As the saying goes, "the people take food as the sky", food culture is an important part of traditional Chinese culture, from Ru Mao drinking blood to cooking cooked food, the Chinese table has witnessed tens of thousands of years of food revolution and cultural flux. Eating – not only for food and survival, but also for a unique way of life. Whether it is coarse tea and light rice, or eight precious jade food, Chinese exudes the wisdom and philosophy of life everywhere in the spoon room.
At the "Exhibition of Ancient Chinese Food Culture" being exhibited at the National Museum of China, more than 240 pieces (sets) of cultural relics "walked" from the table to the booth, leading the audience to taste the fireworks in the world. From the carbonized rice in the Liangzhu culture period and the bronze food utensils of the Shang Dynasty, to the Tang Dynasty dim sum unearthed in Turpan, Xinjiang, and the painted gourd-style tableware box in the Qing Dynasty... Starting from different angles such as ingredients, utensils, techniques, and etiquette, the exhibition is divided into five units: "Eating from the Eight Directions", "Tea Rhyme and Wine Aroma", "Beautiful Utensils", "The Change of Dingzhong" and "LiShi Diet", which tell the taste of China with taste.
Highlights
Every meal is a story
A "black grain of rice" records the history of rice cultivation for 10,000 years
China's staple food culture has a long history, and there are stories about a grain of rice and a rice tree. Entering the exhibition hall, a little light converged on a "black grain of rice", which is a carbonized rice dating back tens of thousands of years, which has been determined by experts to belong to the original cultivated rice in the primary stage of domestication. In 2006, archaeologists found the charred rice in the strata of the Shangshan site in Pujiang County, Zhejiang Province, and found a relatively complete chain of evidence for rice harvesting, processing and consumption. This significant "encounter" traces the history of rice cultivation to 10,000 years ago, and the Shangshan site is considered to be the world's earliest rice farming relic.
Carbonized rice
Next door to the charred rice, the carbonized grains are also served in glassware, which are the earliest cultivated millet grains found in archaeology, 9,000 to 10,000 years ago, from the Donghulin site in Mentougou, Beijing. As the "ancestor" of millet, carbonized grains are composed of rice, yellow rice, wheat and beans. With the increase of crop varieties, grains have gradually evolved into a general term for food crops.
For Chinese, eating grains is not only to fill their stomachs, but also a sense of ceremony - the ancient people's meals also reflect the rules of the old-age etiquette system: the condolences given to the elderly in the name of the Son of Heaven are a pot of boiled "porridge". Just when the audience was confused about this, the exhibition board told the story of Zhou Gong's "one meal and three spits and three feedings", explaining the rationality of the pension etiquette system.
According to the "Records of History", the elderly Zhou Gong had to swallow three times at a meal. The reason is that the earliest "rice" belongs to "dry rice", which is coarse and astringent, and the elderly secrete less saliva, so they cannot swallow. In order to receive the visiting guests as soon as possible, Zhou Gong could only spit out the half-chewed "dry rice". On the one hand, this shows that the dried corn rice eaten by the ancient ancestors is indeed difficult to digest, and on the other hand, it also responds to the ancient pension etiquette system to provide the most practical care for the daily diet of the elderly.
Bronze oven (Han)
A fruit and a bunch of vegetables history
Chinese cabbage has been compared to being as delicious as a bear's paw
Vegetables and fruits have been an important part of people's diet since ancient times, and during the Qin and Han dynasties, Chinese have begun to artificially cultivate wild vegetables and fruits. A fluffy and fat model of cabbage is placed in a glass cover on the side of the exhibition hall, and its "growth experience" can be regarded as a milestone event in the history of artificial cultivation of mainland plants.
Cabbage, known as Pineapple in ancient times, has been recorded in the Han Dynasty, but the quality is poor, and it is far from modern times. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the white pineapple shined, and in the eyes of the people of the time, the spinach in late autumn and the leeks in early spring were listed as dishes and American products. In the Song Dynasty, the excellent varieties of pineapple were successfully cultivated, and the new varieties were strong, fat, high-yielding, hardy, and delicious. "White pineapple-like lambs, out of the soil out of the bear's trampling." The Song Dynasty poet Su Shi once compared it to a delicacy like a bear's paw. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the cultivation of pineapple was more popular and mature, and the cultivation area ranged from north to south, all over the Yellow River and Yangtze River basins. Today, cabbage is still the "home dish" in the winter and spring of the north, and the supply of artificially cultivated varieties can reach half a year.
In addition to "eating", Chinese also "dare to eat", the mainland is the world's earliest country to eat shiitake mushrooms. Historical records record that during the Ming Dynasty, there was a great drought in Jinling, and the Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang issued an edict to ask for rain to eat vegetarian, and the multi-day diet made Zhu Yuanzhang feel that tea and rice were tasteless. At this time, Liu Bowen, the prime minister, brought back some shiitake mushrooms from his hometown of Longquan, Zhejiang, and ordered the imperial chef to cook them well, and the emperor praised them after tasting them, and since then the shiitake mushrooms have become a delicacy in the palace. In fact, shiitake mushrooms were originally wild, and the time for folk to eat shiitake mushrooms was earlier than that of the Ming Dynasty.
In addition to eating wild fruits raw and artificially cultivated, many crops familiar to modern people are "across the ocean" to come to our table. An exhibition board in the exhibition hall records some of the "past and present lives" of fruits and vegetables - cucumbers were introduced to China from India during the Western Han Dynasty; if you want to eat garlic, you have to "cross" to the late Eastern Han Dynasty; in the late Ming Dynasty, peppers, pineapples and tomatoes were served to the table of Chinese.
