The Food of China [1 ed.] 0300047398, 9780300047394

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The Foodof China

Published with assistance from the Louis Stem Memorial Fund. Copyright © 1988 by Yale University. All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and loSofthe U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publishers. Designed by Jo Acme and set in GalLiard type by Eastern Graphics, Binghamton, N .Y. Printed in the United States o f America by The Murray Printing Company Wcstford, Massachusetts.

Library ofCongress Cntnlogmg-mPttbliauiott Data Anderson, E. N ,, 19+1Thc food o f China. Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Food habits— China, 2. Agriculture— China— History. 3. Cookery, Chinese— History. 4. China— SociaJ life and customs. I, Title. G T zSjj.Q iA jj 1988 641.3'009 8 7 -2 9 4 « ISBN o—}o o -o )9 jj-7 (alk. paper) The paper in this book meets the guidelines for pcrmanencc and durability o f the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity o f the Council on Library Resources,

Dedicated to the hungry people of the world, in the hope that China1; experience in feeding one-fourth of humanity will be made more widely useful through this book

Contents

Prcfacc

ix

Acknowledgements x ili Chronology .vp The N atural En wronment

I

Prehistory and the Dawm o f History

8

The Crucial M illennium : Chon through Han 24. Foodsfrom the West: Medieval China 4 7 Definitive Shaping of the Food Systetn: Sung and the Conquest Dynasties 57 In volution: Late Imperial China

77

The Clim ax of Traditional Agriculture 101 Chinese Foodstuffs Today

112

Some Basic Cooking Strategies Regions and Locales

14-9

159

Traditional Medical Values of Food 187 Food in Society

199

Appendix: D inner at the Ngs Notes

223

Bibliography Index

24-5

231

21s

Preface

In a world where hunger is all too common, China manages to teed onctourth o f tlie human species on a relatively small area o f cultivable land. This success is due, 111 pan, to .111 efficient socialist government. However, it also depends 011 China’s agricultural system, which is not only productive but also — at least in principle— sustainable. China’s agriculture docs not depend on machines and chemicals so much as on highly productive crop varieties, re­ cycling o f nutrients, efficient use o f water resources, and highly skilled inten­ sive labor by hundreds o f millions o f peasant cultivators. As modern industrial agriculture changes, due to rising energy costs and massive poisoning o f soil and water, the Chinese option will become more attractive. The future o f humanity' probably depends on combining Chinese-type intensive agriculture with the techniques o f the “ high-tech” era. Therefore, several years ago, I began research into the development of agriculture in traditional China. My hope is diat modem governments and individuals will learn from the Chinese some lessons about how development can take place. I began with the plausible assumption that China developed its agriculture to feed its teeming millions. However, I found chat many o f the key innova­ tions were made before China’s population became large and dense. Indeed, it now appears that high population density led to more intensification but relatively less innovation than China had known in its less populous days (Chao 1986; Elvin 1975}. This is not to deny the importance to China’s agri­ culture o f population pressure, or, more exactly, o f high effective demand for food. However, the need for food can be met several ways: for example, by expansion and conquest, by out-migration, by overdepcndcnce on one staple crop {as in Ireland before the Great Famine), or by infanticide. All these were tried at various times in Chinese history. China’s basic solution, however, was to develop an intensive, highly diversified, sustainable agriculture. Why was this option picked? China’s varied ecology permitted, even encouragcd, a diverse farming sys­ tem. Relatively high levels o f trade, even in prehistoric times, led to the rise o f a highly “ rationalized” market system soon after civilization began. This, in turn, caused governments to be concerned about the availability o f food— ix

(0* Prcftuc ,v

not just for the citizenry, but tor military security, Armies had to be ted; be­ sieged cities had to have provisions. Thus, by the time China’s imperial age dawned, a we 11-developed agricultural policy existed, and the government was committed to giving agriculture a high priority. This policy was successful. In agricultural productivity, China was tar ahead of'anv other civilization until relatively modern times. Chinese fascination with food, cuisine, and elaborate dining came trom other sources. Ritual and ceremony institutionalized social codes surrounding recog­ nition o f honor and status. Respect for the old and tor elite individuals was expressed in feasts. The gods, those "collective representations'' o f the com­ munity, also insisted on the best; they ate the subtle essence ot the foods sacrificed to them, while the human community shared rlie material portion. Moreover, China early developed a medical science in which nutrition played the most important role. Many ftHids were eaten and manv crops grown solely for their medical and nutritional values (real or alleged). These belief systems led to demands on the food production system. Kvcn the poor wanted gourmet fare, at least for New Year and for their aged par­ ents’ birthdays. Even die healthy wanted to keep themselves in shape by eating bean soup, chicken with ginger, or sea cucumbers. Minor crops o f nutritional value thus remained in cultivation. Imperial China displayed the paradox o f a highly evolved ttxid production system and a hungry populace. This was partly due to the importance attached to having as many children as possible— sons were the only security tor one’s old age. The elite also attempted to squeeze whatever they could from the people, often driving them below the margin o f subsistence. The tbod system continued to intensify, as peasants tried to keep up. No simple determinist explanation can account for the Chinese tbod system. It was the product of human choice— the countless decisions o f emperors and peasants, businessmen and housewives, doctors and fishermen. In tli is book I offer a general overview o f Chinese food and discuss some o f the problems we encounter in explaining how it came to be what it is today. Many questions remain. We still know very little, tor example, about yields in traditional times, but recent work by Wen and Pimentel (1986a, 1986b) sug­ gests that yields were even higher than we thought. If these scholars are cor­ rect, China’s tbod system was considerably more effective than we realized. We need to know more about demography; recent work by Skinner (1986) suggests that Chinese census figures for the old days may have been quite inflated. We also need to know more about taxes and land tenure in imperial China and how they affected production. We need to know more about the origins o f the whole system (Kcightley 1983). We must learn about influences from western Asia, about medical science, about aesthetics and epicureanism.

Vrcjncc x i

and about regional variation in practices. But I rest confident that the main outlines o f Chinese food history arc now dear. This bk is not a complete survey o f Chinese food: there is no reason to repeat the excel lent histories provided by Bray (1984), Chang (1977 b), Young (1984), and others, or surveys o f the contemporary nutritional scene such as those o f May (i 9 f>0 * Whyte (1972,197+) andCrol! (198;). I do not attempt to survey the changes in agriculture since the modem industrial world came to China in the cartv nineteenth century: that would require another book far longer tlian this one. My concern is stricdv with the traditional system, and 1 leave its modern transformations to those who are better qualified to discuss them. My book does nor contain a comprehensive bibliography; I cite only easily available sources used for specific points in the text. In particular, for better or worse, 1 barely mention the Chinese literature (partly tor lack o f easy access to libraries), 1 am currently working on projects to extend this enterprise in some o f these directions. This book is a wav station.

A cknowledgemm ts

This book owes its existence to hundreds o f people on several continents. 1 take this opportunity to thank, deeply, all those who arc not mentioned bv name here. I have not forgotten you! Only the pressures ofspacc prevent me from naming von all. A prior and special debt is owed to my former wife and co-worker, Marja L. Anderson, and to my three children— Laura, Alan, and Tamar— who suf­ fered years o f fieldwork and enjoyed thousands o f wonderful meals with me. This book owes much to Marja’s aid, experience, and thought. O f the many who have helped me in research, I remember especially Choi Kwok-tai and his family, especially Cecilia Choi Lau; Wang Chun-hua; Cli’ng Teng-liang; Kwok Wai-tak; John Ho; and Ali bin Esa. To them and many others 1 am deeply grateful. I also owe a debt to my teachers, especially Brent Berlin, Peter Boodberg, Nick Colby, Wolfram Eberhard, Douglas Oliver, and Edward Schafer. Among colleagues and friends that helped and sustained me in research, my love and thanks go to my parents, and to David Akers-Jones, Stanley and Anne Bedlington, Francesca Bray, Paul and Sally Buell, Chi-yun Chen, Alan Fix, Hill Gates, Chester Gorman, Philip Huang, Judit Katona-Apte (for, among other things, calling me to action toward explaining Chinese foodways), Michael Kearney, Carol Ladcrman, Victor Lippit, Robert and Katherine Martin, Sucheta Mazumdar, James and Helen McGough, Carole Nagcngast, Jacquclinc Newman, Marjorie Toplev, Barbara Ward, Christine Wilson, Billy Wen-chi Young, and many, many others. Thanks also to Ellen Graliam and Stephanie Jones for sympathetic editing, and my eternal gratitude to Joyc Sage and a multitude o f typists and assistants for dealing with an unruly manuscript. This research was funded by the University o f California, the U.S. National Institute o f Mental Health and the National Science Foundation, and the World Health Organization. My hope is that this book will prove useful in moving us toward a better world food system, and thus will— in part— repay the taxpayers who were, ultimately, my supporters. x iii

Chronology

6 0 0 0 —6500 B.C. (ap p ro \.) First kn ow n agriculture in C liin.i: M illet in die north w extensive forests were in the loess lands; esn males range from almost entirely forested to almost en­ tirely steppe. Ilie former is difficult to believe, for die aiva is dnFand fire-prone, in fact a very close climatiL' and geogi'jphic analogue to the prairies and plains o f die central United States, where trees were confined to gallery forests on streams and scattered stands on die higher, rtxrkier hills. Such must have been die case in China as well. Early historical records tell its diat die alluv ial plain was once covered widi a vast riparian forest o f water-loving trees, marshes, and swamps. Once again, we do not know how extensive it was. Hie re is not one square inch o f natural cover in North China; most o f die land is under intensive cultivation, nidi no ‘Svild” vegeta­ tion except a few weeds. Natural forests were cut centuries ago, and trees survive only around temples and shrines or as windbreaks and plantations, hetxe the diffi­ cult' of reconstructing past cover. Analysis o f ancient pollen is providing a start in this direction. North China was die native liome o f many o f die key Chinese food plants, includ­ ing millets, soybeans, the Chinese cabbages (including oilseeds), and peaches. Tliese still survive in wild or weedy forms. Sheep are native and may haw been domesti­ cated here independently of dieir earlv Near Eastern domestication. The agriculture o f Noith China tcxfav, however, is dominates! by borrowed plants, including wheat, maize, sorghum, rice, cotton, and sesame. Northeast China was occupied until recently primarily by Tungus-speaking and otlier non-Han peoples. Much o f it is mountain country, forested with spruce, fir, birch, larch, pine, and otlier coki-wcadier trees. Its ccnter consists o f wide river pi.uns, grass, and marshland. These are now cultivated, maize and sorghum being among the main crops, diey are comparable to die plains o f Manitoba and die Da­ kotas. Hie northeast was a marginal area dirough much o f China’s history. Central Asian China includes die areas too dry for significant rainfed agriculture. (There is a little rainfall agriculture in northwestern Sinkiang and Inner Mongolia.) 'llie latxfs are primarily desert or dry steppe suitable for extensive grazing, and bar­ ren, rugged nxumrains. Montane forests occur only in climatically favored areas such as the middle elevations o f northern Sinkiang. Sonic o f the driest and most barren country in die world is found in the Takla Makati Desert, where virtually no rain falls. Sizable rivers drain from the mountains surrounding the desert basins o f Sinkiang, and the Yellow River flows dirough some o f this region: irrigated farming is intensively practiced. During much o f China's history, however, unsettled condi­ tions led to disintensification o f this agriculture. Central Asian China (and neighbor­

rcsration. Thus people have conccntrated in die alluvial lands. Soudi Ciiina is die great domain o f rice. On steep slopes and in odier areas unsuit­ able for ricc, maize and root crops are grown. The highest areas produce wheat and barley, which are also grown in rotation with ricc in die coolcr parts o f this area— especially on die Yangtze-Huai Plain. The wheat and barley grow in die win-

The Natural Environment (

tc-i mid ripen in spring; then the rice is put in. The rainfall regime is convenient for this— dn' in winter, wet in summer, as the respective crops demand. Farther south, rice is grown year-round by double-cropping, or even triple-cropping in tile tar southeast. .South China also boasts a great diversity of minor crops and an exceed­ ingly efficient crapping and tanning system based on wet-growing not only paddy nee, but also other water crops from watercress to pond fish. Tibet is a vast plateau ringed and interrupted by the highest and wildest moun­ tains on earth. Much o f the plateau is ewer sixteen thousand feet above sea level. AH o f it is lugli and cold, most too high tor agriculture and much utterly uninhabitable. ’Hie lower and warmer areas in the soutli and cast produce barley, buckwheat, rad­ ishes, onions, and a lew other crops— even some rice in the extreme southeast. Most o f the population in these areas lives bv farming. Much o f the im(amiable land is ranged by nomadic herders o f sheep, yaks, and other animals. The yak, Tibet’s native species o f cow', is a special blessing; most o f inhabited Tibet would be uninhabitable, or nearly so, without it. It supplies milk, meat, and labor power. F.ven so, the whole o f the Tibetan plateau region in China has only a few million inhabitants— fewer than some o f the individual cities o f the lowlands (Ekvall 1968; Snellgrove and Richardson I8; Tucci 1967). On die whole, then, China consists o f die densely inhabited and agriculturally rich kinds o f North and South China, surrounded by wild and sparsely populated countiy which until recendy was occupied by predominantly non-Han populations. Speakers o f Chinese languages refer to diemselves as “ Han,” after die Han Dvnast)'. Over tifty odier languages are also found in China; their speakers arc die non-Han people, (In addition, diere are Chinese-speaking Muslims, who an: usually called Hui, not Han.) Hie non-Han peoples, Hui included, live primarily in die northeast­ ern, Control Asian, and Tibetan regions and in the tropical and semitropical moun­ tains o f die south. The densely populated areas are included in the Eighteen Prov­ inces o f Cluncse tradition; the rimlands make up nine more provinces (counting Taiwan). Through most o f Chinese liistor)', only the Eighteen Provinces and parts o f Centra] Asian China figured prominendy, and even within diese there were many marginal areas. Indeed, die dircc soudiwcstcmmost provinces, Yunnan, Kweichow, and Kwangsi, were dirough much o f Chinese liistorv more remote and less well known dian Tibet and Central Asia. Thus, dicre has always been a striking contrast between the dense, long-settled parts o f die Eighteen Provinces and the rxst of China. Last and not least, China is a land o f disasters (die classic account is Mallory 1926). Soudi Cliina is favored in this regard, with nothing worse than floods and coastal ty­ phoons to concern it, and widi die plienonienally stable and productive wct-rice sys­ tem to support it. Few general famines have occurred in South China except as ad­ juncts to war and political trouble (all too frequent in themselves, to be sure). The rest o f Cliina is plagued by droughts, floods, earthquakes, and other disasters that wreak havoc widi food production and disrupt die economy. The world’s most

The Nntiirn! Enrirmmiriit 6

dreadful natural catastrophes have occurred in Chula: die Shensi earthquake (if the Ming l))rnasty killed 850,000 people; die Tangshan earthquake of 1976 killed or in­ jured perhaps 600,000; an endless cycle o f droughts and fUxxls meant a lamine somewhere in North China virtually even' single year o f record; the hard m i k i ; of die northeast and Ontral Asia often exterminated nomads’ herds. China's instability is due primarily to nvo factors. 'Ilie first is die monstxin: if die rains extend farther north than usual and are heavy, floods occur; if diev do not reach tar enough or come at cxld times, droughts devastate the land. Tile second is the continuing pres­ sure o f die Indian subcontinent, which is being dragged inexorably ncnil 1ward by movements in tile earth's crust ajid is being crammed under the huge rckv mass of Asia. The result is the fantastic Himalayan front, where the land is folded and wad­ ded like a mg pushed against a wall; the high plateau and mountain country behind it; and the great breaks, tears, and rents in Central Asia as far east as North China, where the earthquakes occur as the land is squeezed up .uul our Ivtween India and the ancient, rigid, mountainous plate to die north in Siberia. In addition, mountains arc actively being built in much o f China: a stop-action camera with a period o f a million years between frames would record something like the breakup o f the ice on a northern river in spate. Hie lowlands o f northern and central China are geosynclinai crouglis, probably sinking— certainly sinking where die rivers are weighing them down widi mill ions o f tons of alluvium. These tectonic forces are not always slow. 'Hie Himalayas o f Tibet have risen mostly within the past few million years. Dis­ placements o f many feet occur in major earthquakes. Silting up o f river mouths hap­ pens so fast that Tientsin changed fioni a port to an inland city in recent history— and Shanghai continues as a port thanks only to artificial dredging. Whole fanning districts have been added steadily, as marshes fill or open coastal seas till widi allu­ vium until dicy can be reclaimed as islands or new extensions o f die coast. Areas built up by riverine silt are extremely fertile, except where sea water has been trapped and has evaporated to leave salt. Even die salt)' lands are now being reclaimed. Few peoples have trails formed their countries’ landscapes more thoroughly than the Chinese. Rather dian geographic determination o f human fate, China illustrates human determination o f geographic fate. For millennia before Mao urged the people to “struggle against nature,” die Chinese were diking, draining, irrigating, terracing, deforesting, reforesting, reclaiming, and otherwise making their world. Much o f China is now as purely a human creation as die Dutch polders (of which die proverb say's, “God made die world, but die Dutch made Holland” ). Even be­ fore the Chinese reworked dieir landscapes on this massive scale, the natural environ­ ment proved a facilitating radier dian a limiting factor. 'Hie rich vegetation permitted (but did not force) people to domesticate a great variety o f foods. The fertile bottomlands and plains, isolated and guarded by mountains and deserts, pennitted (but did not force) a rich civilization to rise. The barriers allowed this civilization to maintain its integrity and separateness, but they were not so rigid as to shut out for­ eign influence or so numerous as to fracture die Chinese realm into many small

The Nntitrnl Eiii’irtiuiiwiit 7

states, China had its centuries o f disunion, but, unlike Europe, it never broke up per­ manently inn) many small, distinct nations. This tact again was not determined solely by geography, surely China’s internal barriers are as mgged as Europe’s. Tile Chinese were, and are, adept at making die land serve dieir ends radier dian allowing it ro constrain diem. Tlie land provided opportunities that were generally seized. It provided obstacles that in the long run have been overcome. No one farms high Tiber or grows bananas in Manchuria, and everywhere the accommodation o f humans to climate, soil, and relief is marked, but within tiiese limits China show's diat cultural ecology is a matter o f human response to human needs and desires, us­ ing the landscape as a means— not a matter o f geographic detenninarion o f culture. Ilie landscape prov ides opportunities and shaping forces, but the actual fate o f hu­ manity in that landscape is determined by human choiccs diat are constrained more by social and historic factors than bv natural ones.

2

Prehistory and the Dawn ofHistory’

CJmii-k’mt-tien and Pn-qffnadturrd Humans in China Peking Man {Homo atcrm pcltincnsis, formerly Smautinvpits pchnaisis) was tii'sr found at Cliou-k’ou-tien near Peking, in caves filled widi limestone. tidier sjx'umcns o f early Chinese liominids have been discovered since then (Binford and Cliuon 1985; Chang 1977a, 1986; Chia 1975; Jia 1980). At Chou-k’ou-tien, where hiuls are dated to about 500,000 B .C ., haekbeny fruits may indicate that earlv liominids ttxik ,ui inter­ est in edible plant products, or tliey may be there by chance, There are many bones in the eaves, especially those of" deer. Although sonic of die bones seem to represent human food, most were brought in by hyenas and wolves, which spent more time 111 the cave than did liominids. In addition, a vast mass o f bones of'small animals, espe­ cially rodents such as mole rats, was apparently left by wolves. The bones are broken and often burned— representing early evidence for human use o f tire, though surely humans had been using fire for long ages before. Much of'the tire at CIWHi-k’on-tien appears rtonhuman in origin, but at least sonic human use o f fire is probable. Tile story enslirined in popular literature that Peking Man practiced cannibalism is incorrect; there is no evidence for cannibalism at Chou-k’ou-rien. Binford and his c o workcrs (Binford and Chuan 1985; Binford and Stone i986a,b) point out that the skull damage previously thought to suggest cannibalistic practices was actual!)' in­ flicted by predators, probably hyenas. At Chou-k’ou-rien and elsewhere in China and Southeast Asia there is a great wealth o f stone tools: large flakes o f hard rock chipped to create a sharp edge, small cores, and hacked and broken pebbles. The tools o f Pleistocene East Asia have usu­ ally been described as crude, simple, and primitive, but they are about as sophisti­ cated as other tools o f that age. Tlieir makers were obviously skilled in handling hard, difficult rock, and the toots seem well adapted to tlieir uses. Beside their obvi­ ous importance in hunting game, the tools must have been useful for chopping and shaping plant materials such as bamboo, vines, and wood. A few finds, widely scattered in both spacc and rime, bridge the gap from Peking Man to the present. Individuals resembling Neanderthal Man, dating from jo,ooo to more than 100,000 years ago, have been found at Ma Pa near Canton, among other sites. By jo,ooo B.C., in nearby parts o f Central Asia, Neanderthals had developed a 8

ijt

Pnbiitoty and the Dan’ll of History g

rather sophisticated culture: diey built houses, bad complex stone tool teclmologies, and practiced fairly elaborate burials. At Teshik-Tash in die USSR not far west of Chini, a Neanderthal boy «'is found surrounded by bear skulls and covered with red odire; at Shanidar C-ave in Iran, Ralph Solecki found burials in which die dead iiad been covered or decorated widi medicinal plants, presnniibly part o f a rimal to re­ store life or preserve die survivors. Thus, by fifty thousand .ycaxsago, in areas near China and no doubt in China too, people were beginning to treat plants and animat as more dian mere ftxxf. It is often assumed diat man (note die sex) was basically a hunter until the rise of agriculture. This is incorrect. Hunians are omnivores, as is show'll by our nutritional needs, behavior patterns, and universal edinographicallv recorded lifcways. Com­ pared to most of die animal kingdom, hunians have rather strange dietary require­ ments, which bv and large we share with other primates. We cannot manufacture vi­ tamin C, unlike most animals, but must consume it. We need unusually large amounts o f protein and cannot synthesize as many o f the amino acids as some mam­ mals can. We are big animals and have huge brains to support; dius we need to eat a great number o f calories. Before vitamin pills, die only way humans could ensure good health was to eat a varied diet. Groups o f humans have survived on diets con­ sisting almost exclusively o f flesh (Eskimos), grain (Chinese), fruit, and so forth— almost every possible specialization is found somewhere— but always at die cost o f sparse populations or constant threat o f famine or ill Iiealdi. Primary meat eaters have been rare and marginal since rile huge Pleistocene species that supported diem died out, and diev were probably rare and marginal in die Pleistocene too, since die Pleistocene flora was as rich as the animal life and would surely not have been ignored by groups diat could take advantage o f it. The meat of land animals supplies little vitamin C, as well as too much saturated fat and other chemicals, for humans to survive exclusively on it. Yet humans cannot digest long-chain carbohy­ drates (cellulose, lignin, etc.) or handle tannins and odier chemicals common in ma­ ture plant tissues. We are limited to soft, tender foods, to fats, sugars, starches, and proteins: seeds, fruits, young render leaves and shoots, roots, and animals. Such foods are maximally present in recently cleared areas growing back up to mature plant communities. Areas recendy burned or flooded are particularly rich; a bum that has been growing up for a year or two is ideal. AH human groups know fire, and most use it to clear the land for food pioduction or similar purposes. It thus seems highly probable diat our combination o f high intelligence, exceedingly flexible be­ havior and social systems, and wide nutritional requirements was formed as we adapted to die drying o f Africa and other lands in the Miocene and Pliocene, becom­ ing fire-followers and pioneers. The First A jp ia d titre Perhaps the most momentous step in human history was the decision to plant and cultivate food. Yet for millions o f years, humanity had found enough food for its

tf* Prehistory and the Dawn of History

10

needs and wants. The tact diat plants grow from sards, cuttings, or offsets is kmnvii to most Inin tors and gatherers; no one living in rile wild can remain ignorant of it for long. Thus agriculture must not have been invented or discovered so much as derided o>i. Man)' people have assumed diat population pressures forced the Chinese to de­ velop elaborate agriculture. The tnrth Is more complex. (The following account draws principally on An 1982; Andersson 19H, >9 +i; Bray 19X4; ( hang 1977a, 1986; Clictig 1959; Ho 1975; Kao 1978; Meacham 197.1, 1977; Pearson 1981; Shangravv [978; Watson 1969, 1971.) Agriculmre began first nor in East Asia hut in the Near East and neighboring soudieastem Europe, where dogs w e r e tamed bv 1 4 ,0 0 0 R .C .; wheat, barley, sheep, and goats well before 1 0 ,0 0 0 B .C .; and cattle, pigs, chickpeas, lentils, and proha b lv several odier tcxxis by 5 0 0 0 —6 0 0 0 B .C . Hie date palm, too— the tint n ee crop — may have been domesticated by this rime. (1 domestication means generic change from wild-occurring populations; the domesticated population is a deliberate or acci­ dental product o f human selection. For general accounts o f early agriculture, see Bender 19 75; Harlan 19 75; Reed 19 7 7 ; Zoharv (9 7 3.) Soon after, cultivation arose in North America, where the first known domesticates were chiles and squash in Mex­ ico, and in South America, where Peruvian lima beans had been developed bv about 8 0 0 0 B.C. llie coincidence in time is interesting, as is the early domestication o f legu­ minous seeds in all areas {beans in Mexico were earlier than soybeans 111 China). Ag­ riculture was independently invented in the New and Old World. Meanwhile, pottery was invented in East Asia. For decades, andiropologists be­ lieved that pottery and agriculture arose together, along with polished ,11 id groundstone tools, as part o f a Ncolithic complex. Hie first pottery did indeed appear at the same time as die first agriculture— but halfway around the world, in Japan, «'here rile earliest Jomon pottery dates to before 1 0 , 0 0 0 B .C . In China and northern South­ east Asia, pottery very similar to die Jomon appeared before 7 0 0 0 —8 0 0 0 B .C . (Chang 19 8 7 ). The earliest known agriculture in China was in the north, especially, in the Joesslands and neighboring areas. Consistently, tiom the beginnings o f agriculture througfTthe early civilizations, the tenter o f action seems to be the Wei River Valiev in Shensi and the Yellow River area downstream from the Wei through the Central Plain. However, the rest o f China «'as never far behind, and at least one other im­ portant center is known in the Yangtze delta country. Others are siispectcd to lie somewhere in the south. From 6 5 0 0 to 5 0 0 0 B.C., die PVi-li-kang and related cultures (X’cupicd rite loesslands, with don>esticarcd fqxt;til millet (Setaria ittdicn), panic millet (Paiiiatm miiiaceum), pigs, dogs, and chickcns (Chang 1986). All are clearly local domesticates, cxcept die dogs (human companions since long before) and possibly the chickens, which very likely came lip from the south. By 5 0 0 0 B .C ., other Neolithic cultures flourished from Manchuria to Vietnam, and die Yang-shao Culture had brought spectacularly beautiful painted pottery and large settlements into the picture in the

& Prehistory and the Damt of History n

locsslands. Contemporary culture, throughout North China were not far behind, if they were behind at all. The general picture is one o f steady development in each re­ gion, with a great deal o f mutual influence but without evidence o f migration or re­ placement by alien peoples, I will discuss Pan-p’o Village as a typical Neolithic community, because it is the best described in die available literature and because I have visited it. Pan-p’o had farming by perhaps 6000 B .C ., though its agriculture is better known from its Yangshao pIiasL’7j-X‘gitining by "5000 h.C. Pan-p'6 liesliear Sian, tfie provinaafcapital of Shensi. Significantly, many o f the important cities o f China’s earliest dynasties were also near Sian, the site of the great city of Ch'ang-an, China’s capital in die Tang Dy­ nasty. This spot is almost cn.1i.t1v 111 the center o f the country (akhough it is often re­ ferred to ;is tx-ing in the west, since it is west of die ancicnt core o f China). Sian lies some twelve hundred leet above sea level in tlie valley o f tlie large Wei River, which drains die north side of the Tsinling Mountains and the rough, dry loess country north o f them. Thus it is just 011 die cold, dry side o f China’s great ecological divide, but in a warm area— very hot in summer. Rainfall is low, slightly under 20 inchcs per annum, but the hills get more, and tlie high Tsitiling is wet. Sian is in a nunshadowed dry pocket, but near it How the great Wei and several smaller tributaries draining north from the moist Tsinling massif Thus tlie area is on balance well watered. At Pan-po today, workers excavate new areas using tools tliat differ from riiose o f the original tanners there only in die material o f which they are made. The modem tools are in 110 sense primitive: rather, tlie Pan-p’o people were advanced, expert toolmakers. Not far oft lie many other early fanning villages, although none has been shown to he quite so old as Pan-p’o. lust down the Wei, nearer to its junction widi die Yellow River, lie the sites o f tlie Miao-ti-kou culture, only slightly later in date and very similar in all respects to die Pan-p’o sites, except diat flower designs re­ placed the fish designs on Pan-p’o pottery. Tlie first crop at Pan-p’o was millet; pigs ami dogs were raised apparently from the beginning, 'llie pigs (like sheep, which came later) were apparently domesticated locally, independent o f Near Eastern do­ mestications (Ho 1975). Chickens, probably domesticated in South China and im­ posed, soon followed. Wild jungle fowl (ancestors o f cliiekens) may have naturally occurred north o f Pan-p’o. 'Hie millets used were Si'taria italien, Italian or foxtail mil­ let, probably a domesticated form o f tlie wild grass Setatia midis ( = S. UitcscoK), ;vnd Paniatm milinceum, Tlieir ancestors occur in dry, temperate areas all over tlie North­ ern Hemisphere and are often found as wild-gathered grain in archeological sites. Tlie domestications o f S. ttnltcn and probably P- tntfmccwn were achieved in China. 'Hie genetic changes that make a wild crop into a domesticated one almost certainly occur over a wide area in which incipient cultivation is going on. Dozens or hun­ dreds o f sites are probably involved, covering in diis case perhaps all o f central China, or all tile loesslands, or all o f some odier large region. The folk o f early China did not, o f course, confine themselves to such a narrow

Prehistory and the Dawn o f History rz

roster o f foods. ^Thcy ate bamboo shoots, persimmons, grass seeds, walnuts, pine nuts, chestnut^ mulberries,.and such wildlife as fish, clams, mussels, and various spccics.ofdeer. Storage jars full o f seeds arc a common find; tlicv include small covered jars and roimd jars slotted like piggybanks, (Could this be the origin of die piggybank?) Mortars and pesdes, manos and metatcs were vised to grind .seeds. At Pan-p’o as at other sites, die percentage o f obviously cultivated iixxl increases relative to wild and wild-type foods as rime goes by. Later came catde and horses. Bnvncn (Clmie.se cabbage) seeds arc found in jxits at Pan-p’o by 4000 B .C ., but sheep, horses, and panic millet .ire not so easy to date. The first two are found at Pan-p’o but the)' were probably wild game: dieir bones arc few and show no evidence of domestication. The only other early evidence of these three foods together was at one site, Ching Village in Shansi, excavated a long time ago under less chan ideal archeological conditions (Bishop 193}; Ho 1975). Sheep were soon domesticated, but die goat did not arrive from its native Near East until die Miao-d-kou II culture, about 2500 B .C . (Ho 1975). Panic millet appeared in Europe by 4000 B .C . (Hubbard 19S0); it may have spread dirough Central Asia from China. To mund out die picture, hemp or C'.mumlw sattm, better know'll to die modem world as marijuana, was evidently grown, The Chinese used it primarily as an edible seed and clothing fiber plant. (They were, of course, aware o f its other qualities. It has been used in China as an anesthetic or a pain-reliever, and the Pai-tfao Katig-mit, Li Shih-cli’en’s great herbal of 1W1, com­ ments that it “ makes one see devils.” ) Chinese hemp is by tar the earliest known cultivated hemp in die world. Mulberries and silkworms were known at Pan-p’o; a ait silkworm cocoon has been found. There is 110 conclusive evidence that silkwonns were domesticated, but most audiorities assume diey were. If so, diis was another first— die earliest known domestication o f an insect. (The honeybee was brought under human control only thousands o f years later.) It seems quite possible diat odier crops were grown too; minor vegetable and medicinal crops would leave very littie archeologic.il record. Mallow (Mail’d)^ for instance, would be a likely bet; it was the major vegetable in early liistonc Cliina. There is difference o f opinion among ardieologists concerning die question of how these NeolitJiic peoples farmed and w'hat kind o f country they had. Ho (i97i) suggested diat diey practiced settled upland fanning in sagebrush-grassland steppe. Others hold that the land was forested and die farmers practiced slash-and-bum agri­ culture. Ho (1984) responded by pointing out that die sites are on river and stream banks, often pedestaled now by subsequent erosion. We know that die mountains must liave been wooded, die alluvial plains also, but die pediments and plateaus were very likely open country. Moreover, die fire-setting and lire-following propen­ sities o f humankind— especially hunters and simple farmers— must have guaranteed a great deal o f burning, leading to much open country. Grasslands formed by con­ stant firing have been widespread in China dirougliout recorded rime. Finally, die

f t Prclmrmy and the Dntvn of History

area in question ts climatically similar to the prairies and high plains o f the United States, where the Pawnee and tlieir neighbors practiced farming in flood-opened al­ luvial Iantis. l^arge fanning villages were widespread in China by +000 B.C. Tlie diet was rich and varied: wild foods supplemented millet and animaJs, and a few vegetables fla­ vored the pot. Foods were boiled, masted, and probably steamed. The lovely painted pottery Itxiks very much like the contemporary wares o f the Near East and Central Asia, and scholars from Andersson (193+) on have postulated a relationship between them. Others disagree (Ho 1975). To my eye, tlie resemblance is unmistak­ able; indirect contact across tlie steppes and deserts seems impossible to deny. Influ­ ences no doubt flowed in both directions. 'llie southerly realms also contributed to China’s historic culture. A particularly fa­ mous site is Spirit Caw, in north Thailand, where plant remains dating as far back as 7000 to 9000 B .C . were excavated by Chester Gorman (1970; cf Solheim 1970). Claims that these remains included agricultural or cultivated materials have not stood die test of time. Ikir the Ma-chia-pang and Ho-mu-tu people o f tiie Yangtze Delta appear to have been the first known rice fanners. Both long grain (drim or huiiat) and short grain (kmrf or jnpmitca) rices occur, indicating tliat this basic division of" rices into two categories was incipient before 5000 B .C . The rich environment o f China’s early Neolithic was apparently improving; around 6000 h.c ., a wetter, wanner period replaced an earlier climate as harsh as tliat of today. 'Hie Pan-p’o villagers shared a world with much game, wild fruits, nuts, fish, and greens, and for a millennium or two, agriculture supplied only a tiny per­ centage o f tlieir livelihood, They did not turn to domestication out o f necessity. Why, then? C^arl Sauer (1952), in a purely speculative chapter whose purpose was simply to challenge current thinking, put forth an outrageous but notably insightful hypothesis o f agricultural invention. We know from modem experience diat people living on die margin o f real want do not experiment: they cannot afford to. Much more innovation takes place among the rich than among die poor; to see this, one need only compare the agricultural research establishments o f die United States or France with those o f Bangladesh or Haiti, or die research devoted to beef and lamb for the rich widi diat devoted to barley, millet, manioc, and other crops used mostly by die poor— even after tile considerable self'-conscious effort to rectify' this situation in die Ixst few years. Moreover, claimed Sauer, many people without the blessings o f state and ci\ili2ation haw rarelv been in want or in dire straits. Famine, desperate poverty, and dieir accompanying problems may be creations o f the state, with its taxes, wars, and le­ gally maintained social inequalities (cf. Sahlins 1962). Tills theory renders unviable the many theories o f agricultural invention and de­ velopment based 011 necessity— which, as Sauer says, is no mother of invention, hi recent years, archeologists haw favored die dieorv o f Ester Boserup (196;), who sug­ gested tliat population pressure leads to pressure on die food base, forcing people a»

f t Prehistory and the Dnnnt o f History f+

innovate or starve. This population pressure model lias often been combined with a theory which claims that die extinction of many animal species in die late Pleistocene (perhaps with human hunting as a factor) created a frxxl shortage, which caused people to shift to vegetable sources of food. Mark Cohen (1975) provides a particu­ larly good and detailed analysis from this point of view. But diis model cannot be correct for China. In tact, the hi 111tiny and gathering peoples who invented agriculture must have controlled their numbers by internal regulation, war, or migration, as all such groups seem to do (Cowgill 197s); if diey had faced real pressure on die resource base thev would have iallen Kick 011 these so­ lutions or suffered famine rather dian innovating. In North China, in contrast to Boserup’s dieory, agriculture began when the climate and environment were im­ proving and developed as climate continued to improve. But on the odier hand, farming is so universally considered less fiin than hunting and gathering that many or most farming peoples, notably including die Chinese ami the Near Easterners who spun tales o f the Garden o f Eden, have tales o f tlie fall o f humanity frm a state o f formless grace to a world of “ earning - ■ bread by the sweat o f [the] brow." What is needed is an explanation o f why people came to want m< ire plant and ani­ mal foods dose to home. Tlie earliest agriculture would not have led to anv spectacular increase in die actual Welds o f foods; only selective breeding over years or centuries would do diat. Rather, people must have begun fanning out of a desire to control die location o f foods. Mark Cohen’s case, that die extinction o f much of the world's large fauna at die end o f die Pleistocene forced people to emphasize plants more, is complicated by die (act diat agriculture appears early in areas where tcxxi plants were increasing in abundance. The late Pleistocene die-off was not verv marked in the Near East, tlie highlands o f Mexico, or upland Southeast Asia; it was very' pro­ nounced tn the American West, northern Europe, and odier areas w hich bad no early agriculture. Thus die die-off is clearly not an adequate explanation o f agricul­ ture by itself. Richard MacNeish (1977) stressed die importance o f trade in agricultural origins: all over die world, agriculaire occurred first at foci o f trade and communication, crossroads and heartland sites. There are two reasons why people at a trade node would have been apt to cultivate early: they would have been abreast o f new devel­ opments, including any new information about plants and dieir uses, and they w'ould always have wanted something at hand to trade. Tlie trade induction nxxlel explains why agriculture arose at trade nixies and rareiv elsewhere, whv it spread along trade routes, and why it never arose or appeared early in populous and climat­ ically favorable cul-dc-sacs, such as soudiem Australia, soudiem South America, most islands, and many coastal areas, {In East Asia, Japan was such a cul-de-sac. It had a dense, settled population, pottery, and other Neolithic characteristics very early indeed, but no obvious agriculture developed die re until a few' hundred years h .c .) Currently existing cultures on die soudiem edge o f China show a partem o f trade and raid, banning groups widi good soil intensify tlieir agriculture to produce trade

ofi'

