A Study of the Cultural Meaning in the Eating Habits of Literati during the Late Ming and Early Qing Period

• Main Authors: Shang-Chieh Lin, 林上傑
• Other Authors: 黃東陽
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2018
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/cfkbn6

碩士 === 國立中興大學 === 中國文學系所 === 106 === “Food” has not only been the essential substance for people to maintain their life but also disclosed their desire of gaining longevity. In order to get away from agedness, pain, sickness and disableness, people has always valued regimen for a very long time, which reflects various cultures and customs in the Chinese history. What will happen when the desire of “maintaining life” and “gaining longevity” combines together? People’s eating habit, or their eating theory, not only shows their biological needs but also reflects their consumer culture, their taste of life, and all the other kinds of desires and wishes that people have in their lives. This study aims to describe the relationship between the traditional Chinese food and life. Through studying dietary books and recipes during the late Ming and early Qing Period, we can observe the eating habit and culture that those people have at that time. Common people’s birthday banquet, for example, is one way to show the deluxe eating habit in that period, which, in some circumstances, encourages the publishing of different dietary books and recipes. Later, in order to separate the riches from the common people, the literati have created a special kind of “literati recipes,” that is, combines personal taste and longevity together in the recipes, in order to show their social positions and personal identities. This study, therefore, tries to study these cultural activities and disclose the complex meanings that are hidden in them.