As the saying goes, food is in China. In this ancient and strange country, three thousand years ago, a brilliant bronze civilization was born. In fact, during the Bronze Age, Chinese food was freed from obscurity and mirrored the light of bronze. Below I have organized for you to eat in ancient times, bronze related knowledge, I hope it is useful to you.

Ancient Eating Bronze

China's ancient people in the Neolithic era was the first to cultivate corn, millet, millet, rice, beans and other food crops. From about the Xia and Shang Dynasties, the Chinese ancestors, who were mainly hunters and gatherers, entered the farming era, which was mainly based on crop cultivation, and grain crops began to dominate people's dietary life, just as Mr. Wang Xuetai said, ? The rulers of the Xia and Shang dynasties not only became more sophisticated in eating but also began to pay attention to tableware and eating utensils. It can be seen that people's desire for food and drink, the requirements of dietary sophistication to promote the development of tableware. In the Shang and Zhou dynasties, by the Shang king (or Zhou Tien Zi), the vassal, the secretary of the upper class composed of the most important and most praised food utensils used when the bronze. However, when it comes to bronze, there is a relatively complex problem. In addition to being used as cooking vessels and food containers, bronze containers were also important ceremonial vessels used by the aristocracy for banquets, rituals and other ceremonial activities. There is no particularly clear distinction between bronze vessels in daily life and ritual activities, unless they were specially made for rituals. There is also a linguistic similarity, as found in the "Strategies of the Warring States? Zhongshan Ce (中山策). The Chinese text "Zhongshan Ce" (中山策) has the phrase "eating and feeding" in its title. Gao Yuxian said, "Wu is a food feeder, and sacrifices to ghosts are also made. Wu for food feed, ghost sacrifice is also feed? Therefore, the ancient ritual activities and daily diet is mixed together. In other words, the bronzes used in ritual activities such as feasts and sacrifices are another kind of daily activities existing in the concept.

Types of Bronze Food and Drinking Vessels and Their Evolution

Let us look at bronze vessels from the perspective of food culture. This is the previous study of bronze scholars have not been very involved in the field, there may be occasional involvement, such as Mr. Zhang Guangzhi, "China's Bronze Age," set aside a chapter to talk about the "ancient Chinese food and eating utensils," but then turn to other research. As Mr. Zhang said, ? My study of ancient Chinese diet is more or less out of my own control. In the course of studying Shang and Zhou ritual objects, I gradually realized that in order to understand these objects, I must first understand the diet on which they were used? that can suggest that we should and must carry out ? alternative?

In the many bronze eating utensils, the first should be the bronze tripod, the so-called? The first of the many bronze eating utensils should be the bronze tripod, the so-called "bell ringing tripod food". The "Shuowen" on the? tripod? The explanation of the tripod said, "The tripod, three-footed, two ears, two ears, two ears, two ears. Tripod, three feet, two ears, and the five flavors of the treasure also? Although Xu Shen's explanation of the shape of the vessel is not comprehensive, a? The precious weapon? The status of the tripod in many food utensils has been made clear. Simply put, the tripod is a cooking device, but not absolute. Soot on the bottom and feet of tripods unearthed in archaeological excavations proves that the tripod was indeed a cooking vessel, but in addition to cooking food, it could also be used to make soup (hot water), or used as a utensil to hold meat and condiments during banquets and feasts. The different uses of the tripod can be inferred from the size of the tripod and the name of the tripod in the inscription.

A tripod used only for cooking is called a ? Woks? I have been involved in the measurement of the outer uncle tripod work, its volume can hold three bags of 50 pounds of millet more than. Most of the large tripods of the Shang Dynasty that we see now can be considered to be woks and tripods. However, these woks and tripods were not used to offer the food cooked directly, but were replaced by smaller tripods to continue cooking the food after the animal had been decomposed. These smaller tripods were called ? Shengding? The word "sheng" means "to ascend" and "to ascend" means "to advance". Shengjin" means "to ascend". They were used to hold various kinds of meat cooked in the tripods, and they were carried on the shoulders of the tripods to be offered to the court. Most of the meat cooked in the woks and tripods was white meat, which was the same as that in the common soup that did not have five flavors. This is similar to the "big soup" that was commonly prepared without any flavors. This is similar to the "Dazhou", which is a simple and clean dish that is served to the gods and ancestors to show that the difficulty of harvesting is not forgotten. In addition, there is also a kind of? Shyi Ding? As the name suggests, the "Shyding" is a kind of "Shyding", which is a kind of "Shyding". Shame? is a condiment that contains salt, honey, plum acid, ginger, wine, bitter and other flavors, while the Shyodin is a utensil that holds the condiment to accompany the tripod that holds the main food when eating. Therefore, the three kinds of tripods used in a food event are wok tripod, liter tripod, and shy tripod. However, this is only a general statement, the actual situation is much more complicated than these. The names on the bronze tripods of the two weeks include Steamed Tripod, Shy Tripod, Bao Tripod, Hui Tripod, Feeding Tripod, and so on. Although the name of the bronze tripod does not necessarily follow a fixed use, but from a side also shows that the food activities are not constrained by the law. Of course, there are still some rules in the catering, that is, the tripod system.

