The history of Chinese cuisine is marked by both variety and change. The archaeologist and scholar Kwang-chih Chang says "Chinese people are especially preoccupied with food" and "food is at the center of, or at least it accompanies or symbolizes, many social interactions". Over the course of history, he says, "continuity vastly outweighs change." He explains basic organizing principles which go back to earliest times and give a continuity to the food tradition, principally that a normal meal is made up of a plant based products consisting of grains, starch () vegetables (菜; cài) and/or fish (鱼; yú) based dishes with very little red meat (红肉; hóngròu) consumption.Chang Kwang-chih (ed.) Food in Chinese Culture: Anthropological and Historical Perspectives, pp. 15–20. Yale Univ. Press (New Haven, Connecticut), 1977.
Overview The Sinologist Endymion Wilkinson has highlighted a succession of incremental and successive changes that fundamentally altered the "richness of ever-changing Chinese cuisine":
The expansion of Han culture from the upland stretches of the Yellow River across a huge and expanding geographical area with climate zones ranging from the tropical to the subarctic, each providing new ingredients and indigenous cooking traditions; An elaborate but continually developing traditional medicine which saw food as the basis of good health ("Food was medicine and medicine, food"); Constantly shifting demands from elites – beginning with the imperial courts and provincial governors but eventually expanding to include rich landowners, "scholar-gourmands", and itinerant merchants – for specialised cuisines, however far away from home; and Continuous absorption of diverse foreign influences, including the ingredients, cooking methods, and recipes from invading steppe nomads, European missionaries, and Japanese traders.
The philosopher and writer Lin Yutang was more relaxed:
How a Chinese life glows over a good feast! How apt is he to cry out that life is beautiful when his stomach and his intestines are well filled! From this well-filled stomach suffuses and radiates a happiness that is spiritual. The Chinese relies upon instinct and his instinct tells him that when the stomach is right, everything is right. That is why I claim for the Chinese a life closer to instinct and a philosophy that makes a more open acknowledgment of it possible.Lin Yutang. The Importance of Living, p. 46. John Day (New York), 1937. Also quoted in Sterckx, Roel. Of Tripod and Palate: Food, Politics, and Religion in Traditional China, p. 6. Palgrave Macmillan (New York), 2005.
Chinese cuisine as we now know evolved gradually over the centuries as new food sources and techniques were introduced, discovered, or invented. Although many of the characteristics we think of as the most important appeared very early, others did not appear or did not become important until relatively late. The first chopsticks, for instance, were probably used for cooking, stirring the fire, and serving bits of food and were not initially used as eating utensils. They began to take on this role during the Han dynasty, but it was not until the Ming that they became ubiquitous for both serving and eating. It was not until the Ming that they acquired their present name (, kuaizi) and their present shape. The wok may also have been introduced during the Han, but again its initial use was limited (to drying grains) and its present use (to stir-fry, as well as boiling, steaming, roasting, and deep-frying) did not develop until the Ming.Wilkinson, Endymion. Chinese History: A Manual, pp. 646–47. Harvard Univ. Press (Cambridge, Mass.), 2000. The Ming also saw the adoption of new plants from the New World, such as maize, peanuts, and tobacco. Wilkinson remarks that to "somebody brought up on late twentieth century Chinese cuisine, Ming food would probably still seem familiar, but anything further back, especially pre-Tang would probably be difficult to recognize as 'Chinese'".
The "Silk Road" is the conventional term for the routes through Central Asia linking the Iranian plateau with western China; along this trade route passed exotic foodstuffs that greatly enlarged the potential for Chinese cuisines, only some of which preserve their foreign origin in the radical for "foreign" that remains in their name. "It would surprise many Chinese cooks to know that some of their basic ingredients were originally foreign imports," Frances Wood observes. "Sesame, peas, onions, coriander from Bactria, and cucumber were all introduced into China from the West during the Han dynasty".Wood, Frances. The Silk Road: Two Thousand Years in the Heart of Asia, p. 59. 2002.
Classifications
Not long after the expansion of the Chinese Empire during the Qin dynasty, Han writers noted the great differences in culinary practices among the different parts of their realm. These differences followed to a great extent the varying climates and availabilities of foodstuffs in China. Many writers tried their hands at classification, but since internal political boundaries over the centuries did not coincide with shifting cultural identities, there was no way to establish clear-cut or enduring classifications or ranking of foods and cooking styles. Different ethnic groups might occupy only small areas, but their cuisines were included in systematic lists from early on. Certain broad categorizations are useful, however:
Northern and southern cuisine
The primary and earliest distinction was between the earlier settled and relatively arid North China Plain and the rainier hill country south of the Yangtze River which were incorporated into the Chinese empire much later. First canals and now railroads and highways have blurred the distinction, but it remains true that rice predominates in southern cuisine and flour products (principally various noodles and dumplings) in the north.Kansas Asia Scholars. "Regional Chinese Cuisine ".
Four Schools The "Four Schools" refers to Shandong's (called after its former polity of Lu), Jiangsu's (called Yang after its most famous branch), Cantonese (called after its former polity of Yue), and Sichuan's (abbreviated to Chuan) cuisines.