One stove and one pot are exquisite
Han Dynasty kebabs There was hot pot in western Zhou
The use of fire freed the ancient ancestors from the dietary life of "Ru Mao drinking blood". As the saying goes, "water and fire are incompatible", but the wise Chinese have achieved "water and fire" in cooking: as long as there is a thin layer of separation between water and fire, they can coexist.
A Han Dynasty copper oven with a skeletonized furnace wall is unveiled in the exhibition. When using, put charcoal in the stove, place meat skewers or meat pieces on the stove, and when grilling meat skewers, the iron skewers wearing meat pieces can be placed directly on the stove frame; when grilling meat slices, an iron grate is placed on the stove and the meat slices are grilled on the grate. Stopping in front of the copper oven, it seems to be able to see the scene of the Han Dynasty roasting meat with wine, the meat slices on the oven "nourishing" the sound, the meat aroma overflowing, rushing to the face.
"There's nothing a barbecue can't solve, and if there is, come to the hot pot." Archaeological data show that the appearance of hot pot can be traced back to the Western Zhou Dynasty. In the exhibition hall, a Han Dynasty "small hot pot" with a height of 15.6 cm and a diameter of 16.7 cm attracted the attention of many audiences, which is a bronze food utensil from the Qinghe State (located in the area of present-day Shandong and Hebei) in the Western Han Dynasty, because the Han Dynasty people like to eat hotter food, so it is necessary to use this utensil to continuously heat up the seasoning.
Three-legged tin hot pot
Manchu traditional hot pot is more distinctive, the Qing Dynasty three-legged tin hot pot, the cylinder in the middle of the utensils is used to hold the charcoal fire, the surrounding water is put, and the meat slices are eaten while boiling in boiling water, like the modern old Beijing shabu-shabu. In addition, ancient cooking utensils such as Jomon black clay kettles, flat-footed pottery pots, and pottery koshiki are also exhibited in the exhibition.
The "Hongmen Feast" lecture is inferior
Where should I sit when I eat with my leader? With the elders of the family, which seat is the honorable position? These questions, which have plagued many ordinary people, have answers in the exhibition - the curator cleverly arranged a miniature landscape of the Hongmen Feast to explain the dignity and inferiority of the seats.
At this feast, 5 people have the right to sit down. Xiang Yu was the most honorable, sitting eastward. Uncle Xiang could not be lower than him, so sit together. Fan Zeng was Xiang Yu's main adviser and heavy courtier, so the seat was slightly lower, but higher than that of the guest Liu Bang. Liu Bang was weak and sat north. Zhang Liang was Liu Bang's counselor, the lowest status among the 5 people, so he could only accompany the last seat, that is, the "waiter" seat.
The depiction of the seat reflects the ancient Chinese tradition of respecting the East. It is worth noting that the location of the "Hongmen Banquet" should be in the military tent. Because in ancient times, in addition to military tents or ordinary houses, if a banquet was held in the hall, it was generally respected in the south direction.
Exhibition Decoding
The earliest tea appeared in the Warring States period
Chinese have a tradition of drinking tea, and there are things to prove. There is a set of photographs in the exhibition hall, the protagonist of which is a sample of tea found in the Warring States tombs – a light brown ball with a diameter of about 5 centimeters. Under the microscope, the dough became a "block of soil" of different sizes, and the color became darker. If you zoom in on the field of vision, the black-colored flaky tea leaves appear.
Experts said that in the original porcelain bowl buried with the No. 1 Warring States Tomb in the Xigang Cemetery of Zoucheng City, Jining City, Shandong Province, the samples of tea unearthed were the residue of brewed (boiled) tea leaves. This is the earliest known remain of tea in the world, advancing the physical evidence of the origin of the world's tea culture by at least 300 years.
There is also a restored scene of Tea Ordering in the Song Dynasty in the exhibition hall. This was the most fashionable activity of the Song Dynasty, including a whole set of procedures such as burning tea, grinding tea, luo tea, baking cups, waiting for soup, and blowing. In the film "Do You Know If It Should Be Green Fat Red Skinny", there are also scenes of learning to order tea. At that time, ordering tea was an elegant cultural activity spread among people, especially among literati and doctors, and was called "the purity of the prosperous world".
A "Porridge Recipe" records hundreds of porridge recipes
There are also a variety of recipes in the exhibition hall, each with a story. In the "Porridge Recipe" written by Cao Tingdong and Huang Yunhe in the Qing Dynasty, hundreds of kinds of porridge recipes were recorded, and it can be seen that when the ancients made porridge, they even paid attention to the choice of rice, water, fire and even eating. Mulberry bud porridge, walnut porridge, almond porridge, flax porridge, etc., the audience can transcribe a few copies, go home and try the ancient method of boiling porridge.
There are also "recipes" in the "Zhou Li" on display. The book records that there were more than 2,000 officials responsible for the diet of the Zhou royal family, accounting for nearly 60% of the total number of officials in the entire Zhou Dynasty. Diet names such as "Eight Treasures" appear in the book, and information on crops and livestock in various places is also recorded.
The "First Recipe of Hunan Cuisine" is also exhibited through pictures. The book, titled "Gourmet Fang", preserves a variety of methods of cooking food in the Han Dynasty, recording the meat raw materials used as dishes - at that time, people had already eaten horses, cattle, sheep, deer, pigs, fish, hooves, chickens, geese and other meats.
Recipe for "Qi Min Zhi Shu"
Exhibition Tips
■Venue: North Exhibition Hall 11, National Museum of China
■Duration: Long-term exhibition Closed on Mondays (excluding holidays)
■ Ticket price: Free, reservation must be made 1 to 7 days in advance on the official website of the "National Museum" or weChat public account