Pnhntuiy and the Dmrn o f Vititmy j f

goods ,nid also to keep dieir fields dose to home for maximum protection from raiding (Furer-Haimendorf 19 6 2 ). 1 believe, [hen. tliat die ancient inhabitants o f China took up agriculture during a period o f increasing richness in the environment. The end o f die Pleistocene may have forced diem to turn to plants more than before, but they began deliberate farm­ ing after diey had already adjusted to diis and built up die stability that seems neces­ sary lor ex (xri men ration. Those living in areas rich in plant foods traded such foods with other people w ho had, perhaps, better animal or mineral resources. T o have these plants ready at hand and to protect them from raids, die plant-food traders en­ couraged tfxxl plants to grow close to tlieir villages. Perhaps at first they merely cared for plants that grew from dropped seeds, but soon die advantages o f deliberate planting were reali/wi. As far as we know, die earlv Neolidiic cultures in China arose and flourished in areas where trade nodes have always been: Sian, the nearby junction of die Wei and Yellow rivers, and the Yangtze delta area. Perhaps odier foci remain to be discov­ ered, but die re is increasing evidence diat areas historically marginal and isolated from major routes o f trade were marginal prehistoric.illy as well. China's progress from about die fourth millennium B .C . to die second is evident in its increasing population, the increasing complexity o f its material culture, die dif­ ferentiation o f bun,vis as social disequaliries grew, and, not least, in tlie increasing de­ pendence on agnailmre and the rapid expansion and improvement diereof (Brav 1984; Chang 1977a), Advanced and diverse tools o f polished stone were used in farm­ ing: mattocks, reaping knives (often small and semilunar like the metal rice-R'apcrs o f modem Soudieast Asia), and too and even as early as ?ooo B .C . rice was cultivated well outside regions with such liigh levels o f precipitation, it must have Ixvn wet-grown, eidier by irrigation or in managed wet areas. Rice flourishes best in areas that arc inundated and then dry off as die grain matures (the grain rots if it falls into standing water), so die earliest irrigation o f rice was surely accom­ plished by digging ditches to enlarge seasonally inundate».! small water meadows and slouglis where rice grows naturally. 'Die old dieoiy diat rice was once a “weed in taro fields” is unlikely to be true. It grows poorly in pennanendy wet fields, where it is choked tmt by taller and nx>re aggressive plants, including taro, a tenacious weed in modem rice fields. Water buffaloes, apparently domesticated, appeared by 2500 n.c. One Famous site has produced such bizarre seeds as melon, sesame, broad bean, and peanut, leading k >some highly irresponsible claims about their presence in ancient China. However,

Prehistory and the Dnnm ofHistmy 16

the first three arc known to have been historic introductions from die Near East (Laiiter 1919) and die fourth is a South American plant introduced into China in the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century. Life in Neolithic China must have been very much like tliat in the non-state cul­ tures o f modem Southeast Asia. Warlike headhunters and intensive cultivators, bril­ liant artists and chorrographers o f ritual, but without tomi.il 1zed government or writing, these people persist from India and Burma tar out into Indonesia .md in iso­ lated pans o f Taiwan. Smaller and weaker groups, who cannot increase tlieir wealth by means of warfare, are forced to farm more intensively and trade actively. Univer­ sal in tlie region is a pattern o f leadership in which die most able settler of disputes and arranger o f social affairs acquires much prestige and often wealth, validates his status by giving merit feasts, and eventually becomes die node o f a redistributive sys­ tem. He organizes feasts and festivals tor which others otter goods to lx eaten or handed out. (These merit leasts can be much like American Indian pot latches.) ‘llie local leader in Chinese society today arises and increases his pow er by the use o f tlie same skills— he is an arbiter and die organizer o f festivities. 'llie men lound widi so many grave gocxls in the richer late Neolithic burials surely did likewise; they were probably senior men in patrilineal groups. Of course a partem o f warfare, trade, .n>d redistribution provides a powerful stimulus for agricultural intensification. It is possible that the Neolithic Nordi Chinese were matrilinea! anti “ matriarchal,” however diat oft-misused term is undcrstcxxi. Many archeologists in contemporary China support tliis position, because it fits die evolutionary .scheme supported by Marx and Engels. Scholars outside China usually disagree. In tact dieie is absolutely no evidence cidicr way. Early Neolidiic groves suggest an egalitarian society. Individ­ uals were buried separately (or in small same-sex groups) widi a few grave gcxxls. Tlie Pawnee Indians o f Nordi America, a matrilineal group (Welttish 196s), lived a life radier like that suggested by the archeological remains at Pan-p'o, but many of their neighbors, such as die Omaha, w'ere patrilineal. There is little doubt diat at least some o f die Neolidiic peoples, most likely those in the Wei and Yellow river vallevs and die Nordi China Plain, spoke languages ances­ tral to the Sino-Tibetan phylum. Soudi China was presumably inhabited by speakers o f ancestral Thai-Kadai languages (Benedict 19+2), as well as die ancestors o f die Yao, die Hmong (Miao) and perhaps some o f the Ausnonesian peoples. Along what is now the nordi border o f China, Altaic speakers must have differentiated into ancestors o f today’s Mongols, Turkish, Tungus, Koreans, anti Japanese. In ancient times, the Chinese were only one among many peoples, nor die dominant majority diat diey are in die region today. Anyone looking at die area in 3000 B .C . might have picked the Thai, Miao, Yao, or some other group as die people “ most likely to suc­ ceed.” (There were, o f course, no selfconscious nationalities at tliat time; die defen­ sive arrangements and odier archeological findings show diat every' ullage or group o f villages was an independent polity,} Progress in prehistoric China seems to have been a matter o f many small inventions by peoples o f many linguistic backgrounds

0^ Prehistory and the / )a ii'i; ofHistmy

17

in many areas tit'East Asia. Archeology is revealing to an inovasing degree that im­ portant innovations and developments were made wide]v in China and that local tra­ ditions progressed in roughly parallel step, everyone borrowing from everyone else to produce die .similarities that deline what Chang has called die “ Lungshanoid hori­ zon” (Chang 19 7 7 a ). Agriculture spread to Manchuria b y perhaps 550 0 B .C . and a millennium later gray cord-marked pottery extended all across Siberia from Manchuria to Europe. By the late Neolithic, agriculture and stock-breeding flourished in west China, notably in die Ch’i-chia culture, with its .sophisticated gray pottery and focus on animal rearing. By then, agriculture must have extended from China to the Near East in a solid line. ’I he abundance of cattle and horses in China attests to this, as does tlie occurrence ot" cultivated millets in tlie western world. Wheat and barley', unknown in tlie Qiinese Neolithic sites but well established at die dawn o f history, must have come in about dus time. Ihev had b e e n established in Afghanistan and neighboring areas on or near China's Iron tier alxmt > 0 0 0 B .C . and must have been at least occasionally intro­ duced into China far back in the Neolidiic. (‘lliere is wheat in a Lungshan site, but it is in a jar dating from the historic period, buried intrusively die re; H o 1975-73-) Wheat and barlev are adapted to win ter-rainfall climates, anti the nearly rainless belt across tar western China evidently slowed dieir spread; to tlie Chinese diey must have seemed interior to the millets, adapted to the hot, rainy summers o f die area. Wheat and barley thus became popul.tr only when diey reached areas with gocxt tiKiisture even in winter. loiter, water-conserving techniques were used to grow diem, and the Chinese decided to grow both winter anel summer crops, rotating winter wheat and barlev with summer millets and buckwheat, and much more re­ coil dy with sorghum and maize, ' l l i e elcvclopment o f the skills and techniques neces­ sary' to implement diis cycle, and o f crop strains adapted to it, must have taken a long time; only a liigh population density would have made so much effort worthwhile. Indeed, wheat and barley may have been unimportant until taxes and levies forced people to increase their agricultural yields. 'ITius we cannot reason from tlie absence of wheat and barlev in Neolithic sites diat they were unknown; they may have been known as rare imports or curiosities blit rejected as crops. In die soudi, die Lungshanoid cultures grade into the vast unelifferentiated mass of archeological material known as Hoabinhian, Hoa Binh is a site in Vietnam diat gave its name to die entire Mesolidiie and early Neolithic tradition ill Southeast Asia, encompassing ten diousanci years o f progress in an area o f several hundred diousatxl square miles. Population increase was obviously important in dus period, yet why did it ejccur? If it was a natural response to agriculture, why did it not center in die south, where rice and root cro p provided a far more productive and secure base than did millets in the dr^' nordi? Population increase must have been more die result than the cause o f growing cultural complexity in die cone region. It seems to ha\,e led to increasing dependence on agriculture via die depletion o f game and game habitats and the

Pirhtstoiy miii the Dnn'ii of Histpty t& availability o f more labor tor farm work, but population increase itself must he ex­ plained, given die well-known tendency o f simple agricultural mxrtics to limit dieir populations. Lungshan populations were much smaller tli.ui tlieir agriculture could support; China in die twentieth century still depends on nine 11 die same crops in .ui agricultural «'Stem often called (if not von’ accurately) Neolithic, and there is little question diat die Lungsiianians could have sustained more people than they tiki. Population increase explains lirde in this case. A possible scenario tor population increase assumes an existing partem o f conflict, whicll intensified widi rising production anil— in a word— greed. People wanted more and «'ere willing to raid as well as trade: as Sahlins (19-2) reminds us, rob­ bery' is nod ling but a limiting case o f trade, in which the payment is particularly low— diat is, nonexistent. Increasingly complex production and increasingly serious warfare led to a greater need tor social control, "line gap between powerful and weak members of society widened. Tlie powerful figures of die village might have been the military leaders, die most successfi.il social arbiters, or die rich, Those who gained power by one means bolstered it with odiers: rich people strove for political success, politicians strove lor wealth, and so on. I suspect that in an expanding economy, widi many opportunities to increase wealdi, it is die rich who take power and then move to consolidate dicir political hold. In a static economy, good talkers and managers— politicians and statesmen— take power and then strengthen it by ac­ quiring wealth, I11 a situation o f war, military leaders take over and acquire bodi po­ litical and economical power. Probably all o f these routes to succcss we a 1 taken in the Lungshan villages; in each community', power seekers likely followed complex pat­ terns, simultaneously employing various strategies. 'Hie net result was increasing stratification o f society as a by-product o f increasing economic activity. With the growing concentration o f power, die egalitarian village community, 111 which everyone had equal acccss to communally owned means o f production, lxcanie a thing o f the past. With it went many o f die factors diat hold down popula­ tion. No longer did people feel so thoroughly in control o f their situation. No longer could diey get by widi small households poor in labor power. More labor and pnv duction was needed, and tlie only way to get it was to increase die family’s labor force. Thus began the vicious circlc o f China’s economic history: advances in fiiod production led to population growth; growing population created demand for more food and thus for agricultural intensification. Alter die state appeared, raxes and im­ posts made it still more difficult lor the peasants to survive. They could not save wealdi; diey could only invest in children, to work with them and to support diem in old age.

The Slmnjj Cuiltzatvm Civilization began in die Near East by } o o o B .C ., in China before 2 0 0 0 h .c . The earliest well-known Chinese civilization was diat o f die Shang l}ynasty, traditionally dated 1766-11Z2 B.C., now believed by most scholars to have been somewhat later;

& Pnhistmy nuri the Dmi’ll o f Hulmy

iq

presendv proposed dates vary between die traditional ones and about isoo—rooo B .C . Before tlie Shang was die shadowy Hsia Dynasty, traditionally dated from tlie 2200s B .C . Until recently this dynasty was considered mythical, but several cities or large twns from that period, in tlie area tliat later became Shang, have been found, .Jong widi .1 gsct ■+' medicines, but medicines often became kxxis if people learned to like diem; many foods beeame merely medicines when people stopped relishing them; and all foods were considered to have medicinal value, positive or negative, with important effects on health. The Shen Nung Herbal classified medicines into three categories. {These, corresponding with Heaven, Man, and Earth in tlie Confucian system, Ruler, Minis­ ter, and Aide on earth, were gcxxl categories in their own right, not just another ex­ ample of systematization gone wild.) In die upper class were tonics and strengthen­ ing dmgs, such as ginseng, fossil bones, and plantain seed. Now tile)' are considered to have a tonic, mild stimulant, or nutritional value. 'Hie middle class consisted o f medicines that had both specific value and general nutritional and/or remedial effects. In the lower class were medicines considered valuable to treat specific conditions and notiling more. (With some important exceptions, Han medicine treated particular suites ot symptoms rather than riving to infer “diseases” behind them.) Modem peo­ ple miglir put wheat gemi in the upper class, calcium in the middle, penicillin in the lowest category, What we haw o f tlie Shen Niuig Herbal (it survives only in sections quoted in later w'orks such as Fan Sheng-chih’s book) treats some j6s drugs. A bias in favor o f plants is revealed: arc plant drugs, 67 animal (including one human product), 42 mineral. Manv o f the dings do not, bv modem standards, have the value alleged for them. A few do. At worst thcv could not do much damage, because the authors o f die Herbal had the gtxxi sense to put only die mildest and safest med­ icines in the upper class. By the end o f Han, Chinese fcxxf, agriculture, and nutritional sciencc were ad­ vanced tar beyond dieir basically Neolithic situation at die dawn o f Chou. Most ot the progress was made between 500 and ioo B.C., helped by specific government acnon as well as by increasing population, urbanization, and commercialization. Peas­ ants w-anted to grow more fcxxf to feed their increasing families and to sell to die growing cities. Governments saw in diis cfesire for increase a way to power and dius aided the peasants by economic and technical means. IXiring Han were developed die world’s first systematic farm price supports, the first ever-normal granaries, the first standardized weights and measures tor peasant agriculture, the first agricultural extension services and manuals, the first official, government-sponsored, controlled experiments in agronomy, die first comprehensive and modem agricultural policy at a national level, and die rationalization o f die bureaucracy that alknved all this to function. The observations that independent smallholders were die most productive farmers and that big estates were a direat to both production and die state had be­ come entrenched (though thcv were sometimes challenged) in the official mind. China’s bureaucratic machine— aided bv such innovations as tlie civil service exam and the concept o f promotion strictly for merit— continued from diis time on, al­ lowing Chinese governments to function even when emperors were incompetent or when disunion created serious problems. Agriculture continued to be one of the first priorities o f whatever government was in pow'er. China’s agricultural success in later millennia was due, most ot all, to the high level

i j t Crtieiat Millennium: CJxm tlnvnjjb lin n

4f>

ot'skill and knowledge among the peasants. Tlii.s owvd a great deal to die public dif­ fusion o f knowledge, by governmental extension (as with Fan Shcng-chih’s hook) and family effort (as with tiie Sstt-miu Yudi-ihuf). No other ancient empire met the challenge o f population pressure and commercial agriculture in urban zones so creatively. Hsu (1980) stresses China’s need to respond to rising population pressure; Chao (19S6), by contrast, secs Han as a period o f low population; thus innovations came in labor-saving methods to make better use o f tlie rather limited labor. The tnitli is, 1 believe, that the carlv Ch’in—Han pcritxl was one o f low population, but population growth (especially in the periurban zones) came to have a significant ef­ fect by the middle o f Han. T o Boserup’s dynamic was added the need to teed a huge army and court. Landlords also wanted more than mere subsistence grain. IXmand for Rxxi grew greatly, and die population grew with it. Seed drills, horsecollars, square-pallet chain pumps and iron tools propagated and made labor more efficient, but the government seems tn have been more interested in the labor-intensive, land­ sparing methods popularized by Fan Sheng-chih, Tlie fate till transition from laborsaving “mechanical” innovation to land-saving “biological” innovation was well un­ tier wav. Also, die rise o f an cntrenched elite led to increased gourmets! lip, originally justi­ fied by appeal to ritual— specifically, rituals that underlined Mx’ial differences. Public validation o f die social order w'on exit over austerity, and never again would the Chi­ nese entertain seriously the notion that diose in pow'er should not enjoy the fruits o f success. Finally, Chinese medicine took a modem shape. From magic and conjuring it de­ veloped into a rational, scientific, logical system in which nutrition had explicit pride o f place. China’s success in food production, and dius much o f her success as an empire, has been due to these factors: government aid— especially information dispersal— in an environment o f population growth and commercialization; importance o f the smallholding peasant; gourmetship; and preeminence o f elaborate nutritional lore in die medical field.

Foodsfrom the West: Mediated CMna

7 'he Period cf Disunion After Hail, China was divided lor almost four centuries. During this time, agricul­ ture an in lined to change and progress. Rule bv Central Asian people; in die north led to introduction o f crops and ideas from West and Soudi Asia, including new land tenure systems. Ijtxral dynastic autonomy in the southeast led to rapid and dra­ matic growth in the importance of that area; its wealdi became proverbial, its agri­ culture highly developed, especially near the great lower Yangtze cities. Crops and technology from South China— previous!v an alien realm— became well known and were incorporated into die Chinese system. In sptte o f disunion and govemmental preoccupation widi matters other than agricultural policy, die periixi was one of exciting innovation in agriculture and tbod. Tea, tor instance, seems to have entered Chinese consciousness at this time. By a process o f attrition, certain succes.sii.il families came to dominate much o f Chinese life. Tliev prov ided stabilitv bodi by filling mid-level positions in govern­ ment and local economic and political lite and by preserving Chinese culture, phi­ losophy, and world order (Ebrcy iy7S). Tl*cv translated die great Han Conftician synthesis into practice, providing administration diat was often arbitrary and selicentered but equally often responsible and competent. The two need not be op­ posed: enlightened self-interest motivated diese individuals as well as Confucian re­ sponsibility to family and to the governed, or the new Buddhist ideal o f compassion, "flic Han ideals o f low land taxes and small, privately held farms roughly equal in size were generally honored in principle, but high taxes and die contrast ot wealthy es­ tates widi tiny plots were die actual practice most o f die time. In die north, die Wei (a Turkic dynasty) introduced Central Asian ideas o f common land ownership, blending them widi the ancicnt Chinese practice o f dividing fields equally; die result was an attempt at total state control o f land and fair distribution to individuals: able­ bodied men received more than women and old people. Tliis concept, however, seems to have been caught between die rise o f Buddhist and elite estates {usually free ot taxes and controls) on die one hand and Regional anarchy on the odier, and it did little to ensure a fair land share to everyone. Under die Southern courts, great estates were scattered among sniall estates and many tiny holdings. As usual in Chinese liis-

+7

t, and he compares this with his observation that the orange turns into tile interior trifoliate-orange when planted in North China, lliis bit ot lore is evidently based on the fact tliat tender cim Ls species arc routinely grafted onto tlie tougher trifoliate understock, and in a cold, dry climate die scion W(xxl is often weakened or killed, leaving the mtbliate underwood to proliterate infuriatingly. Ch'i describes no fewer than eighty' plants and refers to sophisticated raft agriculture in water and other interesting techniques. In die late 400s and earlv 500s, T ’ao Hung-ching compiled all the herbal, chem­ ical, alchemical, medical, Taoist, and general occult lore o f South China. A mountain recluse who hobnobbed widi empeiwrs and a retired meditator whose writings run into the dozens o f volumes, he is one o f die tniiv great iikh o f all time. He assembled die herbal, dietary, ,11id botanical lore o f previous ages, including the Shai Ntttuj Pm Tsao o f latter Han, and added much o f his own, creating many huge herbal encyclopedias that were die direct ancestors o f the later, more famous PaifrVw K ’niuj-fint o f Li Shih-ch’en (ca. isyi). His classifications and exhaustive tre-atment — including extensive quotes from earlier authorities, tabulated data, and many S(Xcial categorizations o f the medical qualities o f plants— set a standard diat is still widi 11s, lying behind die great compendium Zljotuj Tao Da Zt Dian (Great Dic­ tionary o f Chinese Medicine), published in 1979. I11 T ’ao’s work we first see foods classified as "heating” or “cooling,” a Western belief diat may have entered China widi Buddhism. T his humoral theory intluenced Chinese eating enormously, as people tried to maintain a harmonious balance between liot and cold principles in their Ixxtics, and to some extent between wet and dry energies as well, "Iliesc herbals were embedded in a wider tradition that involved die development o f all aspects o f medicine, especially die se.irch for longevity or immortality (Schafer 1980; Unschnfc) 1985; Wong and Wu 1936). Tlie long-temi effects ot die expansion ot ittod uses diat accompanied this search were considerable. Adepts seeking longevity

iji« Foods fivw (h i West: Medieval CJrina

io

■ibst.uncd from staple tixxis and meats, often eating very bizaire diets. Alchemy, min­ eral nutrition, and longevity drugs were subjects o f intense smdv and caused much heavy-metal poisoning (Needham 19 76-Bo), H ie enormous influence o f lluddlusm led to die adoption o f Buddhist tixxis and kxxiways, including medical dier.uy codes. Buddhist missionaries, like manv missionaries since, found that they made niorc converts by helping the sick than by arguing tine points o f theology. ’Hie otlier gieat work o f the period is the Ch’i Min TaoSbn or “ordinary people's needed skilLs” (die title somewhat ambiguous and subject to otlier translations) by Cilia Ssn-hsieh. Chia was a lexal governor under the Wei who evidently took his po­ sition seriouslv. He compiled .ill the agricultural knowledge tinat he regarded as vahiable, using all the older Ixxiks avail able to him, peasant experience, his own observa­ tions, and considerable experimentation .ind held work. ,Shih Sheng-han (i'X>2) lecendy edited the enevelopedic lxx>k and pixxluccd a valuable summary and partial translation in English; more accurate translations o f portions o f die work are pro­ vided by Hui-lin I.i (nXn;). Chia was a su|X'i b agronomist. His book is verv much a product o f the diy north. In til is it resembles Fan Shcng-chih’s Ixxik, which was one o f Chia’s major sources. I11 addition to .ignailrur.il advice, Chia’s Ixxik includes a long section on leimenrarion products. Starters were made from cereal .uid water. Artemisia (sagebrush, mugworr) (eaves were often added, almost certainly tor rile same reason rhat hops were added to beer: tlie strong antiseptic etiect keeps bacteria and other problems at bav. Qxiklebur leav es were sometimes used, possibly tor the same purpose, or per­ haps just to add wild yeasts or extra nutrients. Top-fcmicntarion is described: Chia refers to "‘floating ants" appearing on die surface o f the liquid during brewing, (The significance o f tilts tern) has been missed by odier commentators.) Top-fermentation is expected anyway; modem bottom-tormenting beer yeasts are die pitxinct o f long and careful selection o f special strains o f SiucImi tnmm arn’isuic, whereas the ni.ikcrs o f Chinese ale used wild or semi wild strains ofdiis yeast and many odier distantly re­ lated fimgi. Chia also describes die making o f yogurt, cheese, and butter— com­ modities o f some importance in his day. Central Asian rulers and Buddhist travelers had (XJpularized dairy products, especially in die North, where they were a major part o f die diet. China’s famous avoidance o f dairy tixxis was not to be seen— die opposite was die case in die Northern dynasties. Cilia also describes how to dry meat widi or without salting. This was, o f course, more essential tor the armies dian for die household; troops carried dieir meat in tlie fomi o f jerky. If we leave out a long section on exotic plants diat derives from earlier natural histories such as Po Wu Cliih and Ch’i Han’s lxx>k, we find tliat Chia described roughly sixty economic plants. From the poems and ftxxl manuals o f die age, it is evident that die Chinese diet had become sharply differentiated. The Nordi was a land o f miller, meat, and dairy prtxlucts; in die Soudi, where economic activity centered on die lower Yangtze, peopfe ace rice, fish, and water ftxxis. Nordiemers teased Southerners about earing frogs

Foods from the Wist: Mcriievnt Chinn

f/

ami snails; Southerners rcciprtxrated with snorts about yogurt and cheese, which must liavc seemed to them to be nothing but spoiled milk. 'Hie South had a greater variety o f vegetables and fruits and probably a more elaborate cuisine; it was also die home o f the most advanced herbal lore. "Ilie Yangtze Valley and even die lands south o f it were coming into their own, tiieir economic growth continued in suc­ ceeding dynasties. Eventually nee came to dominate wheat and millet economically, dcmographically, and {to .sonic extent) culinarily. Ill is process was begun, or at least helped, by the long period o f disunion.

lit:unitcd and Triumphant: Stti and 'Pang Hie reunification o f China came more suddenly than most would have predicted. It began with a palace coup o f tlie sort typical o f die previous hundred years. In 580 A n ., Yang Ch'ien made himself full ruler o f a new dynasty (Wright 1978,1979). Yang was tar ditlerenr from the pcttv tyrants who ruled the many previous kingdoms. A stem, ruthless, and paranoid man, he rolled over opposition like a whirlwind. Yang Ch’ien established the equal field {dian t'ieii) system in its Turkicized tomi as devised during the Northern Wei Dynasty. What was new, indeed revolutionary, about the revival was its uniform extension to everyone in all o f China. The system Wits a tomi o f socialism. Ol d man1 male liousehoiders received So mu o f land to work during their active lifetime— it reverted to die state when dicy reached the age o f sixty— anti io'A mu o f kind that could Ik kept tor life and passed on to descendants. O f the allotment, 20 11111 was tor fiber growing (mulberry and hemp land), the re­ maining one-third mu was for a house and garden. Women received only 40 mu o f active-life allonnent; almost .ill women were pan o f a household headed by a man. Men o f servile statics got the basic So mu, but nothing else except one-tilth o f a mu tor a house and garden. Men o f high status got more: nobles received anywhere from 40 to [0,000 11111 o f inheritable kind, and additional land accompanied govern­ ment offices, the amount depending on the level ot die office. Buddhist temples had dieir own allotments. In densely populated parts o f die Empire, diere was probably too little land to go around even at die beginning o f Sui, and by S92 there was only one-tourth the reallocation land available as was needed to make tlie system function. Cine assumes diat as soon as Sui became stable, people flocked to die citv outskirts, and diere appeared the situation we already encountered in Han, in which die ridi periurban districts had exceedingly dense populations even though more remote areas were seeking people to rill gtxxi land. Most important, diis system fimilv established die state as die ultimate owner o f the land and made it clear to everyone that land was given only at die pleasure or dis­ cretion o f die Empire. It also defined a stable social system in which die vast majority o f people were equal and part o f a collectivity, although many were o f strictly defined higher or lower status— again at tlie pleasure o f die court. H ie Sui government was particularly interested in stimulating grain production, needing to rebuild die na­ tional stocks ravaged by decades o f war and neglect. They were spectacularly success-

Foods from the West: Mcdtcml ('hum

\Z

fill, amassing up to ten million (Chinese) bushels o f grain in the public granaries (Wright 1979:93—9+). These gr.ui.uics, like those o f Han and other dvnasties, were used as security reserves and functioned to keep prices level; die government kept prices up in gtxxi vcars by buying large stocks and kept prices down in bad years by selling offsom e o f their surplus. During the Si 11 Dynasty grain was emphasized over otlier crops. The hereditary land allotments were supposed to tx_- primarily tor fiber crops. Taxes were paid in grain, cloth, and lalxii— this threefold tax system was anotlier major Sui contribution. Flint, vegetables, and meat were luxuries, important to tlie court, rare in the lives o f die commoners. Yang Ch’ien’s .successor possessed his father's paranoia but not his intensity o f con­ centration and ertbrt. He li.is become famous in Iuston as the archetype of the Had Last Fjnpenor, living out everyone’s fantasies in under-the-counter nov els. Hie Tang victory was essentially a replav o f Siti’s (Bingham 1941; Twitchctt 1979). A |X>vvcrtiil military arisrtvrat, Li Yuan, the Duke o f T ang, marched from a northern garrison and took Ch’ang-an 111 618. T a n g rase to brilliance in the 700s but was dogged bv cold, tin,' weather that con­ tributed (along with social factors) to famines and revolts such as An [ai-sh.ui’s 111 (Pullcyblank I9i 0 - Alter Soo, tlie climate seems to have recov ered somewhat, but the regime had already been weakened, and apparently at no time- did it enjov as good a climate as that o f Han rimes. Many o f tlie late T an g emperors— five in succession, bv one story— diet) by tak­ ing “ immortality" drugs. As Michel S trie kmaim has pointed out (1979), the death of' die material body was not taken as evidence o f the word ilessi less o f the dmgs, ibr the immortality was supposed to reside on a higher plane; still, it is perhaps the otilv case in world liistorv o f a suicidal cult influencing a national gov eminent tor decades. Why the T a n g Chinese took so seriously the idea o f immortality, when few other elites have ever been so persuaded, is a question we are only beginning to solve. Some o f die emperors may actually have Ix'cn poisoned bv enemies. The T a n g Dynasty officially ended in 907. The peruxl from 907 to reunifica­ tion in 960 is known as die Five Dynasties, but dicre were manv more than five if all die essentially independent local strongholds are reckoned. Tins period w as one o f constant strife bodi between and widiin die kingdoms (Schafer i9H)As in Sui, during T a n g land was disnibuted to people as dicir capacities allowed (Twitdiett 1962, 1961,1979; Twitchett and Wright 1973). Tlie male head o f a house­ hold got 100 mu, o f which 80 was “personal share land" to work while he was active and 20 was tree crop land diat could be passed on to his descendants. Odier classes o f persons got lesser holdings. T i e too-mn holding amounted to about six acres. Previous figures put it at thirteen acrcs, but the T a n g code states dearly diat the measurement used was tlie smaller Han Dviiasry mu (Twitchett 196.1:124). The code specified diat a mu should have fifty mulberry or ten elm trees, which suggests die smaller mu, since the Chinese plant mulberries very close togedier and prune diem into an almost buslilike appearance. Six acres was not exactly a lilier.il holding, but it was no worse than most Asian peasants have come to expect dirough history. In 737

ft

h'ooiir from the IV is i

Mfrftcin/ Chttm

ii

there was mi attempt to make the whole lo o mu revert to die state at die death o f tile user. l'Jocuments found at Tun-huang Oasis show that the land distribution system was earned out conscientiously, and tlie system actually functioned, though Tunhuang (small, coil fined, and on the frontier) may have been a special ease (Tvvitchett KXn). However, as time went on, the system was bound to tail. It required almost im­ possibly honest cn tureen lent and registration bv the verv people who could most easily take adv ant age o f the system and subvert it to their own ends. In tile South, land was easily available blit it was often worked by si ash-and-bum method? involv­ ing long tallow- periods; die allocation system there can have been litde more dian an ideal to hope tor. Compromises w ere also made in other special areas: tor example, extra Lind was given when some o f the land in an allomlent was unculrivablc nr o f very poor quality. We have followed China dirough direc radical transformations in landliolding. The tiisr came when pnniitivc common ownership o f land by the community was replaced bv classic feudalism: ennoblement and enteotfrncnt o f die supporters and kin o f die ruler. This came probably in Sliang and certainly by Chou. The second was the rise o f priv ate landownership .ind vcoman tanning, a trend that developed in late Chou and w as given official standing bv Han. (Along widi this came die fiction o f total state control and experiments in state socialism.) Tlie third was die rise o f full-scale redistributive agrarian socialism untkr Wei and more generally under Sui and Tang. 'Hie tin nth transformation was the destruction o f diis system by An’s re­ bellion, which led to the rise o f giant estates owned by politically powerful figures. This situation connnued through the Sung. Hie fifth and tinal premodem cranstormation came gradually during later dynasties (Ming and Cli’ing): and die great es­ tates declined in importance and small fanners rose once again. In monastic landliolding, ra n g land tenure and its effect on dev elopment was comparable to diarofnietiiev.il Europe. Buddhist and Taoist establishments ac­ quired huge agriailtur.il holdings, wliicb die state expropriated on occasions w hen it telt short o f cash. The staple tood during T a n g continued to be millet; rice was popular in die rap­ idly expanding South. From tax figures, I calculate grain yields to have been about 1300 —1,600 pounds per acre (the figures are IX'iiis Twite hcrr’s, recalculated using the correct mu; Twitehetr 1963). These figures are similar to good Han yields and to ptxirlsli vie Ids for the early twentieth century, lliere was a tax o f 2 slull (then about 140 pounds [XT shih) per household, so a household with more land w.is in better shape dian one with less. Other raxes affected cloth and so on, and there was die usual tendency to rake more dian die legal and ordinary rax. 'I"he government salt monopoly also reappeared (as in Han and odier early reigns), stressing tlie people by rendering diis essential conwxxlity harder to get. Pickling w'as still a primary mode o f preserving vegetables and the like, requiring large quantities o f salt. Many o f die rebels o f late T a n g cut dieir teeth as salt smugglers. Near Eastern crops— among diem spinach, sugar beet, lettuce, almond, and