The cooking styles of other areas was then arranged as branches of these four:
Lu (Shandong) Yang (Su) Yue (Guangdong/Cantonese) Chuan (Sichuan)Beijing cuisine Imperial Aristocrat Tianjin (Jin) Northeastern Liao Shanxi (Jin)Huaiyang Anhui (Hui) Shanghai (Hu) Zhejiang (Zhe) Henan (Yu) Hubei (E)Chiuchow (Chaozhou) Hakka (Kejia) Fujian (Min) Hainan (Qiong) Hong Kong MacaneseGuizhou (Qian) Hunan (Xiang) Jiangxi (Gan) Shaanxi (Qin) Yunnan (Dian)
Eight Schools Eventually, four of these branches were recognized as distinct Chinese schools themselves: Hunan's cuisine (called Xiang for its local river), Fujian's (called Min for its native people), Anhui's (abbreviated as Hui), and Zhejiang's (abbreviated as Zhe).
History
Neolithic Although no reliable written sources document this era of Chinese history, archaeologists are sometimes able to make deductions about food preparation and storage based on site excavations. Sometimes artifacts and (very rarely) actual preserved foodstuffs are discovered. In October 2005, the oldest noodles yet discovered were located at the Lajia site near the upper reaches of the Yellow River in Qinghai. The site has been associated with the Qijia culture. Over 4,000 years old, the noodles were made from foxtail and broomcorn millet.BBC. "Oldest Noodles Unearthed in China". 12 October 2005.Chinapage. "Ancient sites in China ".
Early dynastic times Legendary accounts of the introduction of agriculture by Shennong credit him for first cultivating the "Five Grains", although the lists vary and very often include seeds like hemp and sesameSong, pp. 3–4. principally used for oils and flavoring. The list in the Classic of Rites comprises soybeans, wheat, broomcorn and foxtail millet, and hemp. The Ming encyclopedist Song Yingxing properly noted that rice was not counted among the Five Grains cultivated by Shennong because southern China had not yet been settled or cultivated by the Han, but many accounts of the Five Grains do place rice on their lists.
Han dynasty The most common staple crops consumed during the Han dynasty were wheat, barley, rice, foxtail and broomcorn millet, and beans.Wang (1982), 52. Commonly eaten fruits and vegetables included chestnuts, pears, plums, peaches, melons, apricots, red bayberries, jujubes, calabash, bamboo shoots, mustard greens, and taro.Wang (1982), 53 & 206. Domesticated animals that were also eaten included chickens, Mandarin ducks, pigs, geese, sheep, camels, and dogs. Turtles and fish were taken from streams and lakes. The owl, pheasant, magpie, sika deer, and Chinese bamboo partridge were commonly hunted and consumed.Wang (1982), 57–58. Seasonings included sugar, honey, salt and soy sauce.Hansen (2000), 119–121. Beer and yellow wine were regularly consumed,Wang (1982), 206; Hansen (2000), 119. although baijiu was not available until much later.
During the Han dynasty, Chinese developed methods of food preservation for military rations during campaigns such as drying meat into jerky and cooking, roasting, and drying grain.
Chinese legends claim that the roasted, flat bread was brought back from the Xiyu (the Western Regions, a name for Central Asia) by the Han dynasty General Ban Chao, and that it was originally known as barbarian pastry (). The is believed to be descended from the . Shaobing is believed to be related to the Persian and Central Asian naan and the Near Eastern pita. Central Asians made and sold sesame cakes in China during the Tang dynasty.
By the time of the Han dynasty, the different regions (which were not completely unified previously just after the end of Qin dynasty) and cuisines of China's people were linked by major canals and leading to greater complexity in the different regional cuisines. Not only is food seen as giving "qi", energy, but the food is also about maintaining yin and yang. ... food was judged for color, aroma, taste, and texture and a good meal was expected to balance the Four Natures ('hot', warm, cool, and 'cold') and the Five Tastes (pungent, sweet, sour, bitter, and salty). Salt was used as a preservative from early times, but in cooking was added in the form of soy sauce, and not at the table.
Southern and Northern dynasties During the Northern and Southern dynasties non-Han people like the Xianbei of Northern Wei introduced their cuisine to northern China, and these influences continued up to the Tang dynasty, popularizing meat like mutton and dairy products like goat milk, yogurts, and kumis among even Han people. It was during the Song dynasty that Han Chinese developed an aversion to dairy products and abandoned the dairy foods introduced earlier. The Han Chinese rebel Wang Su, who received asylum in the Xianbei Northern Wei after fleeing from Southern Qi, at first could not stand eating dairy products like goat's milk and meat like mutton and had to consume tea and fish instead, but after a few years he was able to eat yogurt and lamb, and the Xianbei Emperor asked him which of the foods of China (Zhongguo) he preferred, fish versus mutton and tea versus yogurt.. 280 recipes are found in the Jia Sixie's text the Qimin Yaoshu.
Tang dynasty