At 3 p.m. on April 9, a "Song Feast Through Time and Space" was held at the Guanfu Museum in Beijing. The museum's founder Ma Weidu, well-known media personality Hong Huang, the deputy director of the National Library of China and the guardian of ancient books Zhang Zhiqing, the director of "Ancient Books Through Time and Space" Zheng Suhang, and the vice president of Beijing ByteDance, Zhang Yu, tasted the reproduced Song Dynasty cuisine and chatted about ancient food culture. The Douyin accounts "Ma Weidu" and "Hong Huang HungHuang" were broadcast live, attracting 390,000 viewers in total.
According to reports, this banquet was organized by watermelon video, the producer of the documentary "Ancient Books Through Time and Space". The film tells the story of scholars and artists who restore ancient books, interpret the content of ancient books, and make ancient books "come alive". Song dishes such as "crab stuffed orange", "boiled lamb", "spring orchid autumn chrysanthemum" and other Song dishes that appeared in the film were also unveiled at the banquet. The person in charge of watermelon video said that the reproduction of Song Feast is to inherit ancient books and let netizens more intuitively feel the delicious food hidden in ancient books.
The feast lasts 2 hours. The first dish is the cold dish "Shan Hai Du" recorded in the ancient book "Mountain Family Qing Offering". Zhang Yu, vice president of Beijing ByteDance, as the host of the event, introduced that this dish is composed of spring shoots, bracken, fish and shrimp, mung bean flour, etc., because the ingredients are produced from mountains and seas. The salt, sesame oil, pepper and vinegar used in "Shan Hai Du" are also commonly used condiments at present. Director Zheng Suhang said that Chinese condiments were gradually completed in the Song Dynasty. The national custom of "chai rice oil salt sauce vinegar tea" began to form in the Song Dynasty. Ma Weidu added that the Tang Dynasty people had two more meals a day. The modern three meals a day system began in the Song Dynasty.
How similar is the Song Dynasty people a thousand years ago to contemporary food life? The two snacks on the banquet, "Chunlan Qiuju" and "Ice and Snow Cold Yuanzi", can be called the Song Dynasty version of "fruit salad" and "cold drink". The former is coldly mixed with white pomegranate seeds, perilla seeds, plum brine, sydney pears and oranges, which are sweet and sour. The latter needs to mix the bean flour with sugar or honey, then add water to form small balls, and finally soak the dumplings into ice cubes. In addition, Ma Weidu introduced that there was "takeaway" in the Song Dynasty. In the era without telephones and APPS, diners would call servants to order food at restaurants, and then the restaurant would pack meals in food boxes and send guys to deliver meals to the door. Zhang Zhiqing, deputy director of the National Map, said that the Song people would also wake up the wine, and when they were drunk, they would drink "collated pulp" made of radish and sugar cane.
How is the song dynasty diet different from the present? Ma Weidu concluded that different from today's "southern sweet and northern salty", the regional taste difference of the Song Dynasty is "southern salty and northern sour". The banquet also presented the tedious steps of the Song Dynasty to order tea. The tea artist first crushes the cake and places it in a bowl to set aside. Boil water in a kettle, rinse into a bowl when boiling slightly, and then hit hard with a tea spoon until the tea soup is foamy.
In the documentary "Ancient Books Through Time and Space", food writer Lu Ran began to imitate Song Dynasty porcelain after the end of the recipe restoration plan, in order to build a richer and more three-dimensional ancient feast scene. The banquet used imitation Song Ying celadon utensils. As a collector, Ma Weidu also displayed Song Dynasty cultural relics such as the cup tray, the "slag bucket", and the "baby drama picture bowl". He said that the Song people loved to eat crabs, and the "slag bucket" was the utensils used to place crab shells. The "Baby Play Picture Bowl" is used to hold soup cakes, and in ancient times, population growth was pursued, and the baby play pattern had the meaning of having many children.
The reproduction of ancient feasts is inseparable from the protection and study of ancient books. According to reports, on June 17 last year, ByteDance and the China Cultural Relics Conservation Foundation set up a special fund for the protection of ancient books at the National Library, with an initial start-up fund of 10 million yuan, which was used to restore more than 100 precious ancient books (pieces) such as the "Lake" album of the Yongle Canon, and train 100 restoration talents. The documentary "Ancient Books Through Time" is precisely because of this. Under the guidance of the China Cultural Relics Conservation Foundation, the National Library of China, and ByteDance Public Welfare, the film presents the guardians' adherence and inheritance of ancient books.
At the end of the banquet, Zhang Zhiqing, the guardian of ancient books and deputy director of the national map, believed that "ancient books through time and space" made ancient books "come alive", "the diet, genealogy, and clothing in ancient books are closely related to modern people." Hong Huang, a media person, said that there are many ways to revitalize ancient books, and he looks forward to the photocopied publication of more rare books and the birth of more ancient book documentaries.