The meaning of food:

gourmet

This is the case with the gourmets written by writer Lu, who knows the local food like the back of his hand. Where there are new foods, they are bound to arrive soon; Their evaluation of food is just right.

First of all, it needs to be explained that the "gourmets" we are talking about here are gourmets who aim at a wide range of foods, that is, food in the sense of "diet", rather than professionals who are limited to "food"-narrow dishes and pasta, cakes and so on. Unlike gourmets whose job is to fill their stomachs and those whose purpose is to explain the esophagus and food theory, gourmets are people who appreciate food from art and aesthetics with a happy attitude towards life and engage in the exploration of ideal food. The main purpose of gluttons is to pursue and satisfy material desires, while gourmets focus on understanding and theoretical induction. Gourmets not only have rich and vivid food practice and material enjoyment, but also have profound and unique experience and artistic consciousness. They are the explorers and creators of the beauty of diet life in which matter and spirit, physiology and psychology live in harmony. There are countless gourmets in the history of China-most of them belong to this category, and there are many gourmets, but few people can really be called gourmets. "People don't know the taste until they eat it" (Book of Rites, The Doctrine of the Mean, Volume 31, Volume 52), which is true. Of course, this does not mean how successful a grain grower is, nor does it mean how unattainable a gourmet's job or business is. The fact is simple: "the knower has passed, but the fool has not"; Or "people who go up and down the beach" have passed, and they are not as unscrupulous as they are. "(The Book of Rites, The Doctrine of the Mean, Volume 52) Those with high intellectual interest are not here, but lightly! In the era when Confucius and Mencius' thought of food restriction dominated social concepts, the dietary behavior of the upper class often deviated from its dietary remarks. How can we expect those "knowledgeable" and "intelligent" people to take care of this matter? By the same token, those who are "fools" and "unworthy" are of course incompetent because of economic poverty or poor education, and once they are expected to surpass the boundary of "knowing only above and being foolish below" set by saints or social obstacles (The Analects of Yang Huo, Volume XVII), they will all rise to the status of "knowing" and "saints" without exception.

The historical fact is that only in the Tang Dynasty (6 18 ~ 907), when spiritual freedom, ideological democracy and cultural prosperity were far greater than any previous historical era, and the historical achievements of science and technology and economic and social reserves (mainly in the fields of grain production and food life) made new progress and development, did individual "learned" and "sages" in the intellectual circle begin to pay attention to grain with a healthy and normal attitude. In other words, the social conditions for producing gourmets are only preliminary. Before that, people who were famous for their food could only be called gourmets at most, or they belonged to the gluttonous category.

From the mid-Tang Dynasty to the mid-Qing Dynasty (the historical peak of the development of China's ancient food culture), the appearance and quantity of gourmets, as a form of historical and cultural expression, gradually increased in the horizontal direction, while in the vertical direction, their thoughts gradually deepened and their aesthetic taste gradually improved. From the practical field and aesthetic object, it generally shows the logical order of drinking tea first, then drinking, and finally eating for food. This is because, from the establishment of tea affairs norms after the middle Tang Dynasty to the exquisiteness of tea tasting in the later period, Chinese tea art has been vividly displayed; Although wine has a long history, distilled liquor, as one of the important varieties, didn't become a social habit until the Yuan Dynasty, mainly because of the preference of bitter wine nobles, so the time process of fully showing the cultural form of wine was later than that of tea. As for the traditional cooking culture, its content is relatively complex, involving the full development of raw materials, the corresponding development of tools and technologies, the expansion of finished products, and the comprehensive culture of banquet activities. It was fully released after the heyday of the middle Tang Dynasty, the Song Dynasty and the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Therefore, although the eating activity of delicious food with calorie intake and basic nutrition as its main functions (according to the historical development process) occurred the earliest and was also the most important in life, the full development of its nutritional examination did not begin until the middle of Qing Dynasty. The mature order of the above three is the historical logic of the operation of food culture, regardless of grade.

