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Zhou Qin, Han And Tang Chang'an food culture has experienced three stages of food culture politicization, food culture bureaucratization and food culture poetry, with food on politics, with taste on food, seeking "taste outside the purpose" is the characteristics of the three stages, the decline of Chang'an City after the Tang Dynasty led to the historical end of Chang'an food culture, the prosperity of Ming and Qing Township drinking ceremonies and the confluence of Guanxue to promote the return of food etiquette culture, Chang'an food culture of the great tradition into local folk food culture to continue.
In this issue, we continue to publish Mr. Tian Longguo's "Notes on the Study of Chang'an Food Culture" to share with you the characteristics of the pre-Qin Chang'an food culture.
Politics by Food: Characteristics of Pre-Qin Chang'an Food Culture (II)
Text/Tian Longguo
The pursuit of "taste" is a sign of the maturity of Chinese food culture, marking that the pursuit of diet in Chinese has risen from pure physiological satisfaction to psychological experience and spiritual pursuit, but in the context of the politicization of pre-Qin diet, "taste" is often used to compare governance. Legend has it that Yi Yin, a native of Shaanxi during the Shang Dynasty, was not only a master of governing the country, but also a master of "reconciliation", who skillfully applied his cooking skills and subtle grasp of fire to national governance, becoming the greatest political practitioner of food culture in Chinese history. In fact, Yi Yin is first and foremost a politician, he really appreciates the mystery of food culture and knows how to reconcile relations, while Yi Ya is the opposite, in order to please the monarch, he will not hesitate to sacrifice his son, and he is also discredited.
Western Zhou, 逨盉. 盉 is an ancient utensil that blends the thickness of wine. It is a ceremonial vessel made by the eighth generation of the Western Zhou Dan family to sacrifice emperor Gaozu Shan Gong.
"Five flavors harmony" is the highest skill of cooking, the so-called "and" is sour, bitter, spicy, salty, sweet all have everything, none of which is prominent but every taste is both, which is also the essence of "etiquette" and the purpose to be achieved. Governing the country is like cooking in the final analysis, different relationships are like ingredients with different material properties, which must be harmonious and different through exquisite collocation and careful modulation, the group is not the party, "governance is out of one", Chinese political culture and food culture, profound and subtle but indescribable. Reconciliation is the contradictory fusion of material natures, the order and unity that unfolds after the balance of various relationships. It can be said that the Western Zhou food culture recorded in the "Three Rites" is a royal food culture, a kind of food culture that regulates people's hearts and society, it is a metaphor for and conveying political ideas and ethical concepts with diet, clarifying the relationship between superior and inferior, and disciplining and educating subjects, so it belongs to political culture. From the beginning of the pre-Qin Dynasty, Chinese eating was not entirely to fill the stomach, and at the moment when the food was under the belly, the ethics of gang chang and the feelings of home and country were followed, and accumulated into the cultural genes that Chinese could not be rewritten.
However, the pre-Qin ancient precept of "etiquette can not be lower than the shuren" is also reminding people that the food culture is also an identity culture, the difference between the division of identity and the difference in social relations is also an important part of the ceremony, we see that the food culture recorded in the literature since the Zhou Dynasty is actually the food culture of the royal family of the court, and the literati tradition of "gentleman far away from the kitchen" has also made the food culture of the pre-Qin people's society fail to enter the field of historical writing, and the diet of the people has no history.
From this we can find that Chang'an food culture is actually a bright and dark two roads forward.
(The author is a professor and doctoral supervisor of the School of Design and Art of Shaanxi University of Science and Technology, and an expert of Shaanxi Cai.com Think Tank)
Image source: Network
This article is excerpted from the April 22, 2022 issue of Culture and Art News