Xu she
Food is the most important thing for people-China food culture
China's diet enjoys a high reputation in the world. Overseas Chinese and foreigners born in China make a living overseas, and the most common industry is catering. There are China restaurants all over China, and China's diet can be said to have been "eaten" by the world. As early as the beginning of this century, Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the revolutionary forerunner, keenly observed this phenomenon. Dr. Sun Yat-sen said in the book "General Plan for the Founding of the People's Republic of China": "After the evolution of modern civilization in China, everything fell behind, but the progress in diet was not as good as that in 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 their pulse. However, China restaurants are completely different. They can actually land in Europe and America, spread all over the world and be invincible. So far, there are China restaurants in almost every corner of the world. This sharp contrast has attracted academic attention, but there is no more convincing explanation at present. We believe that it is not an isolated and accidental phenomenon that restaurants in China can spread all over the world, and the reason is 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 China's food. However, if we want to discuss food culture from a comparative perspective, we can do so by grasping the essence of China food culture. Without comparison, there is no recognition. Here, the author thinks that the more feasible way is to explore China's food culture from the perspective of food lifestyle. In fact, China's food culture actually refers to China people's food lifestyle. If we want to talk about China's food culture, we must talk about 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 China's early 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 oceans in the southeast. Although the land in the Yellow River Basin, the main hotbed of China culture, is very fertile, other environments are harsh, windy and rainy, and living conditions are not good. After the emergence of civilization, the culture at that time showed a strong tendency of realism, and the color of ethics was very strong. 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 Chinese civilization was a precocious baby, and her development process had obvious advanced characteristics. On the other hand, western civilization is completely different. Childhood of Western Culture Greek civilization was written into the history of civilization with its unique wave-temperature atmosphere. Marx once thought that Greek civilization was a normal baby. In the process of development, the living soil of China culture gradually dried up and became unsuitable for agricultural production. Because the soil and other factors are very unfavorable to agricultural production, the actual suffering can not 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 made every effort for the same goal, with the aim of establishing an ideal world without struggle. But this is just an ideal. During the Warring States period, disputes among countries continued. Compared with their strength, Qin finally ruled the country by encouraging military exploits and rewarding farming, which is the wish of the people. The world is in dispute, and how people live is also a historical choice. Only after reunification will there be no such situation as "how many people are kings and how many people are emperors". ? (Cao
In the pre-Qin period, the Chu state in the south of China also showed romantic thoughts, but it was quickly enveloped and submerged by the realistic thoughts in the north. After Qin Shihuang unified China, all books were in the same language, and the history after that was the history of the emperor's reunification. In order to maintain this unified situation, China 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 upright official was called an upright official. Once he appeared, he would be sung and worshipped. Therefore, although China has no religion in a strict sense, some of its characteristics are similar to religion, and it also has its own God. If this phenomenon is also regarded as religion, then Chinese religion is extreme idealism in the real 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, so it is impossible for real people to act as ideal gods. Therefore, the movement of creating gods in the history of China has emerged endlessly until today. In other words, the religion of China people is polytheism, not monotheism. God of Wealth, God of Medicine, God of Kitchen and Mazu are all regarded as gods and worshipped. China culture has two other characteristics: one is the absolute pursuit of application, 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 technology and medicine, are very developed, but some related non-practical things cannot be developed. The Mohist knowledge of optics and geometry in the pre-Qin period failed to develop after Confucianism became the only thing in the Han Dynasty. There are no basic disciplines such as physics, chemistry and biology in China. Of course, in the process of the emperor's pursuit of immortality, alchemy is also very developed, which does contain chemical knowledge. China's handicraft industry is very developed, but modern machine industrial production, such as steam engines, was not invented by China. Before the15th century, most of the inventions in the world 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 "the benevolent loves others". Because of kindness, China people carry out the system of multi-child inheritance, which on the one hand can divide the property, on the other hand limits the long-distance migration, which is of great significance to the resettlement of China people. This inheritance system restricts the development of business, so the idea of having more children and more happiness arises. The concept of many children and many blessings has increased the population of the society, resulting in more children and many blessings. Social and demographic pressure has always existed. As long as the productive forces of society can support many people, there will be many people.
