The profound "taste" of life - the traditional Chinese food culture in classical literature

China is a traditional food and gourmet country, since ancient times, not only cooked a variety of home-cooked meals, delicacies and delicacies, but also nourished the profound food culture. Among the fireworks of the folk stove, in the liquor stores in the streets and alleys of the townships, and at the banquet of the Golden And Jade Palace, there is no shortage of figures of literati and inkers and chants on the tip of their tongues.

The Tang Dynasty was the first peak of food culture in Chinese history. Although Du Fu was not a foodie, he wrote many poems about food. "Spring wine glasses are thick amber thin, ice pulp bowls are cold onyx." Du Fu had a good life as a teenager and had more contact with the court nobility, so he wrote scenes of banquets at the upper levels, and the scenes were luxurious and elegant. After middle age, Du Fu's career was full of misfortune, upheavals and displacements, and it was difficult to maintain even the basic life, so he had the cold smell of "residual cups and cold burning, everywhere lurking sorrow and hardship". With his extensive contact with the sufferings of the lower classes, the feelings of worrying about the country and the people are full of hearts, and the themes and styles of poetry creation have undergone unprecedented changes, and he has paid more attention to the people's food, clothing, and suffering. In November of the fourteenth year of Tianbao (755 AD), he finally shouted out the famous sentence of Zhen Gu Shuojin, "Zhumen wine smells of flesh, and there are frozen bones on the road." "Taste" is no longer only the taste of food, but also contains the "taste" of the hardships of the life of the lower classes.

Du Fu's life has been up and down, and he has experienced various tastes in the world, among which "Night Rain Cut Spring Leeks, New Cooking Room Yellow Sorghum" in "Gifting the Eight Virgins" should be his rare calm and peaceful experience. One night in the spring rain, a friend cut a handful of newly grown tender leeks from his own vegetable garden, accompanied by steaming small rice, and the two old friends ate and drank while eating, and then thought of the imminent separation, giving birth to infinite emotions.

When it comes to the Tang Dynasty's feasting poems, Li Bai is a peak that cannot be bypassed. The protagonist of his poems is wine, and there are many poems that feast on wine and borrow wine lyrically, and his artistic achievements are very high. In the eyes of the world, Li Bai's poetry and wine are integrated, and the temperament of "poetry immortal" and "wine immortal" is integrated.

Li Baihao's unrestrained, unrestrained, and arrogant personality is often expressed in his drinking poems. Li Bai loved the bright moon and fine wine all his life, and "Drinking Alone Under the Moon" showed this vividly: "A pot of wine between flowers, drinking alone without blind dates." Raise a glass to invite Mingyue, and the shadow into three people. ”

"Will Enter the Wine" is one of Li Bai's most famous drinking poems, in which "life must be full of joy, do not make the golden bottle empty to the moon" "The bell and drum are not expensive enough, but I hope that I will not wake up after a long time." The ancient sages are all lonely, but the drinker keeps his name", which vividly expresses Li Bai's extravagant feelings of being free of nature, disdaining bells, drums, and jade, and not admiring the sages of ancient times, and a living "poetry immortal" and "wine fairy" appear in front of the reader's eyes.

Compared with Li Du, Meng Haoran's "poetic taste" is more fresh and idyllic. Meng Haoran is a famous landscape pastoral poet of the Tang Dynasty, "Passing the Old Man Zhuang", "The Old Man has a chicken, invite me to the Tian family", for the reader to outline a Chinese painting of pastoral scenery: in the simple and natural pastoral scenery, the host prepares wine and dishes, the host and guest toast, gossip about mulberry, full of fun, showing the friendship between the poet and the old friend, with a strong artistic appeal. Meng Haoran's hometown of Xiangyang has a famous dish - Chatou bream (bream produced in the Han River), the taste is delicious, Meng Haoran very much likes to eat Chatou bream, and once wrote a poem praising: "Beauty is golden, and the hands are red and fresh." Because of the history of Xie Lu, lettuce soup He Zu chuan. ”

In the Song Dynasty, under the influence of the elegant and simple aesthetics of life, Su Shi, a literati with both romantic and realist characteristics, was born. Su Shi loves to eat good poems, eat pheasants to write "Wild Pheasant", eat bream to write "Bream", eat bream to write "Bream Line", eat bamboo shoots to write "Send Bamboo Shoots Peony Medicine and Gongxuan Two Songs", eat oranges to write "Huanxi Sha Yong Tangerine", eat crabs to write "Ding Gongmo Sends Cockroaches", "Eat Lychees" chants "Three hundred lychees on a day, do not quit being a Lingnanian", even a bowl of porridge must be included in the poem "Bean Porridge", a plate of seasonal vegetables has also completed a poem "Spring Vegetables"...