(A) the concept of tea

Tea, as far as people's health and survival are concerned, is by no means a necessity. Before there was food and drink, the ancestors of the Chinese nation had lived a colorful life, even a great and heroic life. After tea enters people's society and daily life, quite a few people miss it. As we said in the sixth chapter, the gradual popularization of tea in regions, nationalities and people has a historical and gradual time process. Among them, there are not only factors such as value recognition, habit formation and custom infection, but also factors such as consumption tolerance. For ordinary citizens who are worried about their stomachs, tea is a luxury, and drinking tea is regarded as an unnecessary and wasteful hobby. However, this does not affect the development of tea art and tea thought. This is the historical and cultural development in the hierarchical era, and art and thought are alienated from the public. Being used is not necessary for life, but may be entertaining, playful, exquisite and artistic; It is precisely because they belong to the leisure class first and cannot become the public that they can be artistic in the cultural atmosphere of intellectuals and leave their own thoughts.

A gourmet of tea affairs is not a tea lover or an ordinary tea drinker who only takes tea as a service, but a person who can make tea affairs go beyond the level of market pop culture on the basis of physiological needs and processes, and carry out creative appraisal, appreciation and thinking. Instead, the unfair technical operators of tea affairs must be skillful in artistry and enter an artistic conception of doing whatever they want and thinking in the control of tea affairs procedures. Tea men in the history of China mainly refer to "Jiake" tea men among literati and "Master" tea men among Buddhists. At the same time, these two kinds of people are interlinked in spirit, and form and spirit are corresponding. "Jiake" knows more or less about Buddhism and Zen. Most "masters" are good at poetry and writing. This is undoubtedly the historical result of the integration of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. The tea affairs of the guests are flowing, ingenious, poised and full of charm, which fully embodies a kind of "elegance"; Form, manners and artistic conception are elegant from the outside to the inside and from beginning to end; Jiake people not only try their best to embody the elegance of various external images, but also deliberately pursue the ultimate elegance. It is indeed the principle and basic cultural feature of Jiake's tea thought to clear the heart and relieve worries, express feelings through tea friends and pursue sexual interest through tea music. Obviously, the direction of their tea affair and the core of their thinking are Yang Lie's social function and spiritual result in personality cultivation, but not material satisfaction. The physical and chemical properties of tea have nothing to do with the cultural effect of the drinker, but the cultural effect is undoubtedly the emotional consciousness of the drinker and a great release of the traditional psychology and cultural accomplishment of China scholars.

Excellent Buddhist tea people, that is, what we call tea teachers, although not as many as Jiake tea people, do not seem to be below the latter. This is because a Zen advocates that words are spoken, merits are realized, and words are not used to watch kung fu (stories are not easy to publicize and pass down from generation to generation); Second, "learning Zen is for insomnia, so I don't eat at night, so I am allowed to drink tea." Tea is a tool of Zen, and drinking tea is accompanied by the process of Zen. "Tea Buddha blindly", there should be many people who get the word. Needless to say, Cha Sheng Lu Yu (733 ~ 804) was also a semi-translator, and his samadhi in tea ceremony was also related to Buddhism. Yuan Zhen (779 ~ 83 1)' One-character to Seven-character Poetry: Tea' clearly shows this relationship:

tea

Fragrant leaves, buds.

Poets love monks.

Grinding and carving white jade, Luo Zhihong yarn.

Stir-fry the yellow core and turn the bowl into dust.

Invite the bright moon after night, and light the morning glow before morning.

Wash away the tireless people of ancient and modern times, and you will be praised when you are drunk.

("All Tang Poems" Volume 423)

"Worship poetry and love monks" clearly and accurately reveals the historical fact that tea gourmets are basically composed of Jiake tea people and tea affairs, and shows the relationship between tea and Buddhism. Although tea leaves Yunnan along the Yangtze River after the Han Dynasty and is popularized in the Yangtze River valley, it is not necessarily the first time to enter Buddhist temples, but it is an indisputable fact that the increasing popularity of tea is related to the example of Buddhists. From the Southern and Northern Dynasties (420 ~ 589), a large number of Buddhist tea men appeared, which was closely related to the rise and fall of tea fashion in China until the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Jiao Ran, a famous poet and tea artist in the Tang Dynasty (about 760 years ago) wrote "Drinking Tea as a Prince of Cui Shi", which can quite represent the thoughts of generations:

The Vietnamese left me the tea from Tunxi (a mountain) and got the Golden Bud Jinding. Pure magnetic snow is pale green (floating) and fragrant, how like a fairy in nectar.

After a drink, you will feel sleepy, and your feelings will come (an idea) and refreshing (a hearty) will fly all over the sky.

