Knechtges a Literary Feast

A Literary Feast: Food in Early Chinese LiteratureAuthor(s): David R. KnechtgesReviewed work(s):Source: Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 106, No. 1, Sinological StudiesDedicated to Edward H. Schafer (Jan. - Mar., 1986), pp. 49-63Published by: American Oriental SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/602363 .Accessed: 06/04/2012 14:33

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A LITERARY FEAST: FOOD IN EARLY CHINESE LITERATURE DAVID R. KNECHTGES

UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON

IN THE Lun vif P , or Edited Conversations of Confucius, there is the following passage stipulating what purports to be Confucius' notion of proper eating:

His rice is not excessively refined, and his sliced meat is not cut excessively fine. Rice that has become putrid and sour, fish that has spoiled, and meat that has gone bad, he does not eat. Food that is discolored he does not eat, and food with a bad odor he does not eat. Undercooked foods he does not eat, and foods served at improper times he does not eat. Meat that is improperly carved, he does not eat, and if he does not obtain the proper sauce, he will not eat. Though there is plenty of meat, he will not allow it to overcome the vitalizing power of the rice. Only in the case of wine does he not set a limit. But he never drinks to the point of becoming disorderly. Purchased wine or dried meat from the market he does not eat. He never dispenses with ginger when he eats. He does not eat to excess.'

Although this description portrays the sage as something of a combination of a Chou dynasty Escoffier and a food critic for the New York Times, it is an excellent illustration of the punctilious attention the Chinese traditionally have lavished on cooking and eating. The proper preparation of food certainly has been a major preoccupation of the Chinese since remote antiquity. The early Chinese classics provide ample testimony to the strong emphasis that the ancient Chinese placed on food. For example, a chapter of the Classic of Documents in its enumeration of the eight principal concerns of government ranks food a first in importance.2 The ritual texts in particular devote long

sections to food, its proper preparation, and serving. One good illustration of this ancient preoccupation with food is the Rites of Chou (Chou Ii AdJ4 ), an idealized description of the Chou dynasty administra- tive system compiled perhaps around the third or fourth century B.C. The first section of the book records that the department of the royal household had the following officers charged with various tasks involving food and drink: 152 masters of viands (shan fu Iln l ), who supervised the planning and preparation of meals for the king, the consorts, and the crown prince; 70 butchers (p'ao jen IA A ); 128 court cooks (nei'ung PAt # ); 128 outer cooks (wai'ung f

-f ), charged with preparing the sacrificial offerings and food for the military guard and guests; 62 assistant cooks (p'engjen ^A ), who did the actual cooking on the stoves; 335 masters of the royal domain (tien shih kJ ahj ), who provided all of the grains, vegetables, and fruits for the royal table; 62 game hunters (shou jen ,VRA ); 342 fishermen (yi' en JA ok ); 24 turtle catchers (pie/i jen JAk ), who provided all of the shellfish; 28 meat-driers (hsi len l Ak ); 2 food doctors (shi/ i R w ), who supervised the proper preparation of food and drink; 110 regulators of the wines (chiu cheng i iiE ), who supervised the officials who made wines and other drinks; 340 winemakers (chiu jen I A); 170 beverage makers (chiang jen jjT A ); 94

ice-house attendants (lingjen {IA); 31 bamboo bas- ket attendants (pien jen %A), charged with serving food in the food baskets; 61 meat-pickle makers (hai jen M JS ); 62 picklers (hsi jen M A ), and 62 salt makers (yen jen MA). Of the 4,133 officers in the royal household, 2,263, or 55 percent, reputedly were involved in the preparation of food and drink.

See Lun i'i, 10.8. 2 See Shang shu chu-shu fA)0 if, (Commentary and

Subcommentary to the Hallowed Documents), Shih-san ching chu-shu

-+ *,KieAL (Commentary and Subcommentary to the Thirteen Classics; hereafter SSCCS), comp. Juan Yuan

fi7ci (1764-1849) (Kyoto, 1972), 12.9a. The other eight concerns of government are goods, sacrifices, administering vacant land (to provide residences for people), administering

the multitudes (to teach them the rites and propriety), administering criminals, receiving guests, and handling the army. See Bernhard Karlgren, "The Book of Documents," BMFEA 22 (1950), 30.

3See Chou 1i chu-shu dJr9fib. (Commentary and Sub- commentary to the Rites of Chou) (SSCCS), 1.8a-13a; Edouard Biot, tr., Le Tcheou-li ou Rites des Tcheou, 2 vols. (1851; rpt. Taipei, 1969), I, 6-1 1; Sven Broman, "Studies on

49

50 Journal of the American Oriental Society 106.1 (1986)

Although the kitchen bureaucracy specified here probably never existed, the fact that a classical ritual text establishes it as an ideal demonstrates the importance ancient Chinese ritualists attached to culinary functions.

In addition to enumerating the officers of the royal kitchen, the Chou Ii specifies various types of food and drink, all neatly divided into categories. Thus, among the meats there are the six beasts (liu shou /, i ),4 six fowl (liu ch'in t ),5 and six viands (liu shan

L*

KNECHTGES: Food in Early Chinese Literature 51

about the actual preparation of food. There is an occasional passage that provides more detail. For example, the "Inner Regulations" ("Nei tse" J RIJ ) chapter of the Record of Rites contains step by step instructions for making what are called the Eight Delicacies (pa chen Jk 3gY ). One of them, the "wrapped bake" (p 'ao *9 ), is a highly elaborate preparation. It is called the wrapped bake because the meat is baked in a wrapping of reeds and clay. The passage reads:

Take a suckling pig (tun) or a young ewe (chiang It = tsang)*), cut it open, clean it out, and fill its belly with dates. Plait miscanthus reed (chui X ) as a wrapping for it, seal it with clay and bake it. When the clay is all dry, break it off. Rub it with wet hands and remove the thin membrane (chao n ). Take rice flour, blend it and soak it to make a thin gruel (i), which is added to the suckling pig. Fry it in grease. The grease must cover it completely. Into a large pot of boiling water insert a small cauldron of the seasoned meat strips (f'u Afl ). Make sure the boiling water does not cover the tripod. For three days and three nights do not stop the fire. Last, season it with vinegar (hsi) and meat pickles (hai).'4

One of the most pervasive uses of food in ancient Chinese literature is as metaphor in political or philo- sophical discourse. The Chinese alimentary metaphor is quite similar to that of the medieval Christian writer, who equates God with bread, truth with nourishment and food, and Christian doctrine with a meal.' In the Chinese classics, the proper seasoning of food is a common analogy for good government. Thus, in one of the spurious chapters of the Classic of Documents, King Wu-ting A T of the Yin dynasty addresses his minister Fu Yueh f as follows: "May you instruct Us in Our aims. As if making wine and must, you be Our yeast and barm. As if making blended stew, you be Our salt and plums."'6 The comparison of the perfectly blended stew with the art of good government is a commonplace both in ancient and later literature. In a famous passage preserved in the Tso Commentary, which may be a fourth century B.C. compilation, the statesman Yen-tzu - # compares the harmonious

relationship between lord and vassal to a perfectly seasoned stew:

Harmony (ho ffl ) may be compared to a stew. Water, fire, vinegar, meat pickles, salt, and plums are used to cook the fish filets. It is heated by means of the firewood. The cook (tsaifu to ) blends (ho) the ingredients and equalizes them by taste, adding whatever is deficient and decreasing whatever is excessive. His master then eats it and thereby composes his mind. The relationship between lord and vassal also is like this. Whenever there is something objectionable in what the lord deems acceptable, the vassal presents his objection in order that he may make it acceptable. Whenever there is something acceptable in what the lord deems objectionable, the vassal presents his approval so that he may remove his objection. Thus, when the administration is composed and inobtrusive, there are no contentious hearts among the people."

Yen-tzu caps his speech by citing four lines from the Classic of Songs:

There is also a blended stew; He is cautious, he is composed. They all arrive, wordless; Now there is no contention. 18

Based on this Tso Commentari passage, later writers used the expression ho keng fU g (to blend the stew) as a figure of speech for the loyal and devoted minister, who with untiring effort assists his ruler to bring order to the state. For example, the T'ang poet Chang Yueh 32 (667-731) in a poem written at an imperial banquet, humbly refers to himself as follows:

14See Li chi chu-shu j 9iliL (Commentary and subcommentary to the Record of Rites) (SSCCS), 28.7b.