Funds fivru the West: Mcdtt'vnt C.binn >"+

fig— became known during T a n g (Laufcr 19m; Schafer ii). S< Hithcm be­ came more widespread, lint most o f diem wore ones known to Ch’i Han centuries before. Palm sugar (jaggerv) and tixldv, dares, greater vam (DuKcmva afotn), ear daniom, galang.il, and many new varieties o f nee, taro. myrobalans, citrus, cassia, ba­ nana, C'jiumitan, litdii, and similar fruits we re among the imp nt.int crops li< >111 the South; titdiis .met other subtropical hints were iced and brought to t h e con i t by eon ricrs; thcv were considered gic.it delicacies (Schafer 196"). Bv tar the most important change in Clunese fix*. I and agriculture during T a n g w a s adoption of’ the Southern strategy’ of’double-cropping o f rice. Evidently practiced foe centuries, it not millen­ nia, bv the native peoples o ft lie deep South, it spread widely during ,md after Tang, set into practice by Chinese tanners who now serried in great numbers in the newly secured lands. Hie southeast had been Chinese territory oft and on since C.h'in, but onlv during'I'ang did it receive much settlement, thus the ( .uitone.se call themselves "people o f T an g” rather than “ people of H.Ui,” as the speakers of oilier Chinese lan­ guages call themselves. In tlie deep Soutli the aborigines’ regional diet based 011 rice and ruber crops was adopted bv the Chinese as w ell. “ Yams and tain” became a stan­ dard trope for aborigines’ coarse, uncouth tare (Schafer 19(19). Rice, bv contrast, was well on its wav to becoming the universal favorite that it is now. In tlie North, wheat continued to gain. Crop rotation, allowing both wheat and millet to be grown, continued to spread; new milling methods made wheat’s most usable fbim, flour, generally accessible (Schafer 1977). Wheat was eaten in the 10111 is well known in nxxlem times: dumplings, fried dough strips, and ndlcs. Ancestors ot die modem sluw-phiQ (“ roast cakes,” small breads covered with sesame seeds and baked on the sides o f large ovens) were popular and apparently regarded as new. Shao-ping are actually diminutive versions o f the standard Persian and Central Asian bread widely known as nan, mid they were den vetI from that pan of the world; in T a n g China they were exotic items baked bv Central Asians in the big cities (Schafer 1963, 1977)- Wheat-flour cakes o f various kinds have been found in Central Asian T ’ang sites (China Pictorial 1976:16-^9). From die many writings we haw from Tang, and especially from the extremely complete dian' o f die Japanese monk, Ennin, who visited China in the S+os, we leam diat millet was die daily staff o f life in die north; wheat was considered soruedring o f a luxury (Reischauer igy). Ennin records diat wheat cakes and dumplings o f various kinds «'ere special tare brought our to greet him and his entourage or eaten as die fancy fixxi at great feasts— taking die place o f the meat diat 11011Buddiiists would have eaten at such occasions. Bean curd and wheat-gluren meat im­ itations were not yet known. Buddhism led to large-scale vegetarianism and the de­ velopment o f a variety o f wheat products diat substituted tor iiKat and reminded the ‘Western barbarians” o f dieir home foods; cow’s flesh was progressively abandoned as a food. Chinese continued to eat beef, but with a sense o f shame, and many older Chinese still regard die cow as unfair game; non-Buddhists and Buddhists alike say it works too hard tor humankind to be treated in such an uncaring fashion. Japanese,

*0 * b'luiii} Jivm the W at: M idicm ! Chum

((

more influenced by Buddhism. later ceased cnrirclv to cat beef, and only with mas­ sive Westernization li.ts it again become a kxxi there. However, cream, yogurt, kumys (fermented mares’ milk), cheese, curds, .uni butter wen: popular. Since die dynastic family itself was o f part-'Turkic background, these kxxis necessarily took oil some status. Tins seems to have been the climax o f dairy prixluct consumption in China. Other Central A m.ui t(xxis, such as grape wine and otlier wheat products, were also very popular. Tea may have reached China well before T an g, but it owes its popularity to a craze tliat developed in that dvnastv. Lu Yu’s Hook of'Tea {197+, original eighth cen­ tury) set the seal 011 a developing conoisseurship; it is still widely read today. Tea, which originated somewhere in the Burma—India border country, was most likely introduced to C-linia bv Buddhist monks, aid lough we have no p n x ifo f this. In com p.in son to rice or Chinese cabbages, it is a very recent ad di tichi to die Chinese tootl roster. We now diink of tea as ciuintessentially Chinese, but in l'an g it was a new, exotic drink— a major example o f the importance o f westward inikieiKe at die rime. Leaving aside such oddments as die babv macac|ues mentioned in a poem by Li Ho (f’rodsham 1967; 201), wc find that the ordinarv people ate about the same things they had alwavs eaten. I;ish abounded, .11id great fishing expeditions arc described. Raw lisli w.is very popular; indeed, it was one o f the major luxuries, arid several poets describe the thin slices tlving like snow from the cleaver o f a skilled cutter. The thinnest slices o f the freshest fish were considered ideal, freshwater fish were nor­ mally available, since the capital anti most major cities were fir inland on rivers. Some varieties were preferred over odiers; sea creatures in general were somewhat unusual to literati. Meat, sliced thin and ct xiked probably as it is in die northwest to­ day {usually stir-fried with onions, chives or odier alliums), was a sign o f affluence or luxury. Chickens (and r.irclv odier poultry) were eaten only on special occasions and were a trope for such in poetrv. Bv contrast, then: were tropes for simple rusticity, as in a poem bv Kao Shili: Ploughing die land between the mulberry trees, Tlie land is rich, the vegetables ripen fast. May I ask how diese mallows and beans Compare widi the viands at court? (Chan, 197«:91) Like odier eras, T a n g was a period o f recurrent families. The aftereffects ot war and civil strife were augmented by the erratic tax systems. Pestilences, apparendy more common because o f elose links with India and die Near East, whence conta­ gion often spread (Twitchett 1979), were exacerbated by famines and led to worse famine in turn, as die able-Lxxiied died off. Hiere is 110 evidence that die\’ had the effect, as in Europe, o f forcing up the price o f labor; more likely they liad the ef­ fect diev had in die Middle East, where they killed the well-to-do urbanites, dius

Foods frma the Wat: Medtcml Chitin ,rrt reducing demand for labor even tixxc than thev reduced die supply, leading to lower wages and economic decline (Dols 1977). K China’s first known cookbook and die first nutrition textbook (both now lost) ap­ peared during 'Pang. Herbals and agricultural manuals grew' on tile model set by T ’ao Hiuig-ching and Cilia Ssu-hsieh, appearing tinder court auspices to tlie im­ provement ot'medicine and agriculture (Unschuld iq8(). Distillation appeared to­ ward the end o f T a n g ; it may have been invented in China (Needham 1916. 1976-80). ''4 ^ ' "Tang was the Golden Age o f China, remembered tor its incomparable poetry anti arts o f life. In die evolution o f die Chinese fotxi .system, however, it dtx/s not stand out as cspcciaBy important. Earlier inventions and creations rtMchcd fruition at this tinK'TBomowings from die west and south were integrated into tlie system. The ex­ periment with socialist land management tailed, never to be revived in China, Tea became imporr.mt tor tlie first time. "Pang was a period o f consolidation, o f splendid success built 011 earlier work.

4A

Definitive Shaping of the Food System: D Sung and the Conquest Dynasties

The Sung Dynasty During die Sung l'h n.isty, CInna’s agriculture and food rne 011 to write poems in praise of diem. Tlie green lentils mentioned in the quotation seem to lie a variety o f lining bean, die green bean o f modem China, and diis may also describe the introduction o f that very valuable crop into tlie country. Tlie Champa rice, tast-ripening and tough, permitted an expansion o f rice-growing and a vast mcn.-u.se in double­ cropping, which slowlv became die rule throughout southeastern China. We have less information about the intnxluction o f other crops. Fenugreek came via Arab

fft- Definitive Slmpitifl o f the Fottd System

merchants— the name still used in China is derived from Arabic— from the southcm ports (Laufer 1919:446). Watermelons and sorghum readied th e1101them dynas­ ties and became established there, soon finding dieir way to die rest ot'China— although sorghum perhaps did not arrive until Yuan; ccrtainlv it was not an impor­ tant crop until then (Anderson and Buell M S; Hagerty 19+0; I-niter 1919). None o f these had revolutionary impact, though watermelons and sorghum were to become mainstays o f North China’s dry landscape and important t

ot"trivial impoit as fotxl, but fish were important anywlieix: near extensive water. Ilie most important animal tixxis eaten by tliese peoples and tlie Mongols were dairy products, almost always .soured or fe mien ted. Yogurt, sour cream, cheese, kumys, and otlier products were made from the milk o f .ill sorts o f animals. bur sheep were the most important, llie.se daily tixxis «ere consumed in enormous quantities, CChi­ nese ambassadors from Sung were disconcerted by milk and pometge, and one found it too much when his Liao hosts added cream or butler on top o f that (l;ree~ man 1977:170; Witttbgel and Feng ly+y: itfi). Starting from vcrv simple trih.il n xik­ ing, like that o f tlie historic Mongol and Tungus trilies, the dynasties dcveli >ped quite elaborate citisines, based oil their own ingred tents but involving the com pi icared processing that had recently come to characterize Chinese culinary an. "Hie Chinese were interested enough in tlie result to record some recipes, which still sur­ vive.2 This comprises most o f our knowledge o f fotxl in tlie nonhem dynasties. They had fruit trees— apples, mulberries, jujubes— and wild onions and leeks; they had various melons, anti in Central Asia they grew' the incomparable Persian-style melons ancestral to the Hami melons oftixlav. Such trawlers as Ch’ang (Walev 1931) noted these witli surfiri.se and delight; the siye, sweetness, and il.nor were astonish­ ing. I lie tribal peoples ate as much meat as they could, bur then animals were k x > valuable fur dairy products and transport to be slang itered for ftxxl except on special occasions. Even so, culling o f the herds and natural deaths ensured a supply of 1neat tor all but tlie |xx)resr, Small game such as mannots and birds supplemented the meat diet. In tlie Sung realms, which are much better known to 11s than the northern dynas­ ties, a very different: picture emerges {Freeman [977; Gemet 1962). kumys was still common and popular in Northern Sung, but it was probably during Liter Sung that the Chinese indifference to dairy products developed. Tlie Chinese were never deeply tond o f milk products, but from Wei through T an g, powerful Centra! Asi.ui influences meant that dairy foods were more extensively used. In Sung, during which the dynastic focus was in the soudieast (where Central Asian influences had been minimal) and die Altaic dynasties were considered enemies, dairy fixxls came to be marks of die barbarian anil foe. This attitude was reafhmied under the succeed­ ing Mongol regime, and resurgent Chinese nationalism during die Ming Dynasty reinforced die rejection o f dairy fcxxls. Despite this exception, the Sung was a period of great breadth and tolerance in eating patterns. ‘Ilie sou die m ethnic groups’ vari­ ous tastes influenced Chinese there, and expanding trade, commerce, and specialized agriculture broadened die clioices available. Connoisseurship and goumietship flour­ ished in die thriving ciries. 11 ic change in food ways during Sung is retlectetl in literary m>pes. N o longer were wheat, beans, and mallows die inevitable jxxtic phrases characterizing jx>verry, though diey still occurred in archaizing texts. Different grades o f rice were com­ mon! v mentioned in pix.*try. Some low-yield varieties diat also lost a lot o f weight in milling were considered superior fixxL, while die new Champa rice seems to have

0^ Definitive SIjfijHJtij o f the Food System

07

had die s.inx- troubles widi consunicr acceptance diat modem high-yield grains often have; thus it was a poor man’s tixxi. llie ration tor low-level bureaucrats was graph­ ically described bv S li Shili as “old mstv rice 110 better than mud” (Watson 197+3: 217). In addition, pickled vegetables replaced mallows as poetic poverty foods. In tlie south, yams and tart) were starch staples, especially tor non-Chinese peoples, and these two tulxrs tlms were used as a trope tor die it nigh tare o f the wild margin o f civilization; however, they were also eaten all over south and central China (Schafer 1969). S li Shili knew taro 111 his clnkih>)- Conversely, fine white polished nee was a standard o f gixtd fixxt. Hut the most common trope tor special tare, universal 111 the poetry o f the age, was fish. Chicken began losing out to tish during T ang, especially from I lsuan Tsung's rime, but dur ing Sung chicken virtually disappeared as a poetic commonplace— proof'that the Chinese did nor always archaize, at least in some o f tliei r poetic sttx’kphrascs. Fish Ixv.ime much more important in the diet not only because o f tlie eco­ logical factors involved in the shift to the south, bur also because the center o f the Chinese world had shitted to an area where fish and indeed all aquatic organisms had always been ciilnirallv important and deeplv loved. Salt tish was a staple article. Kish were raised as an industry, with s|X‘cial suppliers o f living fiy to fish farmers, as in modem China. Some o f the old rivalry o f nortli and south— teasing over eating frogs, tor instance— continued during Sung, but the south was winning increasing acceptance tor its wavs. In late Southern Sung, YVu T/.u-mu coined a phrase that became famous: “the things that people cannot do without even' day are firewood, rice, oil, salt, soybean sauce, vinegar, .md tea” (Freeman 1977:i.d). YVu Tzu-mu’s seven necessities arc pro­ verbial to this day; Chinese schking was recognized later. Tlie ciLstom ot region.il restaurants began to .serv e homesick emi­ grants and was always maintained mostly by this trade, but even before T an g there were some who patronized such restaurants out o f a spirit o f curiosity and adven­ ture, and by Sung variety had become a major appeal ot such restaurants. Urbanites in tlie capitals delighted in trying the minced meat and noixilcs with fish and shrimps typical o f Cl l’u-chou, or tlie spicy tked in pieces o f bamboo. llie foreigners in Canton, Mus­ lims tor the must part, flavour tlieir tbod with sugar, honey anti musk. In Manchuria they eat dairy products flavoured with sour butter, in general, remarks die author o f this work, food is salty in the South and A id (sea­ soned with vinegar) in die North. Non-Chinese people in China and villag­ ers like sweetened food, while those in die plains o f die Yellow River .md town-dw'eUers prefer unseasoned tixxl. Anodier source .savs “that jieopic in die extreme south eat snakes, but change die name to ‘bmshwk. is.of medical iaspiration. InTlie Chinese word fang means both a medical formula and a culinary one, as did die word txcipe originally (ltx is short tor ncipc). Tlie concept o f life .stages, for example, influenced diet. Children were often nursed by wet-nurses in elite families: die jxx;t Yang Wan-li’s wife attracted attention bv refusing to use a wet-nurse, preferring to feed her children herself {Chaves 1975:6).

>$• Definitive Sbnpinji o f the Food System

71

A new jm theij^ccivcd fruits and sw eets and a Ape o f man-foil called “share die pain." At the inlands firet hath (especially if it was a l» y , I assume), jujubes were thmwn into the w ater, and women competed to seize them, on die still universal Oiinesc notion that die pun on aaa-tzu (meaning bodi ‘‘‘jujube thiit” and “early sons” ) will magically produce male children at an early date (Hreeman 1977:165; Gemet 11)62: rrol. As people matured, they could consult the spectacular new Basic Herbals issued with government support. Hie Illustrated Basic Herbal ot io6i set new standards tor botanical illustrarion, perhaps never suqiassed in China. Hundreds ot tcxxls were illustrated and described therein. Printing mack medical works and recipe bt x >ks available to the public. NctvQmftiaan scholarship and die high level o f biological and other sciences in Sung led to reformulation o f mcdicai ideas, which became associated with the metaphysics anti cosmology o f die school— intellectually challenging but scientific ally an unfortunate trend. Meanwhile, Taoists continued to emphasize diet and to abstain from die live grams, meat, and odier supposed contaminants, Buddhist avoidance o f meat and 011 ions,or garlic tastes continued to.. influence Chinese fbodwavs. Special restaurants and temple cafeterias purveying fixxls acceptable to these congregations Ix'came popular with variety-seeking ur­ banites. Ordiiuiv lore added its own minor traces o f medical belief, religion, or eti­ quette: “ Mint rakes away die smell offish. . . . After eating garlic, chewing a mixture o f raw ginger and jujubes will restore the freshness o f die bread 1” (Gemet 1962:210, citing Sung texts). festivals also involved special ftxxls. And die ordinary people contented themselves as best diev could. ITie jxx't Lu Chih wrote: ! .ike Shao P’ing 1 plant melons 011 the hillside. And dowel's bv the hedge like Yuan-ming 1 have just dug a |>x>l tor lotus And set up high the vine trellis. And when my spirits are low, I boil tea in an earthen pot; Above mean things, I am greatly content, 1 have tethered the heart's monkey and the mind’s horse. (Schlepp 1970:52—53; I have retranslated die last line.) What are we to make o f Sung’s place in Chinese fcxxl history? Lu Chili’s poem, written about the end o f Sung, captures som ediingofche spirit: an active curiosity and interest in the world, an intense consciousness o f fcxxl and agriculture, an inno­ vative pose in am and observation, but in die end a retreat into otherworldly quiet­ ism. China seemed to be hovering on the threshold o f capitalism, industry, modem science, modem educational and infbmiation systems-—all things diat Europe devel­ oped hundreds o f years later. However, iiKxlem science was never developed in China. The Sung literati made superb scientific observations, but they invested nxist o f their energies in bureaucratic work and literary affairs (Sivin 1975}- Education flourished and expanded greatly, herbal and dierary books were written, but die weakness o f the Sung Dynasty ,uid die conservative authoritarianism of the conquest

Definitive Shaping o f the Food System

7z

dynasties seem to have discouraged initiative and development o f a modem, expand­ ing economy, science, and technology. The stagnant bureaucracy and landlordism seem to have weakened die cities and their active, innovative, entrepreneurial classes. At die same time, neo-Con fucian philosophy— essentially static, backward-kxiting, otherworldly, and anti-process— became the authentic and highly reactionary ex­ pression o f diis stagnancy (Ralasz iy 1974). Sung seemed poised 011 die brink o f a modernization similar to die European Renaissance; instead, it su tiered loss o f initiative and ultimate decline. China after Sung never regained the thrust

The Timn Dynasty: Mongols mid West Asian Foods From 1279 to 1568, China experienced a unique epis< xte in its history. Other 11011Han dynasties ruled Cliina for centuries, but in all these cases die conquerors had been small groups on die Chinese impcri.il orbit. I lie Mongols, however, were al­ ready riders o f a world empire when they invaded and conquered China. They intro­ duced now skills and new ftxxis, but diey remained to souk.' extent die ov erlords o f a conquered and rather autononxHLs province. The stcreurvpc that ( 'Inna ahvavs as­ similated its conquerors does not hold true for die Mongols. When rebellion finally dislodged diem from rule, they did not die fighting 011 die city walls; they mounted dieir horses and rode back to dicir inner Asian steppes, with (1 Ix’lieve) a sense ot relief! The rise ofChinggis Qan, popularlv kjiown as Genghis Khan, set the stage tot die conquest o f China. Chinggis united Mongolia and consolidated control ov er all Central Asia, building up not only a world empire but a whole new bureaucracy to run it. Aidiough he did not directly attack the Chinese realm, he planned China's conquest and set die stage for die actual event, 'lints his effect on China’s history w a s profound, bodi through liis militaty activities .md through his creation o f a political order capable o f managing a far-flung domain. It was after Chinggis’ death diat China was attacked. According to die classic leg­ end, Ik was saving China tor last (as a child saves his or her favorite chocolate), but he died before he could dim crown his life “work,” if work it can be called, Tlie Sc­ art History of tlx Mongols tells us diat Chinggis' character was dius summed up by his mother: You are like die pandier diat dashes itself against the cliffs ide, like the lion diat cannot quell its wrath, like the boa-coastrictor diat swallows its prey alive, like die falcon diat flings itself at its own shadow, like the pike that gulps silently, like die randv he-camel tiiar bites die heels o f its ovw young, like die wolf that works havoc under cover o f die snowstorm, like die madaqrin-duck diat cats die ducklings diat cannot keep pace widi her, like the jackal guarding its lair, like the tiger that widi no second diouglit pounccs on its prey, like die wild barns [unidentified] diat dashes into things at random! (Walcv 1963:228)

9^ Definitive Shaping o f the b ixuf System 7 j

(Never mind diat there arc no boas in Mongolia; the storv is apocn'phal, but a good one.) Attacks on the hirchen concluded with their conquest in 123+. The Mongols w»n turned the 11 attention south, and Qubilai Qan, Chinggis' grandson, rolled up China like a tltx uniat. M om ot the work o f ruling China tell on the traditional Chinese bureaucratic class and on the se-utti. The Mongol tenn is applied to Central Asians, especially Turkic peoples similar in language and culture to the Mongols, who supplied expertise in technology and adminisrrarion. The se-niu occupied a middle position in die strict ethnic hierarchy o f Yuan below the MongoLs and Siiglier than tilt Chinese. This was a great age tor Turkic inner Asians such .is the Uigliur people. One ot die greatest Yuan pst tew people, at any rate, diev were back up to their Sung figure o f about fifty million people by die 1290s census, while North China had a mere ten to twenty million. Yiian domains in Central Asia added a few million more (I-anglois 1981:1-21). Trade still flourished: Marco Polo’s astonisliment at its extent and w ealth is pro­ verbial. Much o f die trade was in icxxlstutfs. For instance, Marco claimed diat Hangchow' had “ ten principal markets” and “ a vast number ot odiers.” Each of die ten was held diree dal's per week and attracted “40,000 or 50,000 jXTstMis” ; die meat available included “ roebuck, rcd-deer, M o w , hares, rabbits, partridges, pheasants, francolins, quails, fowls, capons, and o f ducks and geese an infinite quantity,’' as well

Definitive Shaping o f the h'ooii Svstan

-4

as “ every kind o f vegetables .md fruits” (YLite and ( indie r i5: 2:202—0;). llie sup­ plies o f game indicate vast imports o f fd bv the cicv from great distances. Marco claimed that “ tor one shipload ot'pepper that goes to Alexandria or elsewhere, des­ tined tor Christendom, there come a hundred” to Chiianchou, a principal port in Sling and Yuan rimes in vvhat is now t-'ukien (2:25s). The enormous maritime trade ot Sung continued. Tribute relations and other governmental trade flourished, la v ­ ish and bulkv presents were exchanged with the court ot Muhammad bin Tughluq in India. Agricultural production benefited from the great advances made under Chin and Sung (Raych.iudluiri and Habib 1982), .md inventions such as the tooroperated cndless-chain waterpump wrought great changes in agriculture. The poten­ tials o f water wheels and otlier local water-lilting dev ices were exploited along w ith tlie foot-powered pump (still a feature ot the Chinese scene), llie Mongols’ crown­ ing achievement was taming die Yellow River, a goal not achieved ofren in Chinese history and perhaps die most spectacular accomplishment o f any prcindusrri.il state. llie lords o f Yuan quickly learned die Chinese policy mix lor agricultural dev elop­ ment. "llie late'Fang twicc-yearly ta\ continued, but it was kept tairlv low. Toll taxes were collected, and later property taxes when appropriate (i.e., when there was more property dian heads to tax). Trade w as taxed at a low rate, llie usual monopolies 011 salt and metals continued, and transiently or locally there w ere imports on w ine, vin­ egar, bamboos, ami all sorts o f local products. (Franz Sellurmai 111 [1956] ably trans­ lated and commented on relevant chapters o f the standard Yuan history.) A halfserious suggestion by one crusty old Mongol lord, to the effect that China should lv depopulated and turned into grazing land, provided a pretext tor Yeli-lii Clui-tsai to present a cogent and sweeping account o f die vital importance o f agriculture to the Mongol court early in die regime. Yeh-lii, a leading and brilliant statesman, com­ manded more audioritv in this position dian a Chinese would have done; lie w as scion o f tiie old I.iao ruling family. But die queer mix o f autocracy and anarchy that characterized Yuan China vitiated most efforts at reform. Sung’s worst legacy— landlordism and agrarian inequality — was passed on. A powerti.il rural gentry flourished, regionally based, independent o f die government, and threatening to everyone. At first, peasant rebellions were di­ rected against it; but in tiie end, rebels from the destitute class learned to collaborate with die gentry. Once this collaboration became a fact, die Yuan Dynasty was doomed, Food during Yuan took chi a more Central Asian flavor. The .Mongols followed the usual nomadic pattern o f dairy' food ilsc; kumvs, cream, butter, and all manner t milk products were conspicuous among their focxts. Mares’ milk was o f enormous daily and ceremonial importance. The popularity o f yogurt in Yunnan, an King Chi­ nese as well as odier cdmic groups, may well stem from Yuan times, when this prov­ ince became an important area widi many Central Asian colonists (P. Buell, |x-]-s. comm.). However, local g ro u p such as the Tibetan peoples have always used milk products, and they surely also had some impact on tlie present pattern. Game wav

Definitive Shaping of tht Fwiti System

75

also ,1 Mongol staple. 'lhe Tin-shall C'ljcn/f-mo (Essentials ot Dietetics), presented to the Emperor bv the court pliysici.ui in Hio A,l),, iin.lui.1cs entnes on antelope, bear, various deer, tiger, leopard, marmot, both whtxipcr and tundra swam, pheasants, cranes, and many otlier wild animals and birds. Sonieoftho.se (tiger anil leopard, tor instance) were o f purely medicinal value, Ixir most were considered food. Swans are virtually absent from China and represent die dearest cam-over from the steppes. 1-ew fish .uid shellfish are mentioned, and the Mints and vegetables are typical o f the dry interior north. Boiled mutton was probablv the nxist important tixxt after grains (d. Sinoda [977:+Si-97, L’llsclliild [y,Hs:jl\)llie book's recipes involve hc.iw use ot the rail Kit o f the tat-tailed sheep— a mass of Kit and connective tissue that overwhelms the butrcxks and rail o f this animal. Hatrailed sheep varieties k) is found widely in Asia, though die five-element theories it espouses arc Chinese. 'Hie view o f tixxl as medicinally eflecrive, and the concepts o f die humoral and “ strengthening” projx-rties o f foods, must have been accepted bv the Mongols before thev conquered China. But die elabora­ tion ot such theories in die Tm-slinn C'bcnjj-vao is bevoiid anything one would expect ot iHim,ids and represents strong intluence from a widely shared pattern of court cui­ sines known across West and Centra! Asia and further (Buell 19S7; S.ibban 1983a). A native Chinese counterpart to die text exists in the Titi-shih Hsn-yao Clni>ot Chia Ming. Ilns Lxxik was published at die beginning o f Ming, but Chia had com­ piled it earlier, and since Cilia’s life more than spanned the Yuan I'hmasty his work, can lx- taken to reflect Chinese tcxxhvavs in Yilan (Mote 1977:208). Cilia’s knowledge is essentially drawn from the herbals o f his dav, and its extent would put modem Californian health-tixxt addicts to shame. A modem reader must assume that Q ua did as modem Chinese do, avoiding possibly dangerous tcxxis when he was at exceprional risk duo to sickness or stress. Nourishing aspects o f foods— even more spedfkallv net! to Immoral and strengthening pro[Xrties than in die Mongol work— are emphasized, ttx), so tliat tew fi.xxis are widiout their benefits^ Ilie differences ixtween Cilia’s work and die Mongol txxik .lie prediaable. C'Jiia nx’iirions some game animals— tiger, wild horse, and so 011— but none ot tlie Cen­ tral Asian specialties, and tliese big game animals are buried among detailed accounts ot domestic creatures and small birds. Fish receive ,1 great deal ot attention in Chia's book, which includes sixtv-cight entries on aquatic foods tor tlie Ttn-slmti Cbeiitj-

0^* Definitive Shaping o f the Food S w a n

?

wio's twenty-two. Vegetables and fruits arc similarly ridilv treated bv Chia. Litchis. longans .md a possible hybrid— “dragon litthis” (the word made up o f tlie first sylla­ bles o f the otlier two words)— are there, along with cxxonuts, (jiiinninit fruit, and otlier items that tlie Mongols must have barely known o f 'Hie list o f vegetables in­ cludes such oddments as sweer chrysanthemum sl*x>ts. Wang Chen’s great N im jj Sint (Book o f Agriculture), a definitive survey of farm­ ing since the Sung Green Revolution, appeared in l ir . "Hie Chi+4 Yet in late Ming, population was perhaps triple what it had been at die start, growing troni about 50 million to an estimated iso million (I lo i5:7 i) This must have been typical of’official gift-giving o f the time and must represent what die government believed to be appropriate staples for a not paitienlarly distin­ guished traveler. In summing up his experiences, Ch'oe contrasts Nordl and Soudi China, using the V’.uigt/e as the division. He thought die ftxxl was coarse in both areas, describing eating from common bowls with chopsticks. He found tlie south more refined and notes— in addition to nee— sorghum, bamboo, longans, titchis, oranges, pomelos, and all tlie Chinese domestic animals as characteristic fixxis diere. Hie noith he found much less tliri\,ing. Jujubes were its fruit. Anodier Asian visitor left its ail account o f a more splendid reception. In 1+20, .111 embassy arrived from Herat in what is now Afghanistan. Tlie painter Ghiyadi al-Din Naqqash described it; an English summary is provided by Morris Rossabi (t97i). As Mxin as the embassy’ reached China, diey were given all necessities. Even’ day diey were in Peking thcv received “ flour, a bowl o f rice, two large loaves of sweets, a pot ot honey, garlic, onion, vinegar, salt, a selection o f vegetables, two jugs ot beer, and a plate o f desserts, and each group often secured a sheep, a gtxwe and two fowl" (17). But the mast voluble travelers were the Europeans, who found China much more alien than Ch oe or Ghivath ciid. T o diem, everything was new except the common est crops. 'flic varien’ ami cheapness o f fixxl in China amazed die “Western occan folk” {as they were called in China). One o f die first accounts is that o f Gakote Pereira, a Portuguese who was jailed for smuggling in i>49 (lioxer 1953) ■ Hie next ac­ count, and the first to be published (in Portugal in 1569 or 1.(70), was diat o f Friar Caspar de la Cniz. Like Pereira, he knew only coastal Soudi China, but Ik - heard a good deal about die rest o f die country. Cruz noted many o f die same tilings Pereira

tp* Im'olutHm: Late Imperial China

S4

did: the popularity o f pork, die eating o f frogs (which were skinned with notable skill), die cheapness o f everything, tin; extreme abundance o f aquatic ftxxK He men­ tions fruits and vegetables as well: mil lips, radishes, cabbage, garlic, onions; peaches, plums, nuts, and chestnuts, oranges, 1itch is, and the characteristic apple-shaped Chi­ nese pear: “a kind o f apples that in die colour and rind are like gr ey [tears, but in smell and taste better than tliev.” He also describes teases typical o f Ming bourgeois eating (Boxer 195$; tit, ijj, 154). Knar Martin de Rada, who visited l-’ukien in 1575, rec­ ords several odier tood items, including tile a 1nous Mack-fleshed chickens ot SoutJi China and northern Southeast Asia, and the large stocks ot'pigeons and dov es. From such accounts as diese, Father Juan Gonzalez de Mendo/a produced a thor­ ough and systematic account o f China, published in Rome 111 is8s. At one bound. Western knowledge o f China increased immeasurably. Mendoza’s excellent and broadly accurate account remained die priniaiv source o f knowledge about China tor decades, known and read by educated }Kple throughout Europe, and is ;\n im­ portant source still. Bv 1588 it had been translated into English, bv one Richard Parker, under the snappv title. Tlx Historic of the Great and Miqhtie Kitufdane of' China, and the Sitimtmi Thereof] Topiiher mth the Gnat Riches, Hnjje Ciltres, Pulttike Gwcmancnt, mid linre himttioiis in the Saint. A u xin " the things Mendoza discusses arc pine nuts, honey, artificial incubation, tree-crop intcrplanting with gram (be inci­ dentally notes til at one o f tlie grains was maize—-a very early reference to diis as a Chinese crop), connorant fishing, and extensive fish fanning (M cndo/j ifisv 15). 1le notes tliat duck fanners were paid to nm their ducks through infested rice Helds near Canton— snails as well as weeds were destroyed thus. Even the ornamental garden­ ers had Hsh: “and there is none o f them but hath his fish poole furnished, although it bee but small” (150). But, o f course, most o f tlie writings on Chinese fi*x.l were bv the Chinese them­ selves, Ming writings on food are so extensive that they beggar description. (Fred­ erick Mote’s long and thorough essay in h'd in Chinese Cnlttnv [19771 cov ers diis ground well.) Plays, novels, poems and songs o f M ing record in loving details every­ thing from the chaff and beans o f die poor to die luxuries o f die rich. ’Hie court, o f course, was die most luxurious. It “ operated then as the world’s largest grocery store and dining hall. It employed 6,too cooks in 142s, and tow ard die end o f die dynasty die staff grew larger,, . . From die number o f wine jars deliv­ ered to diis agency and the amount o f salt consumed by it, it can be estimated that its kitchen scrviee must have served from 10,000 to 15,000 persons daily. This does not even cover die numerous sacrificial services diat were handled by die Court o f Impe­ rial Sacrifices” (Huang 1969:90). In 1578 26.6 million piculs o f grain or die equiva­ lent were collected in taxes, o f which well over + million piculs went to supply the court and stock die imperial granaries. Tlie kitchen staff reached 9,462 in die mid­ fifteenth earnin'; it had been reduced to 7,87+ in die sixtecndi century (90). A Ming source noted that in 1468 die Court o f Imperial Entertainments required “ more dian 1,268,000 catties o f fruits and nuts” (57). Mote also tells us about the Court oflm periaJ Sacrifices. Its axjk in g staff reached 1,750 in 1583. Over 200,000 animals vvere sacri­