Tripods and often similar shape, size and arrangement, such as Shouxian, Anhui Province, late Spring and Autumn Cai Hou tomb unearthed a group of seven Cai Hou tripod, Henan Xichuan under the temple late Spring and Autumn Chu Tomb M2 unearthed the king of Ziwu tripod seven, and so on. Represented by the ascending tripod, it can be seen that the use of tripod number is divided into nine, seven, five, three or one? Such four use of the system, that is, the name of the ritual too jail, less jail, livestock and the name of the special. The use of the number of tripods by the nobles and the great masters was to be compatible with their own rank and not to be contradicted. In the second year of Duke Huan's reign, He Xiu was the author of the book "The Book of the Ram". Huan Gong two years" He Huo note:? Nine tripods for the son of heaven, seven for the vassals, five for the ministers, and three for the first sergeants. The actual situation is far more perfect than this. Perfect? The actual situation is far more complex and flexible than this? Such as the Spring and Autumn period, the vassal state of Chu has used the example of ten tripods, the number of tripods has been the same? Nine tripods of the son of heaven? constitutes an unauthorized, but do not use the odd number, but with an even number, more surprising. In the Central Plains, and gui and tripod matching, often nine tripod with eight gui, seven tripod with six gui, five tripod with four gui, three tripod with two gui. The system of the son of heaven is nine tripods and eight gui. The later literature said? Nine tripods? I am afraid that it is also related to the system of "nine tripods and eight gourds". The system of nine tripods and eight gui is somewhat related to the system of nine tripods and eight gui. The system is somewhat related to the system of the nine tripods and eight gui.

Li has been commonly used as early as in the Neolithic era, in the Neolithic site of Henan Shanxian Sanliqiao excavated pottery Li. Bronze 鬲 first appeared in the early Shang Dynasty, with a large mouth, pouch-shaped belly, under which there are three shorter conical feet. The role of the bag-shaped belly is mainly to expand the fire area, faster cooking food, but its shortcomings are also obvious, if used to cook porridge, the hollow foot is difficult to clean. Because of this, li was not initially used for cooking porridge, but may just be a water boiler. From the late Shang dynasty, the pouch belly gradually metamorphosis, after the middle of the Western Zhou dynasty, the form into a horizontal wide type, crotch dividing wide. The shape of the change shows that the ancients have realized that the bag belly in the porridge cooking inconvenience, and efforts to improve to make it more practical. To the late Warring States period, the bronze li from the ranks of ceremonial vessels and household utensils gradually disappeared. This on the other hand shows that there are big defects as a cooking utensil, with the progress of society, the inferior will be eliminated.

Shang Li deer ear four-legged bronze earthenware vessel, unearthed in Jiangxi Xingan Dayangzhou

Bronze earthenware vessel is a combination of a large-mouthed basin-shaped vessel and the lower part of the earthenware vessel. Earthenware is specially used for steaming and cooking, below the earthenware vessel is water, food is placed in the cauldron, and the fire underneath is used to boil the water and steam the food, which is the same as that of the present-day steamboat. The bottom of the cauldron has a copper plate, commonly known as the grate, grate cross-shaped holes or straight holes, in order to pass the steam. But in the unearthed Shang dynasty copper 甗, more than not see the middle of the grate, only 甗腰处内壁附有凸起的箅齿, may not be directly put food on the copper 甗, may be made of bamboo bamboo baskets, baskets, etc. Sheng millet, and then put it on the 甗.

Spring and Autumn Marquis Cai Shen Gui, unearthed in the tomb of Marquis Cai Zhao in Shou County, Anhui Province

The above is a cooking vessel, and there are also gui, basket, dun, beans and other food containers. Gui is the most common type of food utensils, mainly used to hold food such as millet and corn, generally with the tripod and become an important combination of immobilized artifacts. If we say that the tripod as we now use the pot, gui means our dining bowl; tripod dedicated to cooking or meat, while gui is specialized in holding millet grain. Its shape has a cover, no cover, with ears, no ears of the difference, with ears and two ears, three ears, four ears.