" See Ernst Robert Curtius, European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages, tr., Willard R. Trask (New York, 1953), 134-36.

16 See Shang-shu chu-shu, 10.7a.

17 See Tso chuan chu-shu ;~: R. (Commentary and Sub- commentary on the Tso Commentary) (SSCCS), 49.14a/ b, Chao 20.

18 These lines are from Mao shih 302/2, which traditionally has been interpreted as a hymn sung in a sacrifice to a Shang dynasty ruler (either Tang JX or T'ai-wu krt ). The subject of the lines is difficult to determine. I have followed Cheng Hsuan in taking the first two lines as spoken by the Shang descendant who presents the offering, and the last two lines as referring to the vassal lords who silently and noncontentiously come to participate in the sacrifice. Cheng Hsuan interprets the perfectly blended stew as an analogy for the harmonious compliance of the vassal lords. See Mao shih chu-shu -; 4 M , (Commentary and Subcommentary to the Mao Songs) (SSCCS), 20.3.9b- I Oa.


Reciting the Songs, we hear of how to govern the state; Discussing the Changes, we see the purpose of Heaven. Though my post is undeserved, I have the heavy task

of blending the stew; Though my favor is unearned, I am deeply drunk on

the wine.'9

The use of alimentary metaphors is not confined to Confucian texts. One also finds cooking analogies in Taoist writings. The first text of Taoism, the Lao-tzu, contains the following famous line: "Governing a large state is like cooking a small fish."20 The idea of course is that by excessive handling the fish, and by analogy the state, will be ruined. Another Taoist text, the Chuang-tzu, parts of which may date to the fourth century B.C., contains an elegant passage about the master cook Ting T , who illustrates the secret of nurturing life by describing his skill in carving an ox. He explains that by his "love for the Way" he has "advanced beyond skill." Now he does not look with his eyes, but with his spirit. By "conforming to the natural lines, cutting along the main openings, guiding his knife through the large apertures, and following what is inherently so," he is able to avoid ligaments, tendons, to say nothing of large bones. Unlike lesser cooks, who must constantly change their knives, he has used the same cleaver for nineteen years to carve several thousand oxen. The secret lies in finding "the gaps in the joints" through which he can insert the blade of his cleaver, which in his hands "has no thickness." "Wide and open it is, and of course there is plenty of extra room in which to wield the cleaver. Thus, after nineteen years the blade of the cleaver is as though it were fresh off the grindstone." In a rhapsodic section that follows, Ting describes how he handles knotted sinews and bones: "Alert and cautious, I focus

my gaze, work slowly, and move the cleaver very slightly. Zip! The knot dissolves, like a clod of earth falling to the ground. Holding my cleaver I stand there, look all around me, dallying and dawdling, fully satisfied. Then I wipe off the cleaver and put it away."2' The point of Cook Ting's allegory is obvious. Just as the master carver protects his knife by inserting his blade in the slightest opening and following the natural structure of the ox, the person who has mas- tered the art of nourishing life does not fight his environment, but adapts himself to it, finding the gaps into which he can comfortably insert himself.

The master butcher topos occurs in other early texts. The Annals of Master Lu, a third century B.C. text, records an abbreviated version of the Cook Ting allegory to illustrate the efficacy of intense concentra- tion:

Cook Ting of Sung loved to carve oxen. [At first] all he saw was nothing but the dead ox. After three years, he did not even see the live ox. After using his cleaver for nineteen years, the blade was as though it had been freshly sharpened on the grindstone. This is because he conformed to its natural lines, and his entire con-

22 centration was on the ox.

One text uses the same topos to illustrate how a military commander must take advantage of gaps in the enemy's defenses just as the master butcher moves his cleaver through the openings between sinews and bone.23 In the early Han, the political philosopher and poet, Chia I W- (ca. 200-168 B.c.), even uses the example of the ox butcher T'an Eff to persuade the emperor to deal harshly with the rebellious kings:

The ox butcher T'an could carve twelve oxen in one day, yet his pointed blade never became dull: the reason was that wherever he thrust and hacked, skinned and sliced, it was always along the various natural lines and joints. But when he came to the thigh bones and buttocks, if he didn't use a hatchet, then he used an axe. Benevolence, charity, grace, and generosity are

'9 See "Granted Food by Gracious Edict at a Banquet Held in the College of the Hall of Beauty and Rectitude, Composed by Imperial Command," in Wen-yiian ying-hua 3Z;X (Prime Blossoms from the Literary Park) ed. Li Fang At! (925-96) et al. (Peking: Chung-hua shu-chu, 1966), 168.811. For a similar use of the same phrase see Meng Hao-jan's , tM (689-740) "To Accord with Chancellor Chang's 'Facing Snow on a Spring Morning'," in Meng Hao-jan chi i -M (SPTK), 3.16b; trans. by Paul W. Kroll, Meng Hao-jan (Boston, 1981), 81. For Chang Yueh's dates, see Paul W. Kroll, "On the Date of Chang Yueh's Death," Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews 2.2 (1980), 264-65.

20 See Lao-tzu Tao-te ching -t Jz#* (Lao-tzu's Canon of the Way and Virtue), chapter 60.

21 See Kuo Ch'ing-fan Adz (1844-1896), ed. and comm., Chuang-tzu chi-shih 9: % (Collected Expla- nations of Chuang-tzu) (Taipei, 1967), 3.55-57. For a complete translation, see i.a., A. C. Graham, tr., Chuang Tzu: The Inner Chapters (London, 1981), 63-64.

22 Lu-shih h lun-ch 'iu 9 Ed By (Annals of Master Lu) (SPPY), 9.9b.

23 See Kuan-tzu e + (BSS ed.), ts 'e 2, 10.23.


the pointed blades of a ruler of men; authority, power, laws, and regulations are the hatchets and axes of the ruler of men. Now the lords and kings are all thigh bones and buttocks. If you dispense with the use of hatchet and axe, and instead desire to apply the pointed blade to them, I believe that if you do not knick the blade, you will break it.14

This obviously is no longer Chuang-tzu's gentle philosophy of compliance with nature, but is the brutal force of Realpolitik.

Although Cook Ting and Butcher T'an are purely fictional figures, there are other famous ancient cooks who not only were historical personages, but who reputedly used their culinary skills to attain influential ministerial positions. The most famous is I Yin f#}b or the Governor of 1. Many early texts relate how he began his career as a cook (one account has him raised by a cook), and eventually discovered by the Shang dynasty founder, King T'ang i, who appointed him his prime minister.25 Several accounts colorfully describe I Yin arriving at T'ang's court with his cooking tripods and meat stands (tsu ia) on his back.26 In spite of Mencius, who claimed I Yin was not a cook but a farmer,27 the prevailing image of him in early texts is that of the Chinese gastronome par excellence. His reputation as a connoisseur of taste is well-established by a long passage in the Annals of Master Li, in which he discourses at length on the "perfect flavors."28 I Yin begins his discourse by classifying animals that provide food into three categories: denizens of the water that smell fishy (hsing By ), predators of flesh that smell gamy (sao Hi ), and grass-eaters that have a hircine smell (shan j ). The task of the cook is to overcome these offensive odors by the proper balancing of the five flavors (salty, bitter, sour, hot, and sweet) and the correct application of the three materials (water, wood,

and fire). Blending the five flavors is an extremely delicate task, comparable to the subtle skill required of an archer and coachman, or even the mysterious movements of the cosmos:

The transformations in the cauldron are so utterly marvelous and of such subtle delicacy, the mouth cannot put them into words, and the mind cannot comprehend them. They are like the subtlety of archery and charioteering, the transformations of the l in and lYang, and the cycle of the four seasons. Thus, the food is cooked for a long time but is not ruined, well-done but not over-done, sweet but not sugary, sour but not bitter, salty but not briny, hot but not biting, bland but not insipid, fat but not lardy.

