is silver, and the decoration uses the silver wrong gold process, which is divided into three parts: a fire bowl, a bowl holder and an alcohol bowl. The uppermost part is a fire bowl, the lid and body of the bowl are engraved with the word "Shou" in gold, and the edge of the basin is also engraved with ornaments. When using, put alcohol in the small bowl in the middle of the ruyi-shaped triangle bowl holder to keep the food in the bowl warm. This fire bowl was made by the Qing Palace Manufacturing Office and was a special food vessel for the emperor when he held a birthday feast.
In the Qing Dynasty, ethnic diets, court diets, folk diets, and local diets all developed significantly. The famous four major cuisines were gradually formed during this period. Regional food culture has become a system, creating a lot of famous points, famous dishes and flavor snacks, and also summing up the flavors that people in different regions like, such as northerners who love onions and garlic, Jiangnan is sweet, Guangdong is light and spicy in the southwest. In addition, the food of Ming and Qing officials was usually very luxurious. For example, during the Kang and Qian dynasties, there were "Hundred Sorcerer Banquets" and "Thousand Sorcerers Banquets" that were famous for their grand scenes, and it is necessary to mention the famous "Manchu Han Full Seat", and the extravagant pomp and circumstance of the Qing Dynasty nobles in "eating" was unprecedented.
The Silver Mistaken Golden Shou Character Fire Bowl in the Collection of the Palace Museum
Author: Wu Yanjin (Young Scholar of Shanghai Museum)
Editor: Fan Xin
Planner: Fan Xin
Editor-in-Charge: Wei Zhong
*Wenhui exclusive manuscript, please indicate the source when reprinting.