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ficed each year, including “ i60 sacrificial w in e ; 250 r, Japan. While during Oil’mg ( liinese popular» >11 was expanding rap id!v, Tokugaw.i Japan’s was holding steady, in spire o f Japan’s even greater peace, pn ispenrv, and stability. Hie direct eanse w.is population limita­ tion that involved intan ticide rates o f up to (O percent 011 top o f .ill the usual methods o f birth control. Hie ultimate e.iase was the frozen society o f feudal Japan, in which a person could prosper by keeping his place but could not expect to gain much by increasing family labor power beyond a ceitain point (.Smith 1977). By contrast, China bad tewer rewards for those who kept population level, 15* ire tor those who expanded it. lhere was always room for one more worker or migrant on the in>.ui I'll at one might even make it gtxx.1. Japan’s primogeniture system (common if not universal) guaranteed problems tor additional sons; China’s partible inheritance, coupled with high infant mortality rates, encouraged families to bave as many sons as they could. A Chinese proverb says: “One son is 110 son, nvo sons is pan ot a son; only with three sons can you be sure o f a son.” (H ie poor, however, did not alwavs repnxince. Manv could not afford to many; others starved or saw all their children do so.) Ilie result was an inevitable, melancholy, liownward sift, as failures from higher classes tilled the gap left lw tlie dving pr (Moise 1977}- 11 ic psychological state this induced can be imagined. Desperate means— crime, corruption, and so o n — were felt to l x justified as the only way to keep afloat. Even those who re­ mained honest developed a conservative, even reactionary, set o f mind. George Fos­ ter (i960 described an “ image o f limited gtxxi,” characteristic o f many peasant so­ cieties, in which all grxxf tilin g are seen as fixed in quantity, so that one persons gain is another 5 inevitable loss. Ch’ing China prov ides evidence o f such a view. Europe suffered a comparable downward sift effect (Braudel iy82:+7i), but its economy was expanding, and merchants accumulated not just their neighbors pit­ tances but also much ncwlv created wealth. Nor did Europe's population expand so fast as CJi’ing China’s. Pressure on die land in China was increased bv extreme fractionation; partition o f estates led to field patterns that seem preposterous today. Population growth outran land development, and average land per peasant shrank from two acres at the start o f Cli’ing to one acre by 1729 (Perkins 1969; Kberhard 1977:285). It was about half that by 1900. A family might own an acre o f land div ided into ten parcels, one or w o o f diem not much bigger than a rcxim. Boundary /ones and liniinal dikes rk up much o f die land, and disputes over encroachment thereon tcxik up much o f die peasants’ time and attention. Meanwhile, public roads suffered as desperate peasants cultivated more and more o f the dirt roadbed, until officials could tind no carriage space and repossessed die right-of-way with ijievitablc bmtality. ‘Hie government supported die trend toward smallholdings (Chao 1981). Tlie Mane Ims were a tiny band o f alien conquerors, and they knew it. They also never forgot that since the Mongols, die Chinese had had no abiding love o f foreign lords. 'Ilie K ’ang-hsi Em­ peror seems quickly to have realized that the right strategy (one as old as Chinese

ifk limitiinon: Litre huprrini Chinn 91 statecraft) w as to gamer as much support as possible among the common people while preventing concentration o f power in the hands o f local landholding elites that could -serve as a tivus tor rebellion. Moreover, tlie peasants had tlieir own [lower. K o b c T t Marks (198+) shows tliat— contrary to almost everyone's previous assumptions— tlie pcxir could mass together and demand then own. Particularly in the unsettled daw o f early Ch’ing, when a rather w eak and well-meaning government was trying to get popular sup­ port, many [Xasant revolts w ere successful. hi a world where most families had an acre or levs, tlie owner ol three or tour acres sttxxf out as a big landlord— and acted it, too, as he desperately tried to keep his family from sinking back into tlie mass wlien the estate was divided up. In addition, the ncliest 1 percent ot Chinese com­ prised (by late Ch’ing) tour million people— a large and highly visible pool. But smallholdings w ere still the rule. Most "landlords” w ere very small fry indeed, own­ ing ,1 couple o f acres. Hie Cli'ing mxi.iI order was not sharply divided into elite and mass; there was a complicated gradient. Wealth, government position, and local po­ litical power did not always eovaiv. China’s “gentry” was not a unitary all-powcrti.il elite, but a dispersed anil lactionated set who might have wealth without position or position without w ealth (fei (Qii), There was a great deal o f downward mobility and a fair amount upward (Moise 1977; Ho [‘>62). 'Die best picture o f it is in Wu Ch’ingtzu’s great novel, TljcScMtm (1957), writien during early Ch’ing. It depicts tlie ‘ gen­ try” scholar often dependent on the chants' o f lowly but well-to-do butchers and teas!lop-keepers (liasnd Hinguierc (19S0 j has a gtxxl discussion o f the social realities; Braudel 119X2] makes comparable remarks ahout Europe o f about tlie same time). Three-level tenancy Ixvame common. Often an absentee landlord rented out land at a nominal, feed rate, and his local tenant (a well-to-do landholder with secure ten­ ure and small rent) let it out in turn to peasants. Another system involved renting out “subsoil” rights separately from rights to tlie surface ot the land; in practice these two systems worked tlie same way. All possible variations on these themes were found somewhere in China. The status o f tenants varied about as much as it could; some were secure holders o f long leases on huge tracts o f land— especially imi the frontier, such as Taiwan, where the land could be “ rented” from aboriginal el nets who might nor dare try to reclaim it (Meskill 1979). Other tenants were hardly able to rent through harvest a patch o f land “barely big enough to stick an awl in” (Zclin 1986). Serfdom and slavery, even, were still to be found. 'Hie Mancluis had had Chinese slaves in their homeland, and the isolated Nusu Tibetti-Burmans ot Szechuan re­ tained enough independence to continue slaveholding; Tibet had a theocratic system in which peasants were often serfs o f monasteries. Such conditions were ran: in the Eighteen Provinces, blit not unknown. We know little about die variety ot adminis­ trative systems in tlie marginal parts o f tlie empire (Hastid-Bniguiere 19S0). Agrarian taxes fell during Cli’ing to the lowest sustained level in all Chinese history (Gemet 1982:466); in the eighteenth century they were a mere j - 6 percent ot the crop— on paper. In practice local officials devised special imposts and outright rip-

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tj2

i)tts that multi plied die rate bv factors up to ten, bur even then taxes were levs dian they were in many agrarian civilizations. Tax dodging w as widespread- llicre was 110 capitation tax, tlms landless laborers were (theoretically) tintaxed. Wliat this meant in tcmis o f tix>d was that people were aWe to survive, but just barely. Any catastrophe pushed them over the edge into starvation. Wars ant) re be Ilions were tlie worst, but there were also many ecological problems o f the sort mis­ called "11.1rural disasters” though due to human overuse o f the environment. Susan Naquin (1976) provides cost-of-living figuies in 1111 the verv end oi Ch’ing ( i S i - S z ) . Around 1810-20, land 111 Chihli cost from 300 cash per mu ior bad land to 10,000 tor g tx x f Chihli is die lie.ut o f North China, more or less the nnxiem Hclx-i Province. It has less choice land than most o f China. I Ion.in land, better but farther tram big cities, rented at +00 to 1,000 cash ((Ter year, I take it)_ At this time diere were 1,700 cash to a silver tael, worth about 16 1980s U.S. dollars. Thus a decent piece o f land could be had ior under too dollars or rented tor under 10 dollars. A laborer earned 70—80 cash [xrr day, too in harvest time. A soldier was either paid i.X taels a month in addition to his room and board or he drew iso cash tor subsistence. A mili­ tia man drew to, which was surclv less than subsistence; lie won id have been ex­ pected to supply some o f his own itxxf One could buv a boy ior 1,000 cash or ,1 woman for to,000, but only die desperate were selling, 'llie 70—Ko cash/day figure evidently represents die minimum 011 which a person could survive; it is probably die price o f a worker’s daily ration o f grain and coarse vegetables. Such a diet would cost about 70 cents in tlie United States todav. H ie low price o f land is interesting. Land cost several times m< >rc in the better parts o f die rice regions, but still diere wen.1 always bits that could be picked up cheaply. However, at a tiny wage diat went for subsistence, the ordinaiv working person could nor aspire very high. Good quality land was thus expensive relative to die price ot labor, and die prudent landowner worked his labor force hard rather than applying labor-saving technology. Agricultural and herbal books and encyclopedias readied new heights during late C h’ing: die successors to die O ft Min Tao Shu were now huge w orks occupying many teer o f shelf space. Government officials ttxjk scriouslv tlieir tasks o f agricul­ tural improvement, introducing new crops, popularizing good strains that appeared in dieir districts, disseminating tedmology, organizing fkxxi control and conserving resources. The national grain procurement and storage svstcm was rational and modesdy successtui (Hinton 1956; Torbert 1977; Zhuan and Kraus 1975). Govern­ ment monopolies extended to ginseng, die procurement and marketing o f which was rigorously controlled (SjTnons 1981). Famine relief was quick and well orga­ nized; o f course it could not solve die problem— such a task would have been be­ yond die capabilities o f any preindustrial government— but it had strikingly gtxxi effects (Will 1980). Compared to north and west Europe at die time, Ch’ing China appears sluggish and backward in agricultural modernization, but compared to odier parts o f the world, o r Europe o f earlier eras, Ch’ing scans successful. Jacques Geniet

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(1982) concludes tli.it in clic eighteenth century, China’s rural masses were richer and better educated dian l-‘rench peasants o f the same period, and ail even stronger con­ trast can be made w ith iiKKt o f die rest o f Europe, since [-ranee was bv then far ahead ot nmcii of dint continent (+Si). I lie measure o f Ch’ing success is dius diat rural economie expansion kept up with population. Changes contixmcd to the late Ming pattern; New World crops, sorghum, and double-cropping spread, selected seed w as used, superior crop varieties were disseminated; crops diversified, agricul­ ture was further commercialized. Ilierc was no significant mechanization until West­ ern technology began to enter China at the end of Ch’mg. Agriculture during Ch’ing was highly commercialized. Markets flourished— all the way ti om die tin\' “ green produce markets” (at which a few peasants met to ex­ change produce) to die regional markets in grain and specialty crops diat linked all o f China and kept the cities supplied with incalculable quantities offtxxlsmtis and other agricultural products from .ill parts o f the empire. Lp— surely some sort o f ultimate marker o f rural commercialization (Rawski 1972). By the very end o f Ch’ing, average cultivated land per capita was a mere half acre (1 mu}, surely not enough to feed the population. Starvation and malnutrition were the most common causes o f death— operating indirectly bv weakening bodies diat soon became prey to disease or by creating such desperation that infanticide, banditry, and odier forms o f vio­ lence were invoked bv peasants desperate to keep their families eating. Dwight Per­ kins (1969) calculates diat an individual needed +00 cattics (533 pounds) o f grain per year, wiiich provides about 2,400 calories a day— a reasonable figure, considering China’s age structure and die fact chat many children did not eat an adult radon (16-19). It Is even a comfortable amount; modem Americans, with an older popula­ tion, consume on die average only about 2,800 calories a day. However, die Chinese were usually working hard (increasing their caloric requirement), and much food was inevitably lost in transport and storage— somewhere between a quarter and a half, if modem Third World countries are any guide. Vegetable and root crops, which producc very heavily per acre, helped die situation somewhat. In Ch’ing times, an acre o f land could be expected to yield two to diree thousand pounds o f grain, if intensively cropped. Only by using die most intensive methods,

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.md bv storing grain carefully, a >11Id the peasants eat well Rents we a 1 high (is -7 0 percent o f the crop, but usually less than 50 percent), and special imporlv cultivated. 'Iliis may have been the ease, tor the Macartney Faiibavsv was struck by die desolate and uncultivated appearance o f much of the eoiinny (Staunton 1797), and even in the mid-nineteenth century Robert Fortune (1S47) em­ phasized die apadieric and desultotv nature o f cultivation outside the major market areas. Rawski (1972) confirms this distinction, aldiough in milder tenns than fo r tune’s, tor early Ch’ing. Ilie inordinate wealth amassed hv the eunuch minister I loshen in the cightccndi ccnmrv gives us an idea o f how vast die surplus actually was— apparently, tew even noticed its loss. But bv iSoo people were starving while the court ate well. “ Surplus” in the sense o f expropriated wealth had become greater than “surplus” in die sense o f wealth beyond diat needed tor subsistence. For die first time in Chinese history, rixit crops became important. Sweet potatoes moved from an exotic local famine relief crop to die staple ftxxl o f tens o f millions in the east and elsewhere. White potatoes, virtually unknown in Ming, became abun­ dant, owing much o f their spread to French missionary activity in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Maize took over vast stretches o f die west and south and began to encroach everywhere. Never before had a crop yielded well in the warmer, wetter mountains o f China. N ow , suddenly, these areas rivaled other parts o f the country tor yield. Maize must have contributed to die problem o f rebellions in die south and soudi west by allowing an increase and immiscrarion o f the populations there. Fortu­ nately, China was spared the fiill horrors o f maize dependence and die pellagra and odier nutritional deficiencies diat it brings; not only did soybeans and vegetables continue to provide vitamins, but other N ew World crops that spread along with maize improved die rural nutrition picture. Chile peppers and peanuts were the most valuable, but by die late ninereendi century tomatoes were also becoming known. (Difficult as it is to imagine Chinese tixxi today widiout die tomato, its spread has been essentially a matter o f die last hundred years, though it was kxallv known long betbrc.) Commercialization o f agriculture had two important effects. First, it allowed a much greater variety in what people raised and ate. Even small towns could call on the resources o f die entire empire, or at least o f die great marketing regions in which diey lived (Rozman 19S2; Skinner 1964—1965; Spence 1977). Peasants had access to more kinds o f seed and stock and were under more pressure to grow whatever diey could. Microenvironments were recognized and sown accordingly: in die early rvvcnocdi ccntury, peasants o f die North China Plain might grow nothing but cot­ ton, o r a mix o f cotton and grain, or a variety o f grains— die mix, and die grain van-

*$• ItmHutum; l.mr hupmal China 9i

cties chosen, depended on diltercnees in soil and water conditions that would seem irucnxHcopic even to a modem soil scientist (Hiking 1985). China, land o f incredible diversity in microenvironments, was rationalizing its agnailnire in the direction o f ever greater diversity. Second, there was tlie more obvious increase in specialty cropping. Nineteenthccnniry seekers tor economic plants, h i mi Robert Nomine (18+7,1857) to Frank King (1911) and Frank Mever (1911), found China an incredible hunting ground, l li e al­ most inexhaustible supply o f new species and varieties (in the latter regard, they never got beyond scratching the surface) had been selected and propagated carefully so that they were not onlv useful but also rough, reliable, liiglilv productive, adapt­ able, and extremely responsive to temli/.er and care. A disproportionate percentage ot major new fix*!, fiber, and oniament.il plants entering the West in the last 150 vears conies from China or Japan; the Japanese plants are almost all sophistications ot Chinese originals. Such mainstays o f Ciiitbmia agriculture as Oriental persim­ mon, kxjuat, kumquat, and almost all our plum varieties share diis history. So do dozens o f oui' common doorvard 0n1.vn1ent.ils; the hkmi dramatically important o f diese is die tea rose, known in the West tor about 200 years but important main Iv in tlie last mo, during w hich time it has completely transformed rose growing diroughout the world. Were it not tor the deep-nxjted conservatism o f occidental tanners and tst cveivtliing Western that will grow in tlieir realm. Chinese techniques o f composting, organic fertilizing, and land and water man­ agement-— based as they are on conservation and recycling— became influential as tlie organic farming movement arose in the West ,uid as conservation became establislied. 'Hie first great proponent o f Chinese agricultural techniques in die West was Frank H. King, whose travels in China, Korea, and Taiwan were published by his witc under the title F(in nay efb'am C.aitwia (1911). "Hie book remains a classic in conseivation 1iteratui c . Yet Robert Fortune, .is early as 18+7, wrote, “ in the knowledge and practice o f ag­ riculture, although die Chinese may be in advance o f odier Fastem nations, they ate not tor a moment to be compared with the civilised nations o f the West” (7). 'Die advance o f agriculture in the West beyond that o f China was quite recent when For­ tune was writing (up to the late eighteenth century, die West had been behind). The most import,mt Western innovations before 1S+7 were in livestock management and breeding and integration o f livestock and crop cycles; China’s agriculture, in which livestock played no major part, precluded borrowing any o f this. Most odier West­ ern developments involved growing o f Mediterranean crops, which will not grow in China. China already had most o f the Western crops and Chinese grains out­ produced Western ones, especially under Chinese conditions; thus it was hard tor China to draw on Western technology in die eighteenth century, l l i e West, on the other hand, was rapidly expanding and colonizing new lands like California and

hwolntmn; Lntc Imperial ( ’bum yd

Australia, where Cliiiiese fixxl plants and ornamentals often did better than anything tlie West had previously known. Robert Fortune’s low opinions o f Chinese cultivarion, and o f much else he saw in China, make us believe him when he admits that “ tor a tew cash . . . a Chinese can dine in sumptuous manner upon his rice, tisli, vege­ tables, and tea; and I ft illv believe, that in no country in die world is there less real miseiv and want tinan in China” (ill). I-iter, he writes of tlie tea-picking laborers: “■The ttxxi o f these people is o f tlie simplest kind— namely, rice, vegetables, and a small portion o f animal tbod, such .is tisli or pork. Hilt the poorest clavse.s in China seem to understand die art o f preparing their tmxl much better than the same classes at home. With tlie simple substances I have named, die Chinese labourer contrives to make a number o f very savoury dishes, upon which he breakfasts or dines most sumptuously, In Scotland, in lomier davs— and I suppose it is much the same now'— the harvest labourer’s breakfast consisted o f porridge and milk, his dinner ot bread and beer, and porridge anti milk again tor supper. A Chinaman would starve upon such tbod” (Fortune 1857:4.2—43). 1-omtnc was surprised to find tlvit in Fuchou beef and milk were widely eaten (1X47:60). In Peking University, a new foundation in the last years of Ch’ing, the students had “ rice at least once a day, with salt turnips and cabbage or other vegetables. They have com-nieaJ made into itw hv ton— a kind o f a cake winch is slapped 011 the side o f a pot in which cabbage is cooking. Tlie heat o f die fire bakes the cake 011 the pot side while die steam o f die cabbage steams it on the other side” (1 leadland 1914:194). So speaks Isaac Headland, who taught there tor many veal’s. ’Hie students— fairly well-off youdis— also had shao-ping and millet gruel. A common laborer working on Headland’s house lived on “ rice which had fermented in the imperial granaries, and which he preferred to fresh «'hire rice, a tew vegetables, and onions, with per­ haps a small dish o f beans and soy” (196). Com on die cob, sweet potatoes, and mixed innards o f animals were av ailable tor a few cents fix >111 sn eer stands. Haute cui­ sine was recognizably closer to that o f today: birds’ nests, sharks' litis, pork cooked in aromatized rice flour, stir-tried mutton threads, and so oil. At die dawn o f Ch’ing, the K ’ang-hsi Emperor, a true Manehu hunter at heart, preferred die simple life, singing die praises o f die wild pea™, peaches, apples, apri­ cots, and uhvia plums o f his cold and remote homeland. He praised the outdcxir life in tones reminiscent o f Theodore Roosevelt: “ There is die perfect flavor o f bream and carp from the mountain streams, caught by oneself in the early morning— von can keep something o f diat flavor tor Peking eating if you enclose die tish m mutton fat or pickle them in brine before trying diem up in sesame oil or lard. There is veni­ son, roasted over an open fire by a tent pitched on the sunny .slope o f a mountain; or the liver o f a newly killed stag, cooked with cme’s own hands (even if die rain Is fall­ ing), and eaten with salt and vinegar. And in die northeast one can have bear's paw, which die imperial cooks value so highly” (Spence 1974:9). Elsewhere he cites Lao-tzu on die simple life and says diat "peasants make strong old men because their food is plain; on all my travels I’ve eaten die local vegetables,

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and telt die better tor ir” (y?). He warns o f tlie problems wicli fruit along the \vav: people want to otier the first o f the crop, not yet ripe. Hut lie enjoyed die dried m uskmc Ions o f Central Asia (indeed die world's finest melons), in which empty spaces left by shrinkage might be tilled with raisins (ifti). His descendants retained something ot the Manchu love o f simplicity. In iarer years it was recorded o f several emperutx that tlie)' left tintasted the fantastic meals served to them— including up to [jo dishes— and ate gnie! w ith simply grilled meat or boiled vegetables. Odiers in­ dulged more in luxun when they could. The Stwv of the Static, describing tlie life o f one ot the richest families, refers often to delicate .inti finely prepared tixxl— though it is us 11all)' maddeningly unclear on just what is being served. Ts’ao clearly felt diat long descriptions o f meals merely broke up his close-packed and intense story o f human emotions. Occasionally, though, he brought in tixxl and drink to make a point. 'I lie most Kmions example is the recurrent .mention paid to die teenage nun Adam.11inn.i and her connoisseurship o f tea; she could distinguish pure rainwater from melted snow taken from the branches o f a flowering nici tree. (This isn't as hard as it sounds: uio flowers have an intense carnation-like fragrance diat pronouncedly flavors snow lying on them.) Msewherc, again pointing to extreme refinement or snobbism. Ts'ao’s character rejects not only noodles bur also a lunch o f “slirimp-baUs in chicken-skin soup, a howl o f duck steamed in wine, a plate o f red salted gooseslices, .mother plate on which were tour crcam-chccsc rolls smiled with pine-kernels, and a large howl o f delicious, steaming-hot, fragrant given nee” (G io 1975—86: 1:208). Tlie Uxik’s hem thinks these much better than his usual fare and is delighted to relieve the girl o f the task o f finishing them. I11 general, Ts’ao and odier Ch’ing writers show a special fondness tor tin it and sealixxf, especially local products. Then as now, visitors brought packages o f the tixxl specialties from dieir home areas, and travelers to distant shores were expected to bring back such items to dieir families. Fine fruits have always been the most popular o f such regional delights. Tlie otlier great novel o f earl v Ch’ing, The Scix/an^ reflects a more middle-class world and offers a great deal more detail about what die inhabitants o f that world devoured (Wu 1957). Spence’s magisterial review o f O i’ing tcxxf (1977) gives short shrift to til is underappreciated novel. Much o f die book’s action takes place over meals, and it is clear that then .is now a feast was an obligatory parr o f any important deal, agreement, or bargain, as well as o f anv reunion or aflimiation o f friendship and alliance. Wu Ch'ing-m i’s world is not one o f hypersensitive teenagers. His char­ acters range from rumbustious bravos to withdrawn and ascetic scholars. He gives die fortiKr healthy appetites tor meat, and die latter— the people he really admires — much nx:>re restrained ones. Frequently characters are introduced at feasts, and from how much diey take, and how' politely thev take it, we .ire to see whether Wu diinks o f diem as gross beasts or gentlemen. Wu also has a Frenchman's eye lor foibles o f die cloth. A monk brings out “ tea sugar wafers, dates, melon seeds, dried beaneiini, chesmuts and assorted sweets” — very good Buddliist fire— but dieti brings in beef ntxxfles (Wu 1917:50—51). Beet,

>$• hn'otiitio»: I.ntc hupainl C.hmn 98

ot course, was considered even more si 11till dian other meats, tor the Indian cow cult had influenced China; elsewhere in the lxx)k a C^hiiie.se Muslim complains that an imperial ban on cow butchering has deprived him o f a main meat source. Liter, an abbot is offered a ham: “Tlie abbot’s mouth watered at rlie.se words. . . . Mo told Ins witc to ctx>k a chicken, slice die ham and hear the wine. Tlie abbot’s face glistened as lie tel! to” (80). Recipes, menus, and descriptions spice the Lxx>k. 'ITierc are walnut waters ot “ melon seeds, walnuts, sugar and flour"; “dumplings stuticd widi gixtse fat and sugar” ; and duck presen t'd in wine (112,169). A poor scholar visiting the West Like Ls tortured by die sight and smell o f such a duck along witli pigs’ feet, sea cucumbers, fish, birds’ nests, and die like, but lie cm aitbrd only dried bambt x >shoots anti such minor snacks as preserved oranges and boiled chestnuts (217—19). A miser "stabbed ducks' breasts «nth his ear-pick to see liow tat thcv were” and otherwise made him­ self unpopular bargaining over cheap tare (270}. A hawker sells pachym.i cakes— small medicinal Ixir cakes made oi'die tree fungus Pailmun cocos, powdered and mixed widi flour (J47)- After eating a few o f these, a character sits down in a restau­ rant; die waiter spiels oft'tlie day’s menu: “ Joint, duck, tish casserole, mandarin tlsli in wine, mixed grill, chicken, tripe, tried pork, Peking-style fried pork, sliced pork, meat balk, mackerel, boiled fish head, and cold |iork” (*47-48). Such descriptions stand out from a continuous obbligato ot sausages, frogs’ legs, jellyfish. pigs' feet, duck, goose, goose fat, dumplings, cakes o f all sorts, vegetables, ixxxlles, crabs, tish, and what not, all protein. Tlie most commonly mentioned tixxl in the bixik, diough, is surely wine. One character describes a jartt.il o f liquor as “ made o f two peeks o f glutinous rice a id twenty carries o f fenixnted nee. Twenty catties o f alcohol went into it too, but not a drop o f water. It was buried nine years and seven months ago, so it must be strong enough now' to blow vour head oft.” Tlie jar is dug up and proves to be “as diick as gruel” widi “ a neli bout]net” (426). Last, we cannot fail to mention Yuan Mei, the great eighteenth-century poet. lit­ terateur, and hedonist, who delighted in beautiful voting people o f both sexes as w ell as in food and drink. His book, Sui-yiinii Shib-tan (Recipes trom Sui Garden), is the Chinese counterpart o f Brillar-Savarin. (Sui Garden, where Yuan lived, became his pen name; lie thought, wrong!)', diat it was tlie garden immortalized in Tiie Sray i f llie Stotte.) Yiian Mei prefers gixxf ingredients and gtxxi «x>king to conspicuous dis­ play and reports, “ 1 always say that chicken, pork, fish and duck arc the original gen­ iuses o f die board, cach widi a flavour o f its own, each with its distinctive style; whereas sea-slug and swallow's-nest (despite their costliness) are commonplace fel­ lows, widi iK> character— in fact, mere hangers-on. I was once asked to a party given by a certain Governor, wIk> gave 11s plain boiled swallows-nest, served in enormous vases, like flower pots. It had no taste at all” (Walev 1957:196). Food as mcdicine continued to flourish. Beautiful editions o f the Pai-ts'ao Kang mu wen; printed. Dietary manuals appeared. Doctor; saw primarily elite pa­ tients (Tiu: Stmy of the Stmw has some excellent accounts), but phamiacists in dries and small towns spread medical knowledge widely, serving as a bridge from the elite.

ifi' linvhitimi: Late Imperial Chum d up to half o f wliat we ex­ crete. Weeds and straw were not composted directly but ted to pigs and cattle. Ani­ mal dung, as well as human wastes in cxcess o f die needs o f die pigs, was the major fertilizer, along widi all vegetable substances that were not choice animal food. Ashes, wom-out sandals, pulverized bricks and adobe, algal blooms from ponds, and atx >vc all die mud secxjped from canal and stream bottoms were all critically important nor only for supplying nutrients but also teir maintaining die structure .md texture ot die soil (King J911). Manv wastes also wound up as fish ftxxi and pond tcmli/'cr. Co.u-se grass growing on dikes was eaten by grass carp, and die residue ot oil-pressing made ideal pond fertilizer and feed. Odier wastes were typically composted. Manure and night soil, for instance, were left in pits to cure tor a few weeks or months— this pro­ cess iiKidentally destroyed, through tlie heat o f decomposition, the eggs .md larvae o f parasites. (O f course, desperate peasants often cut die time short, with disastrous results.) Since water was boiled before use. and tixxt almost always cooked (al­ though not always enough), parasite transmission was tiir less than it might have been; it may have occurred more often from direct skin contact and dim' washing water dian from ftxxi or fertilizer. It was almost impossible for a nutrient to escape diis cvclc. Meanwhile, nutrients were constantly entering the cycle, at least in die irrigated lowlands. Chronic burning and erosion o f hills and slopes were ecologicallv disastrous in die long 11 in, but diev did steadily enrich die lowlands diat rcccivcd the runoff, as many fanners were well aware. The burning kept the hill vegetation in an early stage o f succession, character­ ized by a high proportion o f nitrogen-fixing plants; and minerals weathered out from die underlying rock as erosion progressed. Not only did China’s tamiland area increase as deltas built seaward, but its fertility increased or was maintained by tlcxxts and irrigation. Consider tlie history o f a hypothetical atom o f nitrogen. From die air over a southern Chinese mountainside, it finds itself fixed by root-nodule bacteria on a wild legume. Tiie liill is burned. AH too much nitrogen gtxs up in smoke, but diis partic­ ular atom is trapped in the ash and washes downstream. 1 1 ic stream is diverted into a high field, wliere it waters vegetables. "Ilie atom is eaten by a human. Eventually ex­ creted, it cycles dirougli a pig, is eaten by a human again, and— let us say— goes oncc more dirough a pig, dien escaping in pig dung, which fertilizes die vegetable patch. Tliis time, the atom happens to be consumed by an insect nibbling on a vege­ table leaf. But it is not lost as human tbod. The fanner turns liis chickens and ducks

('lininx of Tiadii tonal Ajjiiciiltmr to j

iii«> die field once die vegetables arc big enough not to be eaten by tlie poultry. 'Ilic buds eat tlie insects and weeds, So tlie atom goes again through die human gut. Perl laps die atom escapes downstream. Here it tails into a rice paddy, and tlie whole cycle starts again. It'it becomes p;irt o f a seed, it is human tixxt; if straw', it is buffalo kx>d, i 1r< x >ts, it mav tv- used as fiie! and returned to the field as asli; if it es­ capes into an insect or weed, tlie ducks cat it. Duck farmers in South China routinely rented then docks to rice growers or, depending 011 die local price ratio, paid a slight tee to 11111 their ducks through the fields. Hie atom escapes die rice field cycle eventu­ ally. But below them, on ground that fkxxls tcx> deeply or constantly tor rice, arc duck pens, water buftalo pastures, and water tames diat raise watercress, lotus, k’ttiijftmn tint (Iptntiocn nqttnticn, .1 le.if vegetable), and other aquatic fcxxts. Ilicn tliere are the lisli ponds. and beyond them die marshes where wild tisli and shrimps are trapped and thatching reeds cut. {’Hie dutch is composted when worn out.) Even the nutrients that escape to the sea are not lost, tor die marine fishery sweeps up ev­ erything: oysters ,ue tanned, and everything that swims, burrows, or crawls in the ocean is taken for fixxl. Hie only iva! escape ttii a nimtgen atom is into the air. When plants are burned in an open tire, most o f the nitrogen is lost. But 111 rural China, burning was done in the tire hole o f tlie great kitchen stove, that holv shrine (die kitchen gods home) and center of the household. Woks and stewpots ncatlv covered die holes in die stove top. In the cold north, fines ran from die stove under die tkxir, heating it; dins die kitchen Ixvame the winter home o f the whole family. A minimum o f Riel was used to maximum ctiect; a handful o f straw' accomplished as much as a good-sized bonfire 111.111 open hearth. Not onlv the absolute shortage o f fuel but die cost o f using valu­ able feed and compost as Kiel deten 1lined diis extreme economy. (For fiiil accounts o f Chinese f.imis, see Anderson and Anderson 197.1; Buck 1917; King 1911.) Nitrogen was lost in smoke, and when plants decayed, but composting was done in pits or closed places to avoid nutrient loss. What was lost could easily be made up. Beans and peas were universal crops. In die rice paddies grew' blue-given algae diat fix nitrogen. Many o f dicsc live svmbioticaliy on small floating water-terns ot die ge­ nus Azdln. In Vietnam, there were actually selected varieties of Visa//«, propagated by peasants who knew dieir fertilizing gifts; I assume die Chinese were not less aware. Tlie value o f algal and tern pond scum was discovered by Western scientists in die Philippines, where die kx’al people told them diat rice grew better in die downwind end o f the fields because die wind blew the pond scum dicrv. The scientists dis­ missed this as superstition until someone actually took a look (Copeland 1924; see also Grist 1975; Hill 1976, 1977}. Odier nutritents followed the same path. Minerals like calcium and potassium were less limiting and common enough in the various fertilizing agencies. The Chi­ nese never had a gixl o f manure, as die Romans did, but they were certainly die world’s most intensive fertilizers, until the rise o f artificial fertilizers in die Western world in the last half century. The Chinese were far ahead o f even the most intensive and self-conscious o f mod-

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104.

cm organic farmers. Nor even die most devoted organic fanner in die United States pulverizes old bricks or composts old shoes (straw' sandals are better compost dian leadier, let alone plastic). Even tlie must dedicated opponents o f pesticide* do not specialize in developing jxst controb diey tan cat. The Chinese not only used chick­ ens and ducks, they hunted and ate die wild birds and frogs (“ paddy chickens” ) tli.it controlled insects. Exquisite care in choice o f cultivation site was practiced. Higii, well-drained sites were used for vegetables; mid-level sites diat could be tkxxled or drained were used for rice, which must be irrigated when young and dried off'when ripening; lower' sites, usually Hooded, w ere used tor water crops, still lower ones tor fish- In areas when? rice did not grow', die same careful siting was found. Siting was governed bv die folk science otfhuj-i/jni. Usually (and badly) translated “geoniancy” and regarded as magic or superstition, diis unique belief system was ac­ tually based on empirical fact. Feng-shui (wind and waiter) refers to the science ot siting human constructions to maximize die benefits to the users. In its developed form, diis science has indeed taken on a vast burden o f magic and religion. Graves beam good luck to die descendants o f those buried diere; nxim arrangements can bring blessings or curses upon die occupants. {Anderson and Anderson 1971; Fetich twang 197+; Rossbach [983; Yoon 1976) Bizarre fcng-shui wars have erupted when rival families desecrate each odier’s graves to harm each odier’s luck (Baker 1979:219—21). But in die folk form found in die villages, feng-shui is mostly gixxl sense. Groves o f trees are left around villages and streams, where they create gtxxl luck—-and also die very real blessings o f firewood, fruit, erosion control, anti shade. Villages must be sited off farmland if possible, and above tl, and here again the Chinese were lucky or wise, ’line chief protein source after grains was beans, especially the soy Ivan, which yields more protein per acre than any odier bean. The vegetables most grown were those that yielded most per acre and also hail high nutrient density—-that is, a high ratio o f nutrients to calories. Among common Western crops, the highest nutrient densities arc found in turnip greens, parslev and coriander greens, bell and chili peppers, spinach, col lards, broccoli, and carrots— in that order (Basic and Traditional R xxis Association 1979). Chinese cabbages are comparable to collmls and broccoli. Ilie other crops were grown in Cliina, especially spinach (and amaranth greens, similar if not higher in value) and carrots. A number o f otlier leaf crops indigenous to East Asia were grown kxj and have similar values; some, such as purslane and mallow, arc minor now but were once famine staples; tlicv are compa­ rable tn turnip greens and parsley. Ilie only other major vegetable crop, die radish, is also exceedingly high 111 nutrient value—-not far behind carrots— especially bccause o f its high vitamin C content. Other vegetables o f significance, such as eggplants and tomatoes, arc also nutritionally superior tu most tbods. So tlie traditional Chinese diet o f grain pieced out widi soybeans and leaf and fruit .md vegetables was perfectly adapted to the intensive agricultural system. Meat was barely significant in die diet, but even here die Chinese were efficient. Tlie major do­ mesticated animals were pigs and chickens— excellent converters o f cheap, inferior iixxl into mcar. Unlike cattle and sheep, tlicv did not need grazing or special feed. Moreover, tlicv put on about twice die weight o f diose ruminants for die same weight o f teed, and o f coui'sc chickens give eggs, too. ’Ilie pond fish have even better conversion ratios and wrere picked to maximize use o f food in die pond (see chapter 8). All these animals arc vegetarian, living low on die tbod chain. Readers o f some modem btxiks advocating vegetarianism may wonder why die Chinese ate animals at all. Whv not stay low' on die food chain themselves? Why waste space or ftxxf on animals? The answer is diat people can't ear everything. In die best-managed system, there are always things inedible to humans—-most ob\iously human cxcrcment. Chinese stock was ted exclusively 011 such by-products: dung, tough stalks, bones (for dogs), roots, straw', rotted or burned food, and die like. Nodiing humanly edible was given to animals, nor was land diverted from growing human food to growing animal fodder. What little grazing was available was on steep slopes, flood-prone ground, dike banks, and odier untarmable spots. A major reason tor die nonuse o f dairy pncxlucts was lack o f space to pasture cow's. Cat­ tle were raised for traction, but they needed what little milk the}' could give to teed dieir calvcs. Chinese agriculture represents die culmination o f the labor- and land-intensive, hyper-efficient “ biological” option in fanning (Bray 19S6; Hayami and Ruttan 1971). Modem American agriculture represents another pole: die “ mechanical" option, characterized by enormous use o f energy {mostly from petroleum) and an extremely

