China is known as the "kingdom of cooking", and eating is the cultural symbol of the Chinese nation. China's food culture is extensive and profound. Cooking, boiling, steaming and frying ... as long as it is food, it can make all kinds of flavors. Tracing back to the history of China's food culture, we have to mention the Book of Songs.
The Book of Songs is the first collection of poems in Chinese history. The contents recorded in it involve various aspects, including astronomy and geography, folk customs, war corvee and so on. It can be said that The Book of Songs is an encyclopedia, reflecting the social life of people in that era. There are many descriptions about diet in The Book of Songs. According to statistics, there are as many as 46 chapters on diet, and the Book of Songs has 3 1 1. Next, let's talk about the food culture in The Book of Songs.
There are many kinds of food crops in The Book of Songs.
Since ancient times, China people's diet has been dominated by cereals. We often say "whole grains" are the main food crops. It should be mentioned that there are not only "five grains", but also "six grains", "nine grains" and "hundred grains", such as millet, glutinous rice, wheat, hemp, soybean and wheat, which are all common grains.
In The Book of Songs, five-grain words such as "millet", "millet", "rice" and "wheat" appear repeatedly. Xiao Yaxin Nanshan said: "The border has wings, and the millet has or has it." What about Zhou Song? In Xixi, there is a saying: "When you lead a farmer, you will spread a hundred valleys." "Millet and millet" are often read together, which not only represents the general name of crops, but also indicates that they are the main food crops. "Hundred grains" also indicates the meaning of food types, indicating that in the Zhou Dynasty, the types of crops have been quite rich and diverse, and people have a clear conceptual classification of food.
However, although there are many kinds of cereals, due to the low level of agricultural production at that time and the influence of natural environment factors, the cereals planted by people are not enough to meet the needs of the population, so it is very important to collect grain.
So how do people collect food? What kinds are there?
In the Book of Songs, the description of gathering food is mainly vegetables and fruits, and of course, there are also meat gathering. Some of the fruits and vegetables recorded in The Book of Songs were collected from the wild and some were planted artificially. Meat is usually obtained by fishing and hunting.
1. most of them are wild vegetables.
The wild vegetables mentioned in the Book of Songs, such as wild peas, shepherd's purse and chrysanthemum, are mainly wild vegetables and are mostly collected from fields. For example, Nan Zhou Guanluo wrote: "Guanluo dove is in Hezhou. My fair lady, a gentleman is good ... pick from left to right. "
Floating heart
Speaking of this classic poem, I think the image of a beautiful woman, rather than some important information points, should come to many people's minds first. The shepherd's purse mentioned in this paper is an aquatic plant, which floats on the water surface or grows in the soil and can be eaten. As we all know, plants growing in water are generally not easy to pick, so the author uses the word "left and right picking" to describe it, which means repeated actions, indicating that wild vegetables are also difficult to pick. In the poem, the author compares the "shepherd's purse" which is difficult to pick to "beauty", which shows that beautiful things are difficult to pursue.
2. Artificial cultivation, mostly fruit.
Most of the fruits in The Book of Songs are planted artificially. "There are peaches in Feng Weiyuan" says:
"There are peaches in the garden, which is actually a dish. My heart is worried, I sing and sing ... there are thorns in the garden, but it is actually food. "
Yao, the fruit, the author said that the orchard is full of big and sweet peaches, so you can eat enough. The orchard here, of course, refers to an orchard that is looked after and cared for, otherwise it will definitely not be called an orchard. So we can know from it that people at that time had learned to grow fruit trees artificially, just as they knew how to grow food crops.
In addition, a small amount of fruits are collected from the wild. For example, in July, the wind wrote: "June is gloomy with thorns". The "thorns" here refer to "Prunus humilis", a kind of fruit with large stone, little meat and sour taste, which is a typical wild variety.
3. Fishing and hunting, meat food
"The pipe is light and heavy": "Fishing and hunting pay, steaming for food." Since humans learned to make tools, they have entered the era of hunting culture. Obtaining food through fishing and hunting can effectively solve the problem of food shortage to a great extent.
According to statistics, there are as many as 18 species of fish mentioned in The Book of Songs, such as carp, bream and shark. Zhou Songqian: "There are many fish in the pond: herring, tuna and carp. There are several kinds of fish mentioned in this sentence. At that time, fish was regarded as the representative of fertility, and was usually used in sacrificial activities to express people's good wishes.
