refers to the ten
specific aspects of the understanding and pursuit of the aesthetics of life in food culture by the upper classes of Chinese history and gastronomical theorists, which are unique in style and closely related to each other, namely, "quality, aroma, color, taste, shape, utensils, suitability, order, environment and interest.
These are "quality, aroma, color, taste, form, vessel, suitability, order, environment, and interest".
"Quality" refers to the quality of raw materials and finished products, and is the prerequisite, foundation and purpose of cuisine.
"Fragrance" is to encourage emotions, stimulate the appetite of the odor, smell that is one of the important signs of identification and appreciation of the beauty of food.
"Color" refers to the color of the food, including the original color and group.
"Shape" is the beautiful shape of food, which is a combination of the beauty of dietary form and the beauty of mood. "Taste" refers to
"five nourishing six flavors", also refers to "delicious".
"Taste" is the highest state of Chinese food.
"Suitable" refers to the comfortable texture of food, "there is no fixed flavor, the right taste is precious".
"Sequence" refers to the order of procedures in the process of feasting.
"Situation" refers to the elegant and harmonious environment of the banquet.
"Interest" refers to the pleasant mood and elegant style.
The fun of singing and dancing is what is pursued in the "playful food with music"
Chinese food culture
Under the influence of many factors, such as the philosophical thinking of yin-yang and five elements in the traditional Chinese culture and education, the ethical and moral concepts of Confucianism, the nutritional and regimen doctrine of traditional Chinese medicine, as well as the achievements in culture and art, the aesthetic taste of food, and the characteristics of the national character, a great many factors have created a unique and unique food culture.
Under the influence of a number of factors, the creation of Chinese culinary skills that will live in history, the formation of a broad and profound Chinese food culture.
From the perspective of history, China's culinary culture has lasted for more than 1.7 million years, divided into four stages of development: raw food, cooked food, natural cooking, and scientific cooking, and has introduced more than 60,000 kinds of traditional dishes, more than 20,000 kinds of industrial food, colorful banquets, and colorful flavors, earning it the reputation of the "Kingdom of Cooking".
From the connotation, China's food culture involves the development and utilization of food sources, the use and innovation of food utensils, the production and consumption of food, catering services and hospitality, catering and food industry management and management, as well as food and national security, food and literature and art, diet and the relationship between the realm of life, etc., deep and broad.
From an outward perspective, Chinese food culture can be classified from a variety of perspectives, such as era and technique, region and economy, ethnicity and religion, food and eating utensils, consumption and level, folklore and function, etc., demonstrating different cultural tastes and embodying different values of use, with a variety of colors.
From the point of view of qualities, the Chinese food culture highlights the theory of Yingwei (vegetarianism, emphasis on medicinal diets and tonic), and pays attention to the "color, aroma and taste" are all complete. Five flavors and the realm of harmony (distinctive flavor, the mouth is precious, "tongue dish" reputation), the odd and positive changes in the cooking method (kitchen rules for this, flexible and adaptable), free of the spirit of the gastronomic view of pleasure (literacy, education in food) and other four major attributes, has a different food culture from overseas countries, the innate beauty of the culture.
From the point of view of influence, Chinese food culture directly affects Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, Thailand, Singapore and other countries, is the axis of the Eastern food culture circle; at the same time, it also indirectly affects Europe, the Americas, Africa and Oceania, such as China's vegetarian culture, tea culture, soy sauce and vinegar, pasta, medicinal food, ceramic tableware and soybeans, etc, have benefited billions of people around the world.
All in all, Chinese food culture is a kind of long regional culture with wide vision, deep level, multi-angle and high grade; it is the material wealth and spiritual wealth created, accumulated and influenced the neighboring countries and the world in the development of food source, the development of food utensils, the food conditioning, the nutritional health care and the dietary aesthetics of the Chinese people in the more than one million years of production and life practice.