C'lunax of Traditional Aqnailirar

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wasteful appraadi to land. Not only is land used at far less than its potential, it is al­ lowed to erode. China has suffered dreadfiil erosion over tlie millenia, hut it' it had been eroded at American rates, ir would have ceased to produce foixt many centuries ago (Brown 1981). It is now obvious til at American fanners must eventually move toward a more ef­ ficient agriculture similar to diat o f East Asia. A particularly pertinent and persuasive documentation is in tlie books o f William Shurdetf and Akiko Aoyagi (1976, ty~9, 1983). David Pimentel and his collaborators calculated how wasteful o f energy our s\rstem is and liowr soon it must change (Pimentel and Pimentel 1979). Fossil ft ids, topsoil, dean air and water are running out; above all, die planet's capacity to absorb pollution from crop wastes, pesticides, artificial fertilizers, and wasted ftiel and pctrodiemicals is being stretched bcvond its limit. Many lakes and rivers have died already, and die oceans may not be far behind. ’Die Chinese option is waiting, but tlie barriers to adopting it are twofold: ca> nomic and psychological. Petroleum ajid petrochemicals are still cheaper than the cost o f die labor necessary to perform Chinese intensive farming. Chinese peasants were distinguished bv dieir higli Wei o f effort and o f skill. Tliev learned elaborate routines and did not take long siestas or s[X:nd much time idling, cither daily or sea­ sonally; they worked eftidendv, without wasted motions. Working alongside Chi­ nese fishermen and peasants, I found diat I got tired sooner dian they did, until 1 learned to move as smoodily and evenly, in routines as formalized as r'ai clit, Gourmetship among die rich, and necessity among the peasants, led the Chinese to try' a wide range o f foods and learn to make diem edible. N o puritanical scorn interiercd. Most people outside East Asia waste or underutiiize a Dcmendous percent­ age o f die world's resources by refusing to cat insects, dogs, cats, many game ani­ mals, almost all vegetable tixxls except die very blandest, and even such superb food as internal organs, fish, and shellfish (Schwabe 1979). Much o f the diversity in the Chinese diet is maintained because o f traditional medical beliefs, and many o f die ftxxis eaten for primarily medical reasons are exceptionally higli in nutritional value. Tlie main m edial problems treated widi diese ftxxis are deficiencies o f vitamins, proteins, and minerals (or syndromes in which such deficiencies are components). The main conclusion that emerges from some four diousand years o f change is diat agricultural development more or less tracked government policy'. When die government was strong, open, and responsive, it both encouraged agriculture and al­ lowed private farmers to prosper and innovate. When die government was auto­ cratic and audioritarian or imcompcrcnt, agriculture stagnated or backslid. Private ownership on die whole was Ixttcr dian state control o f land, but general small­ holding did not prove particularly innovative; periods in which great landlords had power were sometimes cxdting for agriculture. There were three important and innovative eras in China’s history' of’ ftxxl: 1. The Waning States mid the O f in and Man dynasties. Iron tools came into use, Hour milling reached China, great irrigation systems were dcvel-

(llmtax o f Trntitnonn! Agriculture 10 7

oped, Western crops began to tx: used, and above all a widespread compre­ hensive strategy tor managing agriculture was introduced. Gourmet food became ritually ‘sanctioned, and medicine gave nutrition a central role. 2. The f’inoii of diswuimJvlloutntf Han, pantadariy the Wei Dyfiasty. Bud­ dhism and West Asian crops and food ways came to influence China greatly, and the great agnailair.il and herbal encyclopedias took more or less modem tonn and size. During this period, too, Soudi China became an important region, w ith its own agriculture and fcxxi, and began the climb to its modem position as the wealthiest and most dynamic parr of’ China. Many or iiK>st o f the West Asian innovations credited to T ’ang were probably introduced in this earlier period. 1. The Sinirj lyyiinsty. Chinese agriculture, land use, and cooking devel­ oped very rapidly and ttxik essentially modem form, and China’s knowl­ edge systems— ideological as well as agricultural and scientific— were more or less definitively established. After Sung die re was a great deal o f elaboration 011 the basic partem, but die pattern itself did not change. '11 ic most obvious partem that emerges is the correlation o f advance with periods o f disunity, The dynamic o f a world o f rival states is very different from a period o f union. In rival states, die wiser rulers bid for experts and give tliem a free hand to in­ crease their states’ competitive advantages. In times o f union, lulers are tempted (or forced) to impose rigid, dictatorial control diat inevitably stifles inquiry and innova­ tion. 'Hie two exceptions— earlv homier Han and all o f Sung, especially Northern Sung— are thus to me the most intriguing periods in Chinese history. They are also, arguably, the most important from tile point o f view o f basic agricultural change. 'Dieir distinctive characteristic is tremendous social openness: relatively low taxes, low comiption (at first), upward mobility, considerable freedom o f speech, and above all a willingness to support eclecticism. New ideas were tried and old ones combined in new ways. During the lony; intervening periods, agricultural change of an involutional order continued. People worked harder on smaller plots, faced larger exactions, produced no more jv r capita, and had to manage bv using every trick in die book. But at least diey had die tricks and could intensify. This is what differentiates China from pre­ modem India, Europe, the Near East, and elsewhere. Widely diffused knowledge o f fanning and a government that never quite lost die vision o f agricultural develop­ ment that Han had set allowed China's population and output to expand while diat o f other countries stagnated. Eventual stagnation o f agriculture even in China was part o f a general stagnation o f science. Development in a food system often must await development in odier realms. China, by Ming, had gone about as far as possible without microscopes, mi­ crotomes, and laboratory science. Above all, die conceptual framework o f modem science was lacking: die ideal o f free and general publication; the search tor basic truth, as opposed to applied lore; die centrality o f die controlled observation and ex­

Climax o f Traditional Agriculture toll

periment, Experiments were must certainly performed, but often without systematic obscn'arion and record1!. Tliese bits o f "intellectual infrastructure” cannot survive in an authoritarian regime. Even so, China did astonishingly well. In tlie tradition of'devotion to useful knowledge, lone scientists produced brilliant, innovative work even in tlie most unpromising times. H ie niost spectacular example is probably Li Sluh-chVn’s Pmts’no Ktwif-mit, not only tile most thorough herbal compiled anywhere in tlie work! up to that time, but also die fruit o f a lifetime o f independent research 011 the names and properties o f tlie plants. Yet the book was written during some o f the most dis­ mal days o f terminal Ming. To explain Li and others less illustrious but similarly pragmatic and inquiring, we must have recourse to ideology. Tliese men « ere driven bv tlie vision—-best articulated by Mencius— o f good people in a gotxl world, de­ veloping tlie potential o f Ixith. Their iiolv crusade was not killing infidels, but help­ ing humanity— by helping us live in harmony with namre. Til is vision had its limits. It was not conducive, first o f all, to tlie development of pure science. However, it was a far a y from tlie Western stereotypes o f Asians as otherworldly and religious or changeless and tradition-bound. China's leaders were niore worldly than, say, those o f Intiia. Tlie peasants o f both realms were necessarily practical—-die)' would starve otherwise— but the peasants o f China «'ere served bv more pragmatic literati. Ideology does not develop in a vacuum, so it is important to see why tlie ruling class propagated common sense 111 China. The apotheosis o f practical reason tr. and capital arc all-important (Bray 1984.; Chao 1986; Hayanii and Kuttan 1971). In die other, trailsportarion costs are crucial drivers (Skinner iugli lie or she may have consumed a large quantity o f snacks, A meal without rice just isn’t a meal, “ Even a clever wife can’t cook without rice,” claims a comm< in proverb, and al­ though the people who quote it arc quia- aware that many people in the world do cook without rice, thev find tliis feet quite irrelevant to their own state o f satisfaction and their o \ \ t i definition o f fixxf. An ordinary meal is made up o f ccxikcd rice and swiff {fitw), a Cantonese word tliat may best be trails laced as '"topping for rice” or “dLslies to put on the rice.” Sung includes everything else, all combined into dishes that are, indeed, put on die rice (and in a poor-ro-ordinary liome are little more chan flavorings for it). When the sung is broken down into its component dishes, they are referred to separately as tfai (greens), even though they sometimes include meat. In part this is a matter o f modesty— the host calls the dish plain vegetables just as he de­ scribes his house as a humble cottage. But greens are indeed the .standard sung. In Mandarin, there is no equivalent word for sung: a meal is based on the comple­ mentarity o f grain and ts’ai. Local ideology actually overstates the importance o f rice; even in the far south, much o f the diet consists o f wheat products, maize, or rks were aln xst all Szecliuanese. Only in these western provinces did chilis achieve tile importance they have enjoyed in Korea, Soudieast Asia, and India. Tlie chilis used are mostly o f die hot annual varieties. ’Hie very hot perennial chilis {C.. jrtttacctts, die bird o r tabasco chilis) are grown rarely. Sweet peppers— recent varieties o f annual chilis, bred for

tfs Cbinac b'oodstttffi Today

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mildness and size—-are very rare except in tlit immediate environs o f Hong Kong and other highly Westernized places. Nowhere haw they penetrated into ordinary cuisine. Chilis are called la cbmo (tot pepper)— they are classified with the peppers, as in English, not with tJioir tnie relatives, tomatoes .md eggplants. Probably this is due to straight translation from Western languages. 'Die largest class o f fruits used as vegetables, including many eaten purely as sweets, is that o f kua (cucurbits or pcpos). These are large fruits with a rind sur­ rounding a central cavity fuli o f flat seeds attached by pith— melons, squash, pump­ kin, cucumbers, and so on. Plants with such fruits comprise the family Cucurbitaceae. l l i e Chinese have many and love them deeply. They aLso include as kua a tew plants with similar fruits that are nor o f the family Cucurbitaceac, Tlie most widely grown is a native Chinese species, Raiiucasa hisptda, the was or hair gourd. It is eaten in two very different forms, derived from different varieties ot tlie piant: tlie ttntg km (winter melon) and die mao kua (hair gourd) or tin kua (jointed gourd). Tlie former is grown to ripeness, at which time it superficially re­ sembles a large watemielon, except tor die waxy coating diat covers and whitens it. Its water\', slightly spicy flesh us used in soup; often it is steamed in a metal pot with die soup inside die melon, wiiich is often carved. This Ls the famous titntf kua cJjihuj (winter melon pond). TTie hair gourd is eaten when small and unripe, similar to a pale, rather hizzy zucchini squash. Tlie differences correspond close Iv to those lx‘tween pumpkin and summer squash (varieties o i C.ucurbita pt'po)— particularly when one remembers diat in South America die pumpkin is chiefly used as a partially edi­ ble stewpot very much like a tiuig kua chung. In addition to the hair gourd there is a vast range o f minor gourds. Important arc the bitter melon (Motiwrrtiai chmimtia),fii km or “ bitter gourd"; cucumber (Cucu»tis satiwis), btuiiifi kua or “yellow gourd" (many Chinese varieties are yellow or brownish and are considered more Chinese dian the green ones); and watemielon, ter kua or “western gourd” (it spread from Africa via Central Asia), some varieties o f which are growTi only for dieir large seeds, which almost completely replace the meat. Melon seeds are a great Chinese delicacy, the commonest snack. Tine melons o f many varieties are known mosdy by name o f origin; notable Ls the famous (C. mclo) Ha-mt kua or “ Hami melon” from Hanii in Sinkiang. It is often said to be the best melon in die world (it is certainly the best I have eaten). Tlie N ew World cucur­ bits have taken some hold in Ciiina but arc not well liked. Chayotc {Scdnum I'rfulc), in spite o f its Chinese ramc,fo shou kiia (Buddha’s hand melon— its shape Ls remi­ niscent o f Buddha’s Hand citron), is considered uninteresting. Winter squash (Cuanirita spp.— usually C. nuschttta in die markets) is considered coarse and plebian, a poverty food. Its Western origin and early introduction are betrayed by its name,^w kua, “ barbarian gourd.” (This name applies most usually to mosdmta. C. Mavima is sometinKs called nan kua, “soudiem gourd” ). Unfortunately, die Chinese have nor assimilated good ways of'cooking these fruits, Kua also includes the quince {Clydmna oiAmtffa and Cbamomdes spp.). Tlie papaya

f t CJrinne Tooiistuffi Today

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(Gancti papaya; nut fata or 'tree melons” ) was originally termed/«« mn fata (barbar­ ian nee melon) when first intrixluced from the Americas. At present there is no m y of telling which fruit is referred to, except by contest, Exx'ality o f origin is helpful, since tlie papaya only grows in more or less [Topical areas too wami tor tlie quince. (C Jiam om dcs quinces are native to China; Cydonui is rare but o f long establishment there.) There is a vast concision in Chinese on diis distinction. i-ist come the low er plants. Many seaweeds are eaten, among diem tztt ty’m (purple vegetable), a flat seaweed used in soup;_//r tfai (hair vegetable), a hairiike black alga from Mongolian desert springs, used especially in Buddhist vegetarian cooking; yaiitj ti'm (ocean vegetable), tlie agar-agar seaweed; and others, Mush­ rooms are collectively known as fat, tlie comnxMi one seen is Lnitimts edoda, called tuxfi fat (winter muxhxxini)— the shiitake o f Japan. Increasingly common is tlie padi-straw mushroom, VcimmUa mimcea, called ts'aoht (grass niushrooni). Tlie tinifl fat is usually used dried, tlie padi-straw fresh. The Western mushroom has be­ come a common cash crop in Taiwan, where it is canned and exported; it is known as mo fat. Many other mushrooms are eaten, among them one known as Immtg fat (fragrant mushrixiin). Bracket fungi o f trees are given tlie generic tenn crlj (ears) and are used dried; they are popular and common in mixed dishes, where they bring out flavors subtly witliout adding much o f their own, like truffles. Like muslinxims, they ,\re rix> expensive tor anv but festal fare, in which diey are alnxist obligatory. The common ones are mil ah (wocxl cars; A unadann spp.) and vtm mil (cloud eats; Tixmclla spp,). Various species o f both exist. Hsikh ai/ (snow ears) are common in me­ dicinal brews because o f their alleged six »thing and harmonizing characteristics as well as their nutritional value, but they arc not used as food. Several other types oc­ cur. One bracket fungus not called an ear is Ganodcnna htndwtt, die lauj cJ>ih (“ mag­ ical power fungus” or, more loosely, “fungus o f immortality” ). Traditionally die itx)d o f Immortals and a divine plant giving longevity and wisdom, tliis plant is now' used widelv in Chinese medicine. It has many alleged values as a tonic, winch hav e not been fully explored. The Chinese cal! all fruits fato, including diose diat are valued only for dieir kernels (i.e., nuts). Tlie term fato covers both die fruit as a wiiole and die ileshy part o f it. Seeds are te«, particularly if small; rzit also riK-ans “son,” but die extension to “seed” must have been very early— perhaps it always meant both. The kernel o f die seed or nut is they«;, w'hich also means “ Ixsnestv” ; here die extension may be diat truth is die “ kernel" o f a person’s words or intent. Since some fruits are valued for flesh and kernel both, it is best to discuss tliis class in correct Chinese style, as one. In general, die Chinese like fhiit but eat radier little. Kniit is preferred sour, dius usually eaten green or salted and pickled, unless it is nat­ urally a very sour fruit. 'Hie habit o f eating green fruit— noted widi (usually unpleas­ ant) surprise by a great many travelers in China— no doubt arose from die need to harvest die fruit before birds, rats, or diieves did. “ Never adjust your hat in a peach

& Chinese Foodstuffs Today

o rc lm i, or ycnir slux's in a melon field” is an old Chinese proverb counseling die hearer to do nothing diat might arouse suspicion. Fruit's low nntricnr value and \nlncrabilitv to theft h;is kept it a verv minor part o f die Chinese scene. 1-mic culture is expanding now’, very rapidly in Hong Kong and Taiwan, where money is available for such well-liked luxuries, hut fruit is still a minor item of'rhc diet. Most widely distributed o f all Chinese fruits is probably die met (Pmmts iinone, Japanese tune or »unite). Usually translated “ plum” in books about China, it us not a plum; the plum (Pntiliis saltcmei) is called li and is less widely eaten and much less widely painted and written about, Tlie mei is actually closer to the apricot (P. nitncstinea, hsutg); indeed, it is a sort o f Chinese counterpart thereof and is often called “ Oriental flowering apricot.” The fruit resembles a small sour apricot and is usnallv eaten pickled as a snack. The (lowers, which bloom in January or February, are spectacularly beautiful, and dicir anarchistic tendency to glory in even the worst weadier has made diem a svmhol o f Taoism and o f die independent recluse as well as making die tree traditional in gardens. The mei has an honored place in Chinese conseiousness. There is an entire genre o f mei paintings, literally millions of px'iiis about mei trees in flower, reams o f descriptions and allusions to the mei. It is a sym­ bol o f die Chinese world from its most exalted to its very lowest, from philosophic Taoism to venereal disease. (Mei trees ornamented entertainers’ quarter anti thus came to refer to the diseases one brings back therefrom. O r— anodier rheoiy— the lesions look like mei flowers. Mei trees and flowers, like peaches, w ere probably a symbol o f sex and sexual potency in ancient times.) Usually earen salted and often dried, the mei is also made into a sauce. A number o f temis cover the various salted forms, which may be flavored with licorice or other diings. "llie peach (Pnimtspcrstca, r'no) originated in China. Ilie overgrazed, deforested lulls o f North China are often covered with wild peach scrub; the tree appears to dirive on die conditions o f erosion and misuse diat make odier n ee growth imi*>ssh ble diere. Poaches are eaten commonly (radicr green) in northern and mountainous western lowland China, but in the south, where the\' do not grow' {except flowering varieties and a tew scattered fruiting trees), diey are usually seen only as rare snacks in dried or pickled tonn. Even diis minor use is a great increase over the recent past, when peach fruit was known primarily dirough pictures. The flowering varieties, however, are grown everywhere in China, especially tor New Year decoration. In Hong Kong a vast (lowering peach industry has grown up to supplv diis market, and fortunes turn on the weather two or diree weeks before New' Year. Chinese N o v Year, varying from January to late February, can come so early diat the tlow'crs are found only in die warmest areas (and can all be destroyed by a late freeze) or so late diat die trees have already (lowered out in w'armer parts o f the colony. At least diis problem is somewhat self-adjusting in diat die warm areas are well oft'in die cold years, the cold areas in die warm years. ’Hie prudent ordiardicr tries to plant his or­ chard on a slope, so that some trees are in warm pockets and some in cold. Tlie value o f die peach in Q iina is more symbolic tlian nutritional. An ancient svmbol o f terril-

*0 “ Chinese Foodstuffs Today

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iry, perhaps because o f its resemblance to die external female genitalia (not exactly stinking; perhaps the pink color o f Mowers and fruit was more important), tlie peach Kxjk oil magical attributes. (On mci and peach in symbol, see Sowerby 1940.) Tile peach brings luck, abundance, and pmtection. Peach wood is made into amulets to drive oH demons; a gixxi display o f peach flowers at New Year gives good fortune through die year; the Spirit o f die Locality' or Earth God carries— or has bow around him who carry— tlie Peaches o f Immortality, which make die eater an ImniotTal. 'llie most famous use o f peaches in lire ram re is, o f course, in T a o Ytiannling’s many-layered and complex essay, “The Peach-Flow-er Stream.” One layer o f T ao’s symbolism is sexual, and die sexual symbolism o f the peach is still important in China (Groot 1892-1910; Schafer 196;). A subtropical Ini it shaped like a long, thin peach and bearing a single seed is known as “ fairy peach" or “ heav enly peach.” ‘Die flesh is yellow-orange and tastes vaguely like a in >t-too-fresh sweet potato, and despite the hyperbolic name the fruit is nor well regarded. It is clearly not related to the peach; it appears to be an American introduction o f die genus Potttmn. Other rosaceous fruits include Asian natives and many Chinese equivalents o f mote widely known hints. llie mie apricot (hinuts anuauaca) is known as the apple (Twits mnbts) is pntt} ktto\ both are introductions from West or Central Asia, Many native crab apples .ire grown tor fruit, and some for dieir leaves, which make an excellent tea, tlie best known is P. baantn, tlie “tea crab.” Tile cherry apple (/’. sfH'ctabilu or P. prmnfaim), bat rn«urces were bream and carp. Sev eral specics o f die latter were domesticated early, caught anti pond-reared in die Chou Dynasty and bred se­ lectively in captivity well before its end. In addition to die common carp {Cvpnntts uirpin), domesticated in China blit spread worldwide in the Middle Ages, there are the crucian carp (Cnrassnts numtus— goldfish are selectively bred ornamental forms o f this species), die grass carp or ide ((^taioplmryjiqodon irfW/jtr), the black, bighead, or noble carp (Atisticljtlm uoOilis), and die silver carp (Hypophalmidnirys wwft/uv) (Ling 1977). 'Hie first two o f these are the most truly domesticated; many ancient cul­ tivated forms e\ist. Mullet (Muqil ccphaliis), eels (Anguilla spp.), and sometimes odier fish are caught as wild finger Imgs or fry and raised to maturity in ponds. These freshwater fish, widi tlieir firm, white flesh and delicate taste, set die standards offish c|iialitv. Iliey are not muddlv-flavored when raised properly; die muddy flavor we associate widi carp is caused by dirty feeding and by the ingestion o f geosmin, pro­ duced by certain algae in stagnant water. Cliinese ponds are kept fresh; feeding and Icrrili/ing is done carefully; ponds are drained for harvest and dried oft' Well-raised fish dins pick up link off-flavor. Marine fish w ith similar qualities— white, delicate-flavored flesh diat is firm but not chewy— are naturally preferred. Softer-fleshed marine fish are acceptably espe­ cially for fish balls and odicr lowlv uses, but die fish favored in Japan and most o f the West— strung, rank, tough, oily fish like mackerel, salmon, tuna, and sw'ordfish — are despised in China. I heart! a runa-canning plant described as a good way to rip off die Western world by selling trash fish diat would otherwise be fertilizer. M y ex­ planation diat Westerners liked tuna w'as met widi incredulity. Shrimp and crab are preferred to lobster (Chinese lobsters are o f the “spiny" vari­ ety, i.e., various species o f Pamdints), but all crustaceans are well regarded, even the lowly mantis shrimp, which can be quite good when boiled, and the mud-lobster. Among mollusks, bivalves rank higher dian snails, die oyster and pcn-slicl] consid­ ered very choice. Small clams (including scallops) and snails are not for gourmets, widi die noted exception o f die large whelks, which are delicious, and die abalone (Haliotis spp.). 'Ihese huge snails are chunked and cooked in many ways and arc among the most higlilv regarded o f ftxxis. China’s native abs are now depicted; diey have been imported from California and Baja California since early in this century. Whelk and abalone are chewy and strong-flavored; I suppose the taste for them was borrowed from some nameless, long-lost coast-dwelling people. Sea cucumbers — teclmically Hdothima o f many genera— arc sold dried; stewed, die)' become ge-

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tattnous, chewy, and faindv fish-flavored. Their principal virtue is one common in Chinese cuisine and deeply loved: dicy absorb and heighten the flavors o f odier foods cooked widi diem and provide a diewy, soft, high-protein, easily digested morsel as a vehicle tor these flavors. Shark tins are liked tor die same reason {as are many o f die mushrooms and lieliens, edihk birds' nests, beet’ sinew's, and sev eral other very high-priced items ofaiisin c diat non Chinese find bi/am:). They have a more pronounced taste, dearly reminiscent o f gtxxi marine fish, and are also sold dried for long boiling; a dish o f shark fins is somewhere between a thick soup and a diin stew and is traditional— virtually obligatory among the affluent— at wedding feasts and other major life events. Fish swim-bladders (fish maws) are somewhat behind die.se but also popular, Fi­ nally, perhaps die best among fish products are dried roes, sometimes liglidy salted; dicy are at least as gtxxl as caviar, though dry and chewy rather than wet. They arc sliced and filed or steamed. Some o f die best come from die sea perch (Iji Us )- Mag­ ical beliefs attach to certain fish products, die swim-bladder and some other parts of' die giant grouper are supposed to give the cater some o f til is mammoth fish’s power, while parasites from its gills are even more effective. Indeed, a complex medical lore spins around scafm.x.1s; some crabs are cooling, odiers hearing. Some shrimps and otiler shellfish exacerbate venereal disease, leading to much low wit if a man refuses diem at an all-male gathering. Fresh seafood should befirs!), Fish is rarely eaten raw' as in Japan, partly because of’ awareness of" parasites; in T ’ang Chijia and more recently in the south, raw fish w as popular. But fish is not overcooked, nor is it tolerated when long out o f water. In the old daw, and often today, restaurants would keep fish alive in tanks. Shore inns would have well-smacks: old boats w'idi die bottoms replaced bv wire mesh, in wliidi fish and slicltfish were kept in dieir native element. Many fishermen turned to running live-fish operations. Living on a houseboat sunoimded by we 11-smacks, diese people lived by buying live fish from boats and selling them to goumieis, who would run (not walk) wnth diem to die nearest restaurant. Water pollution in the more affluent cities has ended tins practice, to die eternal sorrow o f goumicts, for the difference between a fish kept dins and a tank fish— let alone a dead fish— is really quite pronounced. (I spent some o f die happiest mondis o f my life living in a small houseboat on Casdc Peak Bay, H ong Kong, tied to die well-smack fleet o f Kwok Wai-tak and his family, some o f die finest [xople 1 have ever known. I would buy seafood and am widi it to die excel lent restaurant o f ex-fisherman Tam Muk Choi. I ate die best I ever have or ever will. Tile bay’s waters are too dirty now, and fish are kept in tanks; it’s not die same.) Good seafood cooking is kept simple. Fish is typically steamed with the classic “ fish flavors” — oil, garlic and/or green onions, and ginger, often widi wine, soy sauce, dried tangerine peel, tree fungus, or a coriander leaf or two added somewhere in die process. (“ Eggplant widi fish flavors” on a menu means not an eggplant diat tastes like a fish but eggplant flavored widi diese diings.) In H ong Kong, shrimps are best liked when simply boiled; diey arc often eaten with a soy sauce and chile

rfl* C'.btiH'Si Foodstuffs Tadtrr 14 1

pepper (.lip. Crabs arc conked os simplv as possible and dipped in red vinegar. O f course foil cixikery can be very complex, but such methods tend to be reserved tor interior fish. In old China, laek o f refrigeration and hot, humid climate guaranteed that fish salting would be important. Lightly salted fish spoils fairfv easily, making it at best no treat and at worst downright dangerous. Not only ftxxi poisoning but cancer from nitrosamincs created by bacterial breakdown o f flesh are risks. Well-salted fish, how­ ever, can lx‘ a true gourmet delight. Fish with diin bodies and firm flesh arc best; die salt penetrates them thoroughly anti doesn't reduce them to mush. Pom tret and white croaker are typical species used. They arc often “salt-hidden” — buried in salt tor a thorough job, rather th.ui mcrclv Ix'ing nibbed with salt. They are dicn some­ times chunked anti packed in vegetable oil. Smaller fish are simply dried, as are small shrimp. 11 ic latter, known as ''shrimp seeds” or “shrimp children,” are a common fla­ voring; they arc, for instance, often stir-fried with cabbage. Small shrimp arc also made inn >shrimp paste. Packed alive in barrels widi enough salt to eliminate micro­ bial ,k t k >11, the shrimp digest themselv es, producing a tine, purple, highly nutritious, predigestcd ftxxi pitxiucr o f rather strong but interesting flavor. Essentially the same thing is known as bctachmi in the Malay world. Similar products made from fish in­ stead o f shrimp arc rvpical o f cooking throughout Southeast Asia: biujttnjj and parts in the I’ liilippines, mux mam (fish water) in Vietnam, and so on. Pntis and mioc mum are liquids drained o ff from the autolvtic brew: bngitnjj, bcladmu and Chinese shrimp paste are solids. Hie Chinese evidently learned diis art from Southeast Asian peoples and have not really taken to shrimp paste; it is made fairly widely in die deep soudi but not much used except bv Chinese with some Soudieast Asian experience. West­ erners who are repelled by it should remember diat anchovy paste (a descendant o f Rom.m/prmj)/) is the same sort o f thing and tastes a lot stronger. Such products are not rotten or fermented (conmuy to frequent mistaken claims in die popular litera­ ture), simply predigestcd. Near water, HKxst animal protein came from diat source, and die choicest ftxxis o f ■ill Hast Asia air aquatic, ’lh e greatest potential for increasing world food production lies in fanning the sea; only the Chinese and Japanese have seriously developed its potential. Their tastes condition dicir development strategy and guide it in much nx>re promising wav's than orthodox Western agriculture holds. Aquatic tanning is naturally coupled with wet-rice agriculture. Here, even more dian elsewhere in Chi­ nese tixxi ecology, we see die mutual feedback and mutually beneficial relationship between taste and ecology. The Chinese fondness tor aquatic tcxxis can be traced right back to the earliest literary dtxiiments, and even to the earliest art, since die de­ signs painted on Pan-pb pottery emphasize fish and die bones in the site contimi that river fish were a major food. By >ooo ti.c., the Neolidiie villagere’ main meat animals vvea1 pigs and cliickens, as they are in Chinn ttxiay. ’llic villagers aLst) grew and ate sheep and dogs, as do die Chinese now. It was not long before the cow, water buffalo, and duck were added

*0* Chinese Fooiistujfi Today

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and die Chinese mc.it roster was essentially complete. Tlie pig, sheep, and water buf­ falo were apparently independently domesticated in China at about the same rime diat dicy were domesticated in die Near East, or, in die water buffalo's case. India. Tlie duck (mallard, Anasplatytiwtdms) was probably domesticated in China and spread to die West, like die carp. The Chinese goose is a different species from die tame goose o f Europe (Anscr cyfptoida vs. Anscr misn% so diere is no question o f anvdiing but independent domestication here; the water buffalo too was originally a different ibmi from tiiat tamed in India. For die dog, cow, and goat— the last ap­ pearing by about 50c» b ,c.— Ciiina drew on die Near East. With the exception o f a few very minor creatures (rabbit, pigeon, guinea fowl, and a few newcomers like the American turkey and musco\y duck), diese constitute China’s domesticated animals. Horses are know'll and widely used but not much eaten, due simply to lack o f avail­ ability; they were a delicacy in ancient China, diough die liver was avoided because it was thought to be poisonous. (The early texts speak o f diis so matter-of-factlv that I suspect die horses really were concentrating toxins from some ftxxl in then livers.) Gits, rats, micc, and other (xkinients have been eaten in China, but only rarely, con­ trary' to certain stereotypes current in die West. Every wild animal diat can be found has been eaten somewhere by someone, and early Chinese lived 011 game to a great extent; as civilization advanced, game grew rarer, but it remains very popular today. Snakes, frogs (called “ paddy chickens” when used as food), grasshoppers, and odier small game are as popular as big game, often for reasons rooted in folk medicine. I begin widi king the pig, suffice it to say that anodier book as long as diis one would be needed to provide even an intro­ duction, and diat every part o f die pig is used (even tlie brisdes, for fcx>thpicks, skew­ ers, and food-cleaning brushes) in every conceivable way. Its bkxxi is coagulated and fried, especially in Eukien. Superb sausages and hams are made; the hams from Yunnaii Plateau arc among die finest in the world. Sausages are often temiented with Ijutobaalliis, like salami, and high-proof spirits arc often part o f die preservative. Among mammal meats, mutton probably ranks a very long second. It is indifterendy from sheep and young goats and is eaten primarily in die west, especially

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among Muslims and minority peoples. Beet is rarelv eaten, avoided by traditional Chinese because o f an Indian-derived respect tor tlie cow diat entered widi Bud­ dhism. It tends now to take the form diat die cow is tc» useful to be treated with sneli disrespect. Perhaps more cogent is the fact that Chinese beef— which tradition­ ally conies from animals that die alter long careers o f pulling the plow— is no deli­ cacy. Indeed, by comparison, shoe leather is definitely appealing. But tlie spinal cord is gtxxl when sliced and stir-fried with vegetables. As is well known. East Asian peoples make little use o f dairy products. Milk is considered tixx .1 tor babies that comes from human females. The Chinese and most minorities in China avoid ail dairy foods. The great exception is the band o f nomadic or nomad-inHucnced peoples occupying China’s west. Not only the Mongols, no­ madic Turkic groups (not so much the setded ones), and Tibetans, but also tlie west­ ern Chinese cat yogurt, cheese, kumvs (which tastes tike spiked thin buttermilk), and other fermented products. Most As i.in peoples (and the majority o f the world’s peoples) cease to produce the enzyme lactase at tlie age o f six or a bit older. Thus diey cannot digest lactose, and large amounts o f fresh milk give diem bad indigestion. But Ijuxobnallus spp. break down lactose, producing lactic acid, winch helps to preserve the resulting yogurt. Tlie yeasts diat eTcate kumvs also break down lactose, but dicy work only on mare’s milk; other milks have k x i little sugar and phosphorus to teed diem. Rudimentary cheese-making occurs among nomadic groups. Butter is the principal cooking oil among these peoples, as well as die universal unguent; fermented to allow storage— and dius tasting slightly cheeseLike— it is tlie fevoatl food ofTibetan nomads. (Widi g(xxt care in their ecx>l climate it does not spoil but ripens; why Westerners who eat cheese refer to this butter as rancid is unclear.) Much effort has gone into explaining the East Asian abstinence from dairy prod­ ucts. The failure o f Central Asian influence to spread dairy foods in China, even though Chinese in Yunnan and die Central Asian borders (many probably sinicized Mongols and Tibetans by ancestry) have taken to yogurt, is as strange as the failure o f Indian influence in Southeast Asia. Tlie conversion o f that region to Hinduism and Buddhism in the Middle Ages went with an increase in tlie use o f milk products, as did die rise in Indian influence in China in die T ’ang Dynasty. But die use o f milk products waned, and not wholly due to the decline o f Indian religions, since Burma and Thailand arc still dioroughly Buddhist and resist dairy products almost totally. Yogurt maintains an amazing, precarious tbodiold in Sumatra, among the Barak and Minangkabau peoples, isolated until fairly recendy. There it is a rare delicacy— I be­ lieve one o f many vestiges o f the great period o f Indianization in 6 0 0 —12 0 0 a . d . Recendy, die lack o f lactase in adult East Asians has been adduced to explain this avoidance, but it does not stop die Indians and Central Asians from depending on dairy foods for most o f their animal protein. The classic Chinese explanation is surely in part correct: prejudice against Central Asians and desire to avoid economic depen­ dence on them. Since China is not good pastureland, die G iinese would have had to

rfr C'hincsc Foodstuffs Today

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import most o f dieir dairy tixxls. They traditionally imported In >n*:.s and tluis were perpetually dependent on Central Asia lor animal power. Doubtless another depen­ dence would have been too costly and too humiliating. Yet tliis does not explain rhe equally pronounced rejection o f dairy tcxxls in Southeast Asia. One eaii only propose diat given die environment, which is not only had tor raising cattle but also lor keep­ ing milk even when preserved as yogurt or cheese, milk processing was too difficult, expensive, and dangerous. Cattle and buffaloes .ire kept in great quantities but .ue used as work animals, able to teed only their own offspring. Around die world, hot, humid areas are ptxir lor traditional strains o f canic, although in India strains and techniques were developed due to religion anti in die teedi o f opposition from the environment, Chinese and Southeast Asians more sensibly invested iii beans and fish tor dieir protein. {Soybeans now provide equivalents to .ill dairy products, including yogurt and cheese.) 'llic rise in popularity today o f canned milk and other milk prod­ ucts shows that the avoidance is due neither to intrinsic dislike nor to any deepseated opposition or taboo. Indeed, some South Chinese dishes now incorporate evaporated milk in a “cream sauce” derived from European influence; it has been dionouglily Sinicized. Cheese, however, is usually too much for Chinese to swal­ low— I have heard it described, to translate roughly, as "the mucous discharge o f some old cow s guts, allowed to putrefy.” Even Chinese who have learned to eat diis product usually confine dieir attentions to die mildest o f “American chccse” -rvpc products. Among minor animals, die dog may be preeminent. A delicacy dirougliout China in ancient days, diis so-called “ fragrant meat” is now eaten only in the south, Islamic and perhaps Buddhist influence ended its popularity in the north, in spite o f its higli status in classical texts such as M nidas and die L i Chi. In the soudi it is eaten primar­ ily ti)r winter warmdi, for it is fatty. Tender young puppies can be good, but dog meat is generally tough and rank, no delicacy by anyone’s standards. Cats are very rarely eaten, but a dish called “dragon, tiger, and phoenix" is made from snake, cat, and chicken. I suppose it is one o f die must hyperbolically named dishes in the world.* It, too, is eaten more for medicinal dian for gustatory reasons. Poultry arc festival tare, traditional for all special occasions from sacrifices to the gods to visits by relatives, but not much eaten odicnvisc; diey were expensive until recently. Much care is devoted to raising and feeding diem properly. The best are those raised in die backyaid o f a home run by a good cook. Eating die table scraps o f die world’s finest cuisinc all dieir lives, diey become unbelievably good, especially die pigeons {Columba la w , a borrowing from the Middle East, perhaps in medieval times), which are equalled only by chickens fed exclusively on sesame seeds. Such chickens, killed at a tender age, are die proper raw material tor die Hainan Island na­ tional dish o f chicken ricc. 'Die cliikens arc boiled, die rice is boiled in die stock, some more o f die stock becomes a soup, and die diree-course meal is saved widi various sauces and garnishes. A good meal o f chicken ricc is better dian any fare I have had in fancy Chinese restaurants; but the ctiickcns must be ted right, Peking

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duck, tcx>, is so dependent tor quality on its feeding that the iccipc given 111 one au­ thoritative ctx>klxx>k in China begins with tlie duck egg oixl tells the prospective ecx>k how to incubate, hatch, and raise tlie bird, so dint not one second o f its life is left to chance, llie duck dix'sn’t get to the kitchen tor several dozen pages. Poultry is almost as versatile as pork, though no o i k lias vet figured out how to eat the feathers, and no o ik makes sausages or preserved meat out o f chicken (it’s tI tew more o f different sizes. There is usually no handle. The classic puIIing'pin is thickened toward rlic middle (tusitbrm), bur routine use o f lengths o f do we! rod proves tins is not essential, Very fancy kitchens have rolling pins with impressed patterns, like springerle pins, tor rolling out small cakes with raised designs on diem. A press tor md.s are often praised by being described as cb'mrf, “dear” or “pure.” Tliis means that they have a delicate, subtle, exquisite flavor— not obtrusive and above all nut over­ doctored with spices, monosodium glutamate, or anything else diat would give a heavy, harsh, or nonhamionious taste. Other evaluative words include imaojon, meat tliat is rich but not greasy (processed with sodium carbonate, which breaks up tlie fat). Poo is “thin” , muß is “ putfv,” Jieiiß is “ tender.” A different nauj means “tena­ cious.” Fen is “ mealy,” stian "dcaning,” tan laiiiß “ resilient,” and clntan bito is “ mel­ low.” Banquet cuisine is shan. A restaurant is usually called a “wine household" or ‘V in e mansion,” but sometimes— if very fancy— a “shan hall,” One could continue indefinitely watli increasingly arcane and refined terms. Surely few things give a bet­ ter measure o f tlie importance o f food in Chinese social life than tlie evolution o f tliis complicated discourse.

