China's cooking technology had a high development in the Yin and Zhou Dynasties about 3111 years ago.
In seasoning, soy sauce, vinegar and wine can be brewed, and various sauces can be made, and the cooking methods are diversified accordingly.
during the period from the Qin dynasty to the modern year of 2111, China's cooking technology has been greatly improved.
after long-term development and improvement, China's cooking technology has merged with the splendid culture of the Chinese nation, which has made Chinese dishes have the characteristics of Chinese cultural style, such as exquisite selection of materials, meticulous knife work, ingenious ingredients, skillful use of heat, rich seasoning, diverse cooking methods, rich variety of dishes and exquisite utensils.
It enjoys a high reputation in the world. Overseas Chinese and Chinese-American foreigners make a living overseas, and the most common industry they run is the catering industry. There are restaurants in China where Chinese people live, and China's food can be said to be "eaten" by the world. This phenomenon was keenly observed by Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the forerunner of the revolution, as early as the beginning of this century.
Dr. Sun Yat-sen said in his book The General Plan for the Founding of the People's Republic of China: "China's modern civilization has evolved, and everything has fallen behind, but the progress of diet has not been as good as that of other countries.
"Dr. Sun Yat-sen's statement is very correct. In fact, as Dr. Sun Yat-sen said, Chinese civilization has been shattered by western civilization in modern times, and people of insight have to feel the pulse and ask questions.
However, China restaurants are quite different. They can actually land in Europe and America, spread all over the world and are invincible. Up to now, there are Chinese restaurants in almost every corner of the world.
This sharp contrast has attracted academic attention, but there is no convincing explanation.
We believe that it is not an isolated and accidental phenomenon that restaurants in China can spread all over the world, and the reasons are inextricably linked with the food culture in China.
Therefore, discussing some characteristics of China's food culture will help us to explain this phenomenon.
When it comes to China's food culture, many people will praise China's recipes and the color, fragrance, taste and shape of Chinese food.
But if we want to discuss food culture from a comparative perspective, we can do it by grasping the essence of China food culture.
without comparison, there is no discrimination.
The author thinks that the more feasible way is to discuss the food culture in China from the perspective of food lifestyle.
In fact, the food culture in China actually refers to the food lifestyle of China people.
If we want to talk about China's food culture, we must relate to China's culture, and the relationship between them is extremely close.
Therefore, it is necessary for us to explain some characteristics of China culture first.
what kind of culture is China culture? It is necessary to understand the geographical environment of early China culture, because the earlier it is, the greater the environmental constraints on culture.
China is located in the southeast of the Asian continent, with vast deserts, grasslands and Gobi in the northwest and vast sea in the southeast.
The land in the Yellow River Valley, the main hotbed of China culture, is very fertile, but other environments are harsh, windy and rainy, and the living conditions are not good.
after the emergence of civilization, the culture at that time showed a strong trend of realism, with a strong color of ethics.
because this society needs humility and less desire, and when a society needs something, it is often when it lacks something.
China culture showed the characteristics of precocity from the beginning.
Marx once thought that China civilization was a precocious baby, and her development had obvious characteristics of being ahead of time.
on the other hand, western civilization is quite different.
the childhood Greek civilization of western culture is written into the history of civilization with its unique wave temperature. Marx once thought that Greek civilization was a normal baby.
The living soil of China culture has gradually dried up in the course of its development, and it has gradually become unsuitable for agricultural production. Because soil and other factors are very unfavorable to agricultural production, the realistic suffering can't produce cultural romance, so China civilization runs through with its strong moral and abstinence characteristics.
In the pre-Qin period, hundred schools of thought heckled each other and tried their best to achieve the same goal, in order to establish an ideal world without struggle.
but this is just an ideal.
at the time of the warring States period, the nations disputed, and compared with their strength, the state of Qin finally ruled the country by encouraging military achievements and rewarding farming, which is the aspiration of the people.
It is also a historical choice for people to live in a world of strife.
only by unification can we avoid "how many people in the world claim to be kings and how many people claim to be emperors".
”？ (Cao Cao Yu)
In the pre-Qin period, the Chu State in the south of China also showed romantic thoughts, but it was quickly shrouded and submerged by the realistic thoughts in the north. After Qin Shihuang unified China, the books were in the same language, and the history after that was the history of the unification of the emperor.
In order to maintain this unified situation, China's feudal society allowed the king to have supreme authority, but at the same time gave him many feudal etiquette constraints; China has the earliest civil service system in the world-the imperial examination system; In the history of China, an honest official was called, and once it appeared, it was sung and worshipped.
Therefore, although China has no religion in the strict sense, some of its characteristics are similar to those of religion, and it also has its own gods. If this phenomenon is also regarded as religion, then Chinese-style religion is extreme idealism in the realistic sense.