Chinese food culture characteristics
China is a civilization is the country, but also a long history of food culture. I survive in the world, eat and drink for more than 20 years, some insights and insights, now the food culture is summarized in the following characteristics, I hope you see:
First, the flavor is diverse. Because of the vastness of our country, the land is vast, the climate, products, customs and habits are different, for a long time, in the diet also formed many flavors. China has always had 'southern rice and northern noodles', the taste of 'southern sweet, northern salty, eastern sour and western spicy' points, mainly Bashu, Qilu, Huaiyang, Guangdong and Fujian four major flavors.
Second, the four seasons are different. All year round, eat according to the season, is another major feature of Chinese cooking. Since ancient times, China has been seasonal changes to seasoning, food, winter flavor mellow and thick, summer light and cool; winter stew stew simmering, summer more cold frozen.
Third, pay attention to beauty. Chinese cooking, not only exquisite technology, but also pay attention to the beauty of the dishes of the tradition, pay attention to the color of the food, aroma, taste, shape, the coordination of the device. The performance of the beauty of the dishes is multifaceted, whether it is a carrot, or a cabbage heart, can be carved out of a variety of shapes, unique, to achieve the color, aroma, taste, shape and beauty of the harmony and unity, to give a person a high degree of unity of the spirit and the material enjoyment of the special.
Fourth, pay attention to interest. China's culinary very early attention to taste interest, not only on the color, aroma and taste of meals and snacks have strict requirements, but also on their naming, taste of the way, the rhythm of the meal, entertainment interspersed with certain requirements. The name of the Chinese cuisine can be said to be out of the gods, elegance and vulgarity **** appreciation. The names of dishes are based on the main, auxiliary, seasonings and cooking methods of realistic naming, but also based on historical stories, myths and legends, celebrities, food interests, dishes named in the image, such as 'Family Fortunes', 'generals across the bridge', ' Lion's Head', 'Barking Chicken', 'Dragon and Phoenix', 'Hongmen Banquet', 'Dongpo Meat ' ......
Fifth, the combination of food and medicine. China's cooking technology, and health care has a close link, thousands of years ago there is 'medical food' and 'medicinal meals with the same function', the use of food raw materials of medicinal value, made into a variety of delicious dishes, to achieve the purpose of certain diseases prevention and treatment. "
Ancient Chinese people also put special emphasis on eating and cosmic rhythms coordinated synchronization, spring, summer, autumn and winter, the evening and the darkness to eat different nature of the food, and even the processing of food to take into account the seasons, climate and other factors. These ideas have been formed as early as pre-Qin, in the "Rituals - Order of the Moon" has a clear record, and oppose the reversal of the seasons, such as the spring "line summer" "line autumn" "line winter" will be Day disaster; of course, also opposed to the consumption of anti-seasonal food, Confucius said "do not eat from time to time", contains a two-fold meaning of a regular meal, the second is not to eat anti-seasonal food, and the contemporary sense of the opposite, some eat anti-seasonal food is for the sake of the broad. Western Han Dynasty, the palace began to use greenhouses to grow "green onions, leeks and vegetables," and the Western Jin Dynasty rich man Shi Chong's house also has a greenhouse. This kind of ideology that emphasizes adapting to the rhythms of the universe is indeed unique to the Chinese food culture. The only remnants of this consciousness to modern times are holiday food customs (Chinese medicine also has some, but has not been paid attention to).
The "yin and yang, five elements" theory is the model of the world set by traditional thought, and is also considered to be the law of the universe. As a human being is one of the "three talents", food is indispensable to human life, and the cooking of food must follow this law. Therefore, not only did they classify flavors into five, and produced the saying "five flavors" (in fact, there are more than five "flavors" that a person can feel, but two or three thousand years ago, it was not a small number to be able to distinguish five), but also cut the foot to fit the foot by putting a large number (which had already been recognized) of grains, livestock, and foodstuffs into the category of "five flavors". point) of grains, livestock, vegetables and fruits into the "five grains", "five meat", "five vegetables" and "five fruits" fixed pattern. "and fruits, respectively. This is absurd. What is even more surprising is that there is also the saying that "every drink nourishes yang qi; every food nourishes yin qi" ("Rites of Passage - Suburban Special Adoption"). And that only drink and food and the yin and yang of heaven and earth are harmonized with each other, so that they can "communicate with the gods", up to heaven, so as to achieve the effect of "unity of heaven and man". Therefore, when offering sacrifices to the heavens, it is necessary to strictly follow the theory of yin and yang and the five elements. This statement was later inherited by the Taoist religion, became a starting point for their dietary theory, such as eating food is to increase the body's yin gas, such as "grains full of body and can not benefit the life," "food gas life" and so on, to cultivate, to get the yang should try to eat less, the best! The best realm is not to eat, take the "grain" realm.
