Chinese Writing on Food.
Fourteen centuries ago, Jia Sixie described in detail how to make qu ferment starters, soy pastes and vinegars — recipes a modern microbiologist can follow.
The 《吕氏春秋·本味》 (about 239 BCE) puts into the mouth of the legendary cook Yi Yin a philosophy of flavour still quoted: the transformations in the pot are subtle beyond words; water is the beginning of the five tastes; fire controls them (XXVII.2); sweet, sour, bitter, pungent and salty must be balanced, "sweet but not cloying, sour but not harsh". The 《齐民要术》 of Jia Sixie (about 544), an encyclopaedia of farming, devotes many chapters to food: how to make qu starters, jiang pastes, vinegars, wines, pickles, preserved fish and meat (XIV.7, XIV.8) — the earliest detailed fermentation manual in the world — and recipes for cakes, noodles and roasts.
Lu Yu's 《茶经》 (about 760) made tea a subject of connoisseurship, from water to vessels (XXVII.11). The Song gave literati cookbooks such as Lin Hong's 《山家清供》, simple mountain cooking with poetic names; the Yuan court physician Hu Sihui's 《饮膳正要》 (1330) joined recipes, many from Central Asia, to dietary medicine. The Qing poet Yuan Mei's 《随园食单》 (1792) is a cook's book of principles before recipes — "things to know" and "things to avoid": respect each ingredient's nature, season in balance, control the fire, do not crowd the table or the pot — and remains the most quoted Chinese food book. The workshop opens the shelf.
Below: a timeline of landmark Chinese writing on food, the book you choose highlighted, with what it is and why cooks still read it.
- Name the landmark Chinese food books.
- Explain the Qimin Yaoshu's place in fermentation history.
- Quote Yuan Mei's principles.
- Read classical food writing as a cook.
Principles before recipes
The Chinese food classics agree on a habit of mind this course shares: a cook should understand before following. The 《本味》 speaks of balance and fire; Jia Sixie records exact steps, quantities and the signs of success in fermentation; Yuan Mei writes his "things to know" — that each ingredient has its own nature and season, that seasoning must suit the dish, that fire must be controlled — before any dish. Many of his "things to avoid" read like modern advice: do not cook for the eye at the expense of the mouth, do not serve too many dishes at once, do not let food go cold.
Reading them as a cook: look for the technique behind the poetic name; compare quantities and steps with what you know (Jia Sixie's ratios of salt to soybeans make sense next to XIV.7); notice what has changed — ingredients from the Columbian exchange are absent before the Ming (XXXIV.2) — and what has not: stocks, fire, balance and season.
Choose one rule from Yuan Mei's "things to avoid" — for example, not letting food wait until it goes cold — and apply it deliberately to tonight's dinner.
Terms
- 《齐民要术》
- Jia Sixie's 6th-century farming encyclopaedia with fermentation recipes.
- 《随园食单》
- Yuan Mei's 1792 book of cooking principles and recipes.
- 《茶经》
- Lu Yu's 8th-century Classic of Tea.
- 本味
- "Original flavour": the Lüshi Chunqiu's chapter on taste.
Sources
- 《吕氏春秋·本味》 (about 239 BCE); 贾思勰《齐民要术》 (about 544 CE); 陆羽《茶经》 (about 760 CE); 林洪《山家清供》 (13th century); 忽思慧《饮膳正要》 (1330); 袁枚《随园食单》 (1792).
- Dates as given in standard Chinese culinary histories: 《楚辞·招魂》 (Chu, about the 3rd century BCE); 吴自牧《梦粱录》 (1274) on the restaurants of Southern Song Hangzhou; 高濂《遵生八笺》 (1591), the earliest Chinese mention of the chilli (番椒); Guangzhou made the sole port for Western trade (1757); 袁枚《随园食单》 (1792); 傅崇矩《成都通览》 (1909), listing 1 328 Sichuan dishes; Beijing's 便宜坊 (1416) and 全聚德 (1864) roast-duck houses; the "eight great cuisines" scheme settled in the late 1970s and 1980s.