The great gourmand then names the best meats, fish, vegetables, seasonings, grains, water, and fruits. This bill of fare includes numerous rare delicacies, the names of which frequently appear in later literature as allusions to this passage. 29 Among the meat and fish, there are such delicacies as orangutan lips, the fleshy tails of cuckoo and swallow, yak and elephant tails, flying fish, along with more fantastic creatures such as the six-footed vermilion turtle with pearls on its feet, or phoenix eggs from the remote western state of Wo E,, which are also mentioned in that great collection of imaginary beings, the Classic of Mountains and Seas.30 Many of the plants and trees are equally fantastic: duckweed and blossoms of the longevity tree, both of which grow on the high peaks of the K'un-lun Mountains in the remote northwest; the life-prolonging leaves of the scarlet tree and black tree of the state of Chung-jung rp g in the southeast; the leafy vegetable water dropwort (h 'in) from the great Yun-meng A marsh of the south. For liquid refreshment, there is dew from the San wei

-Fa (Triperil) peaks of the western limits, and water from the springs of the K'un-lun. Finally, there are the hundred fruits from trees high above the Plunging Pool of the Enduring Mountain (Ch'ang shan X X1 ), "feasted on by mul- titudinous gods;" sweet cumquats from east of Winnow Mountain, the home of the three blue birds, attendants

24 SeeHan shu Xt (History of the Former Han) (Peking, 1962), 48.2236.

25 For a good summary of the passages concerning I Yin, see Bernhard Karlgren, "Legends and Cults in Ancient China," BMFEA 18 (1946), 328-29.

26 See Chan-kuo ts'e aOR (Intrigues of the Warring States), (SPPY), 21.7b. Cf. J. I. Crump, Jr., tr., Chan-Kuo Ts e (Oxford, 1970), 362, where this passage is incorrectly translated as saying I Yin "turned his back upon the cooking vessels to importune Tang." See also Shih (hi r, (Records of the Historian), (Peking, 1959), 3.94.

27 See Meng-tzu jm, 5A.6. 28 See Lu-shih ch'un-ch'iu, 14.4b-7a.

29 The long list of foods given by Tuan Ch'eng-shih A &; A (ca. 803-863) in his Yu-Y'ang Miscellan i' con-

tains almost all of the items mentioned in the Lu-shih ch'un-ch'iu. See Fang Nan-sheng , ed. Yu-Yang tsa-tsu ffiFM tt (Peking, 1981), 69-70.

30 See Shan-hai (hing Li Ad (SPP Y), 4.4a and 16.3a.


to the Queen Mother of the West;3' oranges from the banks of the Yang-tzu, and pomelos from Yun-meng.

At the end of this long enumeration of delectable foods, we discover that I Yin's subject is not food at all, but government. He tells T'ang that the only one qualified to obtain these things, which would have to come as tribute, is a Son of Heaven (meaning emperor). However, one cannot become a Son of Heaven by force. He must first understand the Way and perfect his moral character. "Once the Son of Heaven is created, the perfect flavors will all be supplied."32

This passage from the Annals of Master Lii, which is usually treated as a handbook of political philosophy, not a work of literature, is illustrative of the increasing rhetorical embellishments that occur in the prose of the fourth and third centuries B.C. The increasing use of cataloguing, ornamental language, repetition of syn- onyms, and various other rhetorical devices was an important influence on the development of theflu a or rhapsody. One feature that almost all fu share is an attempt to present a comprehensive definition of a subject. In this respect, a/fu is something like a small encyclopedia or repository of information about whatever happens to be the subject of the poem. Fu writers wrote about almost every subject, from great capitals, metropolises, mountains, rivers, seas, to birds, animals, trees, flowers, even insects. Food of course did not escape their attention, and in their usual encyclopedic fashion, rhapsodists recorded much information about cooking and eating.

The earliest examples of the fi are preserved in the second great anthology of Chinese poetry, the Ch'u tz'u, or Elegies of Ch'u. Most of the pieces in the collection are elegaic poems in which the poet pours out his heart in self-commiseration and tell us abso- lutely nothing about food. However, there are two long poems that not only mention food, but provide important information about ancient southern Chinese cookery. These two poems are titled "Summoning the Soul" ("Chao hun" MA ) and the "Great Summons" ("Ta chao" k4j ). Both pieces are literary representations of the ancient Chinese religious rite of calling back the soul of a deceased or sick person. I emphasize literary representation, for I concur with David Hawkes, who suggests that they "were written to be performed as a recital or court masque for the

delectation, flattery, and comfort of a sick or sup- posedly sick king."33

Both "Summons" poems follow approximately the same structure. They open by describing the perils the soul will encounter in each of the four directions. The hortatory phrase kuei-lai if (return!) is iterated throughout to urge the soul to return to its homeland. To convince the soul to return, the summoner enumerates an assortment of enticements, including pretty girls, ornate palaces, music, hunting, and foods. "Sum- moning the Soul" has the following repast of tasty dishes:

Rice, broom-corn millet, early wheat, late wheat, mixed with yellow foxtail millet;

The "great bitter," salty, and sour, employed with the hot and sweet;

Tendons of a fattened ox, well-done and fragrant; A blended sour and bitter, offered in a Wu stew; Boiled soft-shelled turtle, roast lamb, drunk with sugar

cane syrup; Swan in sour sauce, ragouted duck, fried goose and

crane; Open-air chicken, stewed loggerhead turtle, strongly

seasoned, but not to spoil the taste; Ring sticks, honey cakes, along with sugar puffs; Rare extracts in covered ladles fill winged goblets; An icy drink, dregs removed-pure wine clear and

cool; Ornate ladles set in place, along with precious ex-

tracts.34

This passage requires a commentary: The first line lists what must be the Ch'u version of

the five grains, which included rice, two kinds of wheat (or barley), and two kinds of millet.35

The second line enumerates the five flavors or seasonings. Commentators variously explain the "great bitter" (ta k'u ig ) of the second line. The earliest Ch u tz 'U exegete Wang I I A (ca. A.D. 89-158) says that it refers to shih X, the salted dark beans that are such an important ingredient in Chinese cooking even

" See Shan-hai ching 2.22a, 16.3b, 12.la; Michael Loewe, Ways to Paradise: The Chinese Quest for Immortality (London, 1979), 90, 130.

32 Lu-shih ch 'un-ch 'iu, 14.7b.

See Ch'u Tz'u: The Songs of the South (London, 1959), 102.

34 See Hung Hsing-tsu M (1070-1135), ed. and comm., Chu-tz 'upu-(hu X (Supplementary Com- mentary to the Elegies of Ch 'u) (Hong Kong, 1963), 9.9a- lOb.

It is possible there are only four grain names in this list. The expression cho mai f , which I have rendered early wheat and late wheat, possibly means only "early wheat."


today.36 However, a Sung dynasty commentator points out that shih did not appear until the Han dynasty, and this seasoning more likely is the plant ling a , which early lexicons identify as another name for "great bitter."37 This plant is a type of Polygonum or smart- weed, which is known for its pungent taste.38 An equally plausible explanation is that "great bitter" simply refers to the general class of bitter seasonings.

The Wu stew (Wu keng At ) mentioned in line four apparently was a specialty of the cooks of the southeast, who were famous for the heavy use of

39 vinegar and strong spices.

In line five, we see the use of the turtle, which was a favorite delicacy of the Chinese from earliest times.40 One commentator claims that a bloody turtle and roasted lamb were combined with ox viscera to make a stew.4' The sugar cane juice (che hang 146 % ), which David Hawkes curiously renders as "yam sauce,"42 was a common drink among southern Chinese of this period. They probably obtained their sugar from the area of Chiao-chih Ok, which is modern northern Vietnam.43 One apparent function of the juice was to offset the effects of too much wine. Thus, a Han dynasty sacrificial song has the following line: "A great beaker of sugar cane juice breaks a morning hangover."44

The open-air chicken (lu chi J ), or perhaps "dew-soaked chicken," was the name of a type of chicken that roosted exposed to the elements. Its distinct flavor was recognizable by connoisseurs of

taste. For example, Fu Lang jj: M (ob. 389), prefect of Ch'ing-chou *,4+1J (modern northern Shan-tung), was known for his particularly refined taste. On one occasion, he ate a chicken and commented: "This chicken perched such that it was always half-exposed (to the elements)."45

I have invented the word "ring stick" to translate the Chinese word chu-nii E e (also read chii-ju). Another name for it is kao huan z , which literally means "greasy ring." Originally, it must have been a product of Ch'u. The same name (written chii-nii / chU-ju?

k ) appears on a list of foods recorded on bamboo slips discovered in an early Han dynasty tomb from the old Ch'u region.46 According to a fifth-century description, the ring stick was made by steeping glutinous rice flour in a honey-water mixture until it had the con- sistency of noodle dough. Balls of dough were then kneaded into eight-inch lengths, which were then joined end to end in the shape of a ring and fried in oil.47 An old Chinese-Japanese lexicon that may date from the early eighth century gives the name as huan ping *,Rf# , which literally means "ring cake." It explains that the Japanese name was makari (twist?), and that it was shaped like wistaria and kudzu vines.48 The ring cake also was known as han (hiu A or "cold item,"

36 See Ch 'u-tz 'u pu-chu, 9.9b.

See Hao I-hsing teF ff (1757-1825), ed. and comm., Erh-Ya i-shu f (Exegesis to the Erh-j'a) (SPPY), Cl.35a and Shuo-wen chieh-tzu ku-/in, I B.353b.

