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Ancient Chinese Food
Chinese food is popular all over the world, from big hotels and cities to even the
small town corners, Chinese food has a presence everywhere! You can credit the
ancient Chinese food culture for presenting to the world, a cuisine that is full of flavor,
aroma, and color along with all the wisdom of cooking methods acquired over a long
period of time that goes back to about 5000 years!
Lao Tzu, the Chinese philosopher who lived in the 6th century BC and is
considered the founder of Taoism, said, 'Governing a great nation is much like cooking
a small fish'. What he meant was, in order to govern successfully, one required just
the right adjustments and seasonings. This metaphorical allusion to food illustrates
quite clearly how important getting the right combination has always been in Chinese
cuisine.
Culinary History of Chinese Food
Food has always been an important aspect of Chinese culture and its delightful
culinary history dates back to about 5000 years. It has evolved with its flavor and
cooking methods ever since. And over this vast period of time, the Chinese have
developed and mastered a complex system of preparing food, such as identifying
ingredients that make compatible combinations; making use of cooking techniques
that are multi-phased such as first steaming and then deep-frying or stir frying, then
boiling; and administering multi-phased flavoring like marinating between the stages
of roasting, or after steaming, or before stir frying. Chinese culture has always
considered food as an art, and emphasis has always been laid on the culinary
techniques, preparation, serving and appreciation of food.
Flavor, Aroma, and Color
Carefully imbibing Confucianism and Taoism, the Chinese always laid a lot of
emphasis on satisfying the olfactory, visual, as well as the gustatory senses, which
they do by giving equal importance to incorporating aroma, color, and flavor. They
usually have a combination of 3-5 colors, which are chosen from ingredients that are
caramel, black, white, yellow, red, dark green, and green in color. Typically, a
vegetable and meat dish is cooked using one principle ingredient and then including
2-3 ingredients of secondary importance which have contrasting colors. It is then
prepared according to ancient methods of cooking, adding sauces and seasonings,
resulting in an aesthetic dish full of aroma, color and flavor.
Ancient Methods of Cooking Chinese Food
Some of the main methods of cooking are pan-frying, flash-frying, deep-frying,
steaming, stewing, and stir-frying. Since the Chinese always knew that the fragrant
aroma of a dish whets the appetite, they used various flavoring agents like black,
dried Chinese mushrooms, sesame oil, pepper, cinnamon, star anise, wine, chili
peppers, garlic, fresh ginger, and scallions.
One of the most important aspects of cooking any dish was to preserve the natural,
fresh flavor, and remove all unwanted game or fish odors, which ginger and scallion
served to do. Ingredients like vinegar, sugar, and soy sauce were used to enhance the
richness of a dish without smothering the natural flavors.
Major Influences on Chinese Cuisine
Food is not only what we eat, but also how we make it and eat it. There have been
two major belief systems that influenced the lives of ordinary citizens in more ways
than one, even affecting the way food ingredients were used and how people cooked
and served their food. This influence can be seen even today.
Confucianism
Confucius emphasized the importance of enjoyment and harmony in the food culture.
He believed that the art of cooking was more than just food, and espoused certain
combination of tastes and textures and introduced culinary etiquette, use of color and
aroma in enhancing the presentation of a dish while also maintaining the integrity of
individual food items. A widely followed etiquette was having no knives on the table,
whose need could be eliminated by preparing food in small bite-sized pieces. Another
widely followed etiquette was sharing food with friends and family which was
considered to contribute towards peace and harmony in society. These beliefs and
etiquette are widely followed even to this day.
Taoism
Taoism laid greater stress on the nutritional and medicinal value of different plants,
fungus, herbs, vegetables, seeds and roots. It emphasized on the need to study the
various medicinal properties that different foods render, and prepare dishes
accordingly. This gave way to an enriching Chinese cuisine that is low-calorie and lowfat. Poly-unsaturated oils were and are used for cooking, while milk, cream, butter
and cheese are avoided.
In ancient Chinese cooking, a well-made dish would be hot and spicy for those with a
penchant for piquancy; sweetish for people with a predilection towards sweet flavor;
for those with a preference for blander tasting food it would not be over-spiced; and
for those who revel in strong flavors it would be rich. The Chinese were of the opinion
that if a dish comprised all these features and satisfied all these tastes, it was indeed
a successful piece of art!
Foods of Ancient China
Agriculture has played an important role in China's history. The political, economical,
social and ideological developments in China revolve around and are influenced by
agricultural practices in the ancient period, subsequently; agricultural produce became
the staple of the ancient Chinese.