Drink my god again, and suddenly it's like rain, wine and dust.

After three drinks, you will get the word. Why bother?

This is especially true of lofty ignorance. People drink too much (as disciples) and deceive themselves. Sorrow (good) watching Bi Zhuo urn night, laughing at Tao Qian fence.

Cui Hou took a sip of his crazy song.

Who knows that the tea ceremony is all true, only Dan Qiu did it. ("All Tang Poems" Volume 821) The pursuit and face of ordinary tea people are full; The exclamation of "lofty ignorance" has surpassed the level of ordinary tea people; To know the whole truth of tea ceremony by three drinks, that is, to realize nothingness and emptiness, is to completely forget the dust and get rid of vulgar thoughts. Not only that, but he also made a higher and more permanent plan: "Dan Qiu is lighter than jade food and takes the wings of tea." All the Tibetan immortals know this world, but the rigid Yungong people don't. "(Tang Shi Jiao Ran's Tea Song to Zheng Ke", the poet quoted the words in Tiantai Collection: "Dan Qiu is famous for his clothes. Full Tang Poetry (82 1 volume) is helpful to the process of tea power and tea affairs, and achieves the effect of focused, secure and clear psychological control and artistic conception creation. This is exactly what the tea man is actually looking for. For example, Tang Shi Lingyi's "Drinking Tea with Qingshan Lake in Yuan Dynasty" describes: "Fireworks and white clouds around the spring, sitting and drinking fragrant tea love this mountain. The boat under the rock can't bear to go, Qingxi. "(The Complete Poems of Tang Dynasty, Volume 899) When I was in my hands, my body was like a still life, and my thoughts, like smoke, had faded into the sky. This quiet state of mind fading into nature is a prelude to Zen thinking, and the drizzle at night is looming; Dinggu whispered softly, as if speechless: "Nice to meet you, I'll open wild guest tea. "Dongjing sunrise leaves, Beishan bamboo shoots. Slow fire tastes better than cold spring. Throw a sonorous foam and hold a bowl to pick flowers. Stay close to the Zen Sutra, chat and sleep, and get online credit ... "(Interpretation of Jiao Ran's Drinking Tianmushan Tea for Lu Xun, Living in the Land, and Poems of the Tang Dynasty (Volume 8 18)" You must be mindful and reflect thousands of sources. " (Interpretation of Jiao Ran's Zen Poems and Poems of the Tang Dynasty (Volume 820)) "Why not be empty, why not waste your body; Silence is not silence, and the noise never rings. Zen in the world is not the theory of a wise man. " (Interpretation of Jiao Ran's Zen Thoughts and Poems of the Tang Dynasty, Volume 820) Life, secularism, the universe, Buddhism and Zen machine are all released freely with the fragrance of Youyou Spring, and let it develop. The effect of Buddhism and Zen is naturally realized in a pot of dry Kun. Although as described by Lu Rong (1436 ~ 1494), they are still in the world of mortals, holding a sigh: "The wind in the south of the Yangtze River is a monk's house, and the fragrant stone in the bamboo is fragrant. Famous monks in France and Tibet know better, and they are full of tobacco, alcohol and tea. " (Ming Lurong's "Send Tea Monk", "Poetry of Past Dynasties and Poetry of Ming People", Episode C, Episode 6)

(B) the idea of drinking wine

The idea of gourmet drinking is not the view that ordinary drinkers are addicted to hobbies. Wine gourmets are experts in wine tasting skills and drinking art; The purpose of their drinking is to help people entertain and express their feelings, overcome their worries, be polite, friendly and ambitious through the taste and function of wine. The natural properties of wine and tea are quite different. Wine and drinks are generally drinks for banquets or side dishes, while tea and drinks are usually sake (tea and food are not accompanied by each other, nor are they almost eaten and drunk with other things in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties), so people who indulge in wine in a better life are far more addicted to tea. In history, countless people were ruined, immoral, lost, injured and caused trouble because of alcohol; Comparatively speaking, it is a basic historical fact that wine is turbid and tea is clear. Therefore, for thousands of years, forbidding "pan" and abstinence "yi" have always been the first essence of wine thought. A very noteworthy historical phenomenon is that researchers who have thought deeply and praised wine throughout the ages are almost all people who drink a lot. This is undoubtedly because they have no material desires, so they are not hurt by the anesthesia and harmful effects of alcohol. It is precisely because wine is a favorite that easily violates etiquette, so a keynote of wine ceremony and drinking thought in past dynasties is "abstinence"-abstinence, not abstinence, or restraint and prevention. Numerous wine poems through the ages vividly reflect this ideological direction:

"The gentleman said: wine is a gift, not a prostitute, but also righteousness." (Twenty-two Years of the Spring and Autumn Period Zuo Zhuan and Zhuang Gong) A ceremonial banquet is an essential wine. As the saying goes, "no wine, no joy", but it should be moderate. Crossing the border is against etiquette and unfair. This is a gift wine.

"If appropriate, drink some wine and grow old together. The harp is in the palace, so it is very quiet. " The conjunctions of newlyweds express their sweetness and satisfaction with their beautiful family life. They are typical wine to entertain and express their feelings.

"Look from the state, you can't pay for wine. How can pedestrians comfort me when they walk to the road? Unique wine, take your son for a rainy day. " (Shen Qing Deqian's "Ancient Poetry Source Han Poetry" Volume 2, the original Li Ling's "Poetry with Su Wu" is the second of three, but it is not Su Li's work, and it should be in the late Eastern Han Dynasty. ) This poem by China is full of sadness and sadness, feelings of parting and friendship. Cao Mengde (155 ~ 220) wrote: "What is life like singing to wine? For example, morning dew is much more difficult to go to Japan. Be generous and unforgettable. How to solve the problem, only Du Kang! " (The History of the Three Kingdoms, Cao Cao's Short Songs, Ancient Poetry Source and Wei Poetry, Volume 5) is even more famous for his poems about relieving worries and worrying about wine. Zuo si (? ~ 306 years or so) "Drinking Yan City in Jing Ke, full of wine and benefiting from the earthquake. Sigh, drifting away, indicating that there is no one nearby. Although there is no day when a strong man breaks his wrist, it is very different from this world. Look forward to the four seas and be proud. Although you are expensive, you regard it as dust. Although the humble laugh at themselves, it is as heavy as a thousand miles. " On the occasion of Jin Dynasty, Zuo Si's Eight Poems on Epics (six poems) and Ancient Poems of Jin Dynasty (seven poems) are representative songs of lofty sentiments and wine, full of vigor and vitality.

The idea of drinking in ancient restaurants in China is to try to build wine into an artistic way of life, in which they can enjoy themselves and be satisfied with the feeling of wine interest. Dong Qichang (1555 ~ 1636), a great calligrapher in the late Ming dynasty, said: "Everyone is drunk in ignorance, both of them are drunk in nirvana, and the great sage can drink less than chaos." (Preface to Dong Qichang's Drunk Top in the late Ming Dynasty) It is still a category of abstinence, and its best state should be "doing what you want from your heart and not overstepping the rules" (The Analects of Confucius, Policy II, Volume II).

(c) ideas about meals

In a narrow sense, food refers to exquisite drinking food, and in many cases it only refers to food-delicious food; Therefore, in a narrow sense, gourmets, that is, people who have a special liking for the quality appraisal of dishes and food and are good at art, have an obvious hedonic tendency compared with the enjoyment of food and wine because a flat diet is the need of human survival, so it is easy to rise and become an independent art way. Historically, it has been placed in the position of satisfying hunger and palatability, but it is considered to be a luxury and vulgar "nurturing small" addicted to the mouth. Because of this, the deeds of such gourmets almost never leave a full and fair affirmative account in one's past literary history. Tea people are elegant and chic, and wine people are romantic and heroic. Movies in which they can express their happiness freely and wantonly are depicted in various history books with appreciation. They can also enjoy themselves and express their feelings without scruple. However, gourmets are not so lucky. For them, the history of at least 2000 years is unfair. People who pay attention to the dining table with different mentality and vision are indiscriminately classified as gourmets and despised as "villains".