Many characteristics of China's food culture are embodied in the food culture, which directly affects the development of China's food culture. First of all, due to population pressure and other reasons, China people's diet began in the pre-Qin period, that is, grain was the main food, with less meat and more vegetables as the supplement. This is a typical dietary structure. Among them, rice is the staple food, while vegetables are for the next meal, that is, to help rice swallow. Why should I help you swallow it? That's because the staple food is not delicious, and there must be a substance to help people eat it. Of course, vegetables and salt have something in common, but they are not the same as salt. The main purpose of promoting China cooking this time is to decorate the diet and make the unpalatable food exquisite; Secondly, due to the pursuit of shirts in China culture and the development of handicrafts in China, the food processing technology in cooking is second to none in the world, which reflects the characteristics of shirts in China culture. All these make China's food culture have the following characteristics. First of all, China's cooking technology is developed, and many westerners think that inedible things have become appetizing at first sight through the work of chefs in China. Second, China people have a wide range of recipes, and everyone who can eat is eating without any taboos; Third, China has many works about famine relief, so as 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 is the first requirement. Because China people can't eat as they please, there are poems to prove it:
It's too late to patrol the sky in the red sun, and I know the truth in my stomach.
It is 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 position in China people's lives, and the evidence is endless.
In addition, we can analyze some characteristics of western food culture, which may deepen our understanding of China food culture. In the diet of westerners, animal husbandry was the main food at first, and the proportion of meat in the diet has always been high. In modern times, the proportion of cultivation has increased, but the proportion of meat in the diet is still higher than that of China people. Because meat is naturally delicious, westerners don't need 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 of various utensils and luxuries. In addition, I don't pursue eating things that are easy to satisfy in life as the supreme pleasure of life. Westerners' pursuit of life is exactly the same as a saying of China, which can be highly summarized as "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 in the daily life of ordinary people. Palace diet and store diet can better and more comprehensively show these characteristics. People's holiday diets, such as the Spring Festival, may partly show these characteristics, but after all, the Spring Festival is a flash in the pan in 365 days of the year.
There is no good or bad culture, and there is no good or bad 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 I don't know if it can be recognized by most readers. In most cases, I belong to the kind of "chef from afar". I don't know how to cook, and I'm not a gourmet, but I know that "one meal and one porridge is hard to come by". In this sense, I will put some of my views on China's food culture into writing, hoping to get suggestions from local authorities.
Reference book:
Food is the most important thing for people-China food culture
Introduction of Food Culture in China
On China's Diet Culture
The development and prosperity of food culture in China is in harmony with the development of the whole history of China. Taking the ancient food culture in China as an example, the specific manifestations are as follows: from the palace to the folk, from the mainland to the frontier, from the nobility to the common people, the food style is prosperous, elegant, exquisite and colorful;
The prosperity of "eating"-there are many cuisines, more than a thousand kinds of snacks, and the uniqueness and diversity of food styles and tastes in various places.
The art of "eating"-delicious food and delicious food supplemented by exquisite utensils, pursues the harmony and unity of the three, and is seamless. Seasoned exquisite dishes, prosperous meals and ingenious cooking skills are unique in the world.
The elegance of "eating"-the luxury of royal banquets, the solemnity of court banquets and food sacrifices, the strictness of etiquette system and etiquette level, and the elegance of banquet atmosphere.
The benefits of "eating"-the communication between officialdom and interpersonal relationship, the essence of dietotherapy, the effect of prolonging life, the effect of benefiting the heart and strengthening the body, but the effect of treating diseases and satisfying hunger.
The strangeness of "eating"-the frontier beyond the Great Wall, has many nationalities and strange customs. National food art, food style, food taste and unique mood are wonderful works of minority culture.
On the one hand, as Yuan Mei, a famous writer, poet and gourmet in Qing Dynasty, said, China's food culture in past dynasties is a "way of learning" that requires "foresight and mastery of various cooking skills"; On the other hand, he is also a "comprehensive art" with multiple cultural connotations such as diet, beauty and etiquette, food enjoyment and diet.