The beauty of harmony is the highest aesthetic ideal of traditional Chinese culture. "The center is also, the world's great base also; and also, the world's reach also. To the center and harmony, heaven is in the position, and all things are nurtured" ("Rituals - Zhongyong"). What is meant by "center"? It cannot be summarized simply by the word "middle". The word "middle" means just right, in accordance with the degree. It's kind of like the word "zhong" in the Henan dialect. "He" is also a culinary concept. There is a famous line in the ancient text Shangshu - Saying Life, "If you make a soup, only salt and plum", meaning that to make a good soup, the key is to mix the salty (salt) and sour (plum) flavors, which is an analogy for the rule of the country. In Zuo Zhuan, Yan Ying (the wise prime minister of Qi) also talked with Duke Jing of Qi about what is "and", pointing out that "and" is not "the same", and that it is necessary to establish a basis for the coordination of different opinions. Therefore, Chinese philosophers believed that everything in heaven and earth finds its place in the state of "harmony" in order to reproduce and develop. This aesthetic ideal is built on the harmony and unity between the individual and society, and between man and nature. This idea of realizing the "beauty of harmony" through tuning was inspired and influenced by ancient cooking practices and theories, which in turn influenced people's entire dietary life, especially for the pursuit of art living, living art of the ancient literati and scholars.
The opposite of "neutral" is extreme, extreme in cooking is not considered authentic, those "salty excess, spicy excess, sour excess" of food, although by some of the body in the abnormal state of the people's pursuit, but in the long run it is It is harmful to the body. Extremism in social and political life is even more detrimental.
As mentioned above, the dietary life of the Chinese people embodies the characteristics of traditional culture, although some of these characteristics are incomprehensible or unscientific to modern people (in recent centuries, the word "science" has become almost a religious belief in China, and it is only a yardstick for measuring right and wrong in all fields, while it cannot be questioned), but is it possible that the dietary life of the Chinese people is a good example of traditional culture? It has become almost a religious belief in China over the last hundred years, and is only a yardstick for measuring right and wrong in all fields, while it cannot be questioned in its own right), but is eating and drinking all that the word "science" can say? If we focus on "culture", then the study of Chinese food life is not only a necessary part of Chinese culture, but can even be a key to the study of Chinese culture.
At present, food culture is still a vague concept. Some researchers say in general, it includes what to eat, how to do, how to eat the three aspects of the problem; some researchers believe that dietary culture of the birth of six sciences, namely, cooking, food manufacturing, therapeutics, dietary folklore, dietary arts and culture, food manufacturing; some researchers also advocate the addition of dietary aesthetics, dietary business, dietary appliances and so on. Some researchers also advocate the addition of food aesthetics, food commerce, food utensils and so on. My understanding of food culture mainly refers to the relationship between food and people, people and the social significance it produces. Therefore, although I also discuss food, delicacies, food processing, cooking, dietary practices and even the eating environment, eating utensils, tableware, etc. in the History of Chinese Dietary Culture, I have introduced and commented on their relationship with people and people and their social significance, and have omitted most of the pure craftsmanship processes that do not have much to do with people in addition to the introduction of the necessary knowledge in order to emphasize the material and spiritual benefits that dietary life has brought to the people. It is intended to highlight the material and spiritual double enjoyment brought by the dietary life to the people, as well as the deliberate pursuit of Chinese food culture in these two aspects.