There is no doubt that gourmets do not belong to the unprecedented working masses in China. The fact that the latter do not have enough to eat and the highest ideal of eating need make them belong to different levels and different cultural categories. Therefore, such gourmets in the history of China are in an awkward social position: because of the great differences in life reality and concepts, they have nothing to do with the food concepts of most members of the well-off and well-off society, and because the gourmets above the middle level of society indulge their materialistic desires while expressing insincere opinions and differential treatment, they have become bats in the ideological field in the history of food culture in China. Ruling groups of past dynasties and those gentlemen who are true and false are opposed in concept, criticizing the phenomenon of being too particular and rich at the dinner table in public speeches, which is just the opposite of the real life of many of them; What they can't tolerate most is those remarks other than diet and health preservation. They think that these remarks are not only meaningless, but even immoral. Because "giving priority to agriculture is the * * * economic feature of clans and tribes in the vast areas that China has gradually formed naturally as early as the early historical period" (see my book "Planting millet and domesticating pigs and dogs-the occurrence of primitive agriculture and animal husbandry in China", see "On the History of China"), more and more people are crowded on limited land for food, which has been the basic national condition of China since its founding. Because of this, the people's greatest wish is to eat enough, and the managers' initial hope is undoubtedly that their people can eat enough. The ruled and the ruler show a high degree of consistency on this issue, although their interests and starting points are so inconsistent. As a result, both of them showed a high degree of persistence in rejecting the opinions of foodies and denying the necessity of their existence. Therefore, in the history of Chinese cuisine for thousands of years, the status of gourmets was suppressed and their voices were excluded. This is one of the important reasons why the number of foods that are obviously uncoordinated with the historical development of food culture is very small and the sound is weak, and it is also one of the important reasons that restrict the full and healthy development of historical food culture. But the flash of their thoughts can not be ignored, because their thoughts are one of the important forces to break through the traditional conservative concept of eating and living only to meet physiological needs and correct all kinds of extravagant winds and unhealthy trends. Before modern scientific civilization, gourmet thought was one of the main symbols representing the historical development level of national food culture, and it was also an important symbol of national civilization, courtesy and healthy life.

According to the written records from the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Han Dynasty, the banquet level of the upper class was good, the food was expensive, and the requirements for dishes and dishes were mainly rich, that is, the number of products-"before the abbot eats", and the amount of materials used was large-mostly whole or large animal raw materials for barbecue and cooking; Then, after entering the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, more and more attention was paid to the refinement of production technology and finished products. Of course, the following sub-forms and negative effects also appear: the luxury of style has become the luxury of curiosity. The main reason for this historical change in cultural style is undoubtedly the progress of cooking tools and technologies based on experience, mainly the revolutionary role played by tools such as pot and frying technology in the modeling of dishes (mainly dishes) and the changes in people's habits (basically upper class). This transitional change has become the basic style of social diet and cuisine and the dietary cultural tradition of the upper class of the nation in the prosperous times (Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties) and the prosperous times (Song, Liao, Jin and Yuan Dynasties) after China's dietary history. A large number of documents recorded in Tang Dynasty (6 18 ~ 907) and Song Dynasty (960 ~ 1279), as well as countless exquisite dishes made by chefs of wealthy families and restaurants mainly serving members above the middle class, show that the times have provided necessary objects for studying the mouth and heart of gourmets. It was also in the Tang Dynasty that the activities of gourmets began to leave their own influence on the history books. It is on the basis of the fundamental principle that everything is delicious and has its own characteristics that the gourmets in China's history broke through the traditional concept of the aristocratic class, put the touch of thinking on a reasonable material basis, and focused on the two basic points of cooking and seasoning, so that their diet practice rose to a creative and active artistic activity, and formed the idea of enjoying the tasting process with a serious scientific spirit and a relaxed and pleasant taste.

Gourmets in the history of China are experts and artists in food culture. Deep national cultural accomplishment, extensive travel and profound understanding, official experience or literati career, food practice and exploration and thinking are the basic conditions for the success of gourmets (see the clumsy articles "Gourmet Yuan Mei and His Garden Menu" and "Looking at the Mid-term Gourmet Life from Six Chapters of a Floating Life", and see "China Diet History". "The taste of life is like a poem, and the thoughts are soaring, and there are too many things to see —— on Yuan Mei's dietary practice and dietary thought in ancient China", see Collection of Dietary Culture in Zhao Rongguang). They are different from all kinds of people who only eat with their mouths, and also different from Chinese medicine and health care. The food activities of gourmets are the artistic activities and recreational labor of intellectuals. Although this kind of artistic activity is not appreciated by most literati, this kind of working gourmets are basically diners in two cultural groups, the rich and the noble, or are attached to them.