Rice
Archaeological findings indicate that rice was the first grain cultivated in China, at
least 3000 to 4000 years ago. The earliest records of rice plantings in China (and the
world), seeds of long-grained, non-glutinous rice were discovered from the Neolithic
ruins at Hemudu in Yuyao, Zhejiang Province in the 1970s. Hence, the traditional
Chinese culture is also referred to as the 'rice culture'. Inscriptions on the bronze
vessels used as rice containers during the western Zhou Dynasty (1100 BC To 771
BC) show that rice had become extremely important during that time. With the
growing developments in agriculture, rice cultivation started affecting Chinese
economy positively, and it started gaining a revered position in the form of daily diet,
sacrifice to gods, brewing it into wine and preparing different rice dishes that went on
to become traditional dishes at Chinese festivities. Poor people could not afford meat
and fruits. It was only during occasions that they managed to have meat on their rice.
Tea
Tea is said to be growing in China from as early as 3000 BC, or even before. People in
China had started brewing tea since such an early period, that it is referred to as it
traditional beverage.
Wheat
Wheat was not a native grain of China. It was around 1500 BC, during the Shang
Dynasty, that people in China first ate wheat. It was brought from West Asia. Wheat
was boiled like millet to make the cream of wheat.
Fruits
Orange, lemon, peach and apricot were available in abundance and hence find
mention in ancient Chinese food history. Anise and ginger are also native to China.
Meat
People in China first started eating domesticated chicken around 5500 BC, which
originally came from Thailand. Between 4000 and 3000 BC, pork made way as a
delicacy. Sheep and cattle came from West Asia during 4000 BC. Since meat was
expensive, the poor could not afford it. Buddhists did not eat meat. Hence, as a
source of protein, people started using tofu and bean curd around 1000 AD in the
reign of the Sung Dynasty.
Millet Wine and Noodles
These two food products became popular during the Han Dynasty. Millet wine gained
popularity over tea during this time. Around 100 AD, people began to make long
noodles out of wheat and rice.
Porridge
As recorded by Marco Polo, in his writings, people in China started eating porridge
made out of boiled millet in milk during the time of Kublai Khan, around 1200 AD.
Cooking Styles
Dating back to the 7th century BC, ancient Chinese food can be divided roughly into
the Northern and the Southern style of cooking. Generally, Northern Chinese dishes
tend to be oily, although they are not cloyingly so, and garlic and vinegar flavoring are
more pronounced. Northern Chinese food also includes a lot of pasta; some of the
favorite flour-based treats being steamed bread; fried meat dumplings; steamed
stuffed buns; dumplings resembling ravioli; and noodles. The best known cooking
styles of Northern Chinese food are perhaps the methods used in Shantung, Tientsin,
and Peking. An elaborately made stuffed chicken symbolizes the Chinese wish for
satiation and plenitude.
Some of the distinguishing Southern styles of cooking are Hunan and Szechuan
cuisine which are well-known for the liberal utilization of chili peppers; the Chekiang
and Kiangsu styles of cooking with their emphasis on tenderness and freshness; and
Cantonese cuisine which has a tendency of being a little sweet and includes a lot of
variety. Rice as well as rice products like rice cake, rice congee, and rice noodles
usually accompany Southern main dishes.
Ancient Chinese Farming:
Ancient Chinese farming is older than 10,000 years. Amongst all the civilizations of
the world, the Chinese civilization is the oldest to cultivate rice. A major part of the
land is not suitable for rice cultivation.
They could only cultivate rice on 10% of the land. Therefore, Ancient China Farming
was formulated to yield maximum results. The Method Of Row Crop Farming:
This is one of the methods of farming in ancient China. Seeds are planted in rows
rather than following other methods of sowing like scattering the seeds. This
facilitated the ancient farmers to irrigate the fields easily and derive maximum yield of
crops. Irrigation Control Technique: Rice has always been the staple Chinese food.
Rice requires a lot of water for its growth. So, irrigation and wet farming methods
were vital parts of ancient Chinese farming.
The Dujjangyan irrigation system was built as an ancient farming technique. It is so
effective and strong that it survives even till today. It is so fascinating a structure that
several people gather to see this place year after year. It had been constructed for
more than 2,200 years ago.
This dam was built to control the floods of the Minijiang River. Even until the present
day, this dam lets water as well as aquatic life to pass through. Most of the modern as
innovative dams restrict the flow of water. The Farming Tools: The Chinese people used some of the most efficient farming
tools, which made their farming so successful. Iron plows became improved in their
designs and efficiency. This took place at around the third century BC. The casting
techniques improved and also the availability of iron doubled in the markets. The new
design of plowshares was also known as kuan.
The other countries like Greece and Rome were quite backward when compared to
China. They were still stuck at primitive tools whereas China had progressed so much.
The iron plows brought a lot of facilities to the Chinese. Seeds could be sown much
easily with them in the furrows. Another important tool used by the ancient
Chinese in agriculture was the waterwheel. Grains were grinded with the help of
waterpower. In the 2nd century BC, China was much more dependent on waterpower
for the purpose of milling its grains than any other western countries of the world.