In the second year of the Northern Song Dynasty, Su Shi was demoted to Huangzhou because of the "Wutai Poetry Case", and served as a deputy envoy of a small official group with no real power, falling into the trough of his life, living in difficulties, "the hut is like a fishing boat", "the empty cooker cooks cold vegetables", "the broken stove burns wet reeds". However, it was also in more than 4 years in Huangzhou that his life underwent great changes, and his poetry creation also entered its peak. A representative article "First Arrived in Huangzhou" laments that "ordinary life is busy with the mouth", and the "mouth" here is a pun, which has both the hidden meaning of disaster from the mouth and the meaning of eating for heaven, showing that he is a real foodie.

Lu You, a famous poet of the Song Dynasty, was also a gourmet, and in his poems, there are hundreds of poems that excite delicacies. Lu You not only eats, but also does, proficient in the practice of many dishes, he once wrote about the "sweet soup" approach: "with spinach, yam, taro, lai jing mixed for it, do not apply sauce, mountain zhen cooking also." And the poem said: "The old man lives by the lake with a handful of mao, and the wine in Shigu Village is a mountain hammer." Over the years, the sweet soup method has been passed down, and it has been ridiculed even more by Wu Acid. ”

Although Lu You's "Tour to Shanxi Village" does not directly write about eating, it shows a strong rural flavor with the simple enthusiasm of farmhouse hospitality. "Mo Xiao farmhouse lax wine, good year to stay guests foot chicken and dolphin." The aroma of wine and meat comes with the bold poetry. The last two sentences, "Mountains and rivers are doubtful and have no way, willows and dark flowers are bright and another village", and because of its hidden philosophy, it is popular among the population and has been passed down through the ages.

Perhaps it is precisely because Lu You loves the famous dishes and famous foods of his hometown, and the taste of his hometown has become his deep memory. Therefore, when he was eunuchs traveling to Shudi, from time to time he expressed his nostalgia by nostalgic for his hometown dishes: "Ten years of exile reminiscing about southern cooking, the first sight of the sea bass eyes are self-evident." ”

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, dramas, novels, and opera flourished, and the descriptions and chants of food and drink were all displayed, and Cao Xueqin's "Dream of the Red Chamber" was the best.

In the catalogue of "Dream of the Red Chamber", there are those involved in food and drink: "Qin Zhong of Baoyuhui of Yanning Province", "Celebration of birthdays of Ningfu Paijia Banquet", "Rong Guo Fu Gui Province Qing Lantern Festival", "Xue YuWu Irony and Crab Wing", "Shi Taijun Two Feasts Grand View Garden", "Liu Grandma Drunken Sleeping Yi Red Courtyard", "Rong Guo Fu Lantern Opening Night Banquet" and so on.

In the 38th "Xue Yu Wu Irony and Crab Song", Bao Yu, Dai Yu and others were full of interest, holding the chrysanthemum, Cao Xueqin fake Baoyu's mouth to eat crab chanting: "Holding Ao is more fond of gui shade, pouring vinegar and beating ginger is crazy." The gluttonous king and grandson should have wine, and the rampaging prince has no intestines. ”

According to the researchers' statistics, there are as many as 186 kinds of foods and 9 categories described in "Dream of the Red Chamber", which describe the colorful food culture activities of many characters, including luncheons, dinner parties, night banquets, birthday banquets, birthday banquets, life banquets, provincial relatives banquets, family banquets, wind banquets, poetry banquets, lantern riddle banquets, hey feasts, plum blossom banquets, begonia banquets, crab banquets, autumn banquets, Duanyang banquets, Lantern banquets, Fangyuan banquets, Tai Illusory Realm banquets, Grand View Garden banquets, Yihong Courtyard night banquets, etc., which are tongue-in-cheek, amazing, and arouse the taste buds of countless people...

Entering the new era, China has entered a comprehensive well-off society of "willing to eat, beautiful clothes, settle down, and enjoy its customs", and the living standards of the people have also been greatly improved, from "eating well" and "eating well" to a new stage of "eating well", the family table is colorful, the social catering industry is vigorously developing, and "going to the restaurant" and "calling takeaway" have become a new fashion. Poetry and songs, folk proverbs, jokes and fun on the tip of the tongue have sprung up, and people are free to taste and chant. (■Yang Zhongyi)

(Jiefangjun Daily)