10

Regions and Locales

The Qiicstion ofRcfjtmal Diiismis Attempts to specify die regions o f Chinese «xjking are subject to debate. Transi­ tions are gradual, blends o f regional cooking npica] along borders. One person’s subregion is another fvreon’s region, while a third may not clunk die area’s cooking is distinctive at all. flic classical wav' to separate regions is in temis of’ cities, which gives iis Peking cking, Omton « xiking, and so forth. There is also a grouping o f the urban cuisines into five styles or style areas: northern, focused on Peking; Honan {or central), focused today on Chengchou; eastern (or Lower Yangtze), fix-used to­ day 011 Shanghai but earlier on Hangchou, Suchou, and Nanching; southern, fo­ cused on Ouiton; anti western, focused on Chengtu, Chungking {in Szechuan) and Changsha {in Hunan). This rime-honored division is inadequate. Fii'st, it is too thoroughly a matter o f elite cuisines. Second, it gives a whollv undeserved importance to the rather slight differences between Peking and Honan cuisines, A better division begins widi die separation o f the north— the region o f wheat and mixed grains— from the rice re­ gion in the center and south. Mutton is the important meat in the north; dogs, cats, and snakes in the south {although these were formerly eaten in the north, too, as liistory attests). The fruits and vegetables are different, the north being die land o f peaches, jujubes, apricots, pears, apples, and turnips (among other diings), while the­ nce region uses citrus, litchis, bananas, taro, lotus, and so on. Southern fruits have al­ ways been northern luxuries, while the soudi imports soybeans from the north. Only die China-wide onion tribe and die cabbage-and-radish family transcend both agri­ cultural and culinary barriers to become important throughout. This division is quite different from diat current in die restaurant trade. In diat business, "North Chinese” cuisine is anything diat is not Cantonese. A geographic­ ally comparable American division would be between die food o f soudi Florida and diat o f everywhere else. Thus, "N ordi Chinese” restaurants often serve die rice, or­ anges, and taro characteristic o f die soudi. They tend to represent a cuisine o f die Yangtze Valley, well north o f the Cantonese homeland but south o f die center o f Chinn, Moreover, in recent decades rice has invaded tile north; fast-ripening new vaW

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ncries arc grown as fir north as Manchuria, 'flic rice-based meal is now typical o f fancy cuisine diroughout China. Conversely, wheat products became ever more popular in die rice region— where government policy entourages diversification— and in Taiwan, H ong Kong, and die overseas communities, whose cuisines derive from soutliem Chinese areas. Today, there is two to three rimes as much nee as wheat in die rice region, but rice makes up only a small percentage o f tlie northern fare and is still virtually absent from remote regions. Witiun die great division, there are many minor cuisines. These sort naturally into four— not five— great traditions, as Emily Halm (1968), Fu Pei-mci (1909), and otlicr recent writers have recognized. Tile north remains as a single great whole, The south is divided into three parts, east, west, and south.

The East Tlie cast is basically tlie lower Yangtze Valle}' and the coasts north and south o f it. Eastern cooking was developed in an area where land and water (fresh and salt) meet and interpenetrate; thus it is preeminent in its treatment o f crabs (Chinese goumiets swear that the best in the world or: the green crabs o f die Shanghai area), shrimp, water plants, seaweeds, and everything tliat lives at tlie edges o f great water's, A pros­ perous and densely populated area, it cooks with much oil, vinegar, sugar, sweet bean paste, and rice ale. Vinegar is said to be popular because it kills the taste o f die bad water and can be used to wash away deposits o f salts (Isabella Yen, pers. comm.). The best vinegar in China— and in the world, loyal Yangtze IX’lta folk would say— is diat o f Chinkiang and some cities near it, where some vinegars are aged for decades (allegedly for centuries) and refugees tied tlie area during wars with nothing but the clothes on their backs and dieir precious vinegar pots. (The same cult endures in Shansi, where vinegar is even more popular.) Chinese recipes that call for generous amounts o f oil, sugar, and chiu .ire usually o f eastern Chinese origin. Sugar is most typically used in tlie solid, clear, crystalline form tliat lias been called “ rock sugar1’ in China for perhaps two thousand years. This form is supposed to be more liealdifu! dian odier sugars; in traditional rimes it was purer and less subject to adulteration. Eastern cooks delight in making simple dishes— braised white cabbage, mushrooms, crabs, or fish slices— into complex ones by incredibly subtle variations in tlie quantity, quality, origin, variety, and sub­ variety o f oils, vinegars, and liquors. Cooking in cliiu lees— pungent and unique with a sliglidy sweet tang— is common. Shrimp-flavored soy sauce is primarily an eastern taste. Since it is not only the tidiest and most multicropped area in China but has also been the trade ccnter for ccnturies, die Yangtze Delta has long had access to almost every kind o f ingredient. Shellfish, fish, and tlie tenderer vegetables are probably die most favored items— in diat order, A long tradition o f Buddhism has led to the cre­ ation o f superior and subtle vegetarian traditions. Almost every city in die delta has its own variant o f the basic pattern and its own special dishes. Suchou and Hangd iow are the most famous among diese; Ningpo is also important. Shanghai— a

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nvxfem city chat arose in die nineteenth century \Ha trade with Europe and the re­ sulting "unctjual treaties” anti exploitation— has developed the most eclectic o f all China’s cuisines, incorporating dishes and ingredients not only from every pan o f China but also from the West. Large British, French, and Russian colonies left their marks before being phased out after [9+9; Shanghai has tlius been the focus for die diffusion o f bread, cakes, pies, candy, and many odier Western snacks through much o f China during die last century. Russian influence is probably seen in the spec­ tacularly laiish cold appetizer pl.itrers diat frequently precede (and sometimes render unnecessary) the main courses. 'Ihe kitchens o f die Chinese Empire produced such things, but their importance in Shanghai must owe something to die similar snUttsitfi tradition. Tlie Russians, most o f whom eame to Shanghai dirough Siberia as refugees torn the Bolsheviks, also contributed to the city’s baking traditions. Shanghai, in its early cwentiedvcenturv heyday, was a city perhaps unique in die world tor its contrasts o f opulence and squalor. Tlie city’s famous restaurants, such as the 1—6—9 and the Winter Garden (both o f which have spawned imitators— not al­ ways worthy— in every city on earth with a Shanghainese colony), catered to war­ lords and international bankers, serving banquets whose cost could run into five and six figures in modem currencv. Today die city is a radical stronghold and its cooking is much toned down, but it remains excellent, and Shanghainese restaurants in Hong Kong and Taiwan continue tlie tradition widi reduced but discernible style. Shang­ hainese managers introduced tiie “eating palace,” with pseudo-imperial decor and garish painted decorations running heavily to dragons, to diese realms; previously, restaurants had been relatively unassuming widi an ambiance o f peace and quiet. Dragons with flashing red light-bulb eyes do not improve die flavor o f food, al­ though diey may indicate diat die restaurant has enough money to hire a good cook— if so inclined. Outside o f the l>elta, eastern cuisine begins to blend into neighboring cuisines. The L(X)kjng o f Shantung, north o f die Yangtze lowlands, is a famous and classic tra­ dition diat long predates die rise o f Peking, let alone Shanghai, Confucius, a native, left enough comments on food and manners to verify the liiglily developed level o f bodi, but he does not give us much o f an idea o f what was served. We do leam that game, fish, vegetables, millet, and millet ale were important in his day. In modem times. Shantung is probably best known for its wheat products, especially filled dumplings; these developed long after Confucius’ time. More recently, die Germans extracted a concession at Tsingtao and began a brewery dierc diac produces much o f China’s beer, especially for die export market. Tlie beer is said to have been better under the Germans. It hit a dismal low point in the early Communist years but has improved since—-nor enough, however, to avoid stiff competition from odier and newer breweries in die major cities o f China (and odier East Asian countries). For die rest. Shantung «xikery toil ay is intcmiediate between the eastern anti northern styles. One is most apt Co encounter it in a Shantung chiao-tzu cafe, specializing in many different small dough-wrapped dumplings tilled widi chopped meat. Inland from tlie delta provinces ofChiangsu and Chekiang lie Anhui and Kiangsi.

f t Re/fio>ts and Localcs id i

Little is known o f their aiisinc in the outside world, Huwei V.ing Chao’s deservedly famous book, How to Cook and Eat in CJmicsc (Chao 1947), is based on tlie kxxl tit her native Anhui; however, it reflects a generalized “Chinese home cooking” or .it least “ Eastern China home cooking.” Northern influence extends well into this area, where tlie Nortli Chinese language (Mandarin) borders on the kxal languages (VVn and Kan). l")own tlie coast from the delta is a very different and much better-known realm, die nx>st distinctive and best o f a]I Eastern subregions after the urb.m delta core. Tliis is tlie Fukiencse area: Fukien Pro\’ince and its borderlands. Merc a distinctive cluster o f languages, tlie Min dialects, is spoken. A dialect o f the VVu language o f the low er Yangtze extends a bit into Fukien, and a Min tongue— the well-marked i eocluu di­ alect o f Southern M in— is centered in noithcastem Kwangning Province. but by and large tlie Fukien boundaries define tlie area o f Northern and Southern Min and o f tlie distinctive cuisine tliat goes with these two languages. (The so-called “ Chinese dialects” are languages as different as tlie romance languages .ire from each other. Mandarin or p ’u fling htta is used in tlie nortli and west and as a national language, there are also at least seven local languages, one tor each major region o f east and soutli China. These eight are, in turn, broken up into actual dialects.) Fukiencse cui­ sine ts so distinctive and good tliat it has sometimes been elevated to the status o f a separate regional aiisinc. Hut Fukien cooking is distinctively Eastern. Tlie first important tiling about Fukiencse cuisine is its great focus on soups. Al­ most every class o f soupy dish on earth is represented by numberless tbnns. At a ban­ quet, people think nothing o f consuming three different soupy course's and may eas­ ily manage five. These range from die thinnest o f clear soups-— tlie pure essence o f cliicken or fish— to thick stews. Rice is often eaten as congee (porridge). Since shark fins and birds’ nests are eaten in stewed form, they are best handled in Fukien ctx>king. In fotopim (wokside) batter is cooked on tlie wok and then soup is a x iked in tliis soft crust. Tlie Mongolian firepot chafing dish, although invented in the nortli, mav also reach its pinnacle here. Tliis is a dish with a central chimney stoked with charcoal and ringed by a shallow, doughnut-shaped pan. (Nowadays it can be done in any old pot on a gas burner or hot plate.) The pan is filled with sttx'k and diners are provided widi plates o f raw tbod, which they pick up with cho|wncks and hold in tlie stock, heated by* the charcoal in the central chimncy. The thinly sliced tbod ccxiks quickly; it is dien eaten widi sauces. The sKX’k, enriched bv all die tilings cookcd 111 it, is drunk to end tlie meal. This dish is a complete meal in itself— about the only case in China where a tiill-scale banquet has only one dish. Variants include firepots or “steam­ boats” featuring lamb (like die “ rinsed lamb” o f Peking), skewered clams and mus­ sels (Teochiu satay), and so forth. Known all over China, diis arose as a winter dish, providing wanndi and entertainment as well as nourisliment. Anodier tiling diat disonguislics Fukiencse ax>king is die widespread use o f lard as cooking oil. Tliis is virtually tlie only area in all East Asia where this occurs. It de-

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vdoped because die area is mountainous, widi much fodder for pigs but little land to raise oilseeds; now ir is simply a preference. Even in Fukien, it is by no means a uni­ versal iule, but when lard is routinely used to fry iixxi, ir indicates Fukienese influence. Fukienese t(x k I is apt to lx- cookcil more slowlv tlian other Chinese fixxis: tlie intlueiKe o f slowly simmering soups and stews lias spread toother dishes. Mixed vege­ tables diat would lie flash-tried in seconds in a Cantonese home are apt to be slowly simmered in laid in a Fukienese one. At worst, tinis produces grease-sodden, heavy tare. Steamed and masted foods are also taken well bcvond die stage that would be considered ideal in a Cantonese kitchen. Deep frying is aLso relatively popular here (as in many odicr parts of the Eastern realm). The fat is usually brought to a very high heat and the fixxi plunged into it, so that it scars insrandv and is sealed against mmision o f the fat, thus not becoming greasy. This ideal is not always maintained. Fukien tixxl is characterized by a fondness for dip sauces. Many dishes have their particular accompaniments: garlic crushed in vinegar for poultry, sweet malt syrup for hied fish balls, and so on. For such tilings as die firepot, many different dip sauces are provided, and the diner is expected to mix and choose. As tar as ingredients go, Fukienese Ls similar to odicr Eastern cuisine, except for such minor matters as a fondness for blood. Blcxxf is eaten in the spirit o f avoiding waste. It is co.igiil.ited the wav bean milk Ls (suggesting die origin o f die latter tech­ nology), sliced, and steamed or stir-fried widi alliums. Pigs' blood is considered a plelx.-i.in dish, but fresh poultry bkxxi, served along widi die bird itself (boiled or roasted), is choice, Fukienese ctx)king has several marked subvarieties, which sort widi dialect and subregional differences. The finest and most elaborate is the Tcochiu. Tcoditti is die local pronunciation o f Chaochou, the northeastern district o f Kwangtung province, centered on die radier new citv o f Shantou (locally pronounced something like invifmi', and sometimes so spelled). Chaochou is pronounced Cbiudxnv in Canton­ ese, and since most Teochiu «x)king one encounters is in H ong Kong or in (Cantonese-dominated ( Chinatowns in the Western world, ir is often seen under diis spelling. The region entered history «'hen die great eighdi-century statesman Han Yii was exiled to it for being tcxi outspoken, and the local people asked him to give a proclamation to drive away a crocodile— believing diat anyone so eminent would surely be able to swav eveii a saurian bv his oratory. He delivered an exquisite perfor­ mance, attacking his fix's at court in a scadiing and quite transparent satire. Tlie croc­ odile duly left the area, and Han Yu's toes met a bad end, too. Since then the people have become more sophisticated; they would now no doubt «invert crocodile into goumict fare, if diev could find one in diis age o f endangered species, Teochiu cook­ ing has been influenced bv Cantonese since die district came to be in Kwangtung. (Compared to odicr Fukien-type cooking it is done much faster, with a lighter hand and a better sense o f timing; dishes are made more tlavorti.il and spicy, more succu­ lent and piquant. Fried fish and shellfish balls, roasted and stir-fried poultry, stewed

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turtles and odier water creatures, deep-fried vegetables, and diick taro desserts arc among die specialties. Goose, marinated and then roasted or barlx-aicti, is also note­ worthy. Combining die best o f eastern and southern cooking, Teochiu cuisine is one o f tlie finest and most distinctive in China. Another odd extension o f Fukicnese eulmrc into Kwangnmg province is tbnnd on tlie island o f Hainan. Soutli o f the mainland, tliis large tropical island has its own aboriginal population, but most o f the present inhabitants sjvak a very divergent dia­ lect o f Min. Their most famous dish is chicken rice, which is probably at its best in Singapore rather dian Hainan; a great diaspora o f Hainanese to Southeast Asia 111 tlie nineteenth and twentieth centuries Jed to tile founding o f countless small cates and coffce shops, Tlie whole bird is used, from tlie blood (steamed) to the cleaned intestines, and from die head to die daws, Meanwhile, rice is first fried in sesame oil. dien finished by boiling in some o f die stock. H i us is die pitaf method native to the Near East, and I suspect it is a Southeast Asian contribution, borrowed by I lai­ n anesc cooks from Indian or odier Sondi Asian peoples. It is die only extension o f this method into die Chinese world; true Chinese tried rice is boiled first, dined, then fried. Less need be said about tlie cooking o f Fukien Province itself. It is based 011 pork and vegetables, o f which Fukien produces an cnomious quantin’ and variety. South­ east Asian influences have come here too, via returning emigres to that region. One interesting case is tlie aforementioned Sinicizarion o f sate or satay. Many Chinese, unaware o f die borrowing process, have wondered at the odd name for a sauce diat has absolute!)' nothing to do with cither sand or tea. Fnkienese a x >kmg also runs heavily to noodles; like odier easterners and unlike deep southerners, Fukicucse often get half as many calories from wheat as from rice. Most o f these arc in the ion 11 o f soup noodles, but all sorts o f stir-fried noodles are popular, horn wide, thick riceflour noodles to hair-thin wheat ones. The variety o f forms and names is comparable to die variation in pasta in a comparably sized ivgion o f Italy; nowhere else in China does die noodle reach such apodicosis. In most o f China it is basically a fast tixxi or snack, but in many Fukienese areas it becomes the body and bones o f much o f the most favored cuisine. Noodles were so loved and so constantly being devoured in one Hokkicn village in Malaysia diat I gave it the pseudonym “ noodle village" in my writings. Fuchou, die capital o f Fukien, has its own cuisine, noted for use o f rice reddened bv a fungus diat imparts a beautiful port-wine color to dishes but has little taste. Fuchou also produces dumpling skins made o f powdered pork and odier distinctive dumplings. Fish sauce (similar to mwe mam) is more common dian so)' sauce. One dish is a sour, hot squid soup, which may include chicken and vegetables. Most Taiwanese speak Hokkicn (Soudiem Min), “ die Taiwanese dialect.” 'Hieir cooking is similar to diat o f odier Hokkicn speakers, but it vises more vegetable oil and more seafood. Its main differences derive from Japanese influence. From 1891 to 19+5, Taiwan was a Japanese colony, intensively developed as a showpiece and a rice

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■liiti sugar bowl. At one rime die re was one Japanese for every ten people on die is­ land; most o f die Japanese were administrators. Thus Japanese foods became popu­ lar and considerably influenced island cooking, making it lighter, more delicate, less greasy (less lard is used), and more oriented toward seafood. Rural areas preserve the lard aiid ivxxile heritage, however. Today there are many more Japanese than Taiwanese restaurants in Taiwan, and .still more mainland Chinese ones, Tlie main­ land refugees who came to tlie island in 19+9 disdained ltxal cuisine and imported their own; by and large the islanders cook at home radier dian tor customers. H ow ­ ever, excellent Taiwanese restaurants exist, the fadier o f diem all being the Green leaves in Taipei. Taiwan— and to some extent die facing coast, especially die Teochiu district— is China's fruit and vegetable capital. Some o f die finest fruits in die world come from here, especially citrus. M y Taiwanese field assistant in California was astonished at the |xxir selection o f vegetables and liuits in California markets. I was surprised at diis— California is America's equivalent to Taiwan in this regard— and so we counted die species in a couple o f California supermarkets and then tfxmght o f all we could find at a typical Taipei street market. California scored about forty, Taipei over one hundred. 'Hie Taiwanese raise just about every fruit and vegetable in die world, except those restricted to very cold or very hot places; diey have developed a major export industry for such items as asparagus and Wesrem-n,pc mushrooms, both vir­ tually unknown in most o f Asia. I11 addition, northern Taiwan aixH die soudieast coast raise most o f China's tea, though tea is also grown diroughout die soudicm half o f die mainland. The best can cost over eighty dollars a pound. Various bean curd preparations are popular in Taiwan, especially dried bean curd, which is not onlv dried but often pressed to get die fluid out. It becomes almost like meat in consistency, thus is used in Buddhist cuisine, but it is really at its best as a snack in fast-fcxxi cafes, often simmered in a tea and soy sauce stock along with eggs. Eggs are cooked in die shell diis way all over China— die taste bur not die grease diffuses d trough die shell. 'The addition o f die dry bean curd is a more narrowly Eastern, or even Fukiencse, trait. Soybean milk, “soybean curd flowers” (a pud­ dinglike preparation o f undrained bean curd), soybean skin, and so 011 are all much used in die region.

West Clrina Tlie closest relative o f eastern cuisine Is western; die two are linked by the Yangtze River. Tlie west is the spicy zone in China (refuting a facile generalization that cook­ ing gets spider as it nears die equator). Many books ascribe diis to the west's near­ ness to India, and diere may possibly be sotik slight influence from that quarter, but we have ample testimony diat western Chinese cuisine originated in die middle Yangtze and was spicy from the start, before India was known to die Chinese. This evidence is bodi textual and archeological. Tlie main texts are die Sottjjs of tlx South, a collection o f poems from the ancient state o f Q i’u in what is now Hunan. Dating

ijt* Rrgioiis mid Locatcs >66 to about jo o B.C., they give ample testimony o f a cuisine in whn.li Chinese brown pepper, cassia, artemisia, water pepper (a fiery water plant), simmveed, and the like figured abundantly. Later texts bear tins out; Hunan had a reputation tor highly spiced and iierbed fixxi by tlie Han Dynasty. 'Hie archeological evidence consists o f tlie fcxxfs oflcrcd to die spirits o f the dead in tlie well-preserved tombs near ( liangsha, the capital o f Hunan and o f old Cli'u. Jlicse tombs date from early Han rimes, but tlie people buried in tlieni are tlie heirs o f tlie C li’u aristocracy, which was given great local autonomy and power at the time. (It was a deal. The 1Ian couldn't subdue them effectively, tliev couldn’t insist Han effectively.) Tlie tix>ds are as the texts state: rich, varied, sophisticated, and flavored widi a wide range o f pungent spiccs and herbs. 'Hie introduction o f tiie chile pepper in about the seventeenth century added a fi­ nal crowning touch. Today, chile and garlic have replaced many of the old herbs, but brown peppers, cassia, star anise, five-spice, coriander leaves, ,md so on ore abundantlv represented in the dishes, Such uniquely Chinese and highly aromatic flavor­ ings as dried citrus peel arc particularly favored here. Ftxxl is often verv delicately spiced, but on die odier hand some dishes— particulark1 those labeled “village style’’— are blazing. Similarly, the concentration of'garlic can sometimes reach lev els unthinkable in most o f Italv or soudi l;rancc. More prosaically, the cuisine’s real skeleton and flesh consists o f rice, ntx idles, pork, cabbages, white radishes, river fish (near die Yangtze anti its mam tributaries), and “mountain fixxls,” which include banilxx) shixits o f many kinds, fungi and mushrooms, game, wild mots and herbs, and other derivatives o f the lush montane forests that still survive in many parts o f die region. Maize has become a major fixxl in many areas; maize cakes or notxilcs \vith pickled vegetables and fieiv sauce com­ prise die diet o f die poorest. White potatoes, introduced in die eighteenth century bv French missionaries, flourish. Among a wide range o f fruits, citrus mav he singled out; among tlie Smujs of'the South is one comparing a lovely voting person to a tan­ gerine tree. Nuts include a variety derived from conifers: pine seeds, iotrtyii vevv seeds {bitter but flavorful), ginkgo nuts, and die like. (These .ire eaten elsewhere in China too, but diey are mountain products and so most readily found in die west.) Walnuts are also common and popular, having been introduced from Iran in the early medieval ccnmries, and halvah-like desserts are made from them; I assume diese came widi die tree from die Middle East. Anodier Near Eastern bonowing is die broad bean, often treated like a nut— roasted for snacks. The heart o f western cuisine is die city o f Changsha, die spendid capital o f the an­ cient, rich, and powerful Ch’u state and a major trading and administrative city ever since. At die strategic and economic center o f die upper-middle Yangtze drainage, it has powerfully extended its influence in all directions. 'Hie cxxiking o f the province o f Hunan serves as a base on winch Changsha chefs elaborate. Hupei, die province to die nordi, is also rich and oriented around a great trading center (die Wuhan cities diat dominate die lower-middle river) but has always been a sort o f balance zone be­ tween north, east, and west, dius lacking in cultural definition, culinary or orlicrwise.

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1 lunanese axikm g lias now become known worldwide and has attracted a following regard it as the finest o f all Chinese cuisine. No one would deny that it is one o f the ei intended for the title. Up the river horn Hunan is the huge province o f Szechuan, China’s most popu­ lous prov ince and one of'the largest and wealthiest. With a diverse agriculture and rich mountain forests, it produces a wide range o f foods, especially vegetables and tree crops. On the other hand, its rivers are fast and turbid, its lakes tew, and its ac­ cess to aquatic ft x xt\ very limited. It bases much o f its cuisine on bean products— bro.icl Ivans, mung beans, peas, and odiers as well as soybeans. Maize Ls verv important as a tixxl tor die |>x>r, but nothing o f culinary significance emerges hum tins grain. Several ditterences hav e grown up {or persisted) between Hunanese and S/cchuanese fix x f Szcchuancse dishes naturally involve much less aquatic tcxxl and more niovmtain products. liamlxx> shoots, mushrooms and fungi, wild fruits and seeds (such as pine nuts), hill tree-crops such as walnuts, and herbs are die most significant. Game is still found lex..illy. Szechuanese are connoisseurs o f these ntountain products; b.uiilnxi sluxiLs, for instance, come in many species, varieties, and sizes, they may lx- young, old, fivsh, pickled, dried, sauerkrauted, prepared in count­ less ways. Long mountain winters make pickling essential, and vegetables are pickled in many wavs: fresh or dried, in brine, vinegar, bran, oil, chili, and combinations; liquid-packed 01 pr essed tairiv dry; sealed or unsealed; strong or mild. As one would expect in a mountain area, storage o f meat is also important, with various kinds o f sausage, smoked meat, and dried meat being prepared. However, there ls nothing comparable to the not of such products that one finds in Switzerland or Bavaria, for the Chinese here as elsewhere are basically vegetable eaters. Indeed, such mountains as the sacred Omci have long been centers o f Buddhist monasticism, and much o f the famous cuisine o f Szechuan is stricdy vegetarian. Szechuanese cix>king is, if anything, even hotter dian Hunanese, Spices abound — star anise, cassia, ginger, brown pepper, and so on— and such strong herbs or herblike conuvwxiities as dried davlily buds (“golden needle vegetable” ) are heavily used. Garlic and chilis are, however, die preeminent spices and often seem to make up at least half the dish, particularly in small cafes. Dried chilis arc often stir-fried, which brings out the hill heat o f the capsaicin (die spicy chemical in chilis). Won ton soup Ls significantly known as “ red won ton” in its usual Szechuan form. Restaurant tables are adorned widi crushed dried chilis, ground chilis in oil, and hot bean paste (crushed chilis mixed widi fcmientcd sovhean-flour paste), to give die diner plenty o f scope to add to die already incandescent food. Szcchuancse restaurants in the West are based on the more subtle and less appalling cuisine o f the elite and are in­ variably toiieil down tor Western tastes. Even if you ask tor extra spicy, you will get only what a high-boni ladv would get in old Szechuan, not what die porters and clerks in the markets eat. But it should be noted that not only class but aLso region and individual preference lend much variety to die spiciness of'Szechuanese euisiix'. As in Mexico, ftxxl ranges from very hot to almost bland. Another difference between Szechuan and Hunan Ls die prominence o f West w Ik j

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Asian foods in die former. These include baked gixxis, a mashed walnut dish closely related to halvah, and a fondness tor broad beans and pastes made from diem. Al­ though Szechuan is relatively isolated in China's tar interior, it has been powerfully influenced over die centuries by die outside world. Tliis has been partly .1 function of Szechuan’s important trade; connecting to the Silk Road by a scries of passes over die northern mountains and to die Ijower Yangtze \ia die ton 11 idable bur navigable Yangtze Gorges, it has always been closc Iv linked to China's fortunes. Among common Szcdiuan dishes, two o f die more famous are sonr-and-hot soup and M a Po bean curd. Sour-and-liot soup is, as the name implies, strongly fla­ vored with rice vinegar and peppers (white, brown, and chili). 'Hie Chinese in means die hotness o f peppers, and diat is the word used here (die word tor hot temperature is jc). Tlie soup is.npically made widi very thin strips o f pork, coagulated duck's or pig’s blood, bamboo shoots, and sometimes odier mild vegetables; it is flavored with large amounts o f ginger, daylilv buds, and tree fungi- Garlic, garlic leaves, onions, sesame oil, soy sauce, cliiu, and odier common Chinese flavorings may find their way into it, for diere are many variations. Tlie van ants served in restaurants in die Western world are usually very pale reflections o f the real thing, which should tic r (see chapter y). Other dishes include meat snips (or shrimps), tried in a rather soft hatter and fla­ vored widi cassia. A cold eggplant salad with sov sauce is shared with other parts o f tlie west. Yunnan produces gm Hami melons o f Central Asia to die recendy introduced guavas, bell peppers, and manioc o f dieir own deep south. No other cooks can be so eclectic while maintaining die spirit o f their tradition. European baking has been Qmtonized; tomato-potato stew- has been taken over and redone; and “ hamburgers,” made by baking an old-fashioned dumpling and inserting a flattened beef ball, have appeared in H ong Kong. N o other cooks excel in so many techniques, from deepfrying (die ftxxi is scaled in a crackling, aromatic crust radier dian sodden in grease) aixl baking (a recent Western introduction) to simmering and stewing. N o odier cooks produce so many dishes; Qmtonese restauranteurs who listed only tour or five hundred dishes on die menu have apologized to me tor die small selection dictated

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by Sack ot spate on tlie card and promised to cook anything else within reason I might want. They mean it, too, and in tact many restaurants (in Canton and else­ where in China) do not even bother to list their specialties, 011 die assumption that everyone who is worth feeding knows what the specialties arc, and the menu space should be saved toi' less obvious suggestions. Even tiny calcs and sidewalk stalls mm out literally hundreds o f dishes, often superb. N o culmre is more obsessed with tbod; not even in France is so large a part o f the conversation dev oted to restaurants and cooking. Tliis is not to say that Cantonese tbod is superior in everything. C'ontonc.se cks can’t touch tlie Fnkienese and Tecxhiu nvatment o f soups; they do not like and do not excel in die extremclv subtle yet highly spiced and tbv ored mixtures o f much o f tlie tbod that characterizes tlie Yangtze Valley from Szechuan to Shanghai; far from wheat regions, diey do not do much with traditional wheat products; they do not produce vinegars, chiu, or bean pastes diat abroach those ot the Yangtze country. Nor do diey make many desserts. (No Chinese region emphasizes desserts, but die Cantonese would be even lower on tlie scale than the others were it not fbr the recent borrowings o f bakery gcxxis from die Western world.) Traditional Cliinese simply didn't like sweets much, and die Guironcse were especially uninterested. By comparison with odier parts o f China, the south uses fewer beans (soy, fresh, or otherwise) and more o f die tropical and Western-derived fruits and vegetables special to die region. Such tropical fruits as litchis, longans (“ dragon eves,” a litchilike fruit), papayas, guavas, and citrus abound (though not as diey do in die South­ ern Min areas, nor is die fruit so good; China’s best fruit comes from Taiwan and Teochiu, not the deep south). Vegetables more common here dian elsew here in­ clude tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower and odier Westemiana. Odier tropical products woven into cuisine include die Cliinese olive or kmi-htu, acuiallv die fruit o \'Cwm rium albttm. Pickled, it is reminiscent o f a Greek green olive, though die trees arc not related. Better than die fruit is the kernel, which resembles a large pumpkin kernel or small alnxiiid in appearance and taste. One o f die world's finest nuts, it Ls used radier sparingly in die south, but more commonly in Southeast Asia. It extends as tar north as Fukien, but not very many trees occur north o f Kwangtung. Such plants as coco­ nut and manioc— die latter a rccent import from tlie New World— aiv even more definitely tropical. An important item o f not-quite-tbod is die betel nut, tlie fruit o f the arcca palm. The best Cantonese cooking is what appears to be die simplest. Boiled shrimps, steamed fish, steamed or stir-fried vegetables, clear soup (such as chicken stock widi mushrooms), fried oysters, dried fish roes sliced and stir-fried, boiled chicken {‘‘white-cur chicken,” boiled for a very short time and left to finish cooking in the cooling stock), and a few similar dishes make up my happiest memories o f Canton­ ese cuisine. The secrets are timing and ingredient quality. Even relatively rich combi­ nations, such as tlie famous ‘Vinter melon pond” (soup made in a winter melon, o f­ ten beautifully carved; die whole melon, soup and all, is steamed in a closed