3 Lu Wen-yu D 3g , Shih ts'ao-mu chin-shih P *+ (Modern Explanations of the Plants and Trees in

the Songs) (Tientsin, 1957), pp. 24-25, #30, identifies it a Polvgonum Revnoutria. Bernard Read, Chinese Medicinal P/ants from the Pen Ts'ao Kang Mu A_ D 1596 (1936; rpt. Taipei, 1977), p. 183, #571, gives P. cuspidatum (Japanese knotweed).

3 See Ch'u-tz'u pu-chu, 9.9b. 40 See Edward H. Schafer, "Eating Turtles in Ancient

China," JA OS 82 (1962), 73-74. 4 1See Ch'u-tz'u pu-chu, 9. 1 Oa. 42 See Chlu Tz'u, 107. 4 See Hui-Lin Li ( , ), Nan-fang ts'ao-mu chuang: A

Fourth Centur' F/ora of Southeast Asia (Hong Kong, 1979), 55-57.

44 See Han shu, 22.1063.

45 See Yang Yung tj , ed. and comm., Shih-shuo hsin-yii chiao-chien f (A New Account of Tales of the World Collated and Annotated) (1969; rpt. Taipei, 1973), C.616; Richard Mather, Shih-shuo hsin-yiu: A New Account of Tales of the World (Minneapolis, 1976), 423; Chin shu It a (History of the Chin) (Peking, 1974), 52.4a.

46 This tomb is Ma-wang-tui Tomb Number One, which must have been sealed a few years after 168 B.C. See Hu-nan sheng po-wu-kuan iW q4"ty and Chung-kuo k'o-hsueh-yuan k'ao-ku yen-chiu-so 41 @ P * F t F tF Ch'ang-sha Ma-wang-tui i-hao Han mu

2 vols. (Peking, 1973), II, 140. 4? See Chia Ssu-hsieh (5th century), Shih Sheng-

han ;EV, ed. and comm., Ch'i-min yao-shu chin-shih w y;:*A (Modern Explanations of the Essential Arts of the Common People), 4 vols. in 1 (Peking, 1957-58), 657.

48 This is the Yoshi Kango sho E?Xim , cited in Kariya Ekisai J - M w (1775-1835), ed. and comm., Senchui Wamr 6 oruijusho t (Tokyo, 1883), 4.45b. The national identity of the compiler of this dictionary requires some investigation. The surname Yang is Chinese, or possibly Korean. Otto Karow calls attention to the non- Japanese character of this name: "Die altjapanische Tradition und die genalogishcen Quellen luften nicht das Geheimnis der Personlichkeit des Verfassers Yo fA und seiner rassichen


because it was one of the cold foods eaten on Han shih It (Cold Food Day), the day before the Spring Festival when cooking fires were not used.49 The Sung poet Su Shih RF (1036-1101) describes its preparation as follows:

Delicate hands roll out several yards of jade, Lightly doused in green oil, it comes out tender and

deep yellow.50

The word I have translated as sugar puff is Chinese chang-huang At it , which literally means "swollen large."5 Apparently in the Ch'u area it was a solid form of sugar syrup made into a puff.52

The winged goblet was a drinking vessel shaped like a bird, complete with head, wings, and tail.53 Some commentators claim that real feathers were used for the wings.54 The ladle used for pouring the extracts was covered with a thin silk cloth.55

The "icy drink" (tung yin j*Jk ) was brewed in the summer. The dregs were removed from it, leaving only the clear, pure wine (chou if ). A ewer (i E ) of the wine was placed in a basin of ice (ping chien bat ), cooled, and then drunk.56

It is clear from "Summoning the Soul" that the cuisine of Ch'u was highly developed, and included a great variety of foods. An even greater diversity of dishes can be seen in the meal described in the "Great Summons":

Next to the five grains, six fathoms deep, they place wild rice;

Cauldrons of well-done stew fill one's gaze, seasoning brings out the aroma;

Plump cranes, pigeons, and swans flavor a badger stew:

Oh soul, return! Taste whatever you will! Fresh loggerhead turtle, sweet chicken, blended with

Ch'u vinegar; Suckling pig in meat sauce, bitter dog, minced Mioga

ginger; Mugwort and wormwood in a Wu sour, not too juicy

or bland: Oh soul, return! Choose whatever you like! Baked crane, steamed duck, boiled quail all set forth; Fried carp, stewed sparrows, broiled kingfisher all

presented: Oh soul, return! Delicacies are spread before you! Four pots of pure wine well-aged, neither harsh nor

cloying; Clear and fragrant, icy drinks, not served to base men; Wu must and white yeast, blended with a Ch'u clear: Oh soul, return! Do not be frightened or alarmed!57

Commentary: The loggerhead turtle is made into a stew that is

flavored with sugar, honey, chicken, and vinegar." The steamed suckling pig was eaten in a meat sauce.

The dog flesh was dipped in a meat sauce made of gall; hence, the name "bitter". Both meats were flavored with minced ginger, here called by the rare name chu-p'o X .9

Zugehorikeit (Yo %,0; ) ist chineisischer Familienname), zumal Yamada darauf aufmerksam macht, dass neben natural- isierten Chinesen auch japanische Staatsgehorige haufig in der schriftlichen Wiedergabe deartige Namen verwant haben, so z. Besp. wird auf der Grabinschrift der Mutter des Kibi no Makibi * der Familienname ;*t gennant"; see "Die Worterbucher der Heianzeit und ihre Bedeutung fur die japanische Sprachgeschichte," 1951; Otto Karow Opera Minora (Wiesbaden, 1978), 188-89. 1 am indebted to my colleague, Roy Andrew Miller, for assisting me in deciphering the entries in this lexicon.

49 See Shih Sheng-han, Ch'i-min jao-shu chin-shih 111, 657. 50 See Su Tung-po chi AI ?*$ (BSSed.), tse 10, p. 74. 51 See Aoki Masaru *1 R , "Udon no rekishi" V IV Q)R (The History of udon), Aoki Masaru zenshui **IF $ 10 vols. (Tokyo, 1969-75), IX, 462. 52 Wang I (see Ch'u-tz'u pu-chu 9. 10a) explains it as t;ang , which is a solid form of i i (sugar syrup). See Tai Chen

# t (1723-1777), ed. and comm., Fang-j'en shu-cheng t n iEt1 (Exegetical Evidence for the Fang-_ven) (SPPY),

13.17b- 18a. 5 See Han shu, 97B.3988. n. 9. 54 See Ch'u-tz'u pu-chu, 9. 10b. 5 Wang I interprets mi fi as honey, and explains that after

the meal, they drank rare extracts that were soaked in honey. See Ch'u-tz'u pu-chu, 9.10b. Chu Hsi *A (1 130-1200) explains mi as mi 1, a thin cloth used as a cover for the wine ladle. See Ch'u-tz'u chi-chu X$M (Collected Com- mentary to the Elegies of Ch'u) (Hong Kong, 1972), 7.9a. Liu Ts'ao-nan AJM adduces overwhelming evidence in sup- port of Chu Hsi's interpretation. See his " 'Chao-hun' 'Yao- chiang mi-shao, shih yu-shang so'; tso ts'ao tung-yin, cho

ch'ing-liang so' chien-cheng pt4. w I , sI - ge~t. 4 Ii i ,i Ku-tien wen-hsueh lun-ts'ung t ^ t t 2 a (Chi-nan, 1980), 29-30. 56 See Wang l's commentary in Ch'u-tz'u pu-chu, 9.1 la and

Liu Ts'ao-nan, 31-32. 57 See Ch 'u-tz'u pu-chu, 10.3b-4b. 58 See Wang 1, Ch'u-tz'u pu-chu, 10.4a. 59See Wang 1, Ch'u-tz'u pu-chu, 10.4a. The form chii-ppo

must be an inversion of p o-(hu. For a thorough discussion


Wang I says the Wu sour (Wu suan by ) is a vegetable pickle made from two types of artemisia, hao x (A. Stelleriana, beach wormwood) and lou * (A. vulgaris, common mugwort).60 He also notes that someone equates it with mou-t o u a sauce made of elm pods.61

The Wu must (Wu 1i Ax ) is a rich wine fermented overnight. When brewed in a yeast made of white rice (pai nieh b ) it formed the Ch'u clear (Ch'u Ii

a). 62

There were many later imitations of the food cata- logues in the "Summons" poems, particularly in the subgenre of the fu known as the "Sevens" (Ch'i -t). The form is called "Sevens" because it consists of seven sections, most of which describe a particular sensual pleasure, one of which is eating. The creator of this form is the early Han poet Mei Sheng IB (ob. 140 B.C.), whose "Sevens" piece is titled "Seven Stimuli" ("Ch'i fa" -La ). The poem is a dialogue between two fictional characters, a young prince of the state of Ch'u, who is sick, and a guest from Wu, who has just arrived at the prince's court to inquire about his illness. The piece begins with a clinical description of the prince's symptoms and their apparent cause, over- indulgence. The guest tells the prince that a medical cure is impossible, and suggests that his only hope for recovery is to listen to what he terms"essential words and marvelous doctrines." He then proceeds to describe for the prince a series of seven enticements, the second of which is the following sumptuous repast:

The fat underbelly of a young ox, With bamboo shoots and bulrush sprouts; A blended stew of plump dog, Smothered in mountain rind. Boiled rice from Miao Mountain in Ch'u, Boiled cereal from wild rice- Rolled into balls they do not crumble, But once sucked into the mouth they dissolve. And then, have I Yin to fry and boil,

I-ya to season and blend: Well-done servings of bear paws, A sauce of savory seasoning; A roast of thin tenderloin; Autumn-yellowed perilla; Legumes soaked in white dew; Thoroughwort blossom wine, Poured to rinse the mouth; A course of hen pheasant; The fetus of a tamed leopard. Eat little or drink much, It's like boiling water poured over snow.63

The offerings of this fictional feast include some of the most delectable delicacies of the ancient Chinese culinary repertoire. Bamboo shoots of course are a common ingredient of Chinese dishes today. As early as the Classic of Songs (see Mao shih 261/ 3), they are mentioned in conjunction with bulrush sprouts (p'u ) which were probably eaten in pickled form.64 We

have already seen dog mentioned in the "Great Summons." The word I have translated as "mountain rind" (shan fu Wl)I ) is the name of a lichen or mushroom, probably similar to what is called "stone ear" (shih erh ES ).65 Again, we have the famous Shang dynasty minister I Yin in his traditional role as a cook. He is accompanied by another famous culinary expert, I-ya X 3F, who used his cooking skill to obtain a ministerial post with Duke Huan of Ch'i. In order to ingratiate himself with his lord, he offered the steamed head of his own son in a dish so that Duke Huan could enjoy the "ultimate taste."66 His palate was so sensitive,

of the word, see Wang Nien-sun i (1744-1832), Kuang-vta shu-cheng )*M UE (Exegetical Evidence for the Kuang-ya) (SPPY), 1OA.54a/b.

60 See Ch'u-tz'u pu-chu, 10.4b. 61 See Shuo-wen chieh-tzu ku-/in 14B.6990b-91a; Ts'ui

Shih it (ca. 103-ca. 171), Shih Sheng-han, ed. and comm. Ssu-min yueh-ling chiao-chu 2a -Vji-+1 (Monthly Ordinances of the Four Classes Collated and Annotated) (Peking, 1965), 21.

62 See Wang 1, Ch'u-tz'upu-chu, 10.5a.

63 See Wen hsuan tg (Selections of Refined Literature) (Taipei: Cheng-chung shu-chii, 1971), 34.4b-5b. For translations of the entire piece, see Erwin von Zach, Die Chinesisehe Anthologie: Ubersetzungen aus dem Wen-hsuan, 2 vols. (Cambridge, Mass., 1958), 11, 607-17; John Scott, ed. and trans., Love and Protest: Chinese Poems from the Sixth Century B.C. to the Seventeenth Century A.D. (New York, 1972), 36-48; Hans H. Frankel, The Flowering Plum and the Palace Ladyl (New Haven, 1976), 190-91; David R. Knechtges and Jerry Swanson, "Seven Stimuli for the Prince: The Ch'i-fa of Mei Ch'eng," Monumenta Serica 29 (1970-71), 106-16.

64 See Lu Wen-yii, pp. 45-46, -53. 65 See Chang Yun-ao t (1747-1829), Hsian-hsueh

chiao-yen ;I (Some Misleading Words on the Study of the Selections) (1822; rpt. Taipei, 1966), 15.4a.

66 See Li-shih ch'un-ch iu, 16.6b; Ch'en Ch'i-yu A ed. and comm., Han Fei-tzu chi-shih ;*VT (Col- lected Explanations to the Han Fei-tzu) (1958; rpt. Taipei, 1963), 2.112, 3.195.


he reputedly could taste the difference between the waters of the Tzu ; and Sheng A rivers.67

The greatest delicacy of all was bear paws (hsiung fan qj* ). The philosopher Mencius, who claimed a fondness for both fish and bear paws, reportedly said that if he had no make a choice between the two, he would "dispense with fish and take bear paws."68 The poet Ts'ao Chih tAd (192-232) mentions roasted bear paws in the following line from one of his best- known poems:

We return and feast at the Tower of Peaceful Joy; Our fine wines cost ten thousand a half gallon. We have sliced carp and stewed baby shrimp, Baked turtle and roasted bear paws.'9

The reference in Mei Sheng's line to well-done bear paws perhaps has some significance, for according to a story preserved in several sources, one unfortunate cook of the state of Chin was executed for serving his lord bear paws that were underdone.70

The word I have translated "savory seasoning" (cho-Iieh al p ) is a rhyming binome (*tiok-liok in Old Chinese). The characters used to write it are the same as those for the word shao-pao or "peony." Thus, one commentator claims that the peony root was the primary ingredient in a blend of thoroughwort, cinnamon, and the five flavors, which was used to dispel the "poisonous vapors" of animal viscera.7' However, as several Ch'ing dynasty scholars have pointed out, the word cho-Iieh has nothing to do with peony, and simply means "to blend evenly"72 The word implies a perfect blending of the five flavors.

The perilla (su ) is a purple plant (the full name is tzu Su sA, "purple perilla"), the leaves of which were eaten as a vegetable. This line and the following imply that autumn vegetables are the best. Thus, the purple perilla has turned yellow, and the legumes are laden with the cold dew of autumn.

The thoroughwort or Ian M is the noblest of Chinese plants. One regrets that the English equivalents (thor-

oughwort, agrimony, boneset) have such disagreeable sounds. For this reason, many translators render Ian as orchid. The Chinese thoroughwort has a very sweet scent, and I assume that its purple flowers were added to the wine to give it fragrance.

In this age of animal protection leagues, the ancient Chinese fondness for eating the unborn leopard cub (pao t'ai tjHA ) probably is offensive to most people. Nevertheless, judging from its frequent mention in Han and Six Dynasties rhapsodies, leopard fetus must have rivalled bear paws in popularity.73 One rhapsodist refers to a cook who "dissects the tender fetus from a pregnant leopard."74

The rhapsodies mention many other even more fabulous foods, including the "liver of a tamed dragon,"75 the brains of river deer (chin I ), bamboo rat (liu *P ),76 as well as orangutan lips,77 phoenix eggs,78 and flying fish,79 which are clearly allusions to the Annals of Master LU passage discussed above. There is in fact a certain bookish quality to some of the food enumerations, especially in the "Sevens." The rare delicacies they mention certainly were seldom eaten, if at all. In contrast to these elaborate idealized feasts are the poems on more mundane foods such as noodles, steamed buns, dumplings, and pancakes. Again, the rhapsody is our main source of information on these doughy concoctions, which the Chinese of the early period called ping i#: 80 According to a late Han

67 See Lieh-tzu fl-y (Taipei, 1967), 8.93. 68 See Meng-tzu, 6A. 10. 69 See Wen hsuan, 27.23a. 70 See Tso chuan, Hsiian 2; Shih chi, 39.1673. 7' See Han shu, 57A.2544, n. 6, Yen Shih-ku niK t

(583-645). 72 SeeWangNien-sun, Tu-shutsa-chih MJ(*j,,,^ (Miscel-

laneous Reading Notes) (Taipei, 1963), 4/ 10.16b-17b; Shen Ch'in-han jtA: (1775-1832), Han shu shu-cheng X*WOLZE (Exegetical Evidence for the Ian shu) (Che- chiang kuan shu-chii, 1894), 29.17a-18a.

7 For other examples, see Yang Hsiung ft (53 B.C.-A.D. 18), "Shu tu fu" TfV ("Rhapsody on the Shu Capital"), Ku-wen yuan t 3Tz- (Garden of Ancient Literature), Tai-nan ko ts 'ung-shu t fi k S:W :, 2.9b; Chang Heng I&* (78-139), "Ch'i pien" t " ("Seven Arguments")

in Ou-yang Hsun kIaN (557-641), ed. 1-wen lei-chii W A (Compendium of Arts and Letters) (Peking,

1965), 57.1026; Hsu Kan #* (170-217), "Ch'i yu -LOA ("Seven Illustrations"), in 1-wen lei-chui, 57.1029; Chang Hsieh 3&tA (ob. 307), "Ch'i ming" -t; ("Seven Com- mands"), in Wen hsuian, 35.13a; Hsiao Tzu-fan X 7 1 (486-549), "Ch'i yu" -t!J ("Seven Enticements"), in 1-wen Iei-chii, 57.1034.

74 See Lu Chi M (261-303), "Ch'i cheng" -L: ("Seven Proofs"), in 1-wen lei-chii, 57.1031.

75 See Lu Chi, "Ch'i cheng, "I-wen lei-chii, 57.103 1. 76 For the river deer and bamboo rat, see Yang Hsiung,

"Shu tu fu," Ku-wen liian, 2.9b. 77 See Chang Hsieh, "Ch'i ming," Wen hsuian, 35.13a. 78 See Lu Chi, "Ch'i cheng," 1-wen lei-chu, 57.1031. 79 See Ts'ui Yin 94A (ob. A.D. 92), "Ch'i i" -tfl ("Seven

Attestations"), 1-wen lei-chu 57.1024. 80 For an excellent study of ping, see Aoki Masaru,

"Aibin yowa-Nambokucho izen no bin" I1 -


dynasty lexicon, ping means "to combine" (ping *), the idea being to soak flour in water causing it "to combine" (ho-ping A - ) or coalesce.8' Although ping in modern Chinese generally refers to a type of pancake, in earlier usage, it included various dough cakes, stuffed buns, fried breads, doughnut-style ringcakes, noodles, dumplings, and the like. The closest Western language equivalent is pasta."

One of the best sources on ping is a rhapsody by the poet Shu Hsi I X (ca. 264-ca. 304). The piece is appropriately titled "Ping fu" ##a or "Rhapsody on Ping."83 Shu Hsi was one of the most learned men of his day, and held positions as Gentlemen Compiler and Erudite.84 He was the principal editor of the ancient texts written on bamboo slips discovered in an old Chou dynasty tomb.85 In addition to his rhapsody on ping, he wrote a piece titled "Rhapsody on the Encourager of Agriculture" ("Ch'iian nung fu" & a ), which is a clever satire of the corrupt

practices of local agricultural officials.86 Both of these poems employ a subtle humor that his contemporaries apparently found vulgar.87

In the typical manner of the fu, the "Rhapsody on Ping" tells us almost everything we would want to know about ping, but were afraid to ask. Shu begins with a prose introduction to the history of ping, which he informs us is a recent invention:

According to the Record of Rites, during the month of mid-spring, the Son of Heaven ate wheat.88 In the bamboo offering baskets used in the morning sacrificial services, wheat served as the cooked grain,9 but the "Inner Regulations" (of the Record of Rites) does not mention ping among the various foods.90 Although there was the eating of wheat, there was yet no ping. The invention of ping certainly is quite recent.

The emphasis in the introductory lines on wheat is significant, for it shows that by Shu Hsi's time wheat flour was considered the principal ingredient in ping. Although some types of ping were made from the flour of other grains, mainly millet and rice, at least by the third century A.D., wheat and ping are virtually synonymous.9' For example, a source of about the same period as Shu Hsi's rhapsody mentions a banquet given by the Wu ruler Sun Ch'uan Em (182-252) in honor of the Shu envoy Fei Hui VM (ob. 253). In the middle of the banquet, Fei Hui suddenly "stopped eating his ping, requested a brush, and composed a

AL ia ?i1j ) (Further Words on My Love for Ping: Ping before the North-South Dynasties), 1947; rpt. Aoki Masaru zenshi, IX, 452-60.

81 See Liu Hsi I, S (fl. late 2nd century A.D.), Pi Yuan frx (1730-1797), ed. and comm., Shih ming shu-cheng :ti LESE (Exegetical Evidence for Terms Explained)

(TSCC), 4.118-19. 82 The parallel between ping and pasta has been observed by

Edward Schafer, "Tang," in Food in Chinese Culture, ed. Chang, 117; and Ch'ien Chung-shu SAd:, Kuan chuipien G (Compilation of Trivial Investigations), 4 vols.

(Peking, 1979), 111, 1168. 83 The full text of the piece does not survive. Long extracts

from it have been preserved in the following sources: Yu Shih- nan Otj (558-638), ed., Pei-t'ang shu-(h 'ao Lt *t (Literary Extracts from the Northern Hall) (Taipei, 1965), 184.14b-16a; I-wen lei-chii, 72.1241; Hsu Chien Ad (659-729) et al., comp., Ch u-hsiieh chi 7 (Notes for Beginners) (Peking, 1965), 26.643-44; Li Fang et al., comp., T'ai-p'ing jii-lan ;kfTXW (Imperially Reviewed Com- pendium of the T'ai-p'ing Period) (Peking, 1963), 860.5b-6a. All of the fragments can be found in Yen K'o-chun F1TUJI (1762-1843), ed., C/hiian Chin wen a (Complete Chin Prose), in Chi'uan shang-ku San-tai Ch'in Han San-kuo Liu-ch'ao wen J- F t - - ft ; * A , -A (Complete Prose of Antiquity, the Three Dynasties, Ch'in, Han, the Three States, and Six Dynasties) (1815; rpt. Peking, 1959), 87.2b-3a. There is a partial translation by Arthur Waley, under the title "Hot Cake," in Chinese Poems (London, 1946), 86.

84 For his biography see Chin shu, 51.1427-34. 85 For a list of the texts and an account of Shu's role in

deciphering them, see Chin shu, 51.1432-33.

86 See 1-wen lei-cha, 65.1157: For a translation, see Lien- sheng Yang, "Notes on the Economic History of the Chin Dynasty," 1945; rpt. in Studies in Chinese Institutional Histor' (Cambridge, Mass., 1961), 146.

87 Cf. Chin shu, 51.1428: "Shu Hsi once wrote the rhapsodies 'The Encourager of Agriculture' and 'Ping'. The writing was rather vulgar, and his contemporaries regarded them with contempt."

88 The "Yueh ling" chapter of the Li chi mentions the eating of wheat and mutton under the various activities for the Son of Heaven during the "month of mid-spring" (the second month). See Li chi (hu-shu, 15.3a.

89 The Rites of Chou (see Chou Ii (hu-shu, 5.22a) mentions boiling wheat to make a cereal that was used in the early morning offerings. 90 The "Inner Regulations" chapter of the Record of Rites

(chapter 12) gives a long list of foods offered in private sacrifices and meals. Nowhere does it mention ping.

91 Note that the Shuo-wen explains ping as made from wheat flour. See Shuo-wen chieh-tzu ku-lin, 5B.2185a/b.


rhapsody on wheat,92 presumably because the ping he was eating was made of wheat flour.

In the opening lines of the piece proper, Shu enumerates the names of various types of ping. Included among them is the cha-nil or ring stick that was mentioned in "Summoning the Soul." Although some of the names are otherwise unknown, one might imagine that such words as pig's ear (tun erh Ha; ) and dog's tongue (kou she Ad; ) describe the shapes of the pastries. Shu also mentions a fried bread with the un-Chinese sounding name of pu-tCou '?A-J (*b'du-tdu).93 It was made from leavened dough that was first rolled into balls, soaked in water, and then allowed to dry. The dry balls of dough were rolled out on the hand and then deep-fried.94 The ping he calls sui (hu J undoubtedly is another name for the sui ping . or marrow pancake. Marrow grease, honey, and flour were combined to form a half-inch thick and six- to seven-inch wide pancake that was cooked in an oven.95 In commenting on these names, Shu observes that some of them were local or foreign in origin:

Some of the names originate in the wards and lanes; Some of the methods come from alien lands.

The longest portion of the rhapsody concerns the various types of ping that are appropriate for each season. In early spring, if one wants to eat ping, he should eat the stuffed bun called man-t'ou iffy

The beginning of the three spring months, At the junction of Yin and i'ang, When cold air has been dispelled, It is warm but not sweltering. At this time For feasts and banquets the man-tIou should be served.

The man-t'ou to which Shu Hsi refers is the same as the stuffed bun now called pao-tzu V -T . It is filled with a sweet or salty stuffing and steamed. Shu's rhapsody is the earliest reference to man-t'ou in Chinese

literature. There is an interesting apocryphal story about its reputed origin. According to a popular story, the inventor of the man-tlou was the great military strategist of the Three Kingdoms period, Chu-ko Liang

(181-234). During his campaign in Szechuan and Yunnan against Meng Huo t , a southern Chinese who had joined the Man W or southern barbarians in revolt against the state of Shu, he was told that the Man people used many types of evil magic, and thus it was necessary to pray to the gods to obtain the assistance of a spirit army. Man custom required that a man be killed and his head presented to the gods as an offering before the gods would send out their spirit army. Chu-ko Liang was unwilling to use a human sacrifice, and instead wrapped mutton and beef in dough shaped like a human head, which he then offered to the spirits, who, fooled by this ruse, immediately sent out an army to assist him in defeating Meng Huo. Thus, dough stuffed with meat was called man-t 'ou, meaning "the head of a Man barbarian."96 Another source suggests that man is a pun for man %, "to deceive."97 A man-t'ou is thus a deceptive or false head. An even more elaborate version of this story appears in the novel San-kuo i'en-i _ EN A 98 which relates how Chu-ko Liang offers forty-nine stuffed dough heads to propitiate the spirits of a river. Although these explanations of the name are folk etymologies and cannot be verified in early sources, the Chinese tradition offers no other explanation for the man, which written in its usual form with the food radical on the left, does not appear as an independent word.

In the next season, summer, Shu Hsi recommends a thin pancake called po-chuang jeIt (the "thin and strong"?):99

When Wu Hui governs the land,'00 And the pure y'ang spreads and diffuses,

92 See the Chu-ko Kle pieh-chuan XRS'J# (The Separate Biography of Chu-ko K'o), cited in San-kuo chih - IV", (Memoirs of the Three States) (Peking, 1962), 64.1430.

93 The same word is also written JAj- and Ad . See Shih Sheng-han, Ch'i-min 'ao-shu chin-shih, 3: 658, n. 82.9.1.

94 See Shih Sheng-han, Chi-min 'ao-shu chin-shih, 111, 657.

95 See Shih Sheng-han, Chi'-min yao-shu chin-shih, 111, 655.

96 See Kao Ch'eng Aw* (fl. end of 11th cent.), Shih-wu chi-Yuan Greg (Recording the Origins of Things) (TSCC), 9.332-33.

97 See Tseng San-i _K (Sung), Yin hua lu E$ic (PTung hua lu PM XJ.; Record of Common Words?), in Shuo fu atlp (Shanghai, 1916), 19.16a.

98 See San-kuo i'en-i (Romance of the Three Kingdoms) (Hong Kong, 1961), 91.7 18-19.

99 Both T'ai-p'ing Sj'i-lan and Pei-t'ang shu-ch 'a read po (huang. The Ch 'u-hsueh (hi reads po peh Xt 4k. For reasons of rhyme, po chuang must be the correct reading.

'?? Wu Hui %FnJ , god of fire, is the younger brother of Chu-jung a #j , god of the south and summer. See Shan-hai


Dressed in ramie and drinking ice water, We cool ourselves in the shade. If in this season we make ping, There is nothing better than the "thin and strong."

Next is fall, when one should eat the leavened bread called ch 'i sou CO`, or the "leavened and soaked":

When the autumn wind blows fierce,'0' The great Fire Star moves west,102 When sleek down appears on birds and beasts, And barren branches appear on trees, Dainties and delicacies must be eaten warm. Thus, the "leavened soak" may be served.

Virtually nothing is known about the ch'i sou. The only other mention of it I can find is in a lost treatise on sacrifices.'03

In winter, the best thing to eat is a hot, steaming bowl of noodles (t iang ping Xq ft ):

In dark winter's savage cold, At early morning gatherings, Snot freezes in the nose, Frost forms around the mouth. For filling empty stomachs and relieving chills, Boiled noodles are best.

Chinese cookery is renowned for its noodles. In Shu Hsi's period there were many different kinds of noodles. A late Han lexicon mentions the so ping by or string noodle, which is an exact parallel with Italian spaghetti (the word spaghetti is the diminutive of spago, "string"). 104 Another type of noodle was called the shui pin *qkI or "water pull". It was made by kneading dough into foot-long strips the size of chopsticks. After soaking the dough in water, the dough strips were kneaded into thin noodles and boiled.105 An

equally thin, but somewhat smaller noodle was the po-t'o ifft (*b'ak-ti'ak),'06 which is another name that does not look very Chinese to me.

One presumes that the boiled noodles of Shu Hsi's rhapsody could hve included any of these various types of noodle. One source specifically equates tang ping with the string noodle.'07 Another authority identifies it with the po-tPo.'08 Other scholars interpret t'ang ping in a more general sense and claim that it refers to any doughy food cooked in water.109 However, there is abundant evidence that t'ang ping was most commonly used in the sense of boiled noodle, at least as early as the T'ang dynasty. For example, we know that noodles, later known as ch 'ang-shou mien A 'It (longevity noodles), were called tang ping in T'ang times. The noodle was an obvious symbol of longevity, and as is the custom today, it was commonly eaten to celebrate birthdays. One of the T'ang empresses reputedly ate on her birthday what was called sheng-jih t ang ping IE] By or birthday noodles.'10 In one of his poems, the T'ang poet Liu Yu-hsi t'J , A (772-842) refers to eating t'ang ping at a banquet celebrating the birth of a friend's son:

At your birth when they first hung out the bow,"'1 I was the most honored guest at the birthday feast. Wielding my chopsticks I ate boiled noodles, And composed a congratulatory poem on a heavenly

unicorn.' 12

(hing, 16.7a. I follow the T'ai-p'ingyia-lan reading here. The Ch 'u-hsueh (hi reads: "Just as the fiery pitchpipe returns."

101 Literally "when the wind of the shang note has turned fierce." The shang Ai note of the Chinese pentatonic scale is correlated with autumn.

102 The great Fire Star (Ta huo A ) is Antares. Its westward movement indicates the beginning of autumn.

103 See Hsu Ch'ang OX (n.d.), "Chi chi" 2 ("Record of Sacrifices"), cited in T'ai-p 'ing vui-lan, 860.5a.

04 See Shih ming shu-cheng, 4.62. '05 See Shih Sheng-han, Ch'i-min Yao-shu (hin-shih, 111,

658.

106 See Shih Sheng-han, Ch'i-min yao-shu, 111, 658, which says that two-inch strips of dough were soaked in water and then stretched into thin noodles.

07 See Kao Ch'eng, Shih-wu chi jian, 9.333. 108 See Ou-yang Hsiu VA$_1F (1007-1072), Kuei-t'ien Ilu

fl W i* (Record of Returning to the Fields), Pai-hai R i4 2.8a.

109 See the definitions of the Chuan yu tsa-Iu ffi M $ (Miscellaneous Notes of the Weary Traveler) of Chang Shih- cheng 34if iE (?-post 1073), in Wu-ch'ao hsiao-shuo ta- kuan TL- I'ik., 4 vols. (Taipei: Hsin-hsing shu-chii, 1960), III, 236; and the Ching-k'ang hsiang-su tsa-chi AX afX J -le (The Miscellaneous Notes of Records Relat- ing to the Ching-k'ang Period) of Huang Ch'ao-ying * 4B (early 12th century) (TSCC), 2.12.

110 See Hsin T'ang shu * (New T'ang History) (Peking, 1975), 76.3491.

. This line refers to the custom of hanging a bow on the left side of the door to signify the birth of a son.

112 See "Poem Sending Off Chuang Kuan to the Examina- tions," Ch'uan T'ang shih ki*n (The Complete T'ang Poems) (Taipei, 1974), han 6, ts'e 2, p. 10b.


The last type of ping that Shu Hsi mentions, and the one that he describes in the most detail, is a meat- stuffed dumpling called lao wan 4L , which probably means "kneaded dough balls.""3 Unlike the other types of ping, which are reserved for particular seasons, the lao wan is appropriate for all seasons. Shu Hsi says:

That which Through winter, into summer, Can always be served all year round, And in all four seasons freely used, In no respect unsuitable, Can only be the kneaded dough ball!

He then proceeds to describe the preparation of the dough:

And then Twice-sieved flour, Flying like dust, white as snow, Sticky as glue, stringy as tendons, Is steeped in juice, soaked in liquid.

The filling is next:

For meat There are mutton shoulders and pork ribs, Half fat, half skin, Chopped fine as fly heads, And strung like pearls, strewn like pebbles. Ginger stalks and onion bulbs, Into azure threads are sliced and split. Pungent cinnamon is ground into powder; Pepper and thoroughwort are sprinkled on. Blending in salt, steeping black beans, They stir and mix all into a gluey mash.

The cook then prepares the dumplings:

And then With the fire blazing the broth bubbles; Strong fumes rise as steam. Straightening his jacket, straightening his skirt, The cook grasps and presses, beats and pounds. With flour webbed to his finger tips, His hands whirl and twirl, crossing back and forth. Flurrying and fluttering, fast and furious, The balls scatter like stars, pelt like hail. There is no meat stuck to the steamer, There is no loose flour on the dumplings. Lovely and pleasing, mouth-watering, The wrapping is thin but it does not break. Rich flavors are blended within; A plump aspect appears without. They are as tender as spring floss, As white as autumn silk.

Shu Hsi next describes the effect the dumplings have on those who can only enjoy the sight and smell of them, but cannot eat them:

Steam, swelling and surging, is wafted upward; The aroma, flying and scattering, spreads everywhere

in the distance. Downwind, strollers drool; Servant boys, chewing the air, cast sidelong glances; Vessel carriers lick their lips; Attendants swallow dryly.

Finally, the dumplings are done, and the banqueters begin to eat:

And then They dip them in black meat-sauce, Snap them up with ivory chopsticks. Bending their waists, they sit poised like tigers; With tight-pressed knees, jammed and leaning upon

one another. The plates and trays are no sooner presented than

everything is gone; The cooks, one after another, hurry and scurry about. Before their hands can turn out more, Additional orders arrive.

There are other early writings on ping. A "Sevens" composition by an early third century, writer describes the making of the noodle called "water pull."

113 The exact meaning of lao is not clear. I am dubious of Aoki Masuru's suggestion (see "Aibin yowa," 459) that lao is the same lao as in t'ai lao ;k and shao lao JOe , which are the names of sets of sacrificial animals. If parallels with other ping names are significant, /ao should be a verb indicating the method of preparing the wan. In the I ii fAy (Ceremonial and Rites) the graph lao, pronounced lou, occurs in the sense of "to reduce in the middle of the fist." See I li (hu-shu

1it 1 (Commentary and Subcommentary to the Ceremonial and Rites) (SSCCS), 35.12a-b. Possibly the lao wan, or lou wan, means "balls rolled in the hand" or "kneaded dough balls."


[The dough] suddenly swims in water and is pulled into lengths;

They then apply the thin breadths of flying plumes. [The noodles] are as fine as the filaments from Shu

cocoons; Delicate as the threads of Lu silk."4

According to one Chin dynasty source, the plumes were used to brush the loose flour from the noodles."5 Another composition titled "Disquisition on Ping" refers to ping as the foremost of foods." 16 The admira- tion for ping was not universal, however. One writer, disgusted with a meal of ping that did not fill him up, wrote a "Rhapsody on the Detestable Ping.""7

I have been able to touch on only a few of the many literary pieces dealing with food in early Chinese literature. The subject is as inexhaustible as the vast variety of Chinese cuisine. Just as one can always discover a new dish he has never tasted or even heard

of before, there are countless poems dealing with all manner of food and drink. In later periods of Chinese literature, the amount of poetry devoted to gastronomic topics is overwhelming. For example, Su Shih's writings on food are so extensive it would require a long monograph to discuss them."8 The Ming and Ch'ing novels are particularly rich in culinary lore, and only recently have a few scholars begun to study it. "9 Regrettably, most of the existing translations of Chinese literature are inadequate when it comes to the accurate rendering of food terms. That the noted translator David Hawkes confuses "sugar cane juice" with "yam sauce," or the venerable Arthur Waley mistranslates the title of Shu Hsi's "Rhasody on Ping as "Hot Cake," shows how imperfectly food terms have been understood by Western Sinologists. One scholar who always has demanded precise translations of Chinese words is Edward Schafer. His exacting phi- lology and careful science have established high standards for the field. I hope this minor philological excursion may serve as a tribute to the methods and ideals of scholarship for which Professor Schafer has stood.

1"4 See Fu Hsuan f4 A (217-278), "Seven Schemes" ("Ch'i mo"

-tL 3 ), Pei-tang shu-ch'ao, 145.15b. "' See Hung Chun-chu VL,$ (Chin), "Dispatch on

Food" ("Shih hsi" -m ), Chuan Chin wen, 138.1la-llb: "One ought to use light plumes,/And brush off the flying (=loose) flour."

116 See Wu Chun ! i (469-520), "Ping shuo" 0tI, I-wen lei-chu, 72.1241.

1'7 See Yu Ch'an a (ca. 287-340), "Wu ping fu hsu" E,#qT ("Preface to the Rhapsody on the Detestable

Ping"), Ch'u-hsueh chi, 26.644.

11 For a brief discussion of Su Shih's poems on food, see Aoki Masaru, "Sake no sakana" 1ffia)# (Wine snacks), in Aoki Masaru zensha, IX, 109-14.

"9 See the articles by Frederick W. Mote and Jonathan Spence in Food in Chinese Culture, ed. Chang.

Article Contentsp. 49p. 50p. 51p. 52p. 53p. 54p. 55p. 56p. 57p. 58p. 59p. 60p. 61p. 62p. 63

Issue Table of ContentsJournal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 106, No. 1, Sinological Studies Dedicated to Edward H. Schafer (Jan. - Mar., 1986), pp. 1-245Front MatterEduardo Hetzel Schafer Erudito Magistro Litterarum Discipulo Reverenter OblataThe Locative Particles Y , Y , and Hu [pp. 1-12]Poetry and the Legend of Confucius's Exile [pp. 13-22]Evocations of the Moon, Excitations of the Sea [pp. 23-32]Self as the Intersection of Traditions: The Autobiographical Writings of Ssu-ma Ch'ien [pp. 33-40]The Saddles of the Bronze Horses of Lei-t'ai [pp. 41-48]A Literary Feast: Food in Early Chinese Literature [pp. 49-63]The Peach Flower Font and the Grotto Passage [pp. 65-77]Wang Jung's "Hymns on the Devotee's Entrance into the Pure Life" [pp. 79-98]Li Po's Transcendent Diction [pp. 99-117]The Manifestation of a Monastery: Shen-Ying's Experiences on Mount Wu-t'ai in T'ang Context [pp. 119-137]Flowers in T'ang Poetry: Pomegranate, Sea Pomegranate, and Mountain Pomegranate [pp. 139-153]Performers and Female Taoist Adepts: Hsi Wang Mu as the Patron Deity of Women in Medieval China [pp. 155-168]Floating Clouds and Dreams in Liu Tsung-yan's Yung-chou Exile Writings [pp. 169-181]La notion de hsing dans le taosme et son rapport avec celle du confucianisme [pp. 183-196]Chilly Seas and East Flowing Rivers: Yan Hao-wen's Poems of Death and Disorder, 1233-1235 [pp. 197-210]In Homage to T'ien-fei [pp. 211-232]Female Healers in the Ming and the Lodge of Ritual and Ceremony [pp. 233-245]Back Matter

Knechtges a Literary Feast

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