Spring and Autumn Vermicelli, unearthed in Hu Kiln, Taihe County, Anhui Province

Most of the gui are round, and in the late Western Zhou Dynasty, there was also a kind of rectangular body with rounded corners of the lid, known as a quail. The function of the gui is similar to that of the gui, and it is actually a variant of the gui. The earliest piece of ji is the ji unearthed in the cellar of No. 1 Fufeng Zhuangbai in Shaanxi, which was in the fourth year of King Xiao of Zhou, i.e., in the late middle period of the Western Zhou Dynasty. Its popularity time is very short, to the early spring and autumn has been rare, the shape change is not big, popular range is also mostly in qi zhou, feng hao, into the zhou three king ki area and the neighboring jin, should be the vassal state domination center area. Mr. Zhang Mourong believes that the copper quail was mainly used by the middle and upper class nobles in the Western Zhou Dynasty, and its role was to elevate the status of the culinary utensils in the combination of ceremonial vessels.

Bronze Worship Vessel for Xu Gongbuy, excavated in Huangzhou City, Hubei Province

Worship Vessel is a rectangular, dipper-shaped bronze vessel with a homogeneous lid, and it is also a food vessel for millet, rice and sorghum. The lid can be interlocked, and there are small animal buttons around the mouth of the lid, which can be added to the vessel to keep it stable. Baskets were popular in the late Western Zhou Dynasty to the Warring States period, and were more prevalent in the southern region than in the north. After the middle of the Spring and Autumn period, there appeared the dun, which was gradually popularized. The Spring and Autumn period of the dun round body with a cover, such as Hebei Yixian unearthed Qihou dun; to the Warring States period, the dun evolved into the same shape as the cover, the whole was ovoid, by the same period of the influence of the tripod, commonly known as the watermelon dun? Watermelon dun? Close relationship with the dun when the food for the beans, copper beans have deep bellied beans, flat plate beans two types, deep bellied beans and gui, dun class, used to hold millet grain, and shallow plate beans are minced meat and minced meat and other sauces. In addition, in the beans, there is also a shank skeleton hole, disk very shallow form, called? Fu? or? or ?pu? As with the 盨, the popularity of the time is very short, and the scope of use is extremely limited, also used only in the middle and upper class nobles. Pou? may be the document? fruit? The first is to use a new type of fruit, which is designed to hold dried fruits and meats.

Pebble, unearthed in the northwest pebble beach of Anyang, Henan Province

The pebble beach was used as a tool for eating, commonly known as a pebble. Pebble pebble, commonly known as the pebble. Shang Dynasty pebble, in the shape of the pebble can be divided into? The pebble table is a good example of a pebble pebble. The pebble ladle is a good example of a pebble pebble. Pebble beach (handle) two parts, the material has two types of horn and wood. Henan Anyang northwest of the pebble excavation is to animal ribs or leg bones as material, rectangular shape, narrow on the bottom wide, flat thin arc convex utensils; Pebble on the carving of the pebble decorative themes are rich, there are all kinds of complex and varied floral pattern, animal face pattern, cicadas, birds, phoenixes and geometric shapes. So far, the era of the earliest copper chopsticks found with the burials in the northwest of the Yinxu Ruins, with 3 pieces of pellet, 3 pieces of pots, 3 pieces of shovels, 3 pieces of chopsticks, Mr. Chen Mengjia that the unearthed copper chopsticks should be more cooking utensils. The bronze chopsticks similar to today's chopsticks did not appear until the Spring and Autumn period. The common bronze dagger of the two weeks can also be called the earliest spoon. Bronze daggers, cranked shallow bucket, oval, round. There are long and short dagger handles, and the handles are mostly decorated with floral patterns. Ritual book and divided into four kinds of rice dagger, livestock dagger, sparse dagger, pick dagger, rice dagger and livestock dagger commonly used, pick dagger, sparse dagger is a large dagger, can be categorized as livestock dagger, used for woks and cauldrons to take the meat on the chopping board. Archaeological discovery of large daggers, mostly made pointed spoon shape, easy to split the body of livestock, and scooping meat soup. Rice daggers, smaller in shape, were used directly for eating. Since the middle and late Warring States period, along with the disintegration of the Western Zhou ritual system, the big dagger gradually disappeared, and the small dagger also tends to be lightweight and practical. A famous early Warring States fish tripod dagger, is a rice dagger; although its inscription and fish tripod with, but never scooped the body of livestock livestock dagger, just like the spoon we use now.