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container), .ire not as elaborate os tliev would be in manv areas. A Cantonese «x>k will stick to roast pork, a hit o f Yunnan ham, and a very few vegetables, lotting the subtle flavor o f die winter melon speak tor itself. 11n s is not to say that combinations are simple to make. 'Hie rules tor what can combine widi what arc elaborate and de­ manding, specifying all the allowable permutations and combinations o f hundreds o f ingredients taken two, three, and (occasionally) tiiur or nK>re at a time. Dip sauces and flavorings extend die range; soy sauce is usual, but oyster sauce, chile sauce, very hot mustard, ground chiles, vinegars, chilis chopped in soy, sesame oil, and occasion­ ally other flavors may be found at table, along with white pepper. As elsewhere in China, free salt was once rarely seen in traditional restaurants, though the Western custom o f putting a salt shaker at each table is now almost universal. The elaborate flavorings listed above are sparingly used except in bland dishes like soup noodles. One distinctive and common C-antonese seasoning is black beans (toiisljiJj in Man­ darin, Mon in Cantonese), which are now abundant in die south but rare elsewhere. Here— as in its continued consumption o f dogs, cats, and snakes, and in some lan­ guage traits— t h e Cantonese world is conservative. Much o f what passes for Cantonese cooking in die Western world would sicken a traditional Cantonese gounnet. O nncd pineapple, canned cherries, and even canned fiint cocktail; enormous quantities o f dehydrated garlic, barbecue or Worcestershire sauce; canned vegetables, com starch, monasodium glutamate, cooking sherry, and hcai’v doses o f sugar are found in manv o f these bizarre creations. This fusion o f pseudo-( >mtonesc and pseudo-Polynesian food eon be traced to a renegade Canton­ ese chef at Trader Vic’s in California. The basic formula appears to be: take the fattest, rankest jx >rk you can get; cook it in a lot o f oil with tlie sweetest mixture o f canned fruits and sugar you can make; dirow on a lot o f M SG and cheap soy sauce; thicken the sauce to gluelike consistency; and serve it forth, The Cantonese regard die whole business as proof diat Westerners arc cultiireless barbarians, but diey cook it, and now even manv Taiwan Chinese (having eaten Cantonese food only in cafes catering to American G.I.s) are convinced diat tliis is typical Cantonese cooking. About sweet-and-sthir pork, tlie tbllowing may be said. Traditionally, this was a rare dish, and not welt liked. Cantonese more often cook sweet-sour fish, especially yellow croaker. The recipe is nordicm and eastern in origin, though long borrowed into die soudi. It is best widi freshwater tish in Honan. Real sweet-sour fish or pork is at least as sour as sweet and includes no fruit. Real Cantonese sweet-sour pork is a good dish, although not as good as the yellow croaker, but many Cantonese avoid it now because it is so dioroughlv linked with the “ barbarians.” Three other dishes that define Cantonese cuisine outside o f China are more audientic, but are not the height o f die true cuisine. Fried rice (d/no fa » , “stir-fried rice,” aldiough it isn’t always stir-fried) is a standard method o f cooking leftovers, in­ volving frying cold boiled rice widi cbopped-up meat and vegetables. In really supe­ rior restaurants, rice will be specially boiled and dried lor this, but usually old, un­ used ricc is served. Tlie common (and favorite) recipe, however, is not Cantonese,

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but eastern, deriving from Yangchou in the lower Yangtze country, it involves mixing chopped ham, beaten egg, green peas, green onions, and otl 1er ingredients to taste, and then radier slowly sauteing die rice. The rite is neither deep fried nor stirfried, but d m — left to cook slowly in a little oil, producing a thirty pitxhia widi a slight crust. Chow mein is Cantonese d im mm (stir-fried ncxxlles), ,1 counterpart of fried rice. The ncxxiles are boiled and tlien stir-fried with bamboo sluxits, Ivan sprouts, slices o f pork, and so forth. Last o f all, chop suey is not— as many would-be connoisseurs believe— an Amcr ican invention. As Li Shu-tan points out in liis delightful autobiography, Hmijj Kmuj Stmjcoi! (196+), it is a local Toisanese dish. Toisan is a rural dismct south of Canton, the home tor most o f die early immigrants from Kwangtung to California. ITie name is Cantonese tsnp sctti (Mandarin isn wh), “miscellaneous .scraps.” Basically, it is leftover or odd-lot vegetables stir-fried together. Noodles are often included. Bean sprouts arc almost invariably present, but die rest o f die dish varies according to whatever is around. The origin myth o f chop suey is diat it was invented in San Francisco, when someone demanded food late at night at a small Chinese restaurant. Out o f food, die restaurant cooked up the day's slops, and chop suey was bom. (The “someone” can be a Cliinese dignitary, a band o f drunken miners, a San Francisco political boss, and so on). Fortune cookies, however, are a tme Californian Canton­ ese invention, created by a noodle company in I j o s Angeles (loyal Angelenos insist it was in San Francisco). They were unknown in Asia until American tourists began to demand them in the last decade or two. None o f the above dishes ranks high with Cantonese gourmets, since all are mix­ tures o f a lot o f things and none demands fresh fixings. In tact, all o f them are in the nature o f hash— cheap, quick, easy ways to get rid o f less than desirable leftovers and other scraps. Their popularity with restauranteurs is easy to explain— all tlie stuff that would otherwise have to go to the animals can be fed to people. As a matter o f feet, they can be excellent dishes in their own right and are widely popular, but their avatars in traditional cafés and homes in H ong Kong are very different from those one encounters in restaurants catering to Westerners. The real gourmet dishes o f the soudi begin with seafood. Steamed tish or whole fish quick-fncd and then masked with sauce; shellfish o f ever)' description prepared in coundcss ways; swim-bladders, sea cucumbers, cuttlefish, squid (fresh or dried), fish roes, and every other imaginable sea product— all arc treated reverently. N o land meats attract so much enthusiasm or attention. Seafood is nKust highly regarded when alive and kept in clean water, but some o f die salted products are almost as popular, especially salt-dried squid, salted dried fish rocs (much like the finest caviar), and salt-hidden white croakcr fish. Sea cucumbers and jellyfish are almost always dried, and oysters are not only dried or salted but boiled d o w i and strained to make the thick oyster sauce. Among land meats, poultry has die cachet o f special occasions and religious rites, but pork is the standard meat and the one that brings out the best cooking. Whole

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pigs are roasted slow ly with a honey or brown sugar glaze diat caramelizes to a gold­ red color; tins makes tlicni “ golden pigs,” suitable for sacrifice, tlie color being of' re­ ligious im p jit as the color o f! ill1 and warmth. More famous is cb’n shao, dm sin in Cantonese, which nKaiis “ fork roasted.” Barbecued strips o f lean [x>rk, marinated in litmkt, sov, chin, and other flavorings, are hung upon forks {or equivalent) in a spe­ cial in in oven widi a strong, steady, warm air flow rising through it. Poultry can be d i’.i shao as well. O va shao pork is sliced thin and used in noodle soups, steamed buns (the well-known din sbrni /mi), and odicr snacks and dishes. Another class is aired meats— laap in Cantonese (Mandarin In). These iiKludc ex­ cellent sausages made with rose-flavored vodka; they are known as hap d i’auiq (liter­ ally “cured intestines” ). Pressed cured duck is, poetically, !nnp nap (Mandarin laya). II ie strong, meatv-tasting Cantonese bacon is laap yenI: (la joti, “ cured nie.it” ). One iu.iv often see these hanging in a shady, wind}' place to cure; a beach with a constant sea breeze anti shadv trees is ideal, and swimmers may mix cheerfully with nieatcurcrs. 11 ie mt ire exotic meats are not really eaten much. Dog and snake arc eaten in win­ ter to provide wam idi— they are believed to be verv hearing, in tlie case of dogs be­ cause of the high amount o f tat. '11 icy are not really very gotxl, though tender voting ones can lx- fair. In spite o f all the literatiue on the subject I have never eaten cat or rat or seen them eaten; Cantonese known to me .ire repelled by tlie thought o f eat­ ing rats. 1 hav e never seen anyone bring a live monkey to tlie table, cut its head open, and eat the brain out as a strengthening foot!, though til is is done in some places. It is a medicine rather than a lood in any meaningful sense. The most exotic iixxi diat is really common is frog legs, which are less popular than in France but not to be ig­ nored. Know'n as “ paddy chickens” and cooked as o ik would cook chicken, they arc very good, especially chunked and stir-tried widi black beans. Wild gaiiK o f every sort is eaten when av ailable and believed to be strengthening or odierwisc medicinal; owls and nightjars cure headaches, “ white cranes” (egrets) cure soul disorders and convey long life, and— among items diat are less purely medicinal— wild ducks are believed to lx- tremendously strengthening, probably because the high iron content o f die meat once helped many anemic persons. H ie Cantonese are less dirifty than dieir immediate neighbors; diev do not nor­ mally eat hkxxl or relish intestines and spinal cord. They wall use anything in a pinch, but on tlie wliole they prefer die cuts used in the more cclcctic parts o f die Western world. O i k major exception is poultry feet, which arc greatly loved bodi for making stock and for nibbling. Well-cooked duck and goose webs are considered real delica­ cies. I have heard diat H ong Kong uses twice as many pairs o f poultry feet as it does actual birds. 'Hie additional feet are imported from Canada and elsewhere. Milk dishes arc found, mostly due to Western influence starting widi the Macau Portu­ guese in die sixteenth century. H ie Chinese fondness for snacks and “small eats” reaches a kind o f apotheosis in die south. Substantial breakfasts o f congee with peanuts, meat, fish, sauces, or similar

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tools arc common. Ntxxile soups with meat (red-ax>kcd beef or ch'a shao [x>rk arc typical) and won ton soups arc even commoner. The amount o f notxlles per serving is large enough to make these dishes Hill meals in diemselves. Hie rise o f VVestemr\rpc baked goods has led to a wide range o f breads, rolls, and pasnies diat have fined into die snacking pattern. But the ultimate in “small eating" is tlie Cantonese institution ut u iiii cb ’a (Manda­ rin Ik dr’a: “to drink tea” ). Drinking tea traditionally involves the consumption o f snacks known as tint stun (borrowed into English as dim mm, pronouiKcd “deem some” ). This phrase (the Mandarin is n a i l/siti) means “to dot tlie heait,” a peculiar idiom o f obscure origin, meaning something like “to hit die spot.” “ Dot-hearts” (as Buwei Yang Cliao calls diem; Chao 19+7} are found throughout China, but in C.111tonese culture diey become die sole kxxi at huge luncheons or late breakfasts, w hile elsewhere in China they are definitely "small” afiairs, Iliere are hundreds o f them. Many restaurants specialize in diem, such as die famous I.uk Yu Tea [louse o f Hong Kong, which was one o f die finest Cantonese restaurants until its recent move from tiny, aged, eramped quarters in the garment district to fancier lodgings uptown. Typical tim sani are ha kaatt (Mandarin hsin dnnu), based on minced shrimp and odier items wrapped in tliin dough skin; stit mani (shew mi), with meat filling .inti dif­ ferent skin composition; taro horns, chopped meat covered with mashed taro dough, rolled into a hornlike shape, and deep-tried; ch’a sliao p.10; other p.10 o f many kinds; beef balls pi ingently flavored widi soy sauce, ginger and so on; /w « kitu, oily chopped fillings wrapped in rice-flour dough skins, duck webs on l ice; tuiiuj or junjj, glutinous rice dumplings stuftcd with chicken or aromatic seed fillings, wrapped in lotus or broad bamboo leaves, and steamed; and anything else the ax>k can diink of, up to and including radier substantial dishes o f stew and chicken, and even suckling pig roasted and sliced. The commonest and most basic rim sam follow die pattern o f some sort o f starch staple wrapped around a filling o f chopped meat, soy sauce, ginger, water chestnut, or similar extender and textunzcr, oil and flavoring. The ritual o f iam ch’a is well established. One sits at a table in a very crowded and noisy restaurant. Tlie waiter brings whatever tea one requests. Then one watches for die carts o f rim sam being wheeled around die restaurant by young servitors. They cry out what they are bringing, contributing greatly to die high noise level o f tea houses (my young son referred to them as “screaming places” ). Diners take quite a while over die meal, waiting for favorite items to come round. At die end o f the meal, a more senior waiter counts up the dishes and charges accordingly. More ex­ pensive dishes are on bigger plates, so charges are always figured by the number o f empty plates; waiters have eagle eyes to forestall shifting o f plates from table to table. Tim sam travel fairly well— diey do not depend 011 freslmcss and timing as much as most Cantonese dishes do— and there are now good tea 110 uses in larger Western dries. The level o f tim sam in Canton is also high, radier more so on die whole than the level o f restaurant and hotel food. But one must still go to H ong Kong to get die good stuff; and the like o f the old Luk Yu will probably never appear again.

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Very common in Cantonese cking arc tmjj, dishes o f mixed ftxxts cut into cubes. Examples arc chicken diced and stir-fried with cashew nuts and pork diced and stir-fried with vegetables. Stow ed duck with barley, stewed chicken with Chinese medicines, and other stewed strengthening tixxls usually appear. Shark fins, die Almost-inevitable showpiece o f tancv banquets, are cookcd in chicken soup or brown stock. A dish shared w ith the rest o f South China, and rather greasy to anyone out­ side that realm, is slices o f taro alternating with slices o f fat fresh bacon in vertical ar­ ray, the whole being steamed. Casseroles, cooked in the traditional sand pots, in­ volve the tougher aits o f beef, or poultry, often with bean curd, Chinese cabbage, star anise, and soy laments. Pork ribs are steamed with black beans; pork, chicken, or se.iti.xxl is stir-fried with pungent little fermented confections. Fish is steamed with slivered ginger, green onion, tangerine peel, hingi, and a bit o f chiu and soy sauce. A strange kxal least is si!,' pint (“ eat from [the common] pot” ). Tliis consists o f meats, lish, Ivan curd, and spices, cooked separately, die 11 combined in a sort o f stew. In some villages it is served at fbtmal banquets as die sole dish when die idea is to legitimate a major social event (such as a wedding or adoption). It represents a sell-consciously plebeian cuisine, lev eling distinctions to involve ail equally in the event. Like the soeiallv equivalent U.S. barbecue, it is cooked by men (Watson 1985). Cantone.sc ed, either emphatically native or Ik »rowed from China, tom is a striking contrast with tlie heavily Indian-influenced art and religion. North ofTihet are the vast desens ot\Sinkiang, Chine.se Central Asia, where Iaim­ ing can be practiced only in oases, These are inhabited mostly by people of'Turkic stock, primarily tile Uigluirs, but also groups known collectively as I urki, A few odier etlmic groups, including some T.uizhiks s|xaking a language elose to Persian, inhabit tlie westernmost oases. Fixxl in these areas is not related to Chinese at all. ex­ cept tor recent superficial borrowings; it is part and parcel ot the great Persian cul­ tural area. Ilie staple is wheat bread, sourdough-raised or otherwise leavened, and cooked in large, flat, boat-shaped or oblong loaves that puff up 011 baking, lilts pro­ vides a pocket tor inserting anything one is eating with the bread, making a kind of sandwich, llie loaves arc much bigger and thicker than the equivalent pita breads of' die Near East. Tliev an.' often sprinkled with sesame seeds. Grilled meats, especially small shish kebabs, arc tradition.il accompaniments, lioiled mutton and daily prodnets, primarily yogurt but also cheddarlike cheese, .ire common tare. Vegetables ex­ cept tor onions and garlic are few, but this is made up tor by the incomparable tinit, apricots, grapes, and melons predominate. Ilic finest melons o f tlie world, according to many gourmets, are tlie green-and-vel low-striped Persian melons o f the I lami area in dieTurtan Depression in the center ofSinkiang. (’11ic Uzbeks, close kin to die Uighurs, have a proverb; ‘T o r procreation, a woman; for pleasure, a boy, but tor divine ecstasy, a melon” ) WatenlK'lons o f excellent quality also abound. Apricots, mulberries, and grapes are often dried, producing a staple tor winter use or tor cook­ ing widi lamb. Filled dumplings equivalent to chiao-tzu are made. The nomads o f northwest China— Turkic groups like the Kirghiz and all the vari­ ous Mongol tribes and linguistic groups— live on bread or potridge made from traded grain, and on dairy products. Meat is not often eaten, since animals arc tixi valuable to butcher frequently; when old diey are often sold radier dian butchered at home. Yogurt is die staple. Mare’s milk is typically fermented with staple yeast into kumys, which tastes like slightly spiked buttermilk. Kuniys can be distilled into nymu or m-cuj, which is said to taste like bad vtxika with a little sour buttermilk added. Kumys by itself is a staple drink, indeed a staple food, tor its nutritional value is liiglier than its alcoholic content. The nomads grill or boil meat when diey do get it, and haw borrowed many North Chinese and Persian dishes tor feast foods.

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R e p tutu n u d L o ca te ;

tS f

Related to die Mongols linguistically .ire the Tungus jxoples o f northern Man­ churia, The M.u k Iui were one such group; tlicv are now essentially all assimi­ lated into die Chi ne.se jx>jiulation, In it other .small Tungus groups still exist. Those along the main rivers lis e pnmarily by fishing, drying most o f the eateh and using it as the staple. Some made dieir clothes and tents out offish skins until the rweiiberh ceil tun'. Other groups live hv hunting, gad le ring, and practicing small-scale agricul­ ture. Game is still a suple tixxl in a verv few areas, incredible as diis may seem in modem China w ith its hillion jx-ople; nloose (known as “ elk” in die Old World) and deer are the mam sources. Oeer are now domcsticatcd .uid farmed on a large scale. Other animals irin mole rats to racoon dogs are eaten. Ginseng is an important pnxluet o f these northetnmost reaches o f Chi 11.1, but it is tar tix) expensive lor nuist o f the jxople there to eat in .111v quantity. Sorghum, soybeans, buckwheat, barky and (farther south) maize are pushing dieir wav northward into these forest realms. List o f Chinese minorities in our clockwise progress arc the Koreans, also an Alt.iic jvople; there arc sonicwhat fewer dian a million of them 011 the China side o f the border. Hie land is basically montane their, and they live predominantly on buckwheat anti bar lev, tvpicallv nude into mxxlles, Maize, rice and odier tixxis are increasing in Mii|n iitance; millets, soybeans cabbages, radishes, .uid allium cixips flourish. Nixxile.s or boiled grain are eaten widi meat— beef is esjxxiaily impor­ tant— .uid fish. H ie fiery Korean pickles, must common o f which is kimclii, are con­ sumed in large quantities; dicv are made o f cabbages, radish, or otiicr vegetables cured bv lacric-aeid fermentation in verv strong brine or salt, widi cnomxius quanti­ ties o f chiles .uid gai lic added. Anything .uid everything can wind up in the kinichi jar: chickens, tish, onion leaves, pine seeds, wild herbs, mushrooms. Pine seeds are an imjxtrt.ii it tcxxl ,uid cxjxirt; die main source is Ptmis kumtcmh, the cedar pine. Odier forest «luts and herbs abound, from hazelnuts to ginseng. These, domcsticatcd deer, raccoon dogs {NyctavutcspixKyoiiaidcs, miscalled “ badger" in English; a trickster in Ja­ pan, .1 medicinal strengthening tixxi in China), and other forest products are eco­ nomic mainstays o f die Korean autonomous region. Like tlie odier minority' zones of China, this area remained backward mini recendy, die people treated as secondclass citizens. Tins attitude changed dramatically during die 1950s, but the improve­ ment was reversed in tlie ios and bad conditions prevailed widely until die late 1970s. At present development o f minority regions is proceeding apace, and much less jirejudicc is seen dian one found a few vcars ago. This has its costs: Han Chinese jx'netration and acculturation are increasing today. What can we leam from this lightning survey o f China’s regional cuisines? First, die efficiency I sti^css in diis txxik gix-s only so far. Cultural and subadtur.il prefer­ ences take precedence much o f die time. A clearly inferior adaptation will go to die wall, but when two alternatives arc roughlv equal in efficiency, die clioice between diem is made 011 the basis o f cultural valuation. The Chuang ear regular rice, dieir close linguistic relatives o f Hsishuang Panna cat glutinous rice; then; is no reason ex­ cept tradition and a desire to keep one’s own culture, ftxxlways, .uid lifestyle distinct

ijft

Regions and Locates

18+

and marked. Tlie Cantonese avoid chiles, die Hunanese low diem; Link's an; highly nutritious, but the Cantonese simply cannot get used to liighlv spiced lixxl. (] have sometimes treated Cantonese and Min people to Szeehuanese meals; dieir reactions are at best polite.) Such exodea as bears’ paws may persist in spite o f obvious ineffi­ ciency because tradition and conspicuous consumption demand. Hie boundaries be­ tween staple crops— maize anti barky, wheat and millet— are sharpened by ethnic and regional preference; thev often stop shott at a cultural boundary, instead o f fad­ ing our slowly along a climate gradient. Rxxlvvav-s are quite resistant to change, fvrsisting over tliousands o f miles and years; though acculturation is occumng rapidly now, as it has at times in the past. Sccond, it is still true that much is determined by what grows best and most dieaplv. Rice is always tlie staple in tlie lowland south, wheat in the tin' north, barley and buckwlicat in cold areas. Animals are raised where they can best Iv raised, lliese generalizations transceixl ail rural differences; tlie Tibetans may make their barley into tsamba, the Koreans into iKxxllcs, and the Chinese into [V.irl barky, but all raise this crop where tlie weather is cold and dty. It seems that people arc basically efficient .uni economically rational in the narrow sense, but that tliey will also sacriticc a ceitain amounr to keep tlieir cultural distincavencss. At one extreme, the Turkic peoples o f Central Asia are separated bv lan­ guage, religion, climate, agricultural tradition, and classical culture ti t >m the ( Chinese, and have quite different tbodvvays. At die other, tlie Chuang live w ith the Chinese and ftinn like them, and so ear fairly similar fcxxts. In bew een, religion often makes a barrier— the Muslims avoid pork even «'here pigs arc the most efficient animal to raise— and language or dialect make barriers. ‘Hie stronger or higher the barrier, the more people will sacrifice to maintain it in tlieir fixxlways. All this has led to better tcxxi, and to better use o f die earths resources, tor it maxi­ mizes diversity and experimentation and provides tor the retention o f gthmg fcxxl. Tliey are usu­ ally powdered.) “Chinese artichokes” are die roots o f a mint (Slncljys) and “Cliinese olives” are not related to olives. Such problems are inevitable when different lan­ guages meet. But it is a shame when diey go uncorrected-— especially if you are try­ ing to make an authentic Cliinese dish and die recipe translates the ingredients wrong. Today, Chinese traditional medical and nutritional beliefs persist, and they are in no danger o f disappearing. Arthur Kleinnian (1980), studying a large sample ot Chi­ nese on Taiwan, found diat in 93 percent o f sickness episodes, diet was altered -—usually die first diing done, initiated by die patient or familv. M y sketchier figures from Hong Kong are even liigher. Certainly the vast majorin' o f Chinese react al­ most immediately to physical distress o f any kind by changing what diey eat. Diet therapy grades into herbal medicine with no sharp separation: ginseng, white fun­ gus, birds’ nests, stewed wild birds, and die like are tbods but air considered to Ik ot almost purely medical use. The Chinese traditional science o f nutrition is based on die commonsense obser­ vation that foods provide energy for die bodv. Different amounts o f energy arc con­ tained in different foods, and die energy takes different fonns. Some foods arc ex­ tremely strengthening; otiicrs are weakening, if eaten to excess. (For a very full account o f Chinese nutrition and food dierapy, sec Lit 1986.) The traditional word for energy’ is JjV. w hich literally means “breadi.” Like the Latin spiritiu, it was generalized to mean “ spirit” — not it spirit but spiritual or invisi­ ble energy. Air and gas are ch’i as well (carbonated water is ch’i water). A “cli’i vehicle” is one powered by an internal combustion engine. Ch’i in reference to die human body, or any other natural object, usually means “ energy” unless die context makes it obvious that breadi or spiritual nature is meant. When Chinese talk o f ftxxl providing ch’i, however, diey do not mean energy' in die limited Western sense. The forms or qualities o f bodily ch’i are different from anything known to Western science. Tlie most basic division o f die cosmos, in traditional Chinese thought, is between yatig andyw. Originally, yang meant the sunny side o f a hill— die southwest face— and^in meant die shady side. The character for yang includes a small abstract picture o f a hill and die character for “sun” written over what might be a slope. Yang is tiius die bright, dry, warm aspect o f die cosmos; yin is die dark, moist, cool one. Note diat these are aspects o f a single hill (or person, or universe), not really diings in themselves. Males have more yang quality, and the penis is politely known as die “ yang organ” ; females are more yin. However, each sex has some o f die other's qual­ ity; indeed, all things have bodi aspects. Anodier key division o f die cosmos is into the Five Phases (sec Liu and Liu 1980; Porkert 197+; Unsdiuld 1985), earth, metal, fire, wood, and water. These have been

Tradirwunl Mcdicai Vnines o f Food iSi?

calk'd “elements” in Engl is]1, likening them to the Greek elements, but the Chinese concept is fundamentally different. 'Hie Five Phases deal with phases o f die cosmos and everything in it radier than with things. (Ch’i is not a phase; it pervades every­ thing.) 'Hie full cosmology o f die phases was elaborated by T s’oli Yen in die War­ ring States period anti became die basis o f scicnce and cosmology, including nu­ trition and medicine, in die early Han I}ynasty. Tlie til inkers o f those ages classified everything in die universe by fives. Preoccupation with fives has lasted to diis day in China. 'Hie compass directions— including die center-—are die most classic and uni­ versally known set o f five, and everything else probably stems from diis basic percep­ tion; even die phases may haw been set at five to fit diem to the all-important direc­ tions (see chapter’ 5), O f particular importance for tbod arc die Five Smells (rancid, scorched, fragrant, rotten, and putrid) and die Five Flavors (sour, bitter, sweet, pun­ gent [piquant, “ hot”], and salt). These equate widi the compass directions: east, soudi, center, west, nortli. 'llie tastes are apparently diose the Han scholars found to be characteristic o f the regional cuisines o f those times. At least the Tcllmv EnipctmJs Classic of Internal Mcdicmc (Veidi (966)— tlie great Han medical text— says diat people in die respective regions eat fcxxls flavored accordingly. The alternative idea—-tliat the coding was arbitrary and die scliolars merely imagined, post hoc, die regional cuisines— seems ttx> forced even for die liiglily scholastic Han academies. llie Five Flavors remained to classify ftxxls, but nutritional medicine was soon to be rransfonned. Sometime between die Tdlmv E>npawJs Classic and die great fifthcentury herbal and agricultural texts. Western media nejyachcd China. The nutri­ tional medicine o f tlie Western world at diat time was based on die humoral astern and w'as shared by tlie Hippocratic-Galenic, Vedic, and Near Eastern medical tradi­ tions. N o one knows where or how it started; Hippocrates in die fifth century B.C. speaks o f it as old. Greece, the Near East, and India all take credit for it. Tlie Greeks have “prior publication” on dieir side, and die system could well have spread widi Alexander's world conquests. It may have reached China from many sources, but there is little doubt that die main impetus for its adoption was Buddhism (Sivin 1980). Independent origins o f similar beliefs in several places may also be involved. 'llie humoral dieorv, in its most general form, holds diat die human body is af­ fected by heat, cold, wetness, and dryness. T h ese “qualities” or ‘Valences” must re­ main in balance if die body is to remain healthy. Most illness is caused (or exacer­ bated) by imbalance. Tlie model is o f a person working in die hot sun and suffering heatstroke or falling into cold water and suffering from a chill. The ancient Greeks noted diat illness varied with season and climate and naturally assumed diat die weadier had a direct effect— which was true up to a point. Lacking microscopes, diey had no way o f knowing how typhoid (commoner in summer) differed from heatstroke or winter pneumonia from frostbite and exposure. Anodier observation was diat certain foods increased body heat, odiers seemed to make the body colder. For a long time, modem scientists thought tliis w'as all nonsense— purely arbitrary and irrational— but we now know that die ancients were really attending to some­

ttys Trnduw im l Mcdun! Vnlun of hood

19 0

thing. High-caloric t slowly) in this direction. A further powei+ul factor in directing Chinese attention to the vital importance o f balance and harmony (/w, “ hamiony,” is die term most often used) is the six'ial im­ portance o f diis value. Odier fcxxis impart pn to odier Ixxiilv systems. 'Die fXxTrine o f Si mil.in ties is im­ portant here. Stewed lungs o f animals improve tlie lungs; steamed pig or chicken or duck blood supplements the blood (which is perfectly correct it one kxiks at the as­ similable iron value), likxxi is strengthened not only by animal blood, hut by poit wine and many other bkxxi-rescmbling items. Almost all animal fixxls are pu to some degree if prepared con ectly— usually by steaming or simmering slowly, especially widi herbs. Essentially, all pu things are heating, but gently so; they arc at the low-caloric, low-fat, low-irritant end of' the hotness scale. line slow7simmering is intended to reduce their heating ch’i still mi >rc The idea is to provide a gentle wanning radier than a sudden shock ot’heat. 1’ repared this \vays pu foods are almost always easy to digest, hv both Cliinese and mixicm sci­ entific criteria, They are also usually rich in protein and often in mineral nutrients. Such items as chicken arc often stewed with enough vinegar to leach sonic o f the cal­ cium front the bones and otherwise pick up mineral .111 orients, Many o f the herbal items, such as ginseng, also actually have some tonic or nutrient effect. Tile similarity o f the ginseng root to tlie human Ixxlv is also relevant. In short, it is not enough for an item to look tike on organ. Tlie Chinese do nor take the simplistic attitude once found in Europe, that any liver-shaped leaf is gtxxl for tlie liver, or any yellow plant is gtxxl for jaundice. They will accept an item as pu only if it does have some discern­ ible nutrient, drug, or medical efleet— though in China as in nineteendi-cennirv America it is sometimes to be strongly suspected that the only e fleet o f .some items is produced by tlie strong alcohol content. (Not only port wine, but a vast variety o f native wines and tinctures, are pu.) White trec-fiingus, abaionc, and odier anomalous creatures and plants are also pu. Such routine creatures as eliickcns an; still less pu. It is almost safe to say that the more bizarre and striking an item is, the more pu it will be. This Is an obvious in­ stance o f Man' Douglas’ famous generalizations about anomalous animals, and all her comments about tlie pangolin in Africa are apposite-— I think— in China Kx> (Douglas 1966, 1975). M y fisherman informants in Hong Kong told me that die gi­ ant grouper (which may reach five hundred pounds) often has a tiny crustacean par­ asite in its gills; if die grouper is caught and dies, all its d ri goes into the crustaccan, w 'liich is dius die richest possible source and die most powerful o f all tonics. 'Hiis is definitely a folk explanation. Although Chinese doctors educated in the elite tradi­ tion often explain pu action in terms of’ actual tonic chemicals alleged to exist in the foods, die folk explanation is probably die older. Another key tcrni in Chinese medical nutrition is in. T h is literally means “ poison,” but it is used in two different seitses, and almost all informants note (often sponrane-

f t Traditional Mcdicai Values of Food 195

ouslv) that dlev arc reallv quite distinct. One, identical to die English word, refers to things tliat arc directly toxic if eaten, like puffer-fish liver, 'llie other U used in refer­ ence to foods tliat are not poisonous in dieniselves but bring out or potentiate any poisons in the body o f the eater. Tlie classic ftxxls in tliis category .ire uncastrated male poultry. In a study o f cancer epidemiology, I found diat cancer victims and of­ ten their entire families rigorously abstained from all poultry thev did (Kit actually see killed and cleaned, for fear o f getting w en tlie tiniest bit o f an uncastrated male; diey believed cancer w ould be stimulated by such foods. Beef is often considered tu, lamb and mutton sometimes. Several fish are poisonous in this sense, as are some nuts, seeds, and vegetables, although lists differ widely from informant to informant and in tlie various classical Chinese mcdicai herlials. As Giro! Ladennan (1981) points out, allergic reactions— specifically hives and rashes— are often at tile rtxit o f such ascriptions, especially in regard to seafoods. Since rashes are often seen as internal jxiisons breaking out at or through die surface o f the Lxxfv, responding to a foot! with a rash is often raken as a sign tliat the ftxxi is poisonous. Alternatively, tliough, it may indicate tlie tixxi is bearing and wetting, t(>r tliis humoral combination brings out or stimulates certain poisons, notahlv those of venereal disease. Doe to the lack o f agreement about what fixxis are poisonous, general izarion is riskv, but one thing stands out: tlie fixxis usually considered poisonous and/or hot and wet are either similar to or specific forms o f those that are pu. Most pu fixxis are non poisonous, but the poisonous fcxxls tend to be pu to some degree. Many heit>al remedies— those o f the lower herbal classes— are poisonous in their action (some­ times they act by "using poison to drive out |X)ison,” as the Chinese used to Lluse barbarians to control barbarians,” another social-mcdicai analogy.) Hie ideal pu fixxis and medicines are non poisonous, but it is clear that there is some association. Perhaps uncastrated male poultry and the like are seen to strengthen the internal poi­ sons, nourish die cancer and give it power, tor example. 'Hie tremendous amount of yang energy in a rooster or drake converts it from a gentle nourisher and cherisher o f the body to an uncontrolled, dangerous nourisher o f both tlie Lxxiy and the body’s enemies. I am thus tentatively persuaded— pending a much fuller study o f ascription o f fixxis to the tu category— that poison-potentiation is a logical extension o f pu, or perhaps o f a more general category o f pharmacologically broadly effective tilings. Poison-potentiators are effective but hard-to-control drugs. They are, o f course, conceptually very close to dings that actually have toxic side effects. Harder to explain are the manv poisonous combinations. Here tlie belief is not merely tliat these combinations are poison-potentiating; certain f(xxls. eaten to­ gether, an: supposed to react ro producc actual, virulent poisons. Gould-Martin lists “ in Taiwan, crab and pumpkin, port and liquorice, mackerel and plums and, in H ong Kong, garlic and Imncv, crab and persimmon, dog meat and green beans” (1978:4?). Very long lists o f these can easily be compiled by anyone with access to infonnants or traditional medical books. At present 1 am completely at a loss to explain them. Informants tell 111c the combinations were arrived at empirically radier than

Traditional Mcdicnl Values o f Food 196

through theory or logic; yet none o f diem is empirically demonstrable to lx- liimifi.il in die slightest degree. N o one dares actually experiment (except modem Chinese outside the traditional framework), so the belief goes untested, A delighrti.il article by Libin Cheng (1956) recounts his daring experiments widi allegedly poisonous combi­ nations. H e survived unhurt, as did his experimental animals, and lie gives a good overview and summary o f the whole matter. Cheng suspects the complex may be traceable to experiences with allergy, bacterially contaminated foods, adulterated foods, and the like. But why diese particular combinations were chosen seems im­ possible to determine. I pass briefly over such minor problems as foods said to bloat or cause llatulencc— here people describe reality. One other key concept underlies die concepts of th’injf (cleaning) and Imno (dispelling, clearing away). In both cases, die idea is to get rid o f undesirable matter or essences in die body. Ch’ing gets rid o f waste products and any poisons built up in die system. One clears away (lisiao) excess wetness, “wind,” and other pathogenic natural forces diat have entered die bodv. Curing in­ flammation, edema, and the like involves clearing away the accumulated ill humors. Some foods, licorice and honey, for example, free one from poisons (cinch in). “ Dirt” (not the same tiling as tu) can also be dispelled. Foods particularly gixx .1 at cleaning are honey, brown sugar, and sugarcane juice (Gould'-Martin 1978:40), some vegeta­ bles, a number o f herbs. A very common herbal mixture, sold in all Chinese drug and general stores, is the dfingpu liaiuj (cleaning, strengthening, and cooling) herbal tea or soup mix. Cl/big Umuj foods relieve heat; iin nno tixxts are diuretic (often be­ cause o f potassium content in the context o f a high-salt diet). The Cliinese have lived widi famine and malnutrition for a very long time and have accumulated conntless observations connectcd therewith. From these thev have constructed a folk nutritional science— radier, both a folk and an elite nutritional scicnce-— that subsumes die observations under a set o f simple principles or con­ cepts. Sonic o f these broad concepts stand die test o f modem science. Others merely illustrate the truth o f die remark attributed to H . L. Mencken (among others) diat “ for every problem dicre is a solution diat is simple, plausible, and wrong.” The study o f medicinal classification has implications for the study of Chinese diought. More important arc its implications for die study o f human thought in genera). In actual working taxonomy (so to speak), people appear to go up die taxo­ nomic tree and then back down. They classify tilings by seeing some particularly im­ portant general, shared qualities. 'Dicy die» overgenci-alize and overextend diese qualities to produce a simple, grand, overardiing, high-level system, They dien use deduction to classify new or unusual items: if a new item has quality X , it is classified under the appropriate heading. Often die new item should not be so classified, in remis o f its actual effects, but the assignment o f it to a particular category is dioronghly system-driven: logic takes precedence over mere fact. On die other hand, feedback from experience guarantees diat any widespread system has some trudi or value. Nutritional medicine, in particular, must be grounded in experiential reality.