Besides fishing, let's talk about hunting. In the era of primitive society, the main mode of production of human beings was hunting and gathering, and the life mode was similar to nomadic life, "living by weeds". When the available material resources in one place are exhausted, people will move to another place to start their lives again.
Therefore, eating meat was a common thing at that time. In the farming era, people reclaimed wasteland and planted crops on a large scale, but because forests and grasslands were destroyed in large quantities, birds and animals also ran away without a trace. In addition, at that time, the labor force was mainly invested in farmland farming, and people went out to hunt for less time and times, so the source of meat was also reduced. As a result, the phenomenon of "Shu Ren worships fish when eating vegetables" appeared.
What do you mean? It means that ordinary people can only eat vegetables, and only use fish when they sacrifice. After people entered the era of agricultural civilization, ordinary people suffered from farming, and only the ruling class could live a life of big fish and big meat. So the term "meat eater" appeared later. The Book of Songs Feng Wei Fa Tan wrote: "No hunting, no hunting, is there a county in Hu Zhaner's court?" ..... If you don't hunt, is there a county quail in Hu Zhaner's court? " "Xi" means pig badger, and "quail" means quail. This poem mainly criticizes the behavior of the ruling class for nothing.
The grown food, naturally collected vegetables, meat and other ingredients should be cooked, so how did people cook at that time? What's the point?
The Book of Songs Xiaoya Chutz said, "There are many sheep and cows, which I have tasted before. Or peel or hang, or even ... Cun (meaning to cook with fire), for Kong Shuo, or burn or roast. "
This passage mainly talks about the scene of sacrificial activities. People are dignified. After washing all the cattle and sheep, they take them to sacrifice in winter and autumn. Some people were in charge of slaughtering, some were in charge of cooking, some were in charge of serving vegetables, some were in charge of barbecue, the cooks were cautious and agile, and the containers for meat were very large ... This shows that the banquet scene was very lively at that time, which also shows that the cooking skills of human beings at that time were very high and exquisite.
Next, let's analyze the cooking methods and edible containers in detail.
1. Cooking method
"Burning" and "barbecue" refer to burning and baking, and are also used to refer to all cooking. "The Warring States Policy" mentioned: "Qi Huangong stays up late, Yi Ya suffers from scorched moxibustion, and five flavors make it." The "scorched moxibustion" mentioned here refers to cooking food. It is said that Qi Huangong was not feeling well in the middle of the night, so Yiya cooked delicious food for him. Qi Huangong slept till dawn after eating.
Looking back, the meaning of "or scorched or broiled" in the Book of Songs is the same, all referring to cooking methods. At first, "jiao" meant to barbecue in the fire. The general situation is similar to the barbecue we said today, which refers to the barbecue of meat. However, due to the limited conditions at that time, the barbecue level certainly could not reach our present level. Therefore, the barbecue at that time was mainly to simply treat animals such as cattle and sheep and put them into the fire for cooking. However, in any case, it is undeniable that the cooking methods at that time were already very diverse.
2. Tableware
"Hurricane? Vanko: "My son, the money has been practiced. "
"Gou" (gü u), meaning will; Biān, a bamboo ritual vessel, is mainly used to hold preserved fruit; "Bean" refers to utensils, not soybeans, which are mainly used for holding sauces or curing food. If you want to see that girl, you must set the table and the banquet first. It can be seen that people at that time were also very particular about the choice of utensils. What kind of food and what kind of utensils are used to hold food is a problem for a university.
The eating utensils in The Book of Songs mainly include beans, granaries, dwellings, baskets and big houses. For example, baskets or jars are used to hold vegetables, big rooms are used to hold meat food, and ding is used to cook food. The aforementioned "Wei Kong Shuo" means that the tripod for holding food or the sacrificial vessel is very large, and it is a vessel for holding food.
In addition, food etiquette is also a more particular aspect, because of space reasons, I will not discuss it here, and I will talk about it later when I have time.
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As the saying goes, "Food is the most important thing for people", and diet plays an extremely important role in human life. The Book of Songs is a classic and great historical encyclopedia, a reflection of the mainstream ideology of the society at that time, and a concentrated expression of people's food culture at that time. There are many kinds of cereals recorded in The Book of Songs, especially the varieties of fruits and vegetables. By looking at people's diet in the pre-Qin period through the Book of Songs, we can get a general understanding of the diet and living conditions of working people at that time. Generally speaking, although the labor productivity of that dynasty was still relatively low, it did not affect people's pursuit of food. People in the pre-Qin period were very particular about cooking and eating utensils, which reflected the progress of civilization in the times.