The extreme idealism in China's history also came into being, and it also had gods, but the gods it created were incarnated by real people, and it is impossible for real people to act as ideal gods. Therefore, there have been endless movements of creating gods in China's history until today.
Or the religion of China people is a polytheistic worship, rather than a monotheistic worship. The God of Wealth, the God of Medicine, the God of Kitchen and Mazu are all regarded as gods and worshipped.
China culture also has two other characteristics: one is the absolute pursuit of applicability, while putting an end to all things that are not practical.
From the history of science and technology in China, we can see that in history, all practical technologies, such as agricultural science and medicine, are very developed, but some related non-practical things cannot be developed.
Mohist knowledge of optics and geometry in the pre-Qin period failed to develop after the Han Dynasty's exclusive respect for Confucianism.
There are no basic disciplines such as physics, chemistry and biology in China.
Of course, alchemy is also very developed in the process of the emperor's pursuit of immortality, which does contain chemical knowledge.
China's handicraft industry is very developed, but modern machine industrial production, such as steam engine, was not invented in China.
Before the 15th century, most of the world's inventions were produced by China people, but modern science, which required a series of experimental means after modern times, failed to produce in China: China culture showed its unique characteristics of kindness.
The core of Confucius' thought is "Benevolent people love others". Because of kindness, China people carry out the system of multi-child inheritance, so that on the one hand, the property can be separated, on the other hand, the long-distance migration is restricted, which is of great significance to China people's resettlement.
This inheritance system restricts the development of business, which leads to the idea of many children and many blessings. The idea of many children and many blessings increases the population of the society, and more children and many blessings are derived. The social population pressure always exists. As long as the social productive forces can support as many people, how many people will appear.
Many characteristics of China's food culture are embodied in the food culture and directly affect the development of China's food culture.
First of all, because of population pressure and other reasons, China people's diet began in the pre-Qin period, which was mainly grain, with less meat and more food, supplemented by vegetables. This is a typical meal structure.
Among them, rice is the staple food, while vegetables are for the next meal, that is, to help the rice swallow.
why do you want to help you swallow? That's because the staple food is not delicious, and there must be a substance to help people eat it.
Of course, the function of vegetables is similar to that of salt, but it is not the same as salt.
The primary purpose of China's cooking is to decorate the diet and make the unpalatable food exquisite. Secondly, due to the pursuit of unlined upper garment in China culture and the developed handicraft industry in China, the food processing technology in cooking is second to none in the world, which embodies the unlined upper garment characteristics of China culture.
All these make China's food culture have the following characteristics.
First, China's cooking technology is developed, and many things that westerners think are inedible have become appetizing at first sight through the work of chefs in China. Second, China people have a wide range of recipes, and all those who can eat are eating without any taboos; Thirdly, there are many works on famine relief in China, in order to prepare wild vegetables to satisfy hunger in the year of famine; Fourthly, China people regard the pursuit of food as the greatest pleasure in life, and eating becomes the first requirement.
Because people in China can't eat as they please, there is a poem to prove it:
It's too late to patrol the sky on a red day, and you know what's in your belly.
it's not difficult to live a full life, only when the weather is favorable.
Therefore, it has been difficult to eat and wear for a long time, so eating occupies a special place in China people's lives, and there are countless evidences.
In addition, we can analyze some characteristics of western food culture, which may deepen our understanding of China food culture.
At first, the western diet was mainly based on animal husbandry, and the proportion of meat in the diet was always high. In modern times, the proportion of planting increased, but the proportion of meat in the diet was still higher than that of China people.
Because meat is naturally delicious, there is no need for westerners to decorate their diet. The natural delicacy of internal food limits the development of cooking. When Europeans show their wealth, they mostly use food tools to show it, such as the number and luxury of various utensils.
In addition, we don't pursue eating this easy-to-satisfy thing as the supreme pleasure of life.
Westerners' pursuit of life can be highly summarized by a common saying in China, that is, "to be full of warmth and lust".
They pursue love more. Western culture embodies a kind of "love culture", while China culture embodies a kind of "eating culture".
However, we should also point out that many features of China's diet are invisible to ordinary people in their daily lives.
Palace diet and store diet can better and more comprehensively show these characteristics.
Common people's holiday diets, such as the Spring Festival, may partially show these characteristics, but the Spring Festival is, after all, a short flash in the pan for 365 days in a year.
There are no advantages and disadvantages of culture, and neither are the advantages and disadvantages of food culture. The difference is only the difference in lifestyle or diet under different environmental conditions.
But how to understand and analyze this difference is very important.
the purpose of this book is to make an attempt based on this point, and it is not known whether it can be recognized by most readers.
In most cases, I belong to the kind of person who cooks far away, and I don't know how to cook, and I'm not a gourmet, but I know that "a meal and porridge are hard to come by". In this sense, I will put some of my views on China's food culture into writing, hoping to get advice from the local authorities.