Traditional Medical Values o f Food 19 7

“Chunking” enters in that people do not generalize along a smooth gradient. They recognize tlie natural “chunking” o f die world— for example, into biological species— and oversharpen diis distinction by treating members o f a chunk as if they were pretty much identical but very' different from members o f any other chunk. All pangolins are about equally pu. This apparendv simple matter— ovcrsharpening o f some distinctions and blurring o f die distinctions not so ovcrsharpcned— is at die nx>t o f many human mistakes and misperceptions (Nisbett and Ross 1980). C u t is analogical diinking. It was once said in philosophy classes diat die Chinese are analogical radier dian logical in tiieir diought processes. During the critical for­ mative peruxl o f Cliinese philosophic diought, syllogistic logic vied tor place widi ar­ gument based on analogy. Tlie latter won, but not without being affectcd by die former. Chinese diinkers recognized diat diere were analogies and analogies— even if you do answer Ijcwis Carroll’s question, “why is a raven like a writing desk?” you haven't learned anything very exciting. Philosophers argued by analogy, but die one w hose analogy actually included a homology (or somediing like one) was die win­ ner. Tlie idea was diat if W o things share a common quality, diey may share a com­ mon substrate, There are qualities diat arc real and shared but superficial and trivial (whiteness) and ones that are real, shared, and basic (energy, in moving systems, for instance). Chinese philosophy, as it took tbmi, focused on pragmatic, existential real­ ity and 011 process. Thus, what was shared was, most importandy, certain types o f ef­ fect, o f energy, o f transfbmiing ability' and transforming power. The Western tradi­ tion o f idealism (focusing on essential reality and on unchanging, ultimate Form) was unacceptable to die Chinese, even though it was often introduced, tor example widi some schools o f Buddhist diought, from westward. Tlie re is little “ essential’’ difference between logic anti analogic. O ne can set up analogies as syllogisms:

Tilings diat are strikingly unlike odier natural things have a particular and powerful ch’i. T lie pangolin is strikingly distinctive. Therefore, it has a lot o f powerful ch’i. O ne can set up syllogisms as analogies: All die people I know o f w ho readied a great age died. Socrates is like diese odier people I know o f— not in everything, but in what I diink are key respects. Tim s, w e can expect Socrates to die too. Eidier way, one carries out similar inductive and deductive processes. O n balance, Chinese traditional beliefs worked very well to keep people healthy and to keep the food prcxluction system diverse. M any plants and animals diat would not otherwise have been domesticated, or kept in domestication, were g r o w l Lx’eause o f dieir alleged niedkal values. W hile few o f these were as medicinally eflec-

f t Trnditionnl Mcrfkat Vnines o f Food litS

tive as traditional doctors thought, they did provide a richer and more varied re­ source base tor agriculture. 'Finis more ecological niches were used; nutrients .uid land «'ere employed more efficiently, since each culrigen had its special requirements and habitat tliat would often have lain unused if people had wished to grow' only the cheap grains. lX'cr and racoon-dog farms, for instance. provide a valuable economic resource in areas odierwise too cold and too tar from markets to pro have fed hu­ manity, the masses o f India and Mexico, o f France and Finland— arc as brilliant as those o f poets and artists, and perhaps even more useful. “With tlie deepest rever­ ence,” I chink o f emperors Wen and Ching, o f T a o Hung-ching and Li Shih-ch’en, and o f a billion peasants whose names arc lost in die black flow o f rime. Thanks to them, we are alive ttxlay, and we may even hope to see our children and children's children survive.

Appendix: H Dinner at the N/js

It may lv useful tu take ,1 look at one very traditional Chinese family at tabic. In 1974—7> Marja Anderson and 1 returned to our old field home o f Castle Peak Bay, Hong Kong, to cam' out field research on Chinese food production and con­ sumption. As part o f die research, we kept a record o f ftxxl consumption by our gd hie 1ids and next-door neighbors die N g family. In our earlier fieldwork in 1965-66 we had studied the boat-dwelling fishermen o f the area. Most o f die boat people have gone on shore now. We rented a iioom in die house o f an old friend and informant, Mr. Chan; he and his family were rarely at home, so our nearest observ­ able neighbors w ere the Ngs, who rented a small house in die same compound from Mr. Chan. 'Hie N g family consisted o f a former boat man now moved on shore, his wife, dieir children, .inti often a relative or two, usually the mother o f one or the other parent. Mr. N g worked ar a fish-assembling market diat bought fish from die fishermen and resold them to nrban wholesale marketers in Kowloon twenty miles away. H e never left the Castle Peak area on his job, but Ik- worked long Ilours, usu­ ally from about six a .m . to nine p .m . or more. It was a rare treat and cause for a fam­ ily celebration when he could come home early enough to cat widi die younger chil­ dren. The family was close, warm, and happy; mealtimes, especially with father, were times o f relaxed happiness and sociability'. Most o f our fcxxi consumption studies in H ong Kong were based on interview­ ing or interviewing plus observation, but to see what die Ngs ate we used observa­ tion alone unless we had a specific question. Over a period o f five mondis, we ob­ served about half die main meals (lunches and dinners) eaten (152 out o f about 300). (For the other meals eidler die Ngs or we went out to eat.) During diis time we also ohseived a vast and uncounted number o f snacks, including breakfasts. Mr. N g was usually gone before die children got up, and on special occasions (including most days «'hen he staved home later than usual) die Ngs went out to breakfast as Can­ tonese so love to do, so we never saw a real formal breakfast there— die morning meal was an impromptu affair with die children snacking on bread or die like. We recorded seventeen snacks, but we missed the vast majority o f them or saw only pair

21s

tp* D in n er nt th e N jji 216

oft)ic caring trailsaction and did not bother to record it. Someone in die house, usu­ ally everyone, had sonic s o i t o f snack every dav, in addition to breakfast. Snack tixxts rccordcd were cbn sbno pao (flour buns sniffed widi roast pork tilling), raisin bread, w'liite bread with margarine, cookies, candy, small cakes, gum. and tin it (usually or­ anges but also apples, bananas, dried persimmons, grapes, tangerines and mandarin oranges, etc.). Breakfast and more substantial snacks often involved a howl ot ricc widi soy saucc. The children often bought candy, minor meat snacks such as tiny sausages, or buns from local vendors. Fruit was the major snack however, although breakfast always involved some starch (ricc, bread, or buns). During all but the coldest day's, everyone ate outside, tlie houses being small. "Hie Ngs and the Andcrsons watched each other cat, noted what w as being eaten, and asked about each other’s more exotic food wavs, (We lived Chinese style and ate more or less Chinese food, so there were few' exotic toodw ays lor rhe Ngs to see. ) Our diree children proved most valuable to our fieldwork. Laura and Alan were the same age as two o f die N g children and quick! v ton tied close friendships with them and the rest o f die family, 'lTiey had entree to ail situations, including meals in the in­ ner sanctums o f die house where no nonfamily adults could politclv enter, and they dius observed many snacks W'e missed. The N g and Anderson children also continu­ ally shared tbod, mosdy fruit. The advantage o f a purely observational approach— especially when helped bv seven- and ten-year-old children— is that it produces a tar more accurate record o f what is actually eaten than do interview's, which are necessarily less accurate especially as to cooking method and minor ingredients. Tlie disadvantage to observation is diat one has to estimate quantities. But we did not need exact quantities, since we were interested in what people ate, not in nutritional levels (all the Ngs were clearly wcll-nourished and ate healthful food, and we were not specializing in nutrition). Tlie quantity problem was made easier by die fact diat ttxxl was usually bought by weight; Vi or i catty was die nonnal quantity (a catty is i 'A pounds). This was not true offish or chicken bought whole, however. Most o f die protein eaten came from fish diat Mr. N g acquired on die job, and diis perquisite o f his labors was weighed incxacdy if at all. Also, weights o f food bought and cooked would give a very inade­ quate picture o f w'hat anyone actually ate. Everyone ate different amounts from die common dish, and often much was left over, placed in die refrigerator and nibbled on later. Such nibbling was impossible to record. Rarely was a dish completely eaten at one sitting, unless it was somediing die children loved; but dishes never lasted more than a day. ’Ilie refrigerator, a very recent addition to such working-class households o f H ong Kong as die Ngs’, wras a supremely useful diing to have, but a bane to die andiropologist. However, we were allowed to use it ourselves, so we or more usually our children would make a point o f chocking it often to see what die Ngs were using it for. Tlie Ngs, boat people (even though now living on shore) from fishermen’s fami­

f t Dinner nt the Njjs

217

lies, .itt: a groat deal offish, 'nicy also ate rice at every real meal— in fact, a meal, here as elsewhere in East Asia, was defined as ail occasion where rice was eaten with side dishes (mntf ). 'Hie adults and two older children ate one or one and a half bowls o f (ice at lunch, each bowl tilled with 8 ounces (volume measure) o f rice or a bit more, and tw o bowls at dinner; the younger children ate about one bowl at each meal, down to and including the baby (two and a half'years old). A good deal o f soy sauce went onto this rice, and often rice and soy was a snack by itself. Noodles made a rarer snack (we recorded 7 occasions). llie most important sung bv weight was vegetables. At every meal cxcept very small ones (e.g., it almost everyone was at work or at school), about [—2 catties o f vegetable* were cooked up. Mustard greens were tlie most often used (main ingredi­ ents in fifteen dishes anti several soups, a minor ingredient in several odier dishes). 'llie.se are the commonest vegetables in H ong Kong, and very popular. During the coldest p.m o f die year, Peking cabbage was common (Ki meals), almost always boiled with pork or fish or shrimp to make a rather soupy dish. It is strictly seasonal. A litde later, Ictrucc came into season (8 meals; it was boiled widi animal foods). T o ­ matoes, white radish, potatoes, bok chov, carrots, kaai clioi (another kind o f mustaRl green), bean sprouts, and pickled vegetables (of indeterminate species in die genus Brasfiui or near relatives) appeared at a few meals each (3—5 or so). Once boiled yam {Dtosanra ninra, not sweet potato) appeared, and once Chinese arrowroot. Luffa gourd apjvaied once, 111 soup. Cauliflower, taro, and snow peas appeared once each in times' feast dishes on holidays. Tlie reliance on Bmssicaccne— including die cab­ bages, mustard greens, and wliite radish— is notable; one or another species o f diis family appeared almost every day. Since die Chinese Bmssicaceac include what are perhaps die most highly nutritious vegetables eaten commonly in the world, rich in vitamins A and C , iron, odier minerals, and folic acid, diis was a good feature o f die diet. "llie standard everyday condiment in die diet was salt fish. Depending on how' many people were earing, about 2 - 6 ounces were steamed in the closed vessel in wliich rice was cooked, the fish resting 011 the rice in a small shallow dish. This amount served for die entire day. Tile adults, especially die women, used most o f it. l l i e children did not like it especially but ate tiny bits to add salt and flavor to the fix*.! Salt fish appeared at no less than m o f the 152 meals and may have been eaten more often than that, since we probably missed it a few times (occasionally it was not brought out, tor instance, but snacked on from die icebox). Most o f the exceptions were special meals: salt fish was considered too ordinary for most such affairs. Fresh fish appeared steamed (usually small fish were steamed over rice) 51 times, stir-tried 16 times, minced and formed into sheets, balls or paste 3 times, and also in many mixed boiled dishes— twice in fetal dishes, once in soup, and many times to flavor boiled greens. Only a few festal days were without fish. T w o meals included steamed, stir-fried, and salt fish. Fish was steamed with pickled soybeans, ginger, oil,

D inner at the Njii

218

green onions, or other “ deftshers’’ or “fish flavors.” Stir-frying o f die tougher, stronger-flavored fell usually involved pickled soybeans and garlic, 1-rcsh fish was liked by all. Usually die fish consisted o f small and cheap varieties that Mr. Ng got at work; about Vi to 1V2 tatties per day were eaten. Meat always meant pork. There were 79 servings ofpork (counting multiple ap­ pearances at the same meal). 'Hie commonest form was small salami-I ike sausages made widi Chinese grain in alcohol and called Innp cJjauiij (dried sausage). These were used only in cold weadicr; they began to appear about die middle of October and becamc almost dailv adjuncts to die meal from November 011 (seen at 37 meals, probably missed a few rimes). One or two per dav were steamed, a it up, and eaten as a sort o f relish widi food. The adults liked diem; die children did nor esjx.-ci.illy since thev were very greasy. Rarely did anyone eat as much as an ounce at a meal. More substantial quantities of’ fresh pork (or in one case liver) were eaten at >6 meals, about 1A cam' bought at a time. More exacdy, 1A catty was the standard ra­ don except oil festive occasions, when a catty might be boughr, or more for com­ pany. Sometimes onlv l/f canv was bought to flavor the blander sorts o f vegetables. Usually die pork was lean, but almost as often— l+ times— it was in the fSi Essay on Merchants. trnns. Patricia Ebrey. Ebrey 1981:155—[60. Ch.mg, Kwang-chih. 1975. Ancient Trade as Economics or as Ecologv. hi Jeremy Sabloff and Carl Lamberg-Karlovsky, eds., A iiaait Ch’ilization and Trade. Albuquerque: Uni­ versity' of New Mexico Press. ______ 1977a. 1 be Anhacolojjy ofAncient Chinn, 3d ed. New Haven: Yale University Press. ______ [977b. Food in Chinese Cultwv. New Haven: Yale University Press. ______. [979. Slmnjj Cinlization. New Haven: Yale University Press. ______ 1983. A n , Myth and Ritual: The Path to Political Ant/joiitt in Ancient Cirina. tin 11 bridge: Harvard University Press. ______ . 1986. TIjc Airhacoiqw' ofAncient China, +th ed. New Haven: Yale University Press. Ch:mg Tien-tse. 19^. Sino-Portiitfuese Tradefivm /«+. Leiden: Brill. Qiao, Buvvei Yang. 1947. How to Cook and Eat in Chinese. New York: John Day. Cl 1.10, Kang. 1981. New Data on Land Ownership Patterns in Ming-Cii’ing China— A Research Note, Journal ofAsian Studies +0,4:719—^4. ______ [986, Man and I Mud in Chinese Histiny. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Chaves, Jonathan. 1971. Hcami My Blanket, Earth My Pillmi’. New York: Columbia Uni­ versity Press. Chen Chi-yun. 19S+. Han Dynasty China; Economy, Society and State Power. T'omu) Pno 70:127-48. Chen, Pearl Kong, Tien Clii Ciien, and Rose Tseng. 1983. Everything Ton Want to Know alma Chinese Cooking. Woodbury: Barons. Cheng, F. T. 1954. Mnsinjp ofa CJmtcse Gotmnct. Ijondon: Hutdiinson. Gieng, Li bin. 1936. Aie die So-Called Poisonous Food-Gombinatk)ns Really Poisonous? Contributions, Biological Ddwatoiy, Scicncc Society i f China, Zoolaiical Scries it, 9:307—16. Gieng Te-kun. 1959. Anhacoiopfy in China, vol. 1: Prehistoric CJiuia. Cambridge: Hefter. ______ _ [960, A nhaeolqfjy in Clsina, vol. 2: Shane? China. Cambridge: Hefter. Qlia Lan-po. 1975. Tlx Caiv Home cfPekittg Man. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press. CJmuj-ktto Minjj Ts'ai Pn, n vots. 1963-65. Peking: People’s Republic o f China. Cli’oc Pu. 1965. A Rectnri ifEhifiiiy} Across tlx Sea, truns. John Meskiii. Tucson: University o f Arizona Press. Q1011 Cliin Sheng. 1974. A n Economic Histoiy t f Ofina, tr.ms. E. Kaplan. Bellingham: Western Washington University', Dept, o f Asian Studies. Qiu Hsi and Ln Tsu-Qi'ien, 1967. Reflations on T hinjjs at Hand, trails, and ed. Wing-tsit Chan. New York: Columbia University Press.

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Ji.i l^anpo. 1980. Eaiiy Man in China. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press. ling Shen-tao, 1976. The Jwrhen in Tmlfih Cam ay China. Seattle: University of Washingron Press. )oh,nines, R. E. 198t. Words of'the Ijujaon. Berkeley': University o f California Press. Johnson, Charles (ed,). 1985. Dab Neejj Hmoob: Myths, legends and Folk Talafivm the Hmonjj i f Laos. St. Paul: Mac.iJester Golkgc, Linguistics lX-portment. Kao Kuang-jen. 1978. Tawenkou: Neolidiie Culture Hind. China Rcconstntcts (August i978 ):il-,VKaplan, Henry S., and Patricia Jones Tsudiitani (eds.). 1978. Cancer in Cltinac. New York: Alan R. Liss. Karlgixni, Bernhard. 1950. T lx Book i f Odes. Stoekliolm: Museum o f Far Eastern Antiquities. Katz, Solomon, M. Hediger, and L. Valleroy. 1974 - Traditional Maize Pnxcssing Tediniques in tlie N ot' World. Science 184:765-7.1. Keighdey, David. 1978. Soinva tfSljaiu; Histoty. Berkeley: University o f California Press. __ ___ _ (ed.). 1985. The Origins of Chinese Cii’ilization. Berkeley1: Uniwrsitv o f Califor­ nia Press. Kong, Hsiian. 1974. Economic Plants o f Ajident North Cluna as Mentioned in SJjilt CJnitg (Ifcxik o f Poetry). Eemioinic Botany 28, 4:391-410,

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______ 1978. Tlie Development o f Undcrdevekjpmem in Qiina. Modem CJmta 4, 3:251 -u 8 . Lin, Frank, ajxl Liu Yan Man. 1980. Chinese Medical Terminology. Hong Kong: Commer­ cial Press. Liu, J. T. L. 1959. Rrfw7U in Sung CJrinn. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Liu, J. T. L, and Peter Golas (eds.). 1969. Change in China: Innovation or IlaimvUion? Lexington, M il: D. Heath. Ijo, Kennetli. 1971. Peking Choking. New York: Random House. ______ 1979,1. Encyclopedia i f Chinese Cooking. New York: A & W Publishers. -------— 1979b, Chinese Regional Cooking. New York: Random House. I jo, Winston Wan. 1974. The Life mid Thottght i f Teh Shih. Gainesville, FSa., and Hong Kong: University of Florida and Chinese University o f Hong Kong. I .oewe, Michael- 1968, Emyday Lift in Htaiy hnpaial China. London: B. T . Batstbrd. ______ 1979. Wmi to Patrtdise: Tlie Chinese QuestJbr hnnioiTnltty. London: George Allen and Unwin. ______ 1982. Chinese Ideas of Life and Death: Faith, Myth and Reason in the Han Pe­ riod. 1 xmdon: George Allen anil Unwin, Lou Si/Jii. [985. Fragrant Rice— Rare and Delicious. China Reconstructs (July):56. I.u, Henry. t9 »i>, Chtncsc System 77 chopped foods, 150,170 chopping blocks, 150 chopsticks, 150,153 Chou Chin Sheng, 62 Chou Dynasty, 24-25,53,111 Chou Hsien-wang, 86 Chou Hung-Hsiang, 25 Chou-k’ou-tien, 8 Chon Li, 32, [87 Chou Ting-wang, 86 dfoii tonfit (stinking bean curd), 124diow mein, 170,174, 177 duysanthemum, 76,128,138,19; dm (bamboo), 27 dm (porridge), 114 chit (raisintree), 28 Chu-dria Pi-ytmf! (Ncccssitics o f Daily Life), 76 Chu Hsi, 60 Chu Hsiao, 86 Chu Yiian-chang, 77-78, 86 dntan him (mellow) foods, 158 Chuang Chou, 29 Chuang o f Kwangsi, 180 Chuafgf Tztt (Chuang Chou), 29—3°! *5° chuangyang, 193 chuarÿ-yuan (large estates), 61 dfui. See tfui dfuti t’ien (equa! field) system, si Churÿ-^uet-lu, 70 Chtitig-yao Ta Ttu-xkn (Great Dictionary o f Chinese Medidnc), 49, 86 cigarettes, 140 cinnamon, 42,138 dtron, 187 citrus, 54,136-37, « 9 , 166 civet cat, 70 dvil service exam, 45 dam, 12,141,162 Classic t f Tea, The (Lu Yü), 55,139 daws, 164 dcavers, ij, iso, 151 dimate, 58—59,78, 89 clothing, 12, 64 dove, 138 *

Index i + y eoddebitr, 27,50 coconut, 68, 76, 156 codeine, 140 coflcc, 138, 139, 190 coffee shops, 16+ Gohen, Mark, 14 coinagc, 6i—6 i

cola, 158 colander, iji collards, 10; colonies in China, 161

cresses, 68,138 croaker, 14 3 ,173, >74, 179 crop notation, [7,54 ,120 Crow, Carl, 89 millers (dough strips), 58 Cruz, Friar Gaspar dc la, 8 3 -8 4 cubed foods, 177 cucumber, 68,126,132, 203 Citctirbitaaae family, 132—33 cuisine. See regions o f Qiinese cooking

commerdaliAirion, +6, 63, 93, 94—95

mid indhidturf cities mid province cups, IJ3

composting, 95,10 2 , 103 condiments, 69 confections, 11+, 115 Confucian ideology, 24 —25, 30, 47, J9, 60,

curds, 55 curcd meats, 175 curries, 151, 210 cuttlefish, 174

71, 99 Confucius, 29, 33, 16] congee, 114, 137, r62 conservation, 31—32, 95 constipation, 191 cookbooks, 56, 70, i+7, 206, 226—27H5 cooking mcdiods. Sec boiling; stir-frying

mid other iiuiii’uinnl mctlxxii cooking oil, 112,125, 14a, 157,160; sliortage of, 1 4 9 ,153, 155 cooling foods. See humoral theory topper, 68 coriander, 105,1+2, [66,168 cormorant fisliing, &4 com cakcs, 1S4 com flour, 1[8 com meal mush, 119 com on the cob, 96 com starch, 173, 205 corruption, 107 corvcc labor, 40, 62 cosmetics, 114,1:6 cotton, 3, 64, 80,81, 9+ Court o f Imperial Entertainments, 84 Court o f Imperial Sacrifices, 84 cowpea, 82 crab, 6 8 ,14 1,14 2 ,16 0 crab apple, 13s

crane, 7j cream, 55, 7+

dairy products, 66, 74, 145- 4* Darjeeling tea, 139 date, 10, S4-, 136 datura, 48, 87 daylily, 26 ,4 3; buds, 128,167,168 deer, 12, 20, +2,75,183; medical value, 193, 198 deer velvet; hormones in, 198 deforestation, 65,78,109 detoxification o f plants, 86 diarrhea, 191 dietary books, 71, 98 digging sticks, 21 dips. See sauces and dips diversification, 93, 95 Doctrine o f Similarities, 192,194 dogs as food, 10 2 ,14 4 ,14 6 , IJ9, »73, 17s; early use, 10,11, 20, 32; in regional cooidng, 180 -81; medical value, 191 dolichos bean, 82,125 domestication o f animals and plants, 10,11, 12 ,13,20 donkey, 68 double cropping, 20, 62, 93,101 dough skins, 176 dough strips, 54, *8 Douglas, Mary, 194 dove, 84

y L Index

2 fo

draft, military, 40 drake, 19s dried foods, 123,14.1,1+2, tt+, 165, 167 dm iking vessels, 21 drought, 5, 6, 38 drugs, 4+, 45, 48 drying quality o f food. See humoral theory duck, +2, 68, 103, 10 4 ,14 3,14 4 ,16S, 177; pressed cured, 17J; recipe for, 224312 dumpling skins, 164 dumplings, 54,112,130,178,180,182; rice, 115; wheat, 117—sS Durkheim, Emile, is

ever-normal granary system, 62 eye appeal at food, 157

fian Lim, 176

fogara, 42 , 158 famine, 5, 6,13,30,52, 55, 78, Si, 86, 91,109 fin (grain foods), 21 fit ,11 (mugwort), 27 fin (southern barbarian), 80 fin cbkli (tomato), 131 Fan Chung-ven, 60 fin knei Imt (barixirian ghost fellow), 80 Fan Sheng-chili, 38, 40—41, 46, (O f iii- s lm (sweet potato), 121 fiiiff, 70

eagle, [93 earthquakes, 5, 6 ecological deterioration, 59, 65 economic decentralization, 59 edema, 190 education, 71 eel, 141 efficiency, agriculniral, io+—0$, 106 efficiency in cooking, 154,155,183,184 eggplant, 68, 105, 126,130—31,170 CggS, 112, [65, 219 egret, 147,175 elephant, 20 elm, 27, 41 Elvin, Mark, 62, 88 Encyclopedia «», 193 snafcehead fish, 147 sodium'potassium balance, 68 soft drinks, 209,120 SoLmoceous family, 130—31 Solcdd, Ralph, 9 Songs c f the South, 165-66 sopa seat, 113 sorghum, 3,17, 21,64,83, 93,10+; modem use, U 8 - 1 9 , 183 soup, 67,69, in , 128; in regional cooking, 162,172 sour-and-hot soup, 168 sour cream, 66

sourdough starter, 117 souisop, 137 South America, [4 South China, 4 -5 Southeast Asia, 14, 60, 70, iji, i;i, 157, 191 sow thistle, 27, 42 soy saucc, 6 7,113,14 2,15s, 157, 160 soybean, 3, 24, 26, 42, 82, 9 4 , [Q5, 112; wav* o f preparing, [22—24 soybean milk, 165 soybean skin, 164 spades, 21 specialty' cropping, 109 Spence, Jonathan 97 spinach, 53, 68,105,127 spinal cord o f cow, 170, 175 Spirit Cave, Thailand, 13 spoons, [jo, 152, ij3 Spring and Autumn Annals of the State t f Lu, 2J

sprouts, 124,129 squash, 10,126,132,180 squid, 164,174 Ssu-ma Ch’icn, 37, 40 Ssu-min Yueh-iiryj, 4 1-4 2 scar anise. See anise starfruit, [36 starch foods, 67, 118 state, emergence of, 18, 22,106; in Han Dynasty, 45—46; in Sung Dynasty, 62, 64 status and food, 199, 201, 211 steamers, 113 steaming, 13,42,67; in modem use, 112,117, 119 , 142, 153, 163,171 stewing, 113,162,171 stewpots, 42 stir-frying, 4 3 , 55.67, iii, 113, iji, ISA 153, >79 storage o f grain, 8j, 92 Story Hung-ching, 49 7 /m Tc CJritig, 29,155 T ao Yiian-ming (poet), + 8- 49,135 Taoism, 29, 30, 33, 35, S3, 59, 71; drug use in, [40 tapai, 43

tapir, 20 taro, ij, 41,54, 67, 122,159,177,180; desserts, (64; horns, 176 tmtsu 42 tax dodging, 92 tax sy'stems, 13,18, 23, 37, 3®, J2 , 53, 55,107; centralization of, 57; in Sung Dynasty, 61, 62,7+; in Ming Dynasty, 78, 81, 85; in Ch’Lng Dynasty, 91-92 tea, +7, 55, 56, 76,80, no; in Sung Dynasty, 61, 64, 67, 68; modem use, 138-39; buttered, 182 tea monopoly, 59, 61, 68 tea ccremony o f Japan, 157 teapots, 153 tea-seed 82 technology, 77 , 87, 88, 93 , 95 temperatures for cooking, 15+-55, 3, 99, nj, 145,181 thatch, 103, » 4 theobromine, ij8 theophylline, 138 thinly sliced food *5°, 162,168 Thousand Cnuia (Kawabata), 139 Tibet, 5,74, 76, 9i, 169; foods of, 120,139, 145,181,182,184 fiat dm ittit/uj (sweet ferment), u6 tiat-hsin (pastry'), 69 'Pini-kutig K ’ai-wu (Sung Ying-hsing), 81, 82 tiger, 75 am stun, 176, 201

Index

262

rime (length o f) in cooking, 136,154,163 riming in cooking, 156,163,171,172 rt>uj (cubed foods), 177 tissue repair, 192 tobacco, 80,139-40 toddy, S4 tomato, 80, 9+, ips, 131,172, 209 tongue, 147 tonics, 4s, 128,133 tolls, 21, 46, j 9 ,106; Ncolithic, 8, 9,10, is, 2+ topsoii, 106 tortoise, 42,147, sliell of, 20, 22 ton (deaver-likc tool), iso ton (red bean), us tonfii {tofu or bean curd), 6 9 ,123 toil sink, 42 trade, 4,14, is, 16,20, 76, 87; in Sung Dynasty, 60-61,64, 74; in Yuan Dynasty, 73—74. See also sea trade trances, 140 transportation, 109 travelers to China, 54, 64, 66,73, 80, 83, 87, 95

trays, 152 treadle pump, 63 tribute payments, 58, 74 tripe, 69,170 truffles, 133 triw {“dishes to go on rice” ), 21, 67 t’sai (greens), 114,126—28 rrta (seaweeds), 133 tsamba (parched barley), 120,139,182,184 tsao (jujube), 28 ts’ao urn (strawberry), 136 tsao-tzu, 71 £rW (texture o f foods), 155—56, 158 Ts*ui Shih, 41 ts’itng (scallion), 130 tu (poison), concept of, 194-96 tuberculosis, 191

Tughluq, Muhammad bin, 74 tui {motherwort), 27 tun (steam-stewing), 152,154 Tun-huang Oasis, 53 Tun U-ch’en, 204

tuna, 141 t’ung. Si

Tung Chung-shu, 44 trtruj but dttttwt (winter melon poixl), 132 turkey, L+4 turnip, 68, 84, [2S, tjg; greens, 105 tumip oil, 82 turtle, 2 0 ,4 2 , 147, 164 twice-cooked dislies, 154 Twitdiett, Denis, sî typhoons, 5 to« {seeds), 133

tdaiia plums, 96 UmnatnonaùU Cuisine (Schwabe), 148

urbanization, 36, 76 utensils, 149, iso-si, 201

Vcdic tradition, 189 vegetarian cooking, 54, 71, n 8 ,123,160,167, 20}

venereal disease, 19s Vietnam, 10, 29,103,143,156 vinegar, 67, 74,116,156,160,168 \itamins, 106,115,124,130; \iramin C, 105, 131,136,191, 209; vitamin A, 131,191 vodkas, [20,121,175

wadded clothing, 64 wattle iron, 151 walnut, 12, 68, 98,137,168,193 wampec, 136 Wan-li Emperor, 78 jiw; tint (peas), 124 Wang An-shih, S9, 61—62 Wang Chen, 63, 76 Wang Pao (poet), 39 war, 13, 16, 30, 92 Warring States period, in HHvalri, 156,157 wasp, 28 water buffalo, ij, 20,103,143,144 water caltrop, 42

it'In d ex

26i

water chcstnut, 129, 176 water fern, 27, [03 water-lifting devices, 74 water management, 17, 38, 62, 95, 102, 1+9 water pepper, 166 water plantain, 27 water-shield, 27 watercress,

io j ,

won toil soup, [56,167, 176 words describing food, [47,158, 208—09 Wu Ch’ing-tzu, 91, 97-98 Wit, Emperor, 39 Wu Tzu-mu, 67

128,198

watcrlily, i}8 watermelon, 64,157

waxmyttlc, 42, [36 Weber, Max, 87 weeds, [02 Wei Dynasty, 47 Wei River Valley, 10 Wen, Emperor, 37-38, 39 liVN/f irtii, (27 wet/dry energies, 49,189,190. Stt also humoral theory whale, 141; bones of, zt, 22 wheat; *+, 65,80, lot, 104, early use, 3 ,4 —5, 10,17,20, 25,29; modem use, 112, (17-18, 178-79 wlieat Hour, 82,117,118 wheat gemi, 4; wiielk, 141 wliisks, ijo wild game, 11, 42,188 «ild rice, 129 William o f Rubruck, 73 wilkiw, 29

wine, 74-, 98, [20, [+2,157, i9_% grape wine. Si, 137 wine monopoly, 59, 6i winnowing, Si winter melon pond, [72-73 Wittfogel, Karl, 22 wok, 43,151-52; slxjvel for, 150 wolfthom, [2 8 ,19 1,19 8

women, pregnant, 130

ya (sprouts), 129 yak, 5, 181 yak butter, 120 yam, 54, 67, 79, 122 yam bean, 125—26 Yang Q i’ien, ;i, 52 Yang Gnu, 30 ya>ig n iti (apricot or strawberry), 136 Yang-shao culture, 10—n, 19 yang roe (sheep peach), 136 Yang Wan-Li (poet), 70 Yangtze Delta country, io, t6o Yao people, 16, 80,181 yard-long bean, 125 yarrow, 26-27 yeast, jo, 82, (17 Ych-lu Chu-tsai, 74 Yeilotp Em peror’s C lasni o fIntern al M ediant,

44,189 Yellow River, 10, 74, 85 Yen, Isabella, 160,169 yeoman tanning, J 3 yield, agricultural, 39 -4 0 ,5 3,8 1,9 4 ,10 1—02 yin/yang concept, 35, [88,192,195

Tin-ihan Cbagj-yno, 7 5 -7 6 Yin-ibih H itt yao Chih (Chia Ming), 75 yogurt, jo, 55,66, 74 , 14S, 169, i8z

yii (elm), 27 Yiian Dynasty, 72—74, 7S, 76 Yuan Mci (poet), 98 Yiieh Fei (general), s8 Yunnan, 5,139 ,16 9 -7 0