Sashimi (raw fish) has long been considered a traditional Japanese dish. In fact, it is not, it is an authentic Chinese dish.

In Japan, the raw materials for sashimi are usually: tuna, salmon, snapper, halibut, bonito, tako, sea bass, and so on; there are also freshwater fish such as carp and crucian carp. In ancient times, carp was the top quality of sashimi. Octopus, squid, cuttlefish, and whale are also common ingredients. Sashimi is served with these general condiments: soy sauce, wasabi puree, vinegar, grated ginger, grated daikon radish, and sake. Some places use a type of soy sauce mixed with wasabi paste when serving bonito. Carp, crucian carp, and catfish are served with wasabi paste, vinegar, Japanese soy sauce, and even minced chili peppers.

The above are the ingredients and condiments of the so-called sashimi, a traditional Japanese delicacy. This sashimi is actually an ancient Chinese dish called "chopped fish," which has a long history dating back to the Zhou Dynasty.

There are records of sashimi being eaten as early as the Zhou Dynasty. Now unearthed bronze "Ruoxi armor plate" inscription records: "King Xuan Wang five years, the Zhou division in the Peng Nga to meet the long-snout tribe, and returned in triumph. General Yin Jifu gave a private banquet to Zhang Zhong and other friends, and the main dish was roasted turtle with slices of raw carp." ; The Book of Rites: "Chopped meat, spring with green onions, fall with mustard," "Fishy and fine meat is chopped"; The Analects of Confucius: "Do not eat until you have its sauce"; The Book of Han: "Raw meat is chopped." . You may not be familiar with these records, but there is a familiar TV series "The Great Qin Empire of Zongheng". In this TV series there is a small episode where Zhang Yi slices carp with his sword and serves it. This is called chopped fish, which is now known as sashimi.

During the Three Kingdoms period, everyone loved chopped fish, too. Cao Zhi's Meidu Zhuan said, "chopped carp, fat-born shrimp, shelled turtle and sizzling paws of bear." What does it mean? It means that the raw fish is dipped in a small shrimp paste and eaten.

The North and South Dynasties saw the emergence of "chopped gold and finely chopped jade," the most famous of the ancient Chinese sashimi dishes. Jia Si Fo "Qimin Yaojutsu" describes the practice of golden finely chopped fish in detail. The "eight and finely chopped pieces" are made of eight ingredients: garlic, ginger, orange, white plums, cooked corn, round-grained rice, salt and sauce, and are used for dipping chopped fish.

During the Sui Dynasty, Emperor Yang went to Jiangdu. Wu County Songjiang offer perch, Emperor Yang said, "the so-called gold and jade chop, the southeast of the good taste also." Emperor Yang in addition to dipping sauce to accompany food, but also a variety of lettuce mixed food. Emperor Yang made the fish chopped on the beauty of a grade.

The next Tang Dynasty was the peak of sashimi consumption. It was also during this period that chopped fish was officially introduced to Japan and became sashimi (raw fish). Tang Dynasty poet Wang Wei wrote in "Daughter's Walk in Luoyang", "The maid's golden plate is chopped with carp"; Wang Changling wrote in "Sending Cheng Liu", "The green fish is chopped with orange spices in the snow"; Bai Juyi wrote in "Lightly Fattened", "Chopped scales of Tianchi " and so on, and there are many other poems written about it. During the Tang Dynasty, sashimi was a common everyday dish, and when you went on a trip, you would also make sashimi from local ingredients and eat it.

Over the course of two and a half centuries, Japan sent more than a dozen envoys to the Tang Dynasty in order to learn about Chinese culture. These envoys took a lot of Chinese culture with them, and this famous pre-Qin Chinese dish: chopped fish, was one of them. Japan, which was so culturally deprived that it did not even know how to eat, gradually learned to eat chopped fish, and they became much more civilized. The era of civilization in Japan also began after the return of the Tang Dynasty envoys to Japan.

In ancient China, there was not only chopped fish, but also chopped meat. After the Tang Dynasty, it was still customary to eat chopped fish in all the dynasties. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, meat chopping disappeared. Fish chopped in the Qing Dynasty literature is still recorded. But it gradually became less and less. Only the court and a small number of people left.

In modern times, the Manchus and the Hezhe still have the custom of eating sliced raw fish, and some areas in the south also retain the custom of eating sliced raw fish. After the Tang Dynasty, Japan seldom studied Chinese culture, so the Chinese pre-Qin dish "chopped fish", which led to many Chinese people think that "sashimi" is Japanese cuisine, some Japanese people also shamelessly say that it is their traditional